We met up with Amy’s pals Ken & Denise and their kids, Kala & Quinn, down in Princeton today. I’d write more about it, but I’m awfully tired at present, so here’s a set of pix from our meander on campus. And here are the Guardian Gophers of campus!
Your mother should know
Is it just me, or does the cover for this new Tom Jones album
I saw TJ perform at the MGM in Vegas in 2004, and I can attest that he does not resemble Jesse in person. Man, was that a great performance, especially from a guy who was 64.
(Oh, look! A review from popmatters!)
Yo quiero un cerebro
In today’s WSJ (likely $ required), there’s an article on how Taco Bell is trying to make a global push. In case anyone thinks that idiotic American culture is something the rest of the world as outgrown, the article begins with this image:
Earlier this month, a Taco Bell opened at a massive Dubai shopping mall. Patrons waited as long as four hours to buy beef gorditas and chicken chalupas at the chain’s first location in the Middle East.
In a feat of Baudrillardian self-cancellation, we learn that Taco Bell is a success precisely because it isn’t Mexican:
[David Novak, Yum’s chairman and chief executive] says the lack of authenticity in the chain’s Mexican cuisine is an advantage. “It owns its own category,” he says.
Still, it’s lack of Mexicosity isn’t enough for it to triumph in Mexico, as it turns out. The chain has made a run for the border only to find that “[t]he transactions in Mexico are not yet where we want them to be.”
(All this is just an excuse to link to that Achewood strip about Taco Bell’s secret menu.)
My very unique synergistic solution is unstoppable
I was fortunate not to work in a company that employed idiotic jargon to cover up a lack of substance; my lack of substance is right out in the open. But during the dot-com era, Bullshit Bingo was one of my favorite concepts.
In that spirit, I was quite happy to receive an e-mail yesterday promoting a whitepaper entitled, “Mastering Innovation: Roadmap to Sustainable Value Creation Using Strategy Driven Innovation.”
Too unnerving an idleness
I feel guilty when I don’t manage to write for a day or so. It’s not like there’s a massive audience hanging on my every post, but I get mad at myself when I fall out of the habit of offering up at least a daily snippet of my psyche.
Yesterday, I was pretty swamped with work and bad work-vibes. This morning, I decided to read some Montaigne rather than engage in my usual routine of scanning through the 400 or so items in my RSS reader. I’m pretty close to finishing Book Two of the essays and, while I don’t feel as though I’m in a race, I did find the final three essays pretty compelling and complementary: Of three good women (pp. 683-690), Of the most outstanding men (pp. 690-696), and Of the resemblance of children to fathers (pp. 696-725).
I’ll try to write about them this weekend (I’m still working on the last one), but I’m traveling to Atlanta on Sunday for a conference, so I may have to pare back. Regardless, M. managed to help me get over my guilt with his intro to Of the resemblance . . .:
This bundle of so many disparate pieces is being composed in this manner: I set my hand to it only when pressed by too unnerving an idleness, and nowhere but at home. Thus it has built itself up with diverse interruptions and intervals, as occasions sometimes detain me elsewhere for several months.
I do have plenty of halfassitude
Sorry I didn’t post anything today; I was swamped at work, trying to get our “Live from the conference” e-mail together for the show we’re attending next week.
I’m sorry: that’s bitchassness. And we’re in a No Bitchassness zone:
My bad.
It’s pretty much not HIS favorite animal
Liger bites man. Really hard.
Cara mia!
In honor of Halloween, Amazon is selling the Complete Addams Family TV series
In honor of the Addams Family being one of the best shows ever, I bought it instantly.
Unrequired Reading: Oct. 31, 2008
Because that’s the way God wants it?
I have an editorial advisory board at my day job. I hit the members up for article topics, send them “Ask the Board” questions and otherwise kibbitz about the direction of the magazine. It’s a non-paying gig, but it carries some sort of esteem, I guess.
Since we’re coming to the end of the year, I just e-mailed all 30 members and asked them to update their job titles and companies and confirm that they want to stay on the board. And that’s when I noticed something odd: There’s only one woman on my advisory board.
I’m no fan of political-correctness or quotas, but I have to admit that I’m a little embarrassed by this fact.