{"id":1890,"date":"2008-02-08T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2008-02-08T11:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-feb-8-2008\/"},"modified":"2008-02-08T05:35:03","modified_gmt":"2008-02-08T10:35:03","slug":"unrequired-reading-feb-8-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-feb-8-2008","title":{"rendered":"Unrequired Reading: Feb. 8, 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hope you had a good week, dear readers! Enjoy some links I didn’t have time to write about!<\/p>\n

Subtraction: a reach font-asy life<\/a>?<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

The future ain’t what it used to be<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Okay, maybe the future ain’t as cheap as we thought it would be<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Michael Showalter isn’t very funny. Nor is he the cause of humor in others. But he is the first member of The State<\/a> whom I bumped into (I’ve since bumped into 3 others). This long-ass interview with him<\/a> has some interesting material on their history, and some boring material about what he’s doing now.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

This interview from last year with Ben Garant and Tom Lennon, two other State alumni,<\/a> is funnier and more informative.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

My pal Mark told me last year that he wished he’d gone into a life of organized crime, because they come up with such interesting sobriquets. Here’s how they do it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Abandonment issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Giants win<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hope you had a good week, dear readers! Enjoy some links I didn’t have time to write about!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,46,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-design","category-urban-issues"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-uu","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5745,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/on-the-mark","url_meta":{"origin":1890,"position":0},"title":"On the Mark","author":"Gil","date":"November 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"While I was busy having a fantastic dinner at August last night, my pal Sam bumped into Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, in town to watch his team take on the Hornets tonight. Sam \u00c2\u00a0& I will be at the game tonight, and I'm hoping his new pal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sammark-440x330.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5188,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/you-sir-are-bad-ass-baby-i-dont-care","url_meta":{"origin":1890,"position":1},"title":"You, Sir, Are Bad-Ass: Baby, I Don’t Care","author":"Gil","date":"April 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Courtesy of The Impossible Cool, let's end this week with a dose of Bad-Ass: Robert Mitchum. Whose biography, Baby, I Don't Care, I just bought on my Kindle. And who would sneer at me and then kick my ass for having such a device. Every man should have at least\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "You Sir Are Bad-Ass"","block_context":{"text":"You Sir Are Bad-Ass","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/you-sir-are-bad-ass"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0312285434","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1034,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/see-the-sights","url_meta":{"origin":1890,"position":2},"title":"See the sights","author":"Gil","date":"July 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night, devoted VM reader Elayne text-messaged me to let me know that she had just bumped into Gabriel Byrne. Today, my wife calls to let me know that she just bumped into Peyton Manning (the gravity field of his enormous noggin made this inevitable, I bet). Me? I work\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "suburbs"","block_context":{"text":"suburbs","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/suburbs"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6144,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/who-am-i-19","url_meta":{"origin":1890,"position":3},"title":"Who Am I?","author":"Gil","date":"September 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm the guy who will go to his grave regretting that, when he bumped into Danny Aiello outside a parking garage on E. 61st St. on Tuesday, he didn't say, \"I loved you in Hudson Hawk.\"","rel":"","context":"In \"Danny Aiello\"","block_context":{"text":"Danny Aiello","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/danny-aiello"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":730,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/one-more-thing","url_meta":{"origin":1890,"position":4},"title":"One more thing","author":"Gil","date":"November 10, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I forgot to mention: I had a run of plane trips in which I bumped into second (or third) tier athletes or retired guys. Hasn't happened in a few years, but I may have started a new streak last night (or this morning, depending on your pov): Neil O'Donnell, quarterback\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6212,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/post-hitch","url_meta":{"origin":1890,"position":5},"title":"Post Hitch","author":"Gil","date":"December 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I was pretty saddened yesterday by the news of Christopher Hitchens' death. The inevitability of his cancer diagnosis meant it was a matter of short time, but the lucidity and intelligence of his subsequent writings must have left me optimistic that he'd recover. I'm going to read some of his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0316926108","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}