April, 2012 archive
Neither Snow, nor Rain . . . 0
One question:
Are they or are they not going to mail in all the Publisher’s Clearing House entry forms?
Wars and Rumors of War, Misdirection Play Dept. 0
QOTD 0
Clare Booth Luce, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Money can’t buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while you’re being miserable.
A Newt Is a Small Lizard 0
So much for that whole swords into plowshares thing.
Plain Brown Electrons 0
No more wrapping that copy of the Kama Sutra in a fake book jacket.
You can just let it Kindle a fire in your Nook on the bus.
While it’s a notorious fact that sex sells, it may be selling even better these days thanks to the advent of e-readers such as iPads, Nooks and Kindles — innocent portable electronic devices that don’t expose graphic covers and titillating titles, their generic anonymity cloaking a multitude of sultry sins.
Of course e-readers are big right now for books in every genre, but they’re even better for the steamy side of lit.
Deadlines 0
Celebrate Returns Day by comparing your tax rate with Mitt the Flip’s.
Light Bloggery 0
Spring cleaning.
QOTD 0
Harold Stassen, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Whoever kindles the flames of intolerance is lighting a fire underneath his own home.
The Galt and the Lamers 0
At the Denver Post, Kevin Horrigan sticks his tongue deep into his cheek and explains why government should just go away.
Read it.
Wedding Industrial Complex, Minor League Dept. 0
Priorities:
And those in the lower income brackets, less than $50,000, plan to spend even more — $1,307 per child, the survey found. And those in the very lowest bracket, under $20,000, plan to spend $1,200 — more than 6 percent of their annual income.
But the most staggering number came from those families earning between $20,000 and $30,000, who plan to spend an average of $2,635, which would represent almost 9 percent of annual income for those making $30,000. Those families are just above the federal poverty level, which is $23,050 for a family of four.
Actually, I can understand the inverse relationship between income and prom spending.
The poorer families are likely reasoning, “We can’t give them much, but at least we can give them this.”
It may not make financial sense, but it makes emotional sense.
TSA Security Theatre 0
Recently, New York Times reporter Matt Richtel tried to find out why TSA screening procedures for laptops are what they are (take them out of the bag, etc.). His quest was fruitless; he ran up against a wall of “we can’t tell” and “talk to the other guy.”
Ken Eisold thinks he knows what’s behind it:
The show must grow on.
(snip)
We don’t expect things to be simplified and made easier. We care more about security and safety. Driven largely by anxiety and fear, we recoil not just from the physical threat of bombs but also from the risk of being blamed for what goes wrong. We don’t want to feel guilty. We don’t want to be singled out.
Facebook Frolics 0
Some Congress persons think that there oughta be a law.
I can’t shake the feeling that, somehow or other, the MPAA is mixed up in this.
Transubstantiation 0
In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Attilio “Buck” Favorini comments on the magical prestidigitatorial power possessed by persons of color to propel police and wannabe police to perceive stuff what ain’t there.
For Trayvon Martin it was an iced tea and a bag of Skittles.
For Jordan Miles it was a vanishing bottle of Mountain Dew.
For Jonny Gammage it was a date book and a cell phone.
For Amadou Diallo it was a wallet.
To you and me these innocent items suggest the contents of a shopping bag emptied on the kitchen counter or the things that move from our pockets to the night table before we turn out the light. But you and I are not enforcers of the law, duly sworn or self-appointed, who repeatedly mistake such objects for a frightening arsenal requiring lethal retaliation or, at best, a mauling never to be forgotten.
Read the whole thing.
Spill Here, Spill Now 0
Tampabay dot com reports on the continuing legacy of Buccaneer Petroleum’s wild well.
While great greasy globs of tarballs are no longer a common sight, oil persists.
A nugget:
Tiny globs of it, mingled with the chemical dispersant that was supposed to break it up, have settled into the shallows, mingling with the shells, he said. When Kirby shines his light across the legs of a grad student who’d been in the water and showered, it shows orange blotches where the globs still stick to his skin.
“If I had grandkids playing in the surf, I wouldn’t want them to come in contact with that,” said Kirby, whose research is being overseen by the University of South Florida. “The dispersant accelerates the absorption by the skin.”
The Crux of the Trayvon Martin Case 0
Field points out the true issue at the heart of the case.
A black kid was gunned down for the crime of having a bag of Skittles and nobody in authority in Sanford, Floriday, gave a damn.
