If there was any doubt...

That he is my son...

This picture should clear it up.

(At the train station and headed to the Berkshires for the weekend. )

When is a Sinkhole not a Sinkhole?

Yes, you've seen it. You have to have seen it. If you haven't...above it what it looks like.

I will admit when I first saw it, I was skeptical about it. That can't be real?

Multiple shots from multiple sources dragged me out of my cynical shell.

Now, it isn't even a sinkhole?

"Geologist Sam Bonis said a sinkhole is defined as an area where bedrock has been eaten away by groundwater and the 100-foot deep, 66-foot wide hole that opened up during the weekend in the capital does not qualify, Discovery News reported.

He said the hole is instead a "piping feature" resulting from the pumice fill, ash flows from ancient volcanic eruptions, beneath the city. Bonis said the ash is 600 feet thick in some places." (Source)

No, I am sorry...a piping feature is something that smoking jackets have...this...

IS A BIG F***ING HOLE!

Whatever it is, it looks like the gateway to Hell, and I, for one, am terrified.

(Via The Awl)

MC Chris on SNL

There is a movement afoot. A great movement. "What is it?", you ask.

MC Chris needs to be on SNL.

Why?

Because the geeks need to represent.

"They" got Betty White...now we need one of our own.

Plus, Hesh wants sex.

When Stealing, Steal from the Best

With the caveat that it was not a speech that launched a national career...



Oh, Vaughn, what were you thinking? Did you think that no one would notice?

Should we check to see if one of your physics papers from high school was called "über die Entwicklung unserer Anschauungen über das Wesen und die Konstitution der Strahlung"?

Via Morons With Signs

The Great Beer Walk 2010 - Suggestions

The Great Beer Walk of 2010 is on June 17th. Here are some suggestions:

1) Please try to get to Wolff's at 5:30.
2) As it is an Alive at Five evening, I would suggest public transportation.
3) Come to think of it, I would suggest public transportation for the return as well.
4) Actually, I would suggest public transportation at all times.
5) Please try to maintain some dignity, and if you need to ask...
6) Tip the waitstaff...well.
7) If you are going to order food at any of the venues, please order it as the first act so that we can keep moving.
8) I will be using Foursquare to shout directions as well as to announce where we are and where we are going. If you are using Foursquare, please let me know.
9) Wear comfortable shoes.
10) Do not be afraid to drink water.
11) After leaving Mahar's, the #10 Western Ave CDTA bus is running, please use it.
12) Please do not drive after this Walk.
13) If you are getting a ride, and can offer it to someone else going on the Walk, please do.
14) Have fun and tell your friends!

More Bad For You Food

Buy Organic...

And this makes me even more depressed about the food choices I make.







The 12 Most Pesticide-Contaminated Fruits and Vegetables:
"'The Dirty Dozen'

Celery
Peaches
Strawberries
Apples
Domestic blueberries
Nectarines
Sweet bell peppers
Spinach, kale and collard greens
Cherries
Potatoes
Imported grapes
Lettuce
As many of you have no doubt smugly noted, the organic versions of these vegetables won't have any pesticides on them at all."

Baseball and SCotUS

I was on the fence about her before, but now...

Mets Fans need representation on the Court!

Sidebar - A Supreme Court Lineup Packed With Baseball Fans - NYTimes.com:

"We have photographic proof that Elena Kagan has played softball, and there is some evidence that she is a Mets fan."

It is a cute, if puffy, piece on the interactions of members of the Court, especially when it comes to baseball.

A Question

If a ship offering humanitarian aid to the people of North Korea from other countries in the Pacific had been boarded in international waters resulting in casualties, would there be calls for war from most Americans?

Would there be groups on the internets defending the actions of North Korea?

Look at me...being entirely derivative...

On the internets!

Wow!

This is amazing.

Actually, it is a cheat but...I want to do it anyway. Matt at Friday Puppy posted a picture of his doormat, so...why not mine?

I think it expresses my general hatred of most of the people who live on this big round wet ball quite well, don't you?

If they can't do it, Who Can?

Being the child of a broken home, and a divorced man myself, I had always looked to Al and Tipper as the paradigm of the happy marriage. While he was inventing the Internet (I know, I am going there), she was raising their children (and making censorship cool again) and they seemed to work...but now...

All my hopes are dashed.

If these two couldn't make it work? Who can? I looked to two couples as of late for hope...Al and Tipper and Spencer and Heidi and in three days, they have been separated! What is a boy to do?


Should I stop believing in love, now that the inspiration for Love Story has fallen apart?

I am crushed and I will never recover from this.

Al and Tipper Gore to separate - Mike Allen - POLITICO.com:

"Al and Tipper Gore, whose playful romance enlivened Washington and the campaign trail for a quarter century, have decided to separate after 40 years of marriage, the couple told friends Tuesday."

Via The Awl

Adding to the list of Bad But Delicious Food

This would be a sublime addition to the Bad For You Food Tour and I think that it is a damn good idea.
4505 Dogs | Hot Dogs, Now Filled with Bacon | National | NTL:

"And, as life has a way of reminding you, bacon is good.

Which is why we're here to remind you, perhaps for the very first time: bacon-filled hot dogs are transcendent..."

Israel Hates Humanitarian Aid and Transparency

'Next time we'll use more force':

"Israel will use more aggressive force in the future to prevent ships from breaking the sea blockade on the Gaza Strip, a top Navy commander told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday."

And from the NY Times:

"There were no immediate accounts available from the passengers of the Turkish ship, which arrived at the naval base in Ashdod on Monday evening, where nearly three dozen were arrested, many for not giving their names. The base was off limits to the news media and declared a closed military zone."

It IS a Monstrosity

But...

The Empire State Plaza can be beautiful too...

And I was lucky enough to get a shot of it this morning.

Pictures from Albany's Memorial Day Parade

All images from the parade can be found here. I believe there are 125 total, so...there may actually be something useful and attractive in there.

What, Private Pyle?

Vincent D’Onofrio’s Least Favorite Thing About New York Is All the Republicans -- Daily Intel:

"What do you hate most about living in New York?
Republicans.

Who is your mortal enemy?
Republicans."

Dorks

Guilty as Charged

I am guilty of doing this at least once a day. I suppose that means that I am as much of a cliched hack as I thought I was.

The 5 Most Overused Expressions On The Internet:

"'Wow...just, wow.' NO, JUST NO. This is maybe the most annoying phrase in internet history. 'Wow...just wow,' is one of the laziest remarks you'll see in any comment section, because it requires no thought whatsoever while implying that the reader does, in fact, have several thoughts on whatever brought them to the brink of implied speechlessness. It is never 'wow, just wow.'"

Image from Jeph Jaques QC LJ Read Questionable Content.

Why aren't more people talking about this?

On Friday, Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann both spoke to the lack of evidence that Top Kill and Junk Fill were going to work because (as Rachel pointed out on Thursday) the technology has not changed in thirty years and it was ineffective then. 

I swear, if Kevin Costner ends up having the best technology to clean up this morass, my head will explode.  

6 Reasons We Can't Fix The Oil Spill - http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/6-Reasons-We-Cant-Fix-The-Oil-Spill-3805

Shared from AtlanticWire

Janelle Monae for FAU

Michael Lewis on the Bailout

Does this mean that Sandra Bullock is going to play Elizabeth Warren in the next film adaptation of Lewis' work?

Op-Art - Shorting Reform - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com:

"Shockingly, the Senate version of the bill more or less would require us to cease to trade derivatives entirely. This unpleasant idea was introduced by Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, and it leads me to a point that is worth underscoring: We do not have a problem with the American people, we have a problem with American women. Elizabeth Warren, our TARP supervisor, continues to ask questions about what we did with our government money; Mary Schapiro has used her authority at the S.E.C. to sue Goldman Sachs. Of the four Republican senators who crossed over to vote with the Democrats, two were women — and one of the guys posed naked for Cosmopolitan magazine."