A podcast about books & life — not necessarily in that order
LOWE’S REP: Sir, we have your freezer in for delivery. We’ll bring it over tomorrow between 11am and 3pm.
GIL: You realize you’re calling me at 8pm to tell me that you’ll be at my home sometime in the middle of the next workday, right? Do people who buy freezers from you typically not have jobs?
So I’m working at home today, but didn’t bring any files back with me. Sigh.
Sorry about the lack of posts yesterday, dear readers! I was busy (more on that this weekend) and figured you got four decent posts on Wednesday, so get offa my ass, okay!?
I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that. Here’s an extra-fantastic selection of week-ending links! Enjoy!
Continue reading “Unrequired Reading: Mar. 7, 2008”
Those wacky animal rights maniactivists get up in arms because they think animals are being tortured as part of the pharma R&D process. I’m more concerned about how their executives mangle our language, as illustrated by this morning’s gem:
We are proactively managing our total cost structure to do what is necessary to size the company appropriately to align with our revenues so that we deliver growing profitability after the Lipitor loss of exclusivity.
–Frank D’Amelio, chief financial officer, Pfizer, Inc.
HAGGARD OLD GUY: Excuse me, son: do you know how to get to the county jail from here?
GIL: Sorry, sir. I’m not from around here. Can’t help you.
GIL [10 seconds later, muttering to himself]: I mean, “There’s a convenience store around the corner! If you hold ’em up, you’re sure to get to the county jail!” Goddammit!
A few weeks ago, I rambled on ad nauseam about discovering my big ol’ box of correspondence. I mentioned one letter that filled me with sadness because the writer died a few years later, lost at sea:
Sometimes we lose the memory, and sometimes the memory loses us. The letter that saddened me the most was a handmade card from another girl at college, mailed a few months after I graduated. It’s filled with reminiscences, travel plans, charity work, the day-to-day — “Other than my little crusade to save the world, I’m still working at the same cafe/bookstore that I did last summer. . .” — all written in a jaunty, lively hand and decorated with a painting (I’ll post the picture later).
I try to live up to my promises, so here’s the front of the card:
But I’m not here to depress the heck out of you, so I also offer up the following images of the single most mangled piece of mail ever to arrive at its destination (address smudged out in Photoshop). It was a mailer for a college alumni event. I think:
I’m disappointed Clear Passage isn’t FDA-regulated, only because I’d love to see the Adverse Event Reporting for this side effect.
In other news about people with strange last names, Brett Favre has retired.
Gary Gygax, co-developer of Dungeons & Dragons, has died at the age of 69. I spent a lot of time playing D&D as a kid/teenager (along with Car Wars and Villains & Vigilantes); I bet a lot of my readers did, too. I haven’t played in 20 years, but the news of his death just deflated me.
Somehow, when we were all coming up with responses for my Exit, Ghost post, we managed to omit GG from the pantheon. (I’m looking at you, Scharf.)
Because it’s all incredibly depressing bullshit. Need examples?
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A Canadian buddy of mine was freaked out that Obama and Clinton/B both spouted off about trashing NAFTA recently. I explained to him, “They don’t mean it; they’re just pandering to voters in Ohio. If either wins the election, they’ll repudiate all that based on ‘the realities of the office’ or something.”
Lo and behold, in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, there’s a short article on how both candidates are assiduously avoiding any mention of NAFTA in their speeches in Texas, where the economy is doing just fine, there’s job growth, and border towns are benefiting from the free trade pact.
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NYTimes writer (and St. John’s College alum!) Danny Hakim writes about how Gov. Eliot Spitzer is circumventing his own limits on political donations so that he can get enough funds together to knock out the Republican majority in the state senate:
The governor could not have been more emphatic when he initially announced his policy. On Nov. 30, 2006, before even taking office, Mr. Spitzer held a news conference to unveil a number of reforms he intended to undertake, with the $10,000 limit the most eye-opening proposal — well below the $55,900 that statewide candidates can accept.
“I think this is unprecedented,” the governor said at the news conference. “I do not know of another instance where others have acted unilaterally.”
[. . .] “The reason we do this [limit donations to the governor, but redirect much higher donations to the governor-controlled party fund], and the reason it’s a priority, is so that we can achieve a majority in the Senate to accomplish the necessary reforms,” Mr. Toohey said. “We’re never going to get the kinds of reforms that people want on a range of issues if we don’t have a Democratic Senate.”
Oh, and the other reason they do this is because the investigations into Spitzer’s unethical behavior will also be harder to shut down if his party doesn’t control the state senate.
What I’m reading: Love & Sleep
What I’m listening to: Pubic Fruit
What I’m watching: Blazing Saddles
What I’m drinking: Flying Dog’s Gonzo Imperial Porter, because it has Ralph Steadman’s illustration on its packaging
Where I’m going: Providence next weekend, to visit friends and get away for an overnight that doesn’t involve air-travel
What I’m happy about: Today’s my wife’s birthday! Visit her site and wish her a happy birthday!
What I’m sad about: That Thai Essence in Nutley, NJ destroyed my belief that there’s no such thing as a bad dish of pad thai
What I’m pondering: How long it took J.R. Smith to get this much ink
