Things that are on my mind

• I do not like shots in general. Fruity shots are also anathema. The gimlet is brilliant.
• I made a change. I have a new desert island disc. The previous one was in that position for almost 20 years
• People in the area often complain that there is no regional food. There is. It is tiny hot dogs. This makes us even more odd.
• Hot running water is a luxury after missing out on it.

Did it happen?

"My concern is for the people that have bought into his lie and have sold their belongings, quit their jobs, left their churches and their families and now they are sitting at home listening to Family Radio and waiting for the end," Mr. Nederhood said. "I'm terribly concerned."

Harold Camping Prepares Followers for Rapture - NYTimes.com

Image via Someecards.com

The End is Nigh

A Story from the start of the End of Times

It had started.

I could not fall asleep until 5:30. When I woke up two hours later, I made myself breakfast, had a Red Bull and watched some news.

I cropped my hair, and then turned on the shower. Nothing came out.

Nothing.

There was not ANY F***ING water.

I do not leave the house without showering. No exceptions. I shower before working out.

I was sweating out my sins of the night before and I had to leave for H4H in ten minutes. And there was not f***ing water.

I called Teacher Dave, told him the predicament and then called the property manager.

They were aware of the problem and it was to be rectified shortly.

Well, I did get a dribble of ice cold water. That's what I showered in.

See, the Tribulations have begun.

Just Say Takei

Okay, this made me laugh out loud.

One who actually believes...or doesn't

Fatalism comes easy when you grew up bracing for the apocalypse, being told that that, sometime very soon, probably next year but possibly tomorrow morning, a fiery mountain would fall into the sea, the oceans would turn to blood and then the moon would, and soon after that a third of all living things on the earth would die. Never mind homework, forget the boy you had a crush on, it would be best to turn down the lead role in the school musical, for there was no time to waste. Jesus could return at any moment, that was the crucial thing, and it was our duty to spread the word. Also, to repent, because if you hadn't been forgiven for every sin you'd ever committed, no matter how tiny, even if you didn't know it was a sin, you'd be regrettably yet decisively Left Behind.

May 21: The Rapture Meets My 40th Birthday | The Awl

A View from France

While Paille and Boutin talk of "vigor" and "weakness," the NYPD has described a violent sexual assault, during which DSK allegedly forced the woman to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her clothes against her will. Paillé and Boutin focus on the fact that DSK may have been taken in, neglecting what he may have done to the maid at the Sofitel. The potential crime, as they see it, is all about DSK's weakness rather than his strength and the maid's weakness. Yes, we must respect that DSK is innocent until proven guilty. But to consider the case simply as a conspiracy theory or an "ambush" on a "libertine" is to transform the presumption of innocence into a presumption of guilt on the part of the accusers.
Dominique Strauss Kahn sexual assault: How conspiracy theorists assume his alleged victim is guilty. - By Johan Hufnagel and Cecile Dehesdin - Slate Magazine

NOM and New York

How awesome is this commercial?

When I saw it for the first time last night, I posted this to Facebook:

Just saw a NOM commercial targeting Albany. It was....awesome. The folksy African American narrator. The comparison to Massachusetts and San Francisco (which are code words for LIBERAL) and the "rights" of people who believe marriage is between a man and a woman being taken away. It was a thing of beauty.


After thinking about it for a little bit, it presupposes that there is a civil right to not have people disagree with you. Or at least, that is what I am taking from it.

So, call you Senator. Let them know how you feel about civil rights. Are you for or against them?

Bullet Points

• I have developed a crush on Annie Jacobsen.  This is bizarre.
• My stomach is back to 100%.
• My back is at 75% which means it is 200% better than it was on Sunday.
• I received the most amazing compliment today and it has left a smile on my face.
• Corporate Challenge and TEA's baseball game this afternoon.  I am already overscheduled.

On French Public Intellectualism

So, this raises an exceptionally uncomfortable question for some foreign policy commentators.  BHL might look like a horse's ass right now, but six or seven weeks ago, he was playing a very different role.  According to BHL himself multiple press reports, Bernard-Henri Lévy was the interlocutor between Libya's rebels and the rest of the world.  He therefore played a crucial role in getting French President Nicolas Sarkozy -- and therefore, the West more generally -- to intervene in Libya.  This caused some consternation at the time.  It would obviously set off even louder alarm bells now. 

Given this role, Ben Smith tweets a very valid question:  "So if the order of DSK-gate and Libya are reversed... do we go into Libya?"

Would the Libyan action happen in a post-Dominique-Strauss-Kahn world? | Daniel W. Drezner

I need to know...I want to make plans.

Who wants to do dinner on Saturday night?  

I am thinking oysters and hoppy beer to celebrate the coming of the Lloyd. 

Someone else had a thornier question: what about the time zones? The whole concept of Judgment Day would seem to be based on a flat-earth cosmology, where a single day has a single boundary. The Camping position on the timing is not totally clear—by one account, the Rapture, like the New Year, is supposed to make a circuit of the globe, time zone by time zone. A new batch of the saved will ascend as each set of clocks strikes 6 p.m. On TV this afternoon, though, Camping (now at a podium, before a red curtain) was fudging a little: "maybe" we can even know the hour, he said.

Scocca : Countdown to Armageddon: Maybe the World Will End Friday Night (or Sunday Morning)

Yeah, this is why I drink so much coffee...

The new study shows that getting a 60 percent reduction in risk of aggressive prostate cancer requires a lot of coffee — at least six cups a day. However, men who drank three cups a day had a 30 percent lower chance of getting a lethal prostate cancer, and that's not bad.

Coffee May Lower Risk Of Deadliest Prostate Cancer : Shots - Health Blog : NPR

The Thrill That Kills

Crack is awful. No one doubts that. Look at the famous people who smoke crack. Charlie Sheen. Oprah. With a N of 2, you know that crack is bad.

(If you doubt that crack is bad, check this out. NSFW. Sorta. Not Safe For Anyone, really. Paige sent me this link years ago. I still have not forgiven her for it. Yes, that is a diaper.)

Let's get back in our WABAC machine to the 1980s. Crack was killing our inner-cities. Len Bias was dying. LT was crushing quarterbacks, using the services of three prostitutes a night, and was smoking more rock than Kilauea. And as mentioned, Oprah even tried it.

So, who are we going to have speak to the youth of America about the deadly danger that is crack?

Who in the 1980s had the gravitas to help people "Just Say No"?

How about Pee Wee Herman?

Yes, seriously. Pee Wee.

I am just wondering how this came about. I can picture it.

Zoom in on office in high rise in LA.

Sitting around a desk are three guys with awful hair and worse suits, rubbing their eyes (and noses) and looking much the worse for wear

Guy #1: We need to do a PSA about crack.
Guy #2: Who should be get?
Guy #3: Michael J. Fox.
Guy #2: Too Canadian.
Guy #1: Mark Harmon.
Guy #3: No. He has AIDS or something.*
Guy #2: Robin Williams.
Guy #3: Mork? Really? Are you high right now?
Guy #2: No, I am coming down. How about Pee Wee Herman?
Guy #1: Brilliant. I will get Jerry Stahl** to script it and we will direct and produce it.
Guy #3: Great. Let me call to get a table at Spago.

This is the only way that the above advertisement could have come about. Well, it could have come about in other ways. But it happened this way.

Pee Wee was weird. He had a very subversive show with the Groundlings and then a very odd "childrens' show" called Pee Wee's Playhouse. Watching his show as a twelve year old was like being high. Pee Wee was awesome but he was no one's hero or role model.

Pee Wee telling us not to smoke crack would be like me offering you lessons in maintaining stable relationships. It does not make sense.

But in the 1980s, this seemed like a good idea.

Is there subtext to this that I am missing...like..."Don't smoke crack, or Pee Wee will kill your entire family. Look at that face! You know he is capable of it."?

Is that what I am missing?

Or am I off about this?

*His character, Dr. Robert Cadwell, contracted HIV on St. Elsewhere.
** Yes, Jerry Stahl was addicted to heroin, but...come on. It was an easy joke. Permanent Midnight is worth the read and the viewing.

You know nothing of my work...

McLuhan prefigured the Internet era in a number of surprising ways. As he said in a March 1969 Playboy interview: "The computer thus holds out the promise of a technologically engendered state of universal understanding and unity, a state of absorption in the Logos that could knit mankind into one family and create a perpetuity of harmony and peace."

Wikipedia And The Death Of The Expert | The Awl

Guilty Pleasure Song #6

Now, if I was listening to the original, it would not be a guilty pleasure. It would be a simple pleasure, but since one of the things that I like to listen to at weird times is a remake, it has to be a guilty pleasure. Like tinned oysters (which do have a place, thank you), remakes are pale reflections of the original without the subtly or nuance of the original.

Now that I have lowered your expectations...



Now, this video has a saving grace as it was directed by Michel Gondry (who directed one of my favorite films while being a non-rapey Frenchman) but the song...

Used for Donnie Darko (which I still find unwatchable) and then used in commercials, teen dramas, and trailers for television shows where the protagonist confronts something awful from his/her past, or...death at a wedding. It is also used subtly in film commercials where they producers know that you have no clue what the film is about but...they want you to know that the films is going to be both sad and thought provoking. I am surprised that it was not used in the trailer for "The Ice Storm".

That's Right, Albany!

Albany can have a Slave Celebration but no chickens. That seems about right.

The Pinkster King is officially free to reign again.

Two centuries after the Common Council banned the Carnival-like celebration of Pinkster -- which was growing increasingly popular in Albany's slave community -- city lawmakers on Monday symbolically, and unanimously, struck the prohibition from the books.

An injustice undone after 200 years - Times Union

Another T-Shirt I Want

Available here.

Yes, when it comes down to it, I am probably going to trip you. This is just a fair warning.

Who is your daddy and what does he do?

"My daddy is the governor!!"

My friend John asked, "Do you get a special jacket or a pin for this Kennedy accomplishment?"

If you have no clue what I am talking about, Arnold sired a child with one of the household staff.

My Favorite Poet

Yes, I have one.

My favorite poet is John Ashbery, which may be a bit of a cop out. I could have said Robert Pinsky who I saw in 1999 and was amazing. He made poetry interesting and he has tremendous stories.

Why am I bringing this up?

Well, I was trying to stretch out my ailing lower back last night and this stanza came into my head.

Smiling to yourself and others.
It gets to be kind of lonely
But at the same time off-putting.
Counterproductive, as you realize once again

From Just Walking Around

Which then got me thinking of A Man of Words. Which says some of the best things about blogging that I have ever read...and was written in 1973.

Who is your favorite poet, if you have one?

Replacing the philanderer with an academic-banker at the IMF

Since 2006, Lipsky has been the second-ranking official at the Fund, a position which has placed him at the epicenter of the financial crisis and its aftermath. Lipsky arrived at the Fund shortly before Strauss-Kahn was selected as managing director (the top IMF post has always gone to a European), and their styles could scarcely be more different. Strauss-Kahn is a politician who speaks off-the-cuff and in layman's terms. For all his personal travils, which predate this latest charge, he has been widely seen as one of the most politically savvy directors in the Fund's history.  Lipsky, by contrast, is an economist and a technocrat whose utterances are almost invariably cautious and precise. No one would characterize him as a politician.

IMF scandal: Meet the man who takes over the Fund | The Multilateralist

Documenting Life While Not Experiencing It

But in an age when everyone is a picture-maker, and every situation a photo-op, there is the danger that we tend to become, one and all, producers. We look at things with a detached eye. We approach life with the lasciviousness of a wedding planner, rather than, say, with the party-hard engagement of one of the guests. There are other dangers as well: we come to think of ourselves as we would like to be photographed.

The Producers : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture : NPR

I am often guilty of not living in the moment.  Capturing it while not experiencing it.  Part of it is that it takes me out of the moment on purpose, leaving me detached and aloof.  That is a self protective mechanism that I developed a long time ago.

I makes me think of Mark from RENT, who has become an archetype for this type of behavior.

tru dat

When discussing this with a friend, I used the term serial rapist. 

Already some papers are trying to name the chambermaid so that we can discover what intelligence agency pays her. Elsewhere, a few papers have noted that there is also a small chance that Strauss-Kahn is actually a predatory rapist.

Yet Another Chambermaid Is Clearly Tool of Shadowy French Conspiracy | The Awl

Asking for help - Podcasts

I prefer reading my news to watching it, but...one cannot spend their entire day in from on a screen, and I also like to listen to podcasts while I am working out.

I have asked for advice before, but I am asking again.

What podcasts are you listening to?

I like news. I like my news to be more opinion-ie than hard news, and I would love something local that is well informed, full of information, and snarky and/or absurd.

If there was someone who was a combination of Rachel Maddow and David Plotz, that would make me incredibly happy!

Any ideas?

The Joy of Being a Mets Fan

As if the Mets needed any more financial strains, they will also have to start paying one of their biggest albatrosses soon: starting July 1, the Mets will be paying ex-slugger Bobby Bonilla $1.2 million a year through 2035 thanks to a deferred deal he made with the club in 2000. Just imagine if the Knicks had to pay Eddy Curry for the next 25 years!

Stupid Mets Deal Goes Into Effect Now: Bobby Bonilla Gets $30 Million Over 25 Years: Gothamist

Guilty Pleasure Song #5

Do you even know who Aesop Rock is? It is totally okay if you don't. I had no clue who he was until this song, and that was because he collaborated with John Darnielle. I do not remember if it was Pretty Much Amazing, Pitchfork, or a friend (in all likelihood Paige) who introduced me to this song.

Mostly it was because of the last 20 seconds (the appearance of Darnielle) that made me like it.

But then I saw the video...

There is fake blood. There are zombies. There are boobies! There is really tight hip-hop.

It is wonderful and reminds me of the films of Germán Magariños, especially Zombie Apocalypse Now: A Zombie Hunter. (By the way, if you have not watched this film, you really can't call yourself a fan of the genre. Just sayin'.)


Favorite line:
"This is what they take...their medication for."

or

"T-A-K-E-N-O-P-R-I-S-O-N-E-R-S"

Bin Laden and the Homonym Problem

Rachel Maddow on Porn Stash V. Porn 'Stache.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Favorite line here: "More adult material than a mansion full of bunnies."

And...not to keep beating this drum, but...

How f***ing awesome is Rachel?

Shocking...but not surprising

This image, from Post Secret, took my breath away.

I am often shocked but rarely surprised about the capacity for inhumanity that is within us all.