Filed under: science
Think you can multitask and chew gum at the same time? It might be time to slow the fuck down…
Filed under: politics
NYC St Patrick’s Day Parade organizers have banned gay
groups from marching; been boycotted by City Council
President Christine Quinn (a lesbian, she is the
highest ranking Irish-American in NYC gov’t), and
pushed the city’s firefighters to the back of the pack…
So lets see, that leaves: the priests, their parole
officers, and Paddy O’Furniture (guy who sits on the porch all summer).
Good luck with that parade there!
And don’t forget, they let everybody march in Dublin!
And to all, a Happy St. Pats!
_____________________________________________
Confession:
- “Bless me Father, for I have sinned, I have been
with a loose woman.”
- The Priest asks: Is that you Timmy Shaughnessy?
- “Yes Father, it is.”
- And who is the woman you were with?
- “I can’t be telling you, Father. I don’t want to
ruin her reputation.”
- Was it Brenda O’Malley?
- “I cannot say”
- Patricia Kelly?
- “I’ll never tell”
- Was it Sheilagh O’Brien?
- “I’m sorry but I cannot name her”
- Was it Kathleen Morgan?
- “My lips are sealed”
The Priest sighs in frustation. “Your a steadfast lad
Timmy and I admire that. But you have sinned,
therefore you cannot attend Church Mass for three
months. Be off with you now.”
Timmy walks back to his pew. His friend Sean slides
over and asks “What did you get”?
- “Three months vacation and four good leads.”
A NY Times piece on workshops for aspiring female op-ed writers seems to blame women themselves for their near-invisibility on the Times and other op-ed pages:
Meanwhile The Nation’s Katha Pollitt takes issue with the whole ‘women don’t try’ meme:
Filed under: Uncategorized
Try these out. Glenn Greenwald is really good political commentary about the Dems and Iraq, and much more!
Turbanhead.com is smart and fun.
And this one’s worth watching…
night kids!
Howdy…Stu here, your hamster host of the 2nd edition of ScribbleTalk. This week we’ll look at the latest kurfuffle or imbroglio or dustup or what-have-you in the literary wold.
In the NY Times, David Orr takes aim at New Yorker poet/editor Dana Goodyear’s recent piece about the well-endowed ($200 mil) Poetry Foundation. I bring it to your attention as one example of the way major “serious” magazines and newspapers have replaced publishing actual fiction and poetry with gossip about fiction writers and poets,editors and benefactors. Orr starts out this way:
And further on:
Ok, but Orr and the Times do it too – they all prefer literary controversy over literature.
Oh alright I admit that it’s a pretty juicy fight (hamsters are suckers for a mudfest). The two articles together dispute just who is getting published and fawned over in posh venues like The New Yorker and who is getting funded by the massively deep-pockets of The Poetry Foundation.
I meanwhile nibble on cracker crumbs that fall off whatsleft’s plate, and wish she would drop more cheese.
I will leave you with a poem by somebody rightly feted and too-soon mourned:
Among the Narcissi
Spry, wry, and gray as these March sticks,
Percy bows, in his blue peajacket, among the narcissi.
He is recuperating from something on the lung.
The narcissi, too, are bowing to some big thing :
It rattles their stars on the green hill where Percy
Nurses the hardship of his stitches, and walks and walks.
There is a dignity to this; there is a formality-
The flowers vivid as bandages, and the man mending.
They bow and stand : they suffer such attacks!
And the octogenarian loves the little flocks.
He is quite blue; the terrible wind tries his breathing.
The narcissi look up like children, quickly and whitely.
Sylvia Plath
Filed under: media
Click here to watch a great video about the overwhelming number of ads we are all subjected to…The guys in the video do their own guerrila marketing in Union Sq, New York.
Filed under: politics
Rudy Giuliani did good in the days following 9/11. But most people living in New York City during his tenure as Mayor know he is not a good fit for President.
Why? Here’s a hint: He tried to cancel elections to extend his rule as mayor after the attacks – a weirdly revealing power grab. Also, the vicious beating of Abner Louima in police custody and killings by police of Amadou Diallo, Patrick Dorismond, and several other unarmed Black men while Giuliani was Mayor brought the issue of excessive force to the boiling point in the city. Giuliani’s seemingly reflexive defense of the cops did not help.
At Talking Points Memo, The journalist Jim Sleeper has a great take-down of the Rudy for Prez talk here:
Looks like trouble is a-brewin over at CBS news with Katie Couric.
Viewership is down. Excitement is…eh. Ms. Couric’s producer has been axed and a new one brought in, but just who exactly is the anchor here, the producer or Couric? The article hints at at dull commentary segments, over-long interviews (Katie’s strong-suit!) and just plain lackluster news-gathering.
Have you seen the telecast? Ms. Couric – bright enough, tough enough, and very driven – just doesn’t seem that interested in news...a tricky hurdle for the anchor of the station made famous by Edward R Murrow.
I mean, the other anchors are dull as cement and network news is hardly cutting-edge, but come on: Couric appeared on the Superbowl pre-game show (woo hoo!) to plug a new, ongoing CBS “happy news” feature. Because, as she explained to the sports desk ‘big-necks’, we just don’t see enough of what’s going right with America.
Thing is – it’s not a news journalist’s job to give us joy and hope in a new day and a better tomorrow. That’s what we have Oprah for. And Dick Cheney.
I cant help but think of last week’s superb Washington Post expose of the squalid conditions at Walter Reed Hospital. Now THAT was news. Gloomy, shocking, necessary NEWS. And it broke open a huge scandal that maybe – maybe – could lead to action being taken to actually improve the care wounded US soldiers receive at Walter Reed and other VAs.
Would that story have made the cut over at Katie’s CBS happy-cast?
