Apple’s was downright mystical — Worth a look.
Startups are hot in Seattle again.
And, Tom Jones has his chest hair insured.
Ballard Denny’s worth saving!
In that West Coast way, maybe, possibly. Half of the comments are fer, half agin’.
Great gift idea, 365 days later
Salon makes the case for why last year’s products make great gifts this year.
Recess gets tamed, and parents take a stand.
Renting
We rent, so it’s refreshing to know we’re not alone: these two blogs make us feel better about not having put down an impossible down payment with an interest-only loan: Priced Out Forever and Seattle Bubble. The PG-rated version of 300.
Al Franken
Al Franken comes to Seattle May 9th for a live radio broadcast!
He also knew, even as a mere lad of 14, that this never would be just any romance, because the object of that rapturous gaze happened to be his cousin Eleanor. And not a distant cousin, located somewhere in the far branches of the family tree. Their mothers were sisters.
Sometimes in order to marry your first cousin, you have to travel to a state that allows that
Gas prices are prompting more mass transit use. Meanwhile, reports that thieves are syphoning tanks from park cars.
Neat. Simulated patients.
The Vice Fund
Do you celebrate vice? Invest in the Vice Fund. This commercial would keep me from investing in tobacco. Investments in disorderly conduct are not in the fund, but can be found on the police record of Apprentice contestant Chris.
Buster, the Bluth family’s simpering youngest son, had his hand bitten off by a crazed seal; he’s spent most of the season with a hook. His older brother, Gob, had two fingers lopped off in an errant magic trick. In the same episode, Michael Bluth, the show’s main character, had his calf muscles shortened by an incompetent surgeon.
The brilliant Arrested Development, eroding bits-at-a-time, via loss of limbs.
Behold the robot jockey, set to replace humans in horseraces.
Fantastic article about Gene Wilder and his autobiography, Kiss Me Like a Stranger, in the Washington Post.
Pink slips via second day air
MSNBC stunningly reports that DEER ARE EATING AWAY AT FORESTS NATIONWIDE!
Oracle lays off 5,000 PeopleSoft workers — via FedEx and UPS.
Hours before Oracle’s Friday announcement, employees turned a PeopleSoft sign into a makeshift shrine of flowers, candles and company memorabilia. An inflatable doll dressed in black wore a button that read “Oracle” with a slash through it.
Employees react to Oracle takeover and 5,000 layoffs
A Survivor contestant is in deep doo-doo for failing to report income won on the show.
More, Springer
I remember watching MORE on CBC’s most-fantastic arts and music show, ZED. Another of my favorite sites, despair.com is selling the DVD of the movie (although it’s only a few minutes long, but hey, it’s capitalism) and the trailer can be watched here:
Jerry Springer: The Opera, starring David Soul of Starsky & Hutch… unfortunately, only in the UK right now, but if I play my cards right, could be timed with my first visit to NYC or my next visit to London.
Six weeks off
I’ve been back in Seattle for six weeks, yesterday (don’t ever use Uhaul, ever — please contact your congressperson to revoke their corporate charter), after a year in Berkeley attempting to go to graduate school in Santa Rosa. The strange (and beautiful) thing about Seattle is that I’ve gotten back into the groove here so quickly, perhaps because there’s something about the Emerald City that’s more in line with the natural flow of things. Well, it’s still a work in progress, anyway.
At least in my perspective and circle of friends, the emphasis here seems to be on friends, family and community, rather than busy work schedules and limited time. I’m relishing every moment of new life here, fresh with the perspective of my year in California. I arrived in Berkeley right before the recall election (my former governor was on cable last night, in Eraser) and was immediately struck by the fast pace of the Bay Area. I used to be able to handle all the noise in Chicago in the early 90s, but discovered most of the energy in both cities seemed to be busy work — people were so busy there didn’t seem time to develop solid friendships outside of scheduled activities. On the other hand, my time in graduate school allowed me to make several friends and enjoy some festive nights in Sonoma County, and enjoy the Bay Area’s amazing array of food and drink, as long as global warming keeps at bay.
And then there was the Mint. Good times, good times.
So much has happened in the space of six weeks, starting with the best speech of any convention by Illinois Congressional candidate Barack Obama. And plenty of political commentary about Bush and Cheney, including insights from Paul Krugman (The Arabian Candidate), Ron Reagan (The Case Against George W. Bush), Graydon Carter (Bush by Numbers: Four Years of Double Standards) and Iraqi footballers. Will Ferrell’s White House West video is among the best I’ve seen, and Bush’s Brain, a movie about Karl Rove, met limited nationwide release. Lynne Cheney’s out of print Sisters was among the strangest items to emerge from obscurity, but 1.3 million more people in poverty remains prominent. John Kerry was traced back to royalty.
While there was much talk about the Swift Boat veterans, not much was said about the Rowboat Veterans for Truth, but then not much was said about Andrew Card saying that Bush believes America to be a 10-year-old child that needs protection.
But not all the news seemed hopeless. Al Franken got a new TV-show this week, a one-hour edit of his weekday shows on Air America Radio. Others asked, Is Zell Miller the evil emperor from Star Wars? Michael Moore is attempting to get Fahrenheit 9/11 on DVD before the election, as new movies attempt to subtly comment on the current administration. New economic models and new sources of power are becoming more acceptable.
The roller coaster of events around gay marriage continued, as California annulled its gay marriages, as New Jersey’s governor outed himself in a formal press conference as did a representative from Virginia.
While the assault weapons ban is likely to be lifted on Monday, the gun firms connected to the sale to the Washington Sniper agreed to pay $2 million to settle.
And from the strange-but-true category comes people passing around $200 bills in Kentucky, a 480-pound woman died after rescuers attempted to free her from the couch she had grown into, Costco discount caskets, retro mobile phones, a programmer outsources his own job to India, sleep pods for busy executives in New York, and how Microsoft lost millions over eight pixels.
I decided to get more involved in the community, and have become a pollworker for the primary and general elections in King County. I’ve never done this before, but will see what happens on the 14th. If this website and this one are an indication, I’m a little concerned, but the saving grace of the King County Primary voters guide is that they run candidate statements unedited. Note to contenders: hire a proofreader and do a spell check.
The Left needs a new marketing director
An excellent article on how the Left can build an effective countermovement. Hint: it’s all about the marketing.
I always suspected that the Atkins diet wasn’t the best solution to dieting (eat less, eat healthy and exercise more), and question why the media is railing against this individual suing Atkins for his high cholesterol and surgery required to unblock his arteries, I hope he succeeds… there’s one glaring weakness in his case, though — he was on the diet for two years, and I can’t imagine a diet high in protein and low in carbs is good for anyone for that period of time, much like the attempted performance art experiment in Super Size Me.
Wal-Mart wanted two of their superstores in Chicago. They got one, providing low-wage, non-union jobs in the inner city, and likely threatening unionized labor at surrounding stores.