First Looks category archive

Tuesday; Triumph Brewing Company; a hop, skip, and jump from Front on Chestnut; 6 p.

Come George your Soros.

All joking aside, this commercial is just obnoxious.

The premise is obnoxious, the pseudo-marine is obnoxious, the script is obnoxious, the concept is obnoxious.

Fisherman’s Friend, the best cough drop.

Full Disclosure: Fisherman’s Friend has no knowledge of nor interest in this blog post. All they do is make cough drops that work.

I agree with this post with a footnote.

Footnote: I have never been interested in the Academy Awards. Or the Emmies. Or the Golden Globes. Or any of the other entertainment industry self-abuse. I have no desire to sit in front of the teevee and watch the entertainment industry stimulate hair-growth on its palms.

The one that’s linked.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

From TPM:

Don’t believe what you see on teevee.

Crime laboratories around the country are grossly underfunded, lack a scientific foundation and are compromised by critical delays in analyzing physical evidence, according to a broad study of forensic techniques published Wednesday by the National Academy of Sciences, the nation’s premier scientific body.

Among its many criticisms, the study counted a backlog of 359,000 requests for forensic analysis in 2005, a 24 percent increase in delays since 2002. A survey of crime laboratories found 80 percent of them to be understaffed.

Sales pitchers retired from the mound:

A record 881 U.S. auto dealerships closed in 2008, with Detroit’s three struggling automakers representing 80 percent of the decline, according to data released on Thursday.

In the face of tight credit and a plunge in sales of cars and trucks, about 4.2 percent of the country’s 20,084 auto dealerships shut their doors, according to data firm Urban Science.

More vanishing retail: While I was in Concord Mall today buying socks, I noticed that the Burger King and three stores were gone and vacant and the Spencer’s Gifts had turned into a plush looking hearing aid place.

The Burger King and Spencer’s had been there since before I moved to these parts, through all the iterations of the Mall. I can’t remember what the other stores were, which leads me to think they were women’s wear stores of some description.

The camera shop is long gone, a victim of digital photography.

Go to Balloon Juice. Read the post. Play the video.

Do not drink anything while playing the video.

You will not regret it.

Shorter Peter Cappelli interview: In the long run, they don’t help companies. They help the stock price because “Wall Street analysts,” rulers of all things financial, think that layoffs help companies.

A description of the interview from the Radio Times website:

As the nation continues to shed jobs, some employers are searching for alternatives to layoffs like reducing salaries and work hours or asking employees to take voluntary unpaid vacations. We talk with Wharton professor PETER CAPPELLI about the effectiveness of such strategies vs. laying off workers.

Follow the link to the website and search the archives for February 18, 2009, or listen here (MP3).

I bought a pack of four pairs of socks today.

Couldn’t afford two packs for eight pairs.

See it here.

The U.S. economy was weakening further in January, and a gradual recovery wasn’t likely until the second half of the year, members of the Federal Open Market Committee agreed, according to minutes of the Jan. 27 and 28 meeting released Wednesday.

All together now,

Down, down, down in the gloom, gloom, gloom.

Distilled by Skippy.

Off to drink liberally.

A picture book by Bill Watterson.

Via Gene Weingarten.

A rose by any other name . . . . (might be a turnip, but that’s a different issue).

You’re out of work or your company is teetering on Chapter 11.

You work for a bank and nobody likes you anymore.

You still have a job but the folks on either side of you? Oh. Well.

What else is there to do? Good friends, good food, good times.

Triumph Brewing Company, 1 1/2 blocks from Front on Chestnut, Philadelphia, Pa., 6 p., every Tuesday.

Nothing in the weather forecast about “wintry mixes” or car crashes all over the highways.

If my cold doesn’t come back on me tomorrow, I might actually make it for the first time in what seems like a month of Sundays.

’nuff said:

Because of the increasing demand on unemployment benefits, the (Nevada–ed.) state’s unemployment call center will be open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m Monday, Feb. 16, although it is Presidents Day, a federal holiday.

This is in addition to the center’s recently expanded Saturday hours, also open 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.