Pencil Roving

Potential 2011 project: knitted slipcover(s)

2010-12-23T13:25:00.001-05:00

Good old Instructables. I can always find something there I want to make. Browsing over there today, I came across the Knitted Chair.

Patterns can be found at the creator's blog, The Knitted Chairs. My current fave is the Chair Cardi:

Return to Dubai

2010-12-18T11:45:00.001-05:00

Haven't talked about Dubai much of late, but I'm still fascinated. So I was glad to stumble onto Joel Sternfeld's photoessay about daily life there.

He chose Dubai, the pleasure dome between the desert and the sea, as a symbolic site of world consumption. But instead of his large-format camera, he used the consumer fetish object of the moment, the iPhone, to make these images. It was a nod to both his subject matter and a new way of understanding the world. However, while working in the mall he realized he also had the opportunity to “use the iPhone as a civilian journalist to present a positive image of Arabic family life that isn’t being received in the West.”

iDubai — Orion Magazine

Random views from the National Archives and flickr

2010-10-17T13:37:00.002-04:00

"Arkansas - Fort Smith, May 1972" (source )
Originally uploaded by The U.S. National Archives.
Wow. There are some real gems in flickr. Good place to while away a Sunday afternoon...

Can evil be understood?

2010-08-22T11:42:00.000-04:00

Armchair psychology is one of my worst vices. That said, I bet Sidney Gottlieb was an angry man.

Today's Obscure Object of Desire

2010-08-18T09:39:00.003-04:00

From Imprint:

David Lipson takes other people’s trash and turns it into robot sculptures which he sells on Etsy to great success. He makes them in a studio apartment in New York.

Triumph, 13 lbs and 24 inches tall, goes for $1,500.

COVET.

The triumphant return of "If you build it, I will come": iceberg-inspired summer cottages

2010-08-17T19:24:00.000-04:00

To suit the bays and lakes of Finland, Austrian architect Daniel Andersson has designed this floating cottage for Aland Hotels. Andersson took his inspiration from the 10%-above-water-90%-below structure of icebergs. (See the full series of renderings here.)

Space Invasion

2010-04-12T10:36:00.005-04:00

Space Invasion
Originally uploaded by Stéfan.

My favorite, so far, of a really wonderful series. The body language of the troopers is perfect.

[via Metafilter, as is so often the case]

Instead of a bridge to nowhere, a tunnel to somewhere?

2010-03-01T13:15:00.004-05:00

William Simpson has been pondering the construction of a tunnel under the Bering Straits to connect Alaska to the ~~northwestern~~ northeastern tip of Russia.

When the TSA takes it away

2009-12-26T14:00:00.005-05:00

Of renewed relevance, given the TSA crackdown that is sure to happen any minute now: a state-by-state breakdown of how (and by whom) your confiscated goods are resold.

Money quote: "We've received hundreds of pairs of fuzzy handcuffs and other S&M paraphernalia — I wanted to create funny Valentine's Day kits, but folks here thought taxpayers wouldn't like it."

"What happens to items confiscated by the TSA?" - MSNBC.com

Back to the future, ahead to the past

2009-12-26T12:23:00.006-05:00

Hmm. Here's hoping that the 2035 version of Tom Wicker is equally complimentary.

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey... Dubai!

2009-12-01T13:18:00.008-05:00

To quote another rock and/or roll song: What goes up must come down.

We are now seeing this lyrical wisdom exemplified in the Middle East's playground of profligacy, Dubai. I've been fascinated with this particular house of cards for some time, but now that it's officially tumbling down, I almost don't want to look. To mix metaphors, it's like seeing the tightrope walker fall.

In the end, the fall is more memorable than the feat.

The New York Times commemorates Dubai's heyday "Ozymandias"-style on its blogs Economix and Lens. On the latter are some photos by Lauren Greenfield, including these stunners:

Meanwhile, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.

O tempora, o mores: installment #4,476

2009-11-30T12:13:00.007-05:00

Yukon Sadie a chump?

2009-11-23T11:49:00.004-05:00

I have my issues with Matt Taibbi, but continue to read him because he is often right. A recent bit of trenchant analysis:

[Sarah Palin] is the country’s first WWE politician — a cartoon combatant who inspires stadiums full of frustrated middle American followers who will cheer for her against whichever villain they trot out, be it Newsweek, Barack Obama, Katie Couric, Steve Schmidt, the Mad Russian, Randy Orton or whoever. Her followers will not know that she is the perfect patsy for our system, designed as it is to channel popular anger in any direction but a useful one, and to keep the public tied up endlessly in pointless media melees over meaningless nonsense (melees of the sort that develop organically around Palin everywhere she goes). Like George W. Bush, even Palin herself doesn’t know this, another reason she’s such a perfect political tool.

Sarah Palin, WWE Star - True/Slant

[Via Andrew Sullivan.]

Meet Jim Simpson, knitting POW

2009-11-21T09:01:00.006-05:00

A WWII pilot in the Australian Air Force, Simpson was held in a German prison camp for 19 months. He had grown up in the bush country, where his mother taught her young son to knit. In prison, between interrogations, he used needles made from pot handles and recycled wool from deloused sweaters to knit this blanket. He did it in six weeks.

Balls of yarn go well with those balls of iron, sez I. Well done, Jim.

[Via Craftivism.]

PR salutes the Polaris Project

2009-11-19T09:06:00.003-05:00

In connection with the horrific Shaniya Davis case, CNN.com has posted a report on children sold into prostitution. The reporter gets much of his information via the Polaris Project, an organization that combats human trafficking of all kinds. It's headed up by Dr. Mark Lagon, whom I have been proud to call my friend for more than two decades now.

Lagon, formerly the State Department's director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, said it's a tough fight because there is a dearth of "good statistics" on human trafficking and it's not a crime in which victims readily come forward.

But the news is replete with reports on major rings being busted. The FBI did not return messages to discuss human trafficking, but news releases from the agency's Innocence Lost initiative show that in the past 18 months, four stings -- dubbed Operations Cross Country I, II, III and IV -- have yielded about 2,300 arrests and the recovery of about 170 children.

"We may not be able to return their innocence, but we can remove them from this cycle of abuse and violence," FBI Director Robert Mueller said in a statement after a February bust.

You're a good man, Mark, and a shining example. Thank you.

Expert: Child traffickers target runaways, "throwaways" — CNN.com

Speaking of truth-telling...

2009-11-15T18:31:00.003-05:00

An interesting exchange from the Political Animal blog:

One person posits Al Franken's comedy experience will make him a particularly good senator.

Someone else responds with a thought-provoking observation about trust.

Department of Awkward Juxtapositions

2009-10-26T17:24:00.001-04:00

Hard for me to choose a side here.

2009-10-14T19:24:00.020-04:00

One North Carolina church.

The importance of an informed citizenry

2009-09-19T13:11:00.001-04:00

Wow, is this depressing.

Shame on you, Mary Landrieu.

2009-09-07T23:29:00.004-04:00

From America's Health Rankings, 2008 edition:

From a news report of a recent town hall in Reserve, La.:

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu managed to keep a health-care forum Thursday from becoming too unruly as people voiced their opinions on various insurance and coverage options.

The New Orleans Democrat said she has not made up her mind on bills that are floating around in Congress, but she is generally not supportive of a nationalized health insurance program.

You know what, Senator? If it were my job – my obligation – to improve conditions in my state, and if my home state had been stuck at the murky bottom of the public health rankings for almost 20 years with no sign of improvement, I like to think I could somehow make my peace with a proposal (emanating from my own party!) to provide health care access stat for my constituency of ailing, broke sad sacks.

I mean, god damn.

Your people need help. They sent you to speak for them. Have you no honor at all?

And if your conscience doesn't move you, imagine how grateful all those sick folks would be once they got well enough to vote. How craven do you have to be, to overlook that political opportunity?

My life in a nutshell

2009-09-04T12:37:00.004-04:00

...from Toothpastefordinner.com:

[Hat tip: Chap Godbey]

NYC 1609

2009-09-03T10:06:00.002-04:00

Ever since I moved to NYC in 1986 I have wished I could see what Manhattan was like before the Europeans got there. On Houston Street near NYU there’s a small piece of ground (maybe 1000 sq. ft.) that's been fenced off and kept "wild", with native vegetation and topography. I used to like to stick my face between the fenceposts, use my hands as blinders to block any peripheral views of civilization, and try to conjure up an image of the entire island clad in forests and fields. My time-travel efforts were, um, less than successful.

Now, finally, there’s the Mannahatta Project.

I’m *swooning* over here.

Why can't we have a Senate Majority Leader like this?

2009-08-19T00:33:00.006-04:00

VideoSift: Digg these vids

2009-08-02T20:37:00.001-04:00

YouTube may suffice for the hoi polloi, but VideoSift tells you what's really worth watching.

Scaly beasts

2009-08-01T18:10:00.001-04:00

CNN is fascinated with Floridian reptiles. In the last few hours, we have seen reports on trappers of Burmese pythons and trappers of alligators. Apparently it's all about the trailing and trapping, down there in the Everglades. (qv Orchid Thief)

Also, John Boehner is a tool.

Blog + miniblog, together at last

2009-08-01T15:21:00.008-04:00

Testing out Blog It to see if it will really help me keep current on all platforms at once. Anybody out there have any experiences to relate?

Raleigh, NC: a modernist Mecca?

2009-04-14T10:12:00.005-04:00

Today's entry from the Department of Who Knew?

...Raleigh got swept up by the modernist style, and you were too, yes?

...Raleigh and the College of Design at N.C. State University, in particular, embraced the international school of [design] promoted by Walter Gropius and Mies van de Rohe. The founding dean of the design college, Henry Kamphoefner, brought internationally renowned architects and designers to his faculty, and such guest lecturers as Frank Lloyd Wright and Buckminster Fuller. We were a hotbed of modernist design, where form followed function. [With] Chicago, Los Angeles and New Canaan, Conn., Raleigh lays claim to more mid-20th century modernist homes than any other city in the U.S. due to Kamphoefner's leadership and influence.

— architect and Raleigh city councilman Thomas Crowder, in the Independent, Sept. 3, 2008

See also the impressive array of famous modern architects and their handiwork at Triangle Modernist Houses.

Quitting the magazine factory

2009-04-08T13:57:00.005-04:00

Perhaps because I am between jobs and in the process of recasting myself professionally, I found Mark Slouka's essay "Quitting the Paint Factory" very congenial. As a would-be connoisseur of idleness, this I believe:

Increasingly, it seems to me, our world is dividing into two kinds of things: those that aid work, or at least represent a path to it, and those that don’t. Things in the first category are good and noble; things in the second aren’t. Thus, for example, education is good (as long as we don’t have to listen to any of that “end in itself” nonsense) because it will presumably lead to work. Thus playing the piano or swimming the 100-yard backstroke are good things for a fifteen-year-old to do not because they might give her some pleasure but because rumor has it that Princeton is interested in students who can play Chopin or swim quickly on their backs (and a degree from Princeton, as any fool knows, can be readily converted to work).

Point the beam anywhere, and there’s the God of Work, busily trampling out the vintage. Blizzards are bemoaned because they keep us from getting to work. Hobbies are seen as either ridiculous or self-indulgent because they interfere with work. Longer school days are all the rage (even as our children grow demonstrably stupider), not because they make educational or psychological or any other kind of sense but because keeping kids in school longer makes it easier for us to work. Meanwhile, the time grows short, the margin narrows; the white spaces on our calendars have been inked in for months. We’re angry about this, upset about that, but who has the time to do anything anymore? There are those reports to report on, memos to remember, emails to deflect or delete. They bury us like snow.

Getting cancer -- or another major illness -- is one way to step outside this mechanism. So is moving to another city without having lined up a job. Both of those are often considered misfortunes; I have found it more useful to think of them as opportunities for a good long gut check. Enforced time-outs can feel a little bit like grace: the universe is asking, "Are you sure you want to do that? Take a little time to think about it before you answer."

Lava, live

2009-04-02T14:56:00.009-04:00

(source: SwissEduc)

"Lava lakes" are essentially craters filled with molten rock -- meaning they sit on or near active volcanoes. Five active ones exist in the world today: Erta Ale in Ethiopia (above), Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kilauea in Hawaii, Erebus in Antarctica and Villarrica in Chile.

Over at Environmental Graffiti, Simone Preuss has tracked down and posted some amazing images of these places. My favorite, below, shows lava flowing into the sea like a waterfall at Kilauea:

(source: Briinhi)

Which of these five should be the location for shooting my film adaptation of Dante's Inferno? Let me know your favorite.

(Previous PR volcano coverage here.)

Clever baa-studs

2009-03-31T09:28:00.002-04:00

Scenes from the Carrboro Farmers Market

2009-03-23T10:40:00.007-04:00

Saturday morning, Barry and I happened to be eating breakfast in town when we noticed the Farmers Market was open. We were curious and went to investigate.

We found some actual crops: radishes, onions and tulips, for a start.
A chef was demonstrating how to assemble a tomato-and-mozzarella something-or-other.
Also people were selling farm-fresh eggs, just-made cakes and pies, honey, soaps, preserves, potted herbs, pork in all its guises (chops, sausages, fatback), and other country-style things.

Not just rag rugs and artisanal Adirondack chairs...

but also propane-tank totem poles

and junkyard lawn jockeys.

Systemic risk: bankers bet on bailouts

2009-03-12T13:30:00.005-04:00

David Leonhardt makes a compelling case that the current financial crisis grew out of the greed-besotted bankers' (historically accurate) expectation of government bailouts. He cites economists George Akerlof (later a Nobel laureate) and Paul Romer, whose 1994 paper, "Looting," argued that

several financial crises in the 1980s, like the Texas real estate bust, had been the result of private investors taking advantage of the government. The investors had borrowed huge amounts of money, made big profits when times were good and then left the government holding the bag for their eventual (and predictable) losses.

In a word, the investors looted. Someone trying to make an honest profit, Professors Akerlof and Romer said, would have operated in a completely different manner. The investors displayed a “total disregard for even the most basic principles of lending,” failing to verify standard information about their borrowers or, in some cases, even to ask for that information.

The investors “acted as if future losses were somebody else’s problem,” the economists wrote. “They were right.”

On Tuesday morning in Washington, Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, gave a speech that read like a sad coda to the “Looting” paper. Because the government is unwilling to let big, interconnected financial firms fail — and because people at those firms knew it — they engaged in what Mr. Bernanke called “excessive risk-taking.”...

The promise of government bailouts isn’t merely one aspect of the problem. It is the core problem.

"The Looting of America's Coffers" — New York Times

Akerlof, George A. and Romer, Paul M., "Looting: The Economic Underworld of Bankruptcy for Profit" (April 1994). NBER Working Paper No. R1869. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=227162

Knitting to the rescue?

2009-03-09T09:06:00.005-04:00

Icelanders are down but not out of ideas. "Could old-fashioned creativity stimulate this crisis-battered island?"

The financial crisis has dealt Iceland a devastating blow: unemployment is soaring, the króna has collapsed, and banks have been nationalized. In January, the island nation's government buckled under the protests of citizens, who say a measure of prudence might have prevented the economy from overinflating.

Icelanders are hardly sitting idle as their country is slammed by the global financial hurricane. In cutting-edge Reykjavik, many are turning to arts and crafts, both to save money and to make it...

Some craftspeople have arts and design training, while others have non artistic day jobs and just happened to have paid attention when their grandmothers taught them how to knit those ubiquitous rose-patterned wool sweaters.

"Icelanders knit crafty response to global crisis" — Christian Science Monitor

Doodles are dandy

2009-03-02T16:06:00.007-05:00

According to the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology (Vol. 23, No. 3), a recent study suggests people who doodle in meetings actually are able to concentrate and remember better than those who don't.

"It takes a large cognitive load to daydream. That has a big impact on the task you're meant to be doing," said [study co-author Jackie Andrade, a University of Plymouth psychologist]. "Doodling takes only a small cognitive load, but it's just enough to keep your mental resources focused on the main task."

No surprise to me; I've been an inveterate doodler for years. Here are some "notes" I took at work meetings years ago:

Circa 1987

Circa 1989

When I first went to work for Entertainment Weekly in 1990, they gave me a stack of notepads that had belonged to the mag's founder, ousted just months before.

Two from the early-mid 1990s

"A Sketchy Brain Booster: Doodling" — Wired

UPDATE: Presidential doodling!

Hookers on call

2009-02-27T11:22:00.004-05:00

For those who covet woolen caps but have neither mad needle skillz nor a crafty relative to do their bidding, some clever folks in France have created the online haberdasher Golden Hook. Here's how it works: A would-be hat buyer selects the style and color(s) of her topper and then picks a "grandma" to execute the project. (I personally incline toward Simone, who "loves 'neo-geo' haircuts" and is a "big fan of her triple functions microwave and Patchanga.")

Worried about quality? Fear not:

All of our grandmas have been trained at the International Golden Hook Knitting School Beta plus Alpha where they were taught the art of stitches and hooks. Today, they are ready to knit any of your wishes. The Golden Hook grandma can make all kind of hats in front of all kind of shows. They all have the same know-how, something there [sic] are really proud of.

The company also has a MySpace page. I guess we know whom they're marketing to, eh?

I got you, Abe

2009-02-27T10:51:00.005-05:00

Maira Kalman falls in love with Abe Lincoln.

Clever home decor options

2009-02-26T11:18:00.010-05:00

...suggested by Photojojo:

Restickable Wall Decal Photo Frames

Using Jars as Photo Holders

Oh man, decorating the new house is gonna be fun.

An ebbing tide lowers all boats

2009-02-24T09:58:00.004-05:00

Yet another seemingly impossible thing is happening: Real estate prices in NYC and environs are faltering.

Ivy Zelman, a former Credit Suisse analyst who was among the first to call a national housing bust, figures that the New York housing market is headed straight down.

"When we look at New York City, we look at a price-income ratio that historically has been four times income, versus three times nationwide," says Zelman, who now runs her own firm. At 7.7 today, that ratio is "significantly higher than normal" because prices have only started falling. "If you want simply to get back to the median, it would be a 46% correction," says Zelman.

She adds: "If I had to pick one market in the country with the most challenge and the most substantive rate of decline [ahead], it's New York City. It has the greatest number of job losses among the higher earners."

Over the years, Zelman's bleak views have earned her the sobriquet Poison Ivy. But other analysts are starting to reach conclusions similar to hers. A recent report by Goldman Sachs suggested New York condo prices would need to fall between 35% and 44% to return to a "neutral" valuation level.

Emotionally, then, it would seem we have a choice between schadenfreude and sheer terror. Your call.

"Manhattan's Luxury Real-Estate Market is Rotting" — Barron's

A new rival to Cute Overload

2009-02-19T17:10:00.004-05:00

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you: Zooborns.

Warning: Exposure to such intense cuteness may result in sighing or fainting; if you are insulin-disordered or have an inclination to take in stray animals, exercise caution in perusing site; and at the first signs of cooing or squealing, tell your doctor — this could be a sign of such socially limiting ailments as Doolittle's Disorder or Noah Syndrome.

Learn and earn ... a good grade

2009-02-19T12:29:00.005-05:00

A nation of whiners? Maybe so, maybe so:

Prof. Marshall Grossman has come to expect complaints whenever he returns graded papers in his English classes at the University of Maryland.

“Many students come in with the conviction that they’ve worked hard and deserve a higher mark,” Professor Grossman said. “Some assert that they have never gotten a grade as low as this before.”...

“I tell my classes that if they just do what they are supposed to do and meet the standard requirements, that they will earn a C,” he said. “That is the default grade. They see the default grade as an A.”

A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that a third of students surveyed said that they expected B’s just for attending lectures, and 40 percent said they deserved a B for completing the required reading.

“I noticed an increased sense of entitlement in my students and wanted to discover what was causing it,” said Ellen Greenberger, the lead author of the study... Professor Greenberger said that the sense of entitlement could be related to increased parental pressure, competition among peers and family members and a heightened sense of achievement anxiety.

I remember being struck by this same attitude years ago when I was a high school teacher at the American International School just outside of Tel Aviv. At the time I chalked it up to the fact that my pupils were the pampered progeny of ambassadors, multinational businessmen and millionaires... and maybe in that case that was the reason.

After reading the above in today's New York Times, though, I'm beginning to suspect it's a generational thing — which identifies me squarely as an official Old Fart (or a Yorkshireman): "In my day, we did all the required reading while standing on one leg barefoot in the snow... and we were happy! We felt lucky, we did!"

O tempora, o mores.

Don't disrespect the Bing.

2009-02-17T09:59:00.003-05:00

One more example illustrating why it's time for a career change:

A couple of years back, around the time he was turning 50, Michael Precker was in his prime as a journalist. He'd never imagined himself doing anything else: "I knew in seventh grade I wanted to be a newspaperman."

A graduate of Columbia Journalism School, he was a foreign correspondent for 11 years in the Middle East and wrote feature articles on countless subjects for the Dallas Morning News. One year, the paper nominated him for a Pulitzer Prize.

Now he has a new job: running a strip club. "I feel lucky," he says...
Mr. Precker says it's a myth that the strip-club industry is immune to recession. But The Lodge is doing all right, he says, and he feels much more secure than he did at the Morning News. "Everybody in newspapers feels like they have a sword hanging over the heads, and are just wondering when it's going to fall," he says.

"A Reporter Faces the Naked Truth" — Wall Street Journal

And now for something completely adorable

2009-02-14T21:16:00.002-05:00

SwitchCRAFT

2009-02-13T09:01:00.003-05:00

CRAFT magazine, corporate sibling of MAKE and one of my favorite mags of the aughts, has ceased printing. However, I was relieved to learn, it's not actually going away; it continues as an online publication... indispensible to those of us who need to know how to make knitted, felted toy monsters.

Keep it coming, CRAFT staff! We are with you.

Words to live by: on being a fallen hero

2009-02-10T09:59:00.004-05:00

Mortimer Matz, a legendary public relations man who has represented more than his fair share of fallen heroes, said most of them enlist him only “after they make the misstep to goathood and then they want to be redeemed. A sure road to redemption is to find a child who has fallen onto the tracks in front of an oncoming subway and jump upon the child, covering its body and saving a life. Then phone Oprah. Otherwise, try and outlive everybody. The public is mainly unforgiving.”

"Advice to a Brave Pilot: Use That City Key Wisely" — NY Times

Blue Urban Bikes: a Pencil Roving salute

2009-02-08T17:08:00.005-05:00

Wow. As a bike lover (though in no way a full-fledged amateur cyclist), I was absolutely delighted to learn about this, the sort of program I've known to exist only in Europe:

The ReCYCLEry, Carrboro’s nonprofit community bike workshop, is working to bring more bicycles to Carrboro roads. By expanding their bike loan program, called Blue Urban Bikes, or BUB, they hope to get people pushing bike pedals instead of gas pedals.

The Blue Urban Bikes program is the ReCYCLEry’s biggest push to promote bikes on Carrboro and Chapel Hill roads. For the annual price of ten dollars or two hours of volunteer work, anyone can become a BUB member and borrow the refurbished blue bikes for a day at a time, complete with two cargo baskets, lights, a lock and a helmet.

The BUBs are found at hubs — cooperating local businesses where the bright blue bicycles may be rented for up to a day at a time by BUB members...

The ReCYCLEry hopes to use bicycles to encourage a sense of community. “Riding a bike is getting you out of the box of your car. Our society has too many boxes,” Chris [Richmond, director of The ReCYCLEry] says. “Cars, televisions, and houses are our boxes. In those areas, you’re insulated from the communities around you.”

Blue Urban Bikes is a smaller scale version of similar bicycle rental programs adopted in Europe in cities like Paris and Lyon.

"Blue Bikes Rolling" — The Carrboro Citizen

Judd Gregg: you gotta be in it to win it.

2009-02-03T18:05:00.005-05:00

So it looks like Senator Judd Gregg (R, N.H.) will soon be the Commerce Secretary of the United States. I was interested to learn that Gregg won the Powerball lottery back in 2005:

The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee -- a lawyer who lists between $2.5 million and $9 million in assets on his financial disclosure form -- added another 853,492 smackers yesterday thanks to a little friend called Powerball.

Though Gregg said at the time that he bought lottery tickets "sporadically," he dropped $20 on that fateful night.

Now, I tend to lump playing the lottery in with believing in astrology and using the rhythm method of contraception as a classic example of—well, there's no kind way to say this—foolishness. For almost everyone, playing the lottery delivers a pretty crappy ROI. It's not exactly fiscally sensible.

We've never before had a lottery winner as Commerce Secretary, and that's probably why. Are we, the United States, as an economic entity, about to have our interstate commerce managed by a Republican who is not dissuaded by terrible odds? I can't figure out whether that would put us in the express lane on the highway to hell, or constitute just the kind of genius Hail Mary pass our economy might need.

The mighty Quinn: a Pencil Roving salute

2009-01-31T12:07:00.006-05:00

In a refreshing change of pace, there is now an honest man in the Illinois Governor's Mansion. Patrick Quinn is incorruptible; even Blago admits it. Even more amazing, the guy appears to be a mensch:

Mr. Quinn, 60, can be so unassuming that he watched the inauguration of President Obama in Washington crunched down on his knees so that people behind him could get a better view. When prone to boasting, which is not very often, it can be about miserly stuff, like staying in budget hotels and eating discount meals...

“What you see is what you get,” said one of Mr. Quinn’s longtime allies, State Representative John Fritchey, a Democrat. “He is an apolitical creature in a political world.” ...

“Historically, outsiders have not done well in our state,” [State Rep Jack D.] Franks said. “But I think Pat Quinn is going to get a lot done. It’s a much different climate now. This is a guy who brags about staying in Super 8s. Pat could care less about money.”

A White Sox fan who was born in Chicago, Mr. Quinn has a law degree from Northwestern University and, years ago, used to teach tax law and consumer economics at two local colleges. Growing up, his mother was an assistant at a middle school. His father was a personnel director for a group of cemeteries...

One thing he will not do, he said, is let his newfound popularity go to his head.

“You want to know my philosophy?” Mr. Quinn said. “One day a peacock. The next day a feather duster.”

"Successor in Illinois Is the Anti-Blagojevich" — NYT

Strip joint

2009-01-30T10:24:00.001-05:00

More than two years ago, LA crafter/mom Lady Linoleum created this fine, fine slab of needlework. She describes it as a "60-inch piece of pork strippage... designed and painstakingly single-crocheted... using Manos del Uruguay and Rio de la Plata wool, an I hook, and a very looonnnggg intarsia chart made with this free online program."

I find it almost as irresistible as the real thing. Sizzle on, sistah.

Bacon Wrap - Monster Crochet

NuFOs

2009-01-29T11:57:00.006-05:00

That is, New FOs. In other words, things that are no longer UFOs (UnFinished Objects). Here are several things I finished and gifted in the month of January:

George's Hat

Vicki's Scarf

Dubi's Socks

Why Wii?

2009-01-29T10:54:00.003-05:00

comingsoon2 originally uploaded by lesleyhyphenanne.

Yes, it's knitting... on the Wii. I love me some video games and, of course, any and all things knit-related, but this just makes me go "hmm." Also, "whuh?"
Here are some screenshots of "gameplay."

Ice, ice baby: working in Antarctica

2009-01-22T23:23:00.003-05:00

Something Awful hosts an informative and amusing Q&A on what it's really like to live and work in Antarctica:

Tsaven Nava was unfortunate enough to find himself shipped out to the Antartic for work, presumably as some kind of cruel punishment. He somehow survived his harrowing ordeal of being paid to sit in a well-heated bunker with a constant supply of food and Nintendo Wii games...

Some of the highlights:

We had this one guy on station for only a month (fire systems tech), who snored like holy shit, and our mechanic was unlucky enough to get him as a roommate. Our mechanic ended up setting up a tent out in the hills behind the station, and lived there for almost a month until he could have his own room again.

The most prized possession on the whole continent is fresh fruits and veggies. If you magically were able to produce some fresh tomatoes, apples, lettuce, and peaches in the middle of winter at the South Pole, you would be a god among men.

This other guy decided that he was leaving, and was going to walk home. He cleaned out his room, packed his bags, said goodbye to everyone...and went to the gym, got on the treadmill with his bags sitting on the floor next to him, and started walking. It took the doctors like three hours to talk him down.

It sounds like really, really cold adult sleep-away camp... where the activities include shoveling snow, getting drunk, and losing your mind. Now do you see why I find it so irresistible?

[Via Metafilter]

He Who Must Be Mourned

2009-01-16T11:57:00.003-05:00

Rest in peace, Sir John Mortimer.

From the New York Times obit:

As a barrister in Britain, Sir John came to be known in the 1960s as a defender of free speech and human rights for taking up cases that he said were “alleged to be testing the frontiers of tolerance.” He became a Queen’s Counsel just in time to tackle some of the civil rights cases that arose in Britain in that decade, all the while writing fiction, non-fiction, drama and comedy.

From the Times of London's obit:

He was defence counsel at the Oz conspiracy trial in 1971 and defended the Sex Pistols in a 1977 obscenity trial over the title of the band's defining album Never Mind The Bollocks...

Mortimer's public image was of a "champagne socialist" and he never hid his love of the bubbly.

From the Daily Mail's version:

Mortimer actually regretted having read law at Oxford. 'Knowing the law is not much help for an advocate,' he said. 'In fact it is a bit of a disadvantage. Cramps your style.'...

He represented many divorce clients and murderers during his barrister years and always said he much preferred the murderers.

'I found criminal clients easy and matrimonial clients hard. Matrimonial clients hate each other so much and use their children to hurt each other in beastly ways.

'Murderers have usually killed the one person in the world that was bugging them and they're usually quite peaceful and agreeable.'

Long live the (Dap) Kings

2009-01-15T08:30:00.003-05:00

I had vaguely heard of the Dap-Kings from club listings and so forth for a year or two before they broke out into ubiquity with their work on Amy Winehouse's 2007 album Back to Black. Nowadays I just can't get enough of them—their Dap-Dippin' with... album has been on heavy iPod rotation for several months. (Highly recommended for hot summer nights in particular.) So I was glad to see the band and impresario Gabriel Roth get their props (are the kids still saying that?) in a recent article in the NYT Magazine:

The defining project of Roth’s career is Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, a nine-piece band with a horn section, an extensive wardrobe of crisp suits and a 52-year-old lead singer (Jones) who once worked as a prison guard on Riker’s Island. Like all the 30-odd artists who make up what Roth likes to call the “Daptone family,” the Dap-Kings are a varied bunch: black, white, Latino, young, not so young, downright seasoned. Jones, the band’s dazzling frontwoman, is the most widely recognized Dap-King, but Roth is the group’s undisputed leader; he writes most of their songs, plays bass and produces all their records. When he convened the group a decade ago, few people could have anticipated that an outfit of meticulous soul revivalists with an astonishingly energetic, smack-talking, 4-foot-11 middle-aged black woman for a lead singer would become one of the more celebrated indie acts in the country — or that Roth’s continuing passion for the music of James Brown would result in critical adulation, a platinum record and a Grammy Award. But mainstream success, Roth insists, was never the point. “Our goal is simple,” he told me. “We want to make the kinds of records we want to hear.

Long may they groove.

"Soul Reviver" — NYT Magazine, Dec. 5, 2008

The biking Congressman: a Pencil Roving salute

2009-01-13T13:25:00.008-05:00

Previously in this space we have paid tribute to bikes generally, and to Portland, Ore., aka Bike City. Now comes a hero for our time: Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon.

[Rep.] Blumenauer, a passionate advocate of cycling as a remedy for everything from climate change to obesity, represents most of Portland in Congress, where he is the founder and proprietor of the 180 (plus or minus)-member Congressional Bicycle Caucus. Long regarded in some quarters as quixotic, the caucus has come into its own as hard times, climate concerns, gyrating gas prices and worries about fitness turn people away from their cars and toward their bikes...

Blumenauer’s goals are larger than putting Americans on two wheels. He seeks to create what he calls a more sustainable society, including wiser use of energy, farming that improves the land rather than degrades it, an end to taxpayer subsidies for unwise development — and a transportation infrastructure that looks beyond the car. For him, the global financial collapse is “perhaps the best opportunity we will ever see” to build environmental sustainability into the nation’s infrastructure, with urban streetcar systems, bike and pedestrian paths, more efficient energy transmission and conversion of the federal government’s 600,000-vehicle fleet to use alternate fuels.

"A Bicycle Evangelist With the Wind Now at His Back" — New York Times

Ah, memories: what it used to be like to work at Time Inc.

2009-01-09T13:55:00.006-05:00

When I started, in the mid-1980s, many of these fringe benefits were still in effect. Now...not so much. (By the way, don't miss the comment thread at TDB; the recollections are simultaneously amusing and appalling.)

"A Short History of Perks at Time Inc." —
The Daily Beast

The kind of thing that makes me hate NYC

2009-01-09T12:02:00.007-05:00

Mr. Carter's Neighborhood: Graydon Carter smothers the squawks of paparazzi-hating neighbors by gifting them with prime tables at the Waverly Inn. Also, the new high school he and his cronies are backing, the "Greenwich Village High School" (as the New York Observer points out, its 30 Vandam St. address actually puts it in western SoHo), is just too precious by half:

...Since the school is highly committed to the arts, rowdy ninth-graders will also be paying visits to the Lincoln Center and possibly a "Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright to gain the confidence to try writing [their] own scenes." (Presumably, meetings with fancy directors and playwrights will be arranged by the school's A-listy board of directors and advisers.) Furthermore, students will be able to study abroad during their junior year, and by senior year, they will be able to pursue "a self-directed program of study"...

Unlike other city high school, GVHS students may not have to report to morning classes tired and crusty-eyed, because the school is considering employing a superior sort of scheduling that will be sensitive to city teenagers' busy lives.

"We are exploring the possibility of a later start time–a practice that some neuroscientists and educators advocate to allow for an increase in the amount of sleep young adolescents get each night," states the website. Field trips to the Waverly Inn may go late, after all.

But just to show that this won't be exclusively for the offspring of the rich, the school's tuition is on a sliding scale—from $1,000 to $34,729 per annum. (Let them eat cake!)

Only in New York, kids, only in New York.

"Greenwich Village High School Inches Closer to Reality; Where 14-Year-Olds Meet Pulitzer Winners!" — New York Observer

The kind of thing that makes me love NYC—and the Web

2009-01-08T20:45:00.007-05:00

Mr. Beller's Neighborhood. New Yorkers past, present and future: go see yourselves there, both figuratively and literally. The main image is a satellite map, studded with pins marking the locations where these tales (submitted by readers) take place. Click on a pin and you get to read a story about that spot.

What a fantastic use of the Web. Seeing the city this way is like looking at it through prismatic insect eyes.

P.S. "The Subway Game" is genius.

Cross-reference: See What I Mean

2008-12-30T12:55:00.005-05:00

Check out my new information visualization blog, See What I Mean. Today's post is on Hans Rosling and his public health data clearinghouse, Gapminder. As a result of Rosling's efforts, the UN has now made its economic and social statistical databases available to all via the Web.

Because that's where the money is.

2008-12-30T09:06:00.007-05:00

In what may be the latest sign of the harsh economic times, five banks in four boroughs were robbed on Monday, four of them within an hour and a half...Most of them occurred in heavily trafficked areas in broad daylight, including one that took place steps away from Lincoln Center in the middle of the afternoon.

Bank robberies in the city are up by 54 percent this year, the Police Department said, to 431 as of Monday afternoon, from 280 at this time last year. Robbery statistics over the past 20 years suggest that the robberies may have been fueled in part by the financial desperation that sets in during a recession and the added pressures of the holiday season.

Peace on earth, good will toward men. Now fill the bag with unmarked bills and nobody gets hurt.

"Five Banks Are Robbed in Single Day in the City" — New York Times

Chilly chicks

2008-12-28T14:14:00.005-05:00

See video of chickens in knitted jumpers.

Speaking of crafts... w00t!!1!

2008-12-25T11:57:00.007-05:00

Last year, 42 million households gave handmade gifts, according to the Craft & Hobby Association, a trade group, and that number is expected to increase greatly this year, its spokesman, Victor Domine, said.

“Across the country, people are crafting more,” he said. “With the recession, people are looking for ways to save money, and doctors are recommending it as a major form of stress relief.”

"For Craft Sales, the Recession Is a Help" --
New York Times

Gift rap

2008-12-25T09:21:00.006-05:00

Ah, the ghost of Christmas presents. There's an amusing reminiscence about them in today's Times called "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sweatshirt)":

Years past have brought us many different categories of bad gifts. There’s the Reflexive Regifted (a watch given to me for my 13th birthday, then accidentally regiven to me five years later as a high school graduation present), the Gifts Replacing Gifts We’ve Accidentally Broken (a Lalique figurine I shattered in the front hall, a replica of which I found on eBay and bought for my mom) and the British Foodstuffs We’d Never Eat (all the silly-named pies and puddings my father dutifully imports from Fortnum and Mason’s, which the rest of the family considers unfit for human consumption).

Along with the annual Life Savers book, I remember receiving lots of craft-related gifts as a kid: crewel kits; rug-making hook, canvas and yarn; macrame sets. I embraced all of them, with one exception: For some reason, I just couldn't get into the faux scrimshaw.

(Images of the Moby Dick Scrimshaw Whaler's folk art kit by Whiting Crafts, a division of Milton Bradley Co., circa 1973, via eBay seller 1001wheelcovers)

Animal cunning

2008-12-24T11:49:00.004-05:00

Nice article in the Times the other day about lying, cheating and stealing in the animal kingdom. To wit:

After dolphin trainers at the Institute for Marine Mammals Studies in Mississippi had taught the dolphins to clean the pools of trash by rewarding the mammals with a fish for every haul they brought in, one female dolphin figured out how to hide trash under a rock at the bottom of the pool and bring it up to the trainers one small piece at a time.

"A Highly Evolved Propensity for Deceit" — NYT

Crash: a smug, priggish rant

2008-12-22T11:54:00.008-05:00

Alexandra Penney, former magazine editor, self-appointed sexpert, art photographer and gal-about-town, "had three homes, a luxurious lifestyle and a nest egg in the hands of that clever Bernie Madoff," reports the Times of London. She lost her life savings (every cent earned, she says) and finds her lifestyle severely curtailed:

The cottage in West Palm Beach is already on the market, my little country house is being appraised, and I can’t even think what will happen to my [Fifth Avenue] apartment.

She suspects she will have to give up the art studio she owns in SoHo. She is panicking, and wrote about her panic in the Times and on the Daily Beast (twice: "It's been a little more than a week since Bernie Madoff raped me financially").

Judging by the online comments, few people feel sorry for her. I, too, find myself unmoved.

She confesses that part of her reaction is too deep to be rational:

As far back as I can remember I have had the most primal fear that I would end up as a bag lady on the street, or a ragged woman with thinning white hair living in a paint-peeling cupboard-sized room with a single lightbulb. God in heaven. This will now actually happen to me.

Primal fear is by definition irrational—and therefore not something you can control. But I also think that the actions you take to deal with that fear are very much within your control.

Hot tip, Ms. Penney: If you have a particular primal fear, you should take measures to prevent that nightmare scenario from coming true. Afraid of being utterly broke? Here's what to do: Hold on to your money! Buy bank CDs and Treasury bonds! Put bundles of cash in a safe-deposit box!

Don't, say, buy Waterford crystal and (eventually) a cottage in Florida and an art studio in SoHo and a country house and a flat on Fifth Avenue.

In NYC, perhaps it's natural to want to escape from the pervasive stress and anxiety. I certainly do, and have eaten my share of fine restaurant meals and taken my share of taxis. But (perhaps it's natural in NYC) I cannot forget that maintaining a Certain Lifestyle is by no means guaranteed. It doesn't take a Bernie Madoff to render my existence hand-to-mouth. It could happen at any time, for any number of reasons.

Consequently, I find Ms. Penney's reaction to her loss ridiculously histrionic:

I have my laptop by my bed and Google the Hemlock Society. I want to know a painless way to die...

I stumble out of bed, trip over a magazine (I’ll never be able to afford subscriptions again)...

I shower and wash my hair with an expensive shampoo. No more Chanel, Lancôme, Lauder for me...

I muster as much discipline as possible to stop myself from wallowing in thoughts about hairstylists and clothes and shoes, and good food, and pretty underwear, and eating out and going to the theatre. If I spend the least amount I can just to exist, I can hold on for a few months.

(Fortunately, amid the devastation, she finds some comfort in...weight loss: "I get dressed and pull on my jeans . . . they’re loose. Hallelujah, finally some good news. I’ve lost 6lb in three days.")

I think there is great peril in succumbing to the seductions of material comforts. Allowing oneself to forget what it's like to, say, ride the subway or comparison shop for groceries or (horrors) use generic shampoo is to forget how most people live—namely, by spending the least amount they can just to exist, holding on as long as possible.

We are all in this together, whether we choose to remember it or not.

So forgive me, Ms. Penney, if I don't mourn the lost Florida cottage or those damn goblets. I am one of millions who have recently lost their jobs to a sweeping recession. My industry is dying. Fortunately, my spouse is thriving at his job. But I aim to economize in the near future by eating a lot of "interesting pasta" (or rice and beans). Why shouldn't you?

"Times are tough—even if you're imaginary."

2008-12-20T09:37:00.004-05:00

This year's edition of the Forbes Fictional 15, our annual listing of fiction's richest, features significant turnover and turmoil. More than half of last year's members fell off the list, and those who remain are poorer on average; 12 months ago, you needed at least $1.3 billion to make the cut. This year, you only need $800 million.

I was surprised at who came in at Number 1, since it's well known that the dude's overdrawn at the bank...to the tune of $10.6 trillion.

Unraveling

2008-12-18T11:08:00.002-05:00

Dozens of 2008 election posts notwithstanding, world events are not really the focus of this blog, so I wouldn't ordinarily post this. But given the blog's tag line, the title of his column and the blatant upfuckery of The American System these days, I couldn't resist linking to Thomas Friedman's "The Great Unraveling" (NYT, Dec. 16). His rather obvious conclusion:

The Madoff affair is the cherry on top of a national breakdown in financial propriety, regulations and common sense. Which is why we don’t just need a financial bailout; we need an ethical bailout. We need to re-establish the core balance between our markets, ethics and regulations.

Well, yes. Yes we do. Got any ideas as to how we might go about that, Tom?

Having a ball (of yarn)

2008-12-18T10:54:00.003-05:00

Here's what knitting looks like in the 21st century: We have indie rocker dudes in LA making cozy scarves and little old ladies from Germany, Austria and Poland creating sexy undies (even bondage gear—the itchiness of the wool is part of the appeal):

"Our oldest knitter is 87. She has very nimble fingers and specialises in willy warmers. She loves it," [one manager] explained.

So much for that knitting "fad." I predicted its demise as a trend, and am delighted to have been wrong. It's everywhere now.

Criminal incompetence

2008-12-16T08:48:00.005-05:00

Speaking purely as a citizen and small (make that tiny) investor: As of 2008, the SEC has lost any remaining credibility it may once have had. The epidemic of bank failures, megascams, fake valuations and overall grab-it-with-both-hands thievery proves that the agency's "oversight" and "enforcement" have been incompetent to the point of criminality.

H. David Kotz, [the SEC's] new inspector general, has documented several major botched investigations. He has told lawmakers of one case in which the commission’s enforcement chief improperly tipped off a private lawyer about an insider-trading inquiry.

Another report criticized investigators in the commission’s Miami office who inexplicably had dropped an important inquiry involving securities sold by Bear Stearns. A third report documented the lack of any significant oversight by the commission over Bear Stearns in the months leading to its collapse.

The enforcement division has been hamstrung by budget cuts and changes adopted by the S.E.C. that make it harder to impose penalties on corporations, even when there has been egregious wrongdoing, Arthur Levitt Jr., the S.E.C. chairman from 1993 to 2001, told Congress in October. The result has been “a demoralizing of the enforcement staff,” Mr. Levitt said...

[Joel Seligman, the president of the University of Rochester and a leading authority on the history of the commission,] said there were three causes to the current problems at the commission: “A Congress that’s been comfortable with vast unregulated areas, such as hedge funds and credit-default swaps, which sends a message to enforcement. The failure since 2005 to increase the enforcement budget. And some commissioners whose skepticism about enforcement may have undermined the S.E.C.’s effectiveness.”

How soon will the US economy reach the tipping point? Or maybe we already have. Maybe we passed it long ago. Falling feels like flying till you hit the ground.

"S.E.C. Image Suffers in a String of Setbacks" — New York Times

Booze, we can use

2008-12-10T17:24:00.004-05:00

At least someone's looking out for all us laid-off, broke-down scribblers:

ASSME, the American Society of Shitcanned Media Elites, is a support organization for newly downsized members of the magazine, newspaper, book publishing, advertising, TV and web industries. Through time-tested methods (alcohol, social interaction), we seek to sustain and inspire this beleaguered professional subclass.

FOUNDING
ASSME came to life during the waning days of 2008, when terror stalked the media landscape. Magazines folded, newspapers went bankrupt, publishers quit acquiring manuscripts altogether. Man, did it suck. Drinking was all we had left.

Amen, my brethren. Ain't it the damn truth.

P.S. For civilians: The ASSME name is a play on ASME, the American Society of Magazine Editors.

[Via Gawker]

Fear me, Colbert!

2008-12-08T11:10:00.004-05:00

From the Wed., Dec. 3 Colbert Report:

Nailed 'Em — Radical Knitting

Yes. It's true. The fiber guerrillas are all around you, belligerently crafting tank cozies and ruffled covers for chainsaws. And we've got needles and more yarn than you can possibly imagine.

More uprisings here and here.

[Via Dances with Wools]

Who's obsessed?

2008-12-08T09:01:00.007-05:00

[Via Etherknitter]

A costly diamond

2008-12-05T10:53:00.009-05:00

Now that Citigroup is being funded by taxpayer money, some are wondering whether it's really appropriate to name the NY Mets' soon-to-open stadium "Citi Field." Should the corporation be spending bailout bucks on this promotional contract? Or is this particular expense expendable?

At present, officially the Mets have no plans to change the stadium's name.

Even so, WNYC's Brian Lehrer asked his listeners to suggest some alternative monikers. Some of my faves: Chez Stadium, CitiZENS Field and... wait for it... Debits Field.

Sometimes you gotta laugh to keep from cryin'.

Patagonia, mon amour

2008-12-04T11:00:00.005-05:00

A harbor view of Ushuaia with Cerro Martial
and Monte Olivia in the distance

Chris Moss, whose cultural history of Patagonia was published this past April by Signal Books, has written a couple of well-observed articles on the region for the Telegraph. The Ushuaia Q&A is instructive, pithy and atmospheric—not an easy combination to pull off. And this one, a brief discussion of Welsh settlements in Chubut, Argentina, is the sort of thing I always hoped to write someday. (Sigh.) A tip of the ski cap to you, Chris.

(Photo: Getty)

Not much resale value

2008-12-03T14:45:00.007-05:00

What kind of lawless shenanigans go on up there in the Pacific Northwest? I ask you. Dig this: Yesterday, near Seattle, poor Cassie Schorsch had an ambitious knitting project (WIP) stolen from her car.

Schorsch says the sweater was half-way finished, with the knitting needles still in it.

"I was furious, spittin' nails mad. I've spent so many hours on that sweater. There's probably 100 [to] 150 hours of work on that sweater already," she said.

[Schorsch] says she has no idea why the unfinished sweater was stolen.

Now what the hell are the thieves going to do with it? Are we to infer that they know how to knit? That knitters, in other words, are responsible for this crime...? Preposterous. Inconceivable.

(If, however, the yarn happened to be, say, extra-super-delightful cashmere in gorgeous jewel tones... well, I'm not saying what they did was right, but I understand.)

"Thieves swipe woman's unfinished knitting project" — KING5.com

I [heart] coffee AND Christoph

2008-12-03T08:56:00.003-05:00

In his NYTimes.com blog, Christoph Niemann reflects on his relationship with The Java.

A stunning development

2008-12-02T19:24:00.006-05:00

A 35-year-old Moscow woman, dissatisfied with the quality of instruction in a knitting class, decided she wanted a refund of her $360 fee. So she and her 73-year-old mother went downtown to resolve the matter at the teaching company's HQ. So far, so good.

The company secretary asked the women to draw up a written request for a refund addressed to the company's director, a common requirement for reimbursement in Russia.

The two women, however, demanded their money back immediately. After the secretary refused, the elderly woman pulled an electric-shock device from her purse and stunned the employee with the device, police said.

The two women then snatched the secretary's purse, which contained 34,000 rubles ($1,200), and fled the office, according to police.

All I can say is that if a smidgen of frustration and deferred gratification is enough to make you bust out a stun gun, it's probably best for everyone if you eschew the needlecraft.

"Mother, Daughter Face 10 Years for Stun-Gun Robbery" — The Moscow Times

Knitting: not just for grannies ... ever

2008-12-01T09:28:00.006-05:00

Another gem from the Google/Life archive:

Caption: Showgirls knitting garments during drive to provide goods to servicemen during the war.
Location: United Kingdom
Date taken: 1939

Schadenfreude? Moi?

2008-11-30T10:39:00.005-05:00

What does it say about me that I find this article immensely cheering?

"The Holidays Downsized: No Job and Fewer Gifts" — New York Times

California coverage by way of India

2008-11-30T09:34:00.003-05:00

I remember reading about this last year, when it first happened: a Pasadena, Calif. newspaper outsourced its coverage of some local events to contractors in India, who would watch video of the events in question (such as city council meetings) and then, on the other side of the world, write up what had happened in some gym, shopping mall or municipal building in the suburbs of LA.

Clearly something is amiss in California journalism. As the blog Foothill Cities pointed out:

...That's not to say that the state of local journalism in Pasadena and the Foothill Cities is just hunky dory. If anything, [editor James] McPherson's decision demonstrates that the opposite is the case. Expectations for local reporting are such that it's not beyond the pale for him to hire someone in India.

Expectations for punditry certainly aren't much higher. In today's NYT, Maureen Dowd — who has apparently finally read the writing on the wall — catches up with Macpherson.

The newspaper business is not only crumpling up, James Macpherson informed me here, it is probably holding “a one-way ticket to Bangalore”...

He fired his seven Pasadena staffers — including five reporters — who were making $600 to $800 a week, and now he and his wife direct six employees all over India on how to write news and features, using telephones, e-mail, press releases, Web harvesting and live video streaming from a cellphone at City Hall.

“I pay per piece, just the way it was in the garment business,” he says. “A thousand words pays $7.50.”

A penny for your thoughts? Now I knew my days were numbered.

Welcome to my world, MoDo. Haven't you been reading Thomas Friedman?

Solo on ice: a Pencil Roving salute

2008-11-24T12:03:00.013-05:00

(AFP/File/Jean-Pierre Clatot)

Nine years ago this week, Laurence de la Ferrière did something remarkable. She set out on a 73-day solo trek in which she skied from the South Pole to Terre Adelie (French-administered Antarctica), a distance of about 1,900 miles. Over two and a half months, she endured average temperatures of -22 degrees F, violent winds and severe frostbite — but pressed on, towing a 330-pound sled the whole way.

And now she's going back. At least this time she'll have company: De la Ferrière has been tapped to head up the Dumont d'Urville scientific research station in Terre Adelie for a 15-month stint.

Ferrière said she "can live in any condition, anywhere" after her "miraculous" survival in Antarctica, and has advice for those who dare expose themselves to the cold and isolated expanse.

"You cannot go to Antarctica saying 'I know everything, I will impose my way and I will succeed.' You really have to bare yourself, to free yourself of what you think you know," she said.

More by Packer, from 2002

2008-11-23T12:40:00.004-05:00

On one of my favorite prose stylists:

[V.S.] Naipaul turns seventy this summer, in the same month that his latest work, a collection of his essays called The Writer and the World, including the Manhattan Institute address, is to be published. He appears to have reached the end of his career. His most recent novel, Half a Life, turning over much-plowed ground, is barely half a book. V. S. Naipaul seems to have said what he has to say. Seen from this vantage point, the course of his work follows an internal logic that was not at all clear before. The decision not to return to Trinidad, the pivotal moment of his literary career, also holds the key to the vision that receives its most explicit expression in “Our Universal Civilization.” And Naipaul himself turns out not to be what his shallower critics and admirers imagined.

"V.S. Naipaul's Pursuit of Happiness" -- Dissent, Summer 2002

Kristol bawl-out

2008-11-23T11:50:00.003-05:00

George Packer eviscerates Bill Kristol. At length. Not for his politics, but for the acuity of his insights (not) and the quality of his work (lame). Ouch.

[Via Ta-Nehisi Coates]

All the introverts in the house, say "um"

2008-11-23T11:25:00.006-05:00

Jonathan Rauch explains himself (and me) to all the extroverts:

My name is Jonathan, and I am an introvert.

Oh, for years I denied it. After all, I have good social skills. I am not morose or misanthropic. Usually. I am far from shy. I love long conversations that explore intimate thoughts or passionate interests. But at last I have self-identified and come out to my friends and colleagues. In doing so, I have found myself liberated from any number of damaging misconceptions and stereotypes. Now I am here to tell you what you need to know in order to respond sensitively and supportively to your own introverted family members, friends, and colleagues. Remember, someone you know, respect, and interact with every day is an introvert, and you are probably driving this person nuts. It pays to learn the warning signs.

What is introversion? In its modern sense, the concept goes back to the 1920s and the psychologist Carl Jung. Today it is a mainstay of personality tests, including the widely used Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Introverts are not necessarily shy. Shy people are anxious or frightened or self-excoriating in social settings; introverts generally are not. Introverts are also not misanthropic, though some of us do go along with Sartre as far as to say "Hell is other people at breakfast." Rather, introverts are people who find other people tiring.

"Caring for Your Introvert" -- The Atlantic, March 2003

UPDATE: I might have known; Barry found this way before I did.

Blast from the past

2008-11-22T22:03:00.003-05:00

It's interesting, at the end of George W. Bush's presidency, to ponder if we should have known better. How much did his behavior as a candidate hint at the feckless, stubborn, stupid president he would become? Let's ask Bernard Shaw of CNN...back in 1999.

Bush also likes to ham it up with the press corps and he jokes about his reliance on his staff for policy specifics.

"I'll have a plan -- won't we, Taylor, Coogan and Boskin," Bush said during his Iowa straw poll speech, referring to some advisers to his campaign on issues.

These are small moments to his supporters, an indication of Bush's charm and ease. But critics believe Bush's casualness may come across as a lack of gravitas, as evidence that he's not ready for prime time.

The image of Bush as an amiable frat-boy originated in rumors of Bush's colorful past. But it persists because of his seemingly casual attitude toward running for president.

"Is Bush Ready for the White House?" -- CNN, August 18, 1999

This reminds me...

2008-11-22T19:45:00.005-05:00

...I simply must get to the slenderizing salon more often.

Model Pat Ogden at slenderizing salon knitting in padded chair while leg rollers work from thigh to ankle.
Location: New York, NY, US
Date taken: 1940
Photographer: Alfred Eisenstaedt

This is from the absolutely stellar archive of LIFE photos now hosted by Google. Go there now. Run, don't walk. Do not pass Go... etc. It's fantastic.

Detritus — first in a series

2008-11-21T17:52:00.010-05:00

Here are two artifacts I found in the slush pile(s) at my office within the last two weeks.

This slim volume, published by Random House in 1961, was written by Ruth A. Sonneborn and illustrated by Robert J. Lee. Sample queries (beyond those on the cover): What makes the wind blow? How does soap help clean you? What holds an island up? (Hint: that last one's a trick question!)

Powered by watch battery. No indication who makes it. Notice the iPod-influenced design. But why? Would anyone out there really rather have their calculator keys arranged clockwise?

Infographic of the day

2008-11-20T17:46:00.009-05:00

Overnewsed but uninformed-- Stefan Bräutigam

The explanation, auto-translated from the German by Google (!) and tidied up slightly by me (!!), reads thus:

With access to news possible at any time via a variety of communication channels, a broad media landscape with a myriad of information producers and suppliers has developed. For the viewer it becomes more difficult to determine the authenticity of messages. You are looking for sources that can be trusted.

Overnewsed but Uninformed helps in the search. Sequences are described, ownership and dependencies disclosed, and user behavior illustrated. Background information, monitoring and analysis show how the real message — of a bridge fall in Minneapolis [in this case] — can be assessed and categorized.

Unfortunately, if you want to see the whole thing up close, you'll have to download the 22MB PDF file here.

[Via Visual Complexity]

I don't give a damn about a greenback dollar

2008-11-20T08:40:00.004-05:00

This will shock you, I'm sure, so get ready: Turns out Americans have forgotten how to live thriftily. An article in today's NY Times details the psychological hurdles shoppers face as they try to figure out how to stretch their household dollar:

As Americans attempt to perform cost-benefit analyses of their needs and behaviors, they are whittling pennies from cable bills only to squander dollars on gas driving miles to discount stores, or on coupon-spurred splurges for nonessential items, like Cheez Whiz or organizing supplies. Pinched by shriveled retirement and college accounts, battered by ballooning mortgage costs, rent and co-op maintenance increases, and hedging against the possibility that a job might vanish, some are practicing economies that may not deserve the name.... Incidences of feckless budgeting and bad math seem to be on the rise.

Gee, you don't say. Is it a mystery why automakers, bankers, manufacturers and retailers (to name a few) can't make ends meet? People (including, yes, yours truly) can't quite wrap their heads around the actual practice of doing without.

This is where the image-makers — the much-maligned media — can help. Celebrate minimalism! It's not just for snotty loft-dwellers anymore! After all, what could be more Zen than having almost no possessions? Austerity can be chic, darling.

For god's sake, with the US national debt topping $10 trillion and the average American consumer carrying $16,635 in debt, excluding mortgages, it's about time. Think first (use a calculator, if you have to!) and shop later.

"Failing Home Economics" -- New York Times

Musical arrangements

2008-11-19T18:01:00.005-05:00

Mined
Originally uploaded by Champagnerocker

Two fab — and overlapping — flickr sets: Song Chart meme and Song Chart. Hours of silly fun (even if, like me, you're too old/stodgy to know many of the songs).

Right now my favorite is this one. But with everything that's on offer, I may find something even better... Stay tuned, as it were.

Polling the electorate

2008-11-19T01:27:00.000-05:00

Thanks, Newsweek, for focusing on the crucial national issues of our time.

In the hours and days since Obama's victory, many of his exhilarated supporters have been, shall we say, in the mood for love. And though it's too soon to know for sure, experts aren't ruling out the possibility of an Obama baby boom...

During one round of election-fueled romance, says Eric Davis, 37, of Minneapolis, "my wife accidentally said, 'Oh, Obama!'" Craigslist boards in various cities swiftly filled with posts from people looking to form impromptu, um, political action committees. "Feel great from Obama win, but now need to expend this positive energy," wrote one 30-year-old Manhattanite. "Obama! Red Wine! Smooching!" promised another.

Change You Can Conceive In -- Newsweek

[via Gawker, where the Obama photo on this item is pretty damn adorable]

Alas, Wendolene, we hardly knew ye

2008-11-18T19:50:00.004-05:00

From the "Your Creations" section of the official Wallace & Gromit site comes this knitted rendering of our fearless heroes. I am dumbstruck with admiration.

UPDATE: But wait! There are oh so many more handmade homages (fan-fimo?) in the "Your Creations Winners Archive" — and they are fantastic.

Why we travel

2008-11-18T07:50:00.003-05:00

From the Times, a fantastic slide show with stories and musings from ordinary travelers.

Everyone—and I mean everyone—is a critic

2008-11-18T06:45:00.004-05:00

David Fishman is a would-be restaurant reviewer. He recently visited Salumeria Rosi at 73rd and Amsterdam.

Normally passionate for seafood, David ordered a specialty of the restaurant, a prosciutto, as well as what the menu called una insalata di rucola e parmigiano. “Good variety,” he wrote in the leather-bound notebook he brought along, restaurant-critic-like. “Softish jazz music. Seem to enjoy kids but not overly.” In other words, no cloying smiles or insulting offer of grilled cheese.

Why is that relevant? Because David is 12.

David aspires to be a food critic — he has some vague notion that he could make a living writing for the Zagat guides... As independent as David is, he is not allowed to walk around much after dark by himself, so his mom swung by the restaurant to pick him up when he called. Once home, he wrote up the review, Zagat-style, in his private journal, giving the restaurant a 24 out of 25 for food, and a 23 out of 25 for décor.

“As I left,” he wrote, “I knew that soon enough this would be one of the most ‘hip’ places in the city.” If there was a weak spot, it was the service, in his opinion: 21 out of 25. In his notes, David remarked that the bread service was a little slow.

"12-Year-Old’s a Food Critic, and the Chef Loves It" -- New York Times

And now, for something completely unpronounceable

2008-11-17T17:05:00.015-05:00

(AFP/File/Paul Ellis)

According to the caption on Yahoo, the town's name means "St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave."

By the time the conductor finishes calling out "Llanfair-pwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch" the train is already pulling out of the station.*

*not necessarily true

Colbert rapport

2008-11-17T14:58:00.004-05:00

"Hatchet man" Rahm Emanuel:

"I'm scared of Stephen Colbert. I'm not alone. My colleagues in Congress, political operatives, the top minds in Washington, even some of the people in this room -- we're all scared of Stephen Colbert... We're scared of Stephen Colbert in the same way Sarah Palin is scared of a geography bee. We're scared of him the same way that John Edwards is scared of the National Enquirer. Mary Matalin is scared of Stephen, and she's seen Carville naked! ... Even Hillary Clinton is scared of Colbert, and this makes no sense to me -- she is a woman who braved sniper fire at the Battle of Bosnia's Airport. We're frightened of Colbert, but we know that deep down, underneath the Republican character you see on TV, there's still a good man, there's still hope for him. It's the same way we feel about Joe Lieberman."

"Rahm Emanuel Roasts Stephen Colbert" -- Huffington Post

For you have the Spam always with you

2008-11-16T10:32:00.004-05:00

As one kind of spam diminishes, another kind is resurgent:

“People are realizing it’s not that bad a product,” said [Hormel employee] Dan Johnson, 55, who operates a 70-foot-high Spam oven.

Meta-information design

2008-11-14T17:55:00.006-05:00

How much do I appreciate an infographic that organizes and explains infographics? Well, OK, that was a rhetorical question, but the answer is: A WHOLE LOT.

Check out this Periodic Table of Visualization Methods (part of an online course called Visual Literacy that was created by a consortium of European universities).

Hover your cursor over any cell in the table and you see a handy example of that particular format.

Oh my, the coolness.

A Holiday Classic I can wholeheartedly endorse

2008-11-14T11:38:00.005-05:00

Forget the towering Rockefeller Center tree and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular (both, unfortunately, drawing jovial yet clueless throngs to the neighborhood where I work).

This is something I'd much rather see:

A little history:

In 1973, David A. Walker, then a New York City Police Community Affairs Detective, joined by his partner Detective Ulysses Williams, developed the street game of Double Dutch into the World Class Sport that it is today. With the assistance of the physical education instructors at IS 10, Walker and Williams revitalized the game by developing it into a competitive team sport. On February 14, 1974, the first Double Dutch tournament was held with nearly 600 fifth, sixth, seventh and eight grade students participating.

Ticket info and further details can be found at the National Double Dutch League website.
(Notice the special information for Japanese teams.)

GM: iWish

2008-11-12T08:48:00.005-05:00

In today's New York Times, Tom Friedman gets his bitch on about the GM crisis (the latest one, I mean)—and I have to say, for once I completely agree with him. He ends with an intriguing suggestion:

Somebody ought to call Steve Jobs, who doesn’t need to be bribed to do innovation, and ask him if he’d like to do national service and run a car company for a year. I’d bet it wouldn’t take him much longer than that to come up with the G.M. iCar.

If it were as well engineered as all the Apple gear that fills our living room, I'd buy an iCar in a heartbeat. Anybody out there with mad Photoshop skillz, a vivid imagination and time to kill? I'd love to see some renderings of what the magic iCar might look like.

"How to Fix a Flat" -- Thomas Friedman,
New York Times

Two from Twain

2008-11-10T13:34:00.005-05:00

"All you need in life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure." — Mark Twain

That's by way of Mudflats, which — not coincidentally, given the above — kept us folks in the lower 48 informed about the ups and downs of Gov. Sarah Palin.

Meanwhile, this one goes out to all my blogging homies:

"The unexamined life may not be worth living, but the life too closely examined may not be lived at all."