home | email gus | email sarah | email valerie | photos | flickr photos
blogs
comics
music
stuff

12.04.2008
Of Flatscreens and Lingonberries

Greg Allen on Costco:
Seriously not needing anymore flatscreens, and being of such an age and technological sophistication that I only buy flatscreens that pass the, "But how does it look if I drop 250,000 rubber balls down a San Francisco hill?" test, I decide I'm not going to spend a thousand dollars on three flatscreens from Kirkland or whoever, we go buy an entire office partyful of Brie instead, a 550g wheel which, embarrassingly, is almost gone not 4.5 days later.

But here's the thing about buying a 3lb jar of Skippy [1] peanut butter. No one has a knife long enough to reach the bottom, and you can't just toss it out and open the other 3lb jar it was shrinkwrapped together with, because a) there's like a depression or something in the news, b) why go all the way to Costco to save 50 cents on a year's supply of peanut butter if you're just going to toss it, and c) in fact, that blob down there is actually like half a regular jar from the deli; it only looks like a small amount because it's at the bottom of a peanut butter bucket.
[greg.org] (via kottke)

Labels: , ,




7.25.2008
Two Thumbs Way Up

Wanna cry like a baby today?
Thea told us, "You boys have no idea how far this show is going to go. One day you'll be in national syndication. You'll be making real money. You wait and see."

Her prophecy came true. The day we fully realized it in our guts, I think, was the first time we were invited to appear with Johnny Carson. We were scared out of our minds. We'd been briefed on likely questions by one of the show's writers, but moments before airtime he popped his head into the dressing room and said, "Johnny may ask you for some of your favorite movies this year."

Gene and I stared at each other in horror. "What was one of your favorite movies this year?" he asked me. "Gone With the Wind," I said. The Doc Severinsen orchestra had started playing the famous "Tonight Show" theme. Neither one of us could think of a single movie. Gene called our office in Chicago. "Tell me some movies we liked this year," he said. This is a true story.
Roger Ebert, "The balcony is closed" (on the ending of his participation in AT THE MOVIES after 33 years)

Labels: , ,




1.28.2008
The Invisible Primary

I've cracked on Buckeye State Blog in the past, but they seem like they've stepped up their game in the last few months -- definitely leaning, but at least informatively leaning. And this roundup of Ohio Democratic "superdelegates" and their anticipated votes is some crackerjack work, frankly. Kudos.

Labels: , ,




9.11.2007
I'monnabePREZ-O-DENT

Marginal Revolution's Alex Tabarrok proposes a far more appropriate method of selecting America's next political leader: So You Think You Can Be President?:

I suggest a game show, So You Think You Can Be President? SYTYCBP would have at least three segments.

1. Coase it Out: Presidential candidates have 12 hours to get a bitterly divorcing couple to divide their assets in a mutually agreeable manner. (Bonus points are awarded if the candidate convinces the couple to stay together.)

[more]

I'm particularly fond of this one, as you might gather. Dahlberg in 2012!

Labels: , ,




6.07.2007
The Wisdom (?) of Crowds

Shorter Joe Klein: contrary to what Al Gore may think, teh Internets probably are not going to lead to the dawn of a new Age of Reason anytime soon.

Extra Special Joe Klein Double Post -- see Joe unload the proverbial rhetorical smackdown on Swampland guestblogger (and former House Majority Leader) Dick Armey. Reading their exchanges this week has been entertaining, but so far fairly lopsided; credit to Armey for his willingness to dish this stuff on TIME's blog, but less so for his own adoption of the kind of hyperbolic discourse Klein rails on in the first link above (I'm thinking, preliminarily, of Armey's post entitled "Am I the only one worried about Social Security?") Still, a good read, and a sign that maybe not all political discussion is doomed to degenerate into invective.

UPDATE 6/8: Never mind, looks like Armey decided to go all crazy on his last day ("Unfortunately, [Social Security reform] is dominated by Republicans who don’t dare and Democrats that don’t care", and a random swipe at Teresa Heinz Kerry while extolling the virtues of a flat tax system. WTF, Armey? I was kind of digging on the real policy debate until that point.)

Labels: , , ,




3.29.2007
No Child Left Somewhere

Buckeye State Blog uncovers an interesting bit of legislation in the Ohio Revised Code regarding required standardized testing for community schools and suggests that it's actually intended to reduce competition among charter schools, rather than encourage it.

The leap of faith you have to make in buying the argument is, of course, the cost of standardized testing; assuming that it truly is staggeringly expensive, as BSB suggests, then I can see how this would reduce the number of new charter schools by increasing their fixed costs. Anyone have any actual data or info regarding the costs of administering standardized testing? While I'm sure it does cost the State "millions of dollars" to pay for tests for public schools, how much would it cost one private school?

Aside from some amusing anecdotes I've read lately, I haven't been following the charter school kerfluffle in Ohio very well. Guess it's time to start.

Labels: , , ,




www.flickr.com
amazon wishlist
Weblog Commenting by HaloScan.comThis page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?Moblogging by Mfop2