First Looks category archive

It’s a lot easier and safer just to eat healthy.

It’s an anniversary!

So far, the ratings agencies have flown under the radar.

One would hope, not any more.

John Cole.

No staying power?

David Martin, vice president of primary research for research analyst firm Nielsen Online, wrote in a blog that Twitter has a retention rate of around 40 percent, which means that more than 60 percent of Twitter users stop using the service a month after joining in.

Trend.

Spotting.

My timing seems to be its usual wonderful self:

Four cases of swine flu at the University of Delaware were confirmed Thursday, while the number of suspected cases rose to 12.

A small team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was set to arrive in the state Thursday night at the invitation of Gov. Jack Markell, who said he requested the team to assist a group from the Division of Public Health, Christiana Care and the university.

Here.

It takes a few seconds to load.

H/T Susan for the link.

In a small Swiss village, there was a conceited and overbearing banker. The villagers loathed and detested him for his dogmatic egotism, but they kowtowed to him because, well, he ran the only bank in the village and they all depended on his good will.

One day, a farmer came to the banker accompanied by his son, a bespectacled, furtive-looking little boy of about twelve.

“How may I help you,” boomed the banker.

“Well, sir, it’s my son. I don’t know what direction he will take in his life.”

“Easy,” said the banker. “Have him wait in the outer room.”

The farmer complied.

“Now,” said the banker, “here’s what we’ll do. We’ll put this loaf of bread, this Bible, and this bottle of wine on the desk. Then we shall hide in the closet. No doubt your son will get impatient and come into the office. We’ll observe what he does: if he picks up the loaf of bread, he will enter the trades; if he picks up the Bible, he will become a man of the cloth. If he picks up the wine–well, there’s trouble ahead . . . .”

The farmer nodded and the two of them hid in the closet and peered through the crack of the slightly-opened door.

After a short time, the office door opened slowly. The child looked stealthily around the room, then darted to the desk, where he stuck the loaf of bread under one arm, the Bible under the other one, then grabbed the bottle of wine and fled.

Before the banker could speak, these words escaped the farmer’s mouth:

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Information and advice from the Mayo Clnic in the April 28, 2009, issue.

H/T Susan for the link.

DougJ at Balloon Juice inspects the sty.

Mencken.

It might be a good time to buy Smithfield stock:

Swine flu doesn’t come from eating pork.

But that didn’t stop fearful investors from selling off Smithfield Foods’ shares Monday, driving the price down 12 percent, or $1.28, to $9.04.

I’ve stayed in the Hotel Pennsylvania; it’s right across Seventh from Penn Station. The legend is that the girlfriend of one of Glen Miller’s musicians lived there and the musician wrote the song because he called her every night.

Aside: I much prefer Benny Goodman to Glen Miller, but my father was a big Glen Miller fan. Something to do with WWII and France, I think.

Tuesday, Triumph Brewing Company, Letitia and Chestnut, Philadelphia, Pa., 6 p. Easy access from everywhere in the Greater Philadelphia Co-ProsperityRidiculosity Sphere.

I won’t be there. In fact, I’m not even here. I am not here nor there.

I am someplace entirely other.

Click on the image for a larger view.

Via Noz.

Keep up with the latest place setting:

When checking in with (Martha–ed.) Stewart, you always pick up news of her latest endeavors: a line of home-cleaning products in development that will be formulated to be safe for kids and pets; her growing number of Twitter followers (more than 364,000 this week); and efforts to find a retailer to replace her Kmart contract for linens and tableware that expires at the end of the year.