Much Less Much More

lifeaquatic: growltiger: Hi internet friends. Informal...

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 12:44:13 -0500

growltiger:

Hi internet friends. Informal question for you: if you watched Snick, what was your favorite era of Snick? And would you watch Snick if the same Snick you once loved magically returned to saturday nights? JUST WONDERING SERIOUSLY DON’T READ ANYTHING INTO THIS BEYOND THE FACT THAT I AM ASKING YOU FOR YOUR INSIGHT. (i am too old to have the right insight).

1992-1994:

8PM Clarissa Explains It All

8:30PM Roundhouse

9PM The Ren & Stimpy Show

9:30PM Are You Afraid of the Dark?

1993 to mid-Summer 1994:

8PM Clarissa Explains It All

8:30PM The Adventures of Pete & Pete

9PM The Ren & Stimpy Show

9:30PM Are You Afraid of the Dark?

10PM Roundhouse

Can they please just put season 3 of Pete and Pete on DVD already?

barthel: I read all of these Moby Illustrated Classics as a...

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:26:25 -0500

barthel:

I read all of these Moby Illustrated Classics as a kid. I’m pretty sure we got them from Kay Bee Toys in the mall (slogan: ”The Toy Store in the Mall”) or at least that’s what I remember the price sticker on the cover saying. They were abridged versions of classic novels, keeping the plot but losing the language. People think they’re a bad idea but I dunno. When I was six I don’t think I had much patience for Victorian sentence structure and vocabulary, but they did a good job (I think, who knows) capturing the characters and themes, and those are pretty important, too. I read them over and over again: Tale of Two Cities, Robinson Crusoe, Ben-Hur, The Man in the Iron Mask. But I realize in searching for images that I don’t remember the interiors. I remember the exteriors, the books themselves, as objects. They’re little bricks of things, 4” by 5”, and though they’re reductions of the originals, they weren’t flimsy, like some broad, floppy square of a children’s book. They were solid, substantial, thick with text (albeit large-print text). They were more condensations than reductions, taking classics and making them smaller without reducing their heft. Thick and sturdy, the language may have been simpler, but they still felt important.

Are these the same as these? When I was in fifth grade, my school had this program called Accelerate Reader. You would read a book from this giant list, and then take a test on the computer about it. Based on the “difficulty” of the book, you’d get a certain amount of points, which every month could be redeemed for prizes (t-shirts, frisbees, stuff like that.) I read the Great Illustrated Classics version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, because that book was worth like, 50 points, and proceeded to get something like 18 out of 20 questions wrong. But still, from that point onward, I was familiar with the plot of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which was more than most fifth graders could say.

erikonymous: nickminichino: latticeofcoincidence: crisscross...

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 17:17:34 -0500

erikonymous:

nickminichino:

latticeofcoincidence:

crisscrosscutout:

amazonpoodle:

lavishness:

johnflynn:

I like the adventure.

RECALCULATING.

#zara is this true?

Yes.

SHOUTOUT TO MY FABULOUS HOMETOWN AND OUR OLD PROVERB ‘YOU CAN’T GET THEYAH FROM HEEYAH.’

Pretty much the same thing that can be said about Boston can be said about New Orleans.

With New Orleans that’s just because of the crescent created by the river, though, isn’t it? (Not to mention being bounded by the lake to the north.) It’s pretty well gridded in a fan once you know that. (ETA: Arguably it’s well-gridded because it’s bounded.)

With Boston I always got a sense that the “problem” wasn’t merely due to the limitations of geography and of established roads but additionally because there was never a grid plan put into place. (That’s just a hunch, though: I don’t know the specifics of zoning and legislature history so I invite anyone who knows better to tell me how and why I’m wrong.)

(Also New York > Manhattan)

Uh, yeah, New Orleans was built on a grid, beginning with its first settlements in the French Quarter around, oh, 1718. The rest of the city followed suit. The grid just kinda fans out to accommodate the bend of the river. I always found it really easy to get around New Orleans.

And don’t forget that two of Boston’s neighborhoods where grids do exist—the Back Bay and the South End—were deliberately designed so that their grids didn’t line up, in order to separate the South End riff raff from the posh residents of the tonier Back Bay.

Notes on a thing I'm not looking forward to

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:10:48 -0500

If I have to spend the next two years reminding people that Chris Christie is a doctrinaire conservative with a strong record of callous disregard for poor and marginalized folks, because they get wee-weed up every time he takes a bite of low-hanging fruit by lambasting the genuinely evil/incompetent national Republican party when they don’t do right by his state, I’m going to lose my fucking mind.

titivil: There needs to be a new social medium, one just for bitching about things that happen on...

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:57:58 -0500

titivil:

There needs to be a new social medium, one just for bitching about things that happen on your commute. Like, “Straphangr” or something.

boyofdestiny’s inaugural Straphangr post: I moved to a neighborhood 20 minutes from the nearest subway stop and almost got hypothermia walking home this morning.

So

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:32:21 -0500

What have I missed?

From the annals of moving

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 15:14:53 -0400

I’m packing up/clearing out my bookshelf, and I’m having a very hard time finding the words that can adequately describe the joy that spilled out of my heart when I put Sister Carrie in the “Donate” pile. It makes me wish I hadn’t already given away all my Henry James books, so I could give them away again.

There’s some world-class, blue ribbon victim blaming going on on ESPN First Take right now.

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 12:22:01 -0400

There’s some world-class, blue ribbon victim blaming going on on ESPN First Take right now.

Does anyone else get excited when they’re watching Law and Order, and an interrogation or...

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 14:04:05 -0400

Does anyone else get excited when they’re watching Law and Order, and an interrogation or trial takes place on their birthday?

Olympic shooting manages to make guns really effing boring.

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 14:44:18 -0400

Olympic shooting manages to make guns really effing boring.

vanboobsenstein replied to your post: The thing I don’t like about these Abilify ads is… it...

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 12:47:22 -0400

vanboobsenstein replied to your post: The thing I don’t like about these Abilify ads is…

it reminds me of the scenes from the doctor’s office in Strangers with Candy, where the penicillin is powerless against the adorable STDs. Also everything reminds me of Strangers with Candy.

They filmed a goodly portion of the Strangers with Candy movie at my high school!

Also, the video for Nada Surf’s “Popular.” And, apparently, the classroom scenes in the video for “Jeremy.”

The thing I don’t like about these Abilify ads is that the protagonist always winds up in a...

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 12:25:26 -0400

The thing I don’t like about these Abilify ads is that the protagonist always winds up in a doctor’s office, and the doctor shows a movie of herself dictating the side effect information. Why doesn’t she just nix the film and talk to her patient directly?

I don’t have a problem saying that I liked The Village.

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 11:54:28 -0400

I don’t have a problem saying that I liked The Village.

titivil: “This blog is popular enough to have been turned into an Urban Outfitters book.” — Ha ha...

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 10:57:00 -0400

titivil:

“This blog is popular enough to have been turned into an Urban Outfitters book.”

—

Ha ha ha ha ew.

God, I can’t wait to be out of my twenties.

"Senate Republicans offered a competing bill to extend all of the Bush tax cuts for one year, but the..."

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:29:29 -0400

“Senate Republicans offered a competing bill to extend all of the Bush tax cuts for one year, but the measure was defeated 45-54. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) crossed the aisle to voted with most Republicans in support of that legislation. Sens. Scott Brown (R-MA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) voted with Democrats.”

- I can’t wait to see the Scott Brown ads touting how much of a party-bucking, aisle-crossing maverick he is. Those ads will, of course, ignore the fact that Brown voted in lock-step with the Republicans on the bill that was always destined to pass.

I've seen a number of live Sportscenter cut-ins from Broncos training camp

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 10:10:05 -0400

And not once have I heard mentioned that Peyton Manning has fewer Super Bowl rings than his baby brother. It’s a relevant fact!

summer of boyofdestiny

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 09:59:45 -0400

If I told you folks that I was starting a month of vacation and I’m not sure how to occupy my time, would you actually put questions in my stupid ask box?

Welp, time to surrender my computer to my replacement. See you...

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 12:24:10 -0400

Welp, time to surrender my computer to my replacement. See you bozos next week.

Loaded for bear.: Condolences To Aurora, CO.

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 10:54:07 -0400

Loaded for bear.: Condolences To Aurora, CO.:

sean-p3:

jonnycalavera:

I am so sorry to hear about what happened.

AAR

He was well armed (Shotgun, rifle, something else?)

ballistic vest

tear gas

14 dead and 50 injured as of 0719 EST

I wonder how long he was preparing for this. He picked a night that would have maximum number of people with the midnight release…

While I’m in general not an advocate of handgun ownership restrictions, I have to say that I don’t view being in a theater, caught in the crossfire between a bunch of random gun owners and a crazy person to be an improvement over just the crazy person having the gun. I think it’s highly likely you’d end up with even MORE dead people, as J. Random Gunowners start 1) hitting bystanders by mistake, 2) misidentify the target and start shooting each other, 3) the cops show up in the middle of the firefight and shoot the gunowners, etc.

Maybe an occasional mass shooting is the price we pay for the freedom to own weapons. I don’t know. But the idea that any schmoe who can afford a pistol might start shooting back at a gunman in a public place does not make me feel safer at all.

Last day at the ol’ office.

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 08:43:21 -0400

Last day at the ol’ office.