No Pat, what do you *really* think?
Turn to 2m30s on this clip.
Thank you, Pat Buchanan for reminding us that we have so much to thank white men for. Next time you see a white man, thank him for writing the constitution, or something. Personally, I haven't been thanked enough for that.
mike sold out at - 17:44
2.22.2008
Food for all
There's a small soup kitchen that started up on my block that I've been volunteering a little bit at recently. It's in a church run by a really nice young couple, Jen and Ann. We were fortunate enough to get some attention from the NYT City section this week.
read the actual article
or...
the article's bloggy twin
Update: you can donate to the food pantry via PayPal
Huzzah!
mike sold out at - 11:37
2.21.2008
Do you really listen to all that music?
Like many other musicophiles with computers and ipods, I have a lot of music on my computer. Over 13 days, 2 hours of music and podcasts, in fact. I certainly listen to music a lot, while working, walking, reading on the subway, etc. But do I really listen to all those songs?
On Feb 7th, I started a quest to listen to all of the songs on my iPod... in alphabetical order. I created a "smart" playlist to serve them up to me in order. So far I'm 678 through out of 4396 songs in less than two weeks...
mike sold out at - 00:16
2.12.2008
Bushisms
While some may misunderestimate George W. Bush's contributions to the English language, there have been a few political turn-of-phrases that have been picked up by the chattering class. At first, they were used ironically and snarkily, yet they seem to be used totally straight up (a practice I totally embrace). A few examples:
The Decider: n. (Proper), 1) he/she who decides.
This one is still kind of in the irony phrase, but look at that spike around the State of the Union speech:
Internets: n. (Proper) 1) The Internet; 2) The Internets.
Now used with some irony, but frequently without knowledge that while he is probably not the originator of the phrase, our President has been its greatest promoter.
Strategery: n. 1) The art of being strategic, often in political affairs.
Again, not originated by Bush, but highly embraced by White House staff, and is now a term of art among politicos.
Thumpin': (also: Thumping, Thumpin), v. tr.: 1) To hand a big loss to someone. (typically used in the passive voice).
This has been used totally unironically in recent days referring to the presidential primaries, and perhaps without full consciousness of its origin. The graphs below show that "Thumping" is the preferred usage (daily used in the 200-300s), despite "Thumpin' being the formal usage of the word in its rightful state as a contraction.
Thumping
Thumpin
