First Looks category archive

I’ve made my living with a keyboard almost my whole career.

Typewriters and mechanics like Fernandez went from being endangered to near-extinct species last week, with Godrej & Boyce in Mumbai making global news when the company put in sale its last 200 typewriters. The passing of the world’s last typewriter maker, seemed like a full stop on the whole typewriter era, and was mourned by media across continents from New York to London, Dublin to Delhi.

Raja Murthy, the author, goes on to survey the history of the typewriter and its last refuges of use.

Somewhere around here I have to old Royal manual portable that followed me from high school to college and onward. I haven’t opened the case in years, but I can’t bring myself to throw it away.

Off to drink liberally.

When I lived in Greater Philly Co-Prosperity Sphere, I visited Wildwood from time to time. and always enjoyed it. No place does tacky beach resort with more elan than Wildwood.

And Morey’s Pier was always a favorite stop.

Here, the owner of Morey’s and several other piers reveals the key to carny rides:

The result is “amazing,” Morey said. “There’s minimum confinement . . . and maximum fear in this one.”

Achieving that balance is where “the art and science of amusement-ride designing comes in,” Morey said. “The art is making a scary, thrilling ride and the science is in making sure the passengers are safe but they are unaware of the safety. That would take the thrill out of it.”

The first roller coaster I rode was at Morey’s piers.

Drinking Liberally is a support group for liberals, where you can realize you are not alone.

When: 6 p.

Where:
Jack Quinn’s Irish Pub*
241 Granby Street
Norfolk, Va. (map)

More about Drinking Liberally.
Street parking is tight at the tail end of rush hour, but the Freemason Street Parking Garage is two blocks away.

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*Firefox reports that Jack Quinn’s website may have been hijacked by crackers as of April 30.

Via TPM.

Here’s the headline.

Here’s the science.

Lilacs come earlier (emphasis added):

Every year has its own weather character, but the (Boston–ed.) arboretum’s celebrations marking the peak lilac bloom have migrated by three weeks over the last century. In 1920, Lilac Sunday was held on May 30; in 1983 it was May 22; in 2003 it was May 16; and this year it is May 8. Is it global warming? The arboretum is careful not to take a position.

To answer the question in bold, in the immortal words of a character (who can remind me who it was? I forget–a gremlin maybe?) from a Warner Brothers cartoon, “It ain’t Wendell Wilkie!”

They should have been banksters. They have the right instincts:

Nearly 100 drivers whose cars disappeared in the city during the last two years had those same harried thoughts, only to learn that their automobiles had met an even worse fate.

The cars, police spokesman Lt. Ray Evers said, were taken by eight crooked tow-truck drivers who sold the vehicles to a Hunting Park scrap yard for a small sum, usually between $300 and $500.

How long has it been since you’ve looked something up in a phone book? I think I’ve done it twice in the past three years, and both times it was Yellow Pages. Think of the landfill space this will save:

The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) today granted Verizon the right to stop automatically distributing the phone books to customers in the state. The company intends to provide customers with an online, electronic version of white pages residential listings as the primary means to access such directory information. Customers also will be able to request a free printed or CD-ROM directory of residential listings.

Verizon will notify customers about how to request printed versions of the phone book through press releases and inserts in their bills, company spokesman Harry Mitchell told the Citizen.

Print directories containing business and government white pages, customer information pages and the yellow pages will continue to be delivered to all customers.

I can’t find a link, but my reading indicates that most of the opposition to this has come from companies that print phone books. They even tried claiming that it abridged their freedom of speech (apparently, speech is now spelled i-n-v-o-i-c-e).

Shaun Mullen remembers.

Mr. Feastingonroadkill a simple description of the modus operandi of right-wing media.

Addendum, the Next Day:

Helen gives an example, ripped, as they say, from the headlines.

Heh. From The Smoking Gun:

Thanks to the efforts of an elite team of American forces, Osama bin Laden will soon have criminal charges formally dismissed against him in federal court in New York City.

Documents at the link.

“We will be relentless in the defense of our citizens . . . .”

I give President George W. Bush credit for a gracious statement.

Mr. Feastingonroadkill pretty much sums it up.

From a long post at After the Future:

The cultural left is a tired, morally spent force in American culture. But the cultural right is full of people blinded by their moralistic ideology. Moralism is wannabe morality. It’s the priggish posture taken by the morally immature to appear morally righteous. The moralistic person deep down knows he is a fraud and aggressively strikes out at anyone who would expose him. They know deep down that the world as it really exists does not fit neatly into their simplistic template, so they reject whatever doesn’t fit as ‘evil’. And for these people there is no accommodation with evil; they must confront and destroy it because they sincerely believe it will destroy them if they don’t. Hence the paranoia that is at the heart of the cultural right.

The good part starts about six minutes in (warning: 15 second commericial at beginning) (CNN clip replaced to get rid of the commercial.):

Via Zandar.

Click for the original image.

Via Some Guy with a Website.

Moved because of Easter.

Date: Saturday, April 30th.

Special Guest Speaker: Louisa Strayhorn, the last African American to serve on the Virginia Beach City Council

Location: Bubba’s Deli & BBQ, 3600 Dam Neck Rd, Virginia Beach (Map).

Cost: Adults $10.00, Under 12 $6.00 for all-you-can-eat buffet (it’s a pretty good buffet, too–plenty of variety).

More information here.

Off to drink liberally.

Fun and fellowship for liberals. Join us.

When: Wednesday, April 27, 6 p

Where:
Kelly’s Tavern
1936 Laskin Rd, # 201
Virginia Beach, Va. (Map)

More here.