First Looks category archive

He made people smile.

He was one of my father’s favorites.

And one of mine.

The problem seems to have cleared up spontaneously.

)(*&z67*(*&6z computers!

I’m having trouble logging into the site from a couple of my computers.

I’m not sure what it means, but things may be quiet until I figure out whats’s going on.

I’m posting this from the computer at which I was still logged in from last night. You can follow my troubleshooting in the comments to this post.

Bye for now.

Off to drink liberally.

Drinking Liberally is a gathering place for liberals. Socialize and laugh in a friendly atmosphere.

When: 6 p., Thursday, April 11.

Where:
Lola’s Caribbean Restaurant
328 W 20th St (map)

Details here. Meetup page here.

Susan Krauss Whitbourne tries to figure out why they do it. A nugget:

In their article entitled “What Were They Thinking?,” Peluchette and Karl explored the reasons for what they deemed this reckless activity, coming up with rather surprising results. People who post the most extreme tell-all Facebook photos and updates actually do so on purpose. It’s not as if they forget to change their security settings or even have their photos updated by other people. They actually think they will look more popular, cool, and attractive if they reveal their wild, partying sides. And it’s not just women, as men too were likely to include their share of Animal House images. Facebook users varied, however, in the images they wanted to portray as revealed in this study; plenty of the students that responded to the survey wanted to project a clean and wholesome persona to the outside world.

I was trying to text the word “tomorrow” on the old cell phone, botched it, and spellcheck said

Read more »

Harsh.

Family matters.

Off to drink liberally.

Alexandra Petri laments the passing of whom.

Who?

No, whom.

The Whos down in Whoville are perfectly safe. But the Whoms, down in Whomville, having staid, WASPy dinners of roast beast and refusing to pass Little Susie Lou Whom a slice unless she uses the subjunctive correctly in her request: They are in grave danger. Whom is struggling. After all, whom is, as numerous writers have noted, the literary equivalent of waving an enormous flag that proclaims you a Stuffy Old Twerp, a Bombastic Blowhard Who Thinks He’s In England, or In 1800, or Possibly Both. You might as well invite people to go fox hunting later and murmur sexist things into a tea service for all the goodwill it will earn you.

This notion that some folks have that, at some dim dark time in the past, everyone used precisely correct grammar, is a favorite fantasy of the Miss Grundies of this world.

Persons don grammar like clothing–they suit it to their environment.

One does not wear white tie and tails to the old fishing hole.

Of course, these days, some people wear jeans to weddings and don’t take off their baseball caps at funerals, so maybe she has a point.

Her days are numbered, and the number is low.

The conservancy working to secure a home and purpose for the 990-foot-long ship tells The Associated Press that it could be sold for scrap within two months unless they can raise $500,000 immediately so they can continue negotiations with several parties.

I have some pictures of her at berth on my boating page; scroll down to see them.

Q. What do you use to send a sad telegram?

H/T Susan.

Via Classic Arts Showcase.

Fun and fellowship for liberals. Join us and talk about anything in a relaxed atmosphere.

When: Thursday, March 28th, 6 p.

Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)

More here.

A reporter from my local rag hitches a ride on a tug boat shoving a barge into port.

Read it. Learn what life is like under the drawbridge.

Bill Maxwell is not impressed with colleges’ moving to the on-line model:

I wanted to hear from someone whose opinions I trust on such matters, so I spoke with Donald Eastman, president of Eckerd College, a private school in St. Petersburg. He said that online courses have a useful place in higher education. So far, that place has been in courses for adults who, for various reasons, have limited options to attend regular classes.

“Much more importantly, a string of courses — online or not — does not add up to a real college experience, even if these courses do add up, at some places, to a degree,” he said. “As the Wizard of Oz says to the scarecrow, ‘I cannot give you a brain, but I can give you a diploma.’ “

“Wind turbine syndrone,” that is. Miles Grant reports:

The biggest factor in whether you say wind turbines make you sick is someone telling you wind turbines will make you sick. That’s the result of two new studies on so-called “wind turbine syndrome,” reports DeSmogBlog’s Graham Readfern.

Details and citations at the link.

Now that you are hearing rap music–watered down, corporate rap, to be sure–in commercials on mainstream television, it’s safe to say that rap is here to stay.

With a few exceptions, all I know about rap music is that it’s too loud and I can’t understand most of the lyrics. (That’s also all I know about “death metal.”)

Oddly enough, that’s what my parents knew about rock . . . .

If that’s all you know about rap, listen to this episode of Hear Say, the local NPR station’s news and information show:

Segment A: The Politics of Hip-Hop

Virginia Wesleyan professor Dr. Murrell Brooks began researching his current curriculum over two decades ago, but he might not have realized it at the time. In 1980’s L.A., Murrell was a founding member of hip-hop group Double Trouble. He’s taken those experiences and applied them to his “Politics of Hip-Hop” course. He joins Cathy Lewis to share how he’s using the genre’s trajectory as the road map for teaching the societal circumstances that have shaped the art form since the 60s.

Off to drink liberally.