February 2015

New York Times Columnist Line of the Day

If you frequent this here premier “web log,” there’s a good chance you may once or twice have read the New York Times op-ed page. You might even recognize the names of the columnists, who every day spout the most conventionally wise of the conventional wisdom. This is a feature that is dedicated to these folks, highlighting one line that is either funny, ridiculous, strange, or actually intelligent or well-written. Today\’s is from David Brooks, who in his column today, \”The Hamilton Experience,\” writes these words: Like the quintessential contemporary rappers, Alexander Hamilton was a poor immigrant kid from a broken home, feverish...

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It’s cold outside, so it’s time for a hot toddy

Hot toddy

As it is the time of year we celebrate the birthday of our hallowed first president, many of us have been gifted the treasured three-day weekend. And since I have been gifted three days off in a row, my immune system has found it necessary to gift me in return a gnarly rhinovirus. Being sick, though, is a great excuse to use whiskey as medicine. Now, please do not take medical advice from me. Get your medical advise from doctors, not bloggers or huckster celebrities. Come to think of it, don’t take medical advice from huckster celebrities...

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Hell Bent for Election

So this is friggin’ cool. Above is an animated film directed by Chuck Jones that was basically a union-sponsored campaign ad for FDR. From the YouTube description: Hell-Bent For Election was a 1944 two-reel (thirteen minute) animated cartoon short subject now in the public domain. The short was one of the first major films from United Productions of America (then known as “Industrial Films”), which would go on to become the most influential animation studio of the 1950s. As UPA did not have a full staff or a studio location until the late-1940s, this film was made...

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