{"id":5330,"date":"2010-05-21T12:32:58","date_gmt":"2010-05-21T16:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=5330"},"modified":"2010-05-21T12:32:58","modified_gmt":"2010-05-21T16:32:58","slug":"sometimes-you-get-the-pretzel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/sometimes-you-get-the-pretzel","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes you get the pretzel . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pac-Man turns 30 years old today. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theawl.com\/2010\/05\/pac-man-at-30\" target=\"_blank\">He&#8217;s not happy about it<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pac-Man turns 30 years old today. He&#8217;s not happy about it.<\/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":[1],"tags":[827,1038],"class_list":["post-5330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alex-balk","tag-pac-man"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1nY","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3703,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-33009","url_meta":{"origin":5330,"position":0},"title":"What It Is: 3\/30\/09","author":"Gil","date":"March 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Finished Zot! 1987-1991 (which belatedly gets added to my \"comics you can show your girlfriend\" canon), read Salinger's Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters and Seymour, an Introduction, and started his Nine Stories. What I'm listening to: A funny conversation between Bill Simmons and SNL's Bill Hader\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Bill Hader\"","block_context":{"text":"Bill Hader","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/bill-hader"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0061537276","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":835,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/from-buttman-to-superman","url_meta":{"origin":5330,"position":1},"title":"From Buttman to Superman","author":"Gil","date":"February 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"VM contributor and all-around good guy Tom Spurgeon recently posted a neat review of a Superman comic on his comicsreporter.com site. I don't read much in the superhero genre anymore, but I've been a comics reader since I was a little kid. I'll flip through issues on the newsstand, trying\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":661,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/stephons-assist","url_meta":{"origin":5330,"position":2},"title":"Stephon&#8217;s Assist","author":"Gil","date":"September 6, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been a critic of Stephon Marbury for years, since he played for the Nets. Even a few weeks ago, when I heard him in a radio interview, I thought, \"He's as selfish as ever; he just doesn't get it.\"But at the NBA's announcement of donations for hurricane victims (in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;basketball&quot;","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17351,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-625-jonathan-ames","url_meta":{"origin":5330,"position":3},"title":"Episode 625 &#8211; Jonathan Ames","author":"Gil","date":"February 11, 2025","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 625: Jonathan Ames \"My primary reading for a while now has been private detective novels and various Buddhist philosophical tests. So when Happy expounds on these things, in a way it's that I love reading these sorts of books.\" Can LA private detective Happy Doll live up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/ames2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C637&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/ames2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C637&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/ames2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C637&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/ames2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C637&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/ames2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C637&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5049,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-feb-26-2010","url_meta":{"origin":5330,"position":4},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Feb. 26, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"February 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a snowbound dose of Unrequired Reading! Click somewhere to continue! Ron Rosenbaum gets back in his groove with a paean to the New York Post. * * * Clyde \"fell hard for a house on hilly terrain with four tentacle-like columns that reminded him of a space ship.\" *\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Adventures in Gin&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Gin","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-gin"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5204,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-41210","url_meta":{"origin":5330,"position":5},"title":"What It Is: 4\/12\/10","author":"Gil","date":"April 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: I finished Indignation last week, and returned to The Philosophy of Andy Warhol. Picked up a bunch of comics collections on Saturday, so I'll make time for those. What I'm listening to: Static & Silence, by Sundays. What I'm watching: The Men Who Stare at Goats, The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0017SUZDQ","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5330","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=5330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5331,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5330\/revisions\/5331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}