Peggy, to Allison: “My problem is not your problem.” Well, it looks like Allison did not take Don’s rejection as well as it appeared last week, or even at the beginning of this episode. On the conference call, it’s clear how good Allison is at her job — she even gives Don a little bit of attitude. “Why is this empty?” he asks, holding up a bottle of booze. “Because you drank it all,” she quickly shoots back. But when Don gets a Polaroid of himself with Anna from his recent trip to California, Allison notices and...
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The Girl Who Was Not Impressed
My interest in books tends to vary inversely to the amount of hype, so I had about zero curiousity in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. But then both my parents recommended the series highly, and they both have great (and divergent) taste in books, so I figured if they both enjoyed it, maybe I really was missing out in my Stieg Larsson-less existence. So I borrowed Dragon Tattoo, the first novel of the trilogy, and I slogged through the first hundred or so pages before finally finding myself engrossed. I didn’t expect that it would take so...
Continue reading...Poem of the Week: Child at Heart Edition
I’ve been suffering from some vague anonymous illness for the past week and a half, which is no fun. Unlike this poem’s protagonist, I’ve not been playing hooky, though on the plus side, it’s been very quiet in my office this week. In honor of mystery sicknesses, here’s one of my childhood favorite poems, which as I recall I memorized for a contest in middle school. Sick by Shel Silverstein ‘I cannot go to school today, ‘ Said little Peggy Ann McKay. ‘I have the measles and the mumps, A gash, a rash and purple bumps. My...
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you’re one of the four-or-so frequent readers of this here blog, chances are you also occasionally check out the New York Times op-ed page. You may even know the names: Thomas “Friedman’s Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. This is a daily feature dedicated to these folks: one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today\’s is from Paul \”The Little Professor\” Krugman who, in his column \”Paralysis at the Fed,\” writes:...
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you’re one of the four-or-so frequent readers of this here blog, chances are you also occasionally check out the New York Times op-ed page. You may even know the names: Thomas “Friedman’s Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. This is a daily feature dedicated to these folks: one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today\’s is from Gail \”The Colander\” Collins, who in her column \”More American Idols,\” writes: Do you...
Continue reading...Are all choices equal? Does it matter?
There’s a fascinating article in Elle from July, in which Bettina Paige recounts her decision to undergo a “selective reduction” when she found out she was carrying twins after going through fertility treatment. She already had a toddler, felt the family couldn’t afford to take care of two new babies, and her husband was strongly opposed to twins. So she chose to have one of the fetuses terminated, and then she chose to tell her story publicly– a brave choice, I think, considering the judgment she would inevitably encounter. On DoubleX yesterday, KJ Dell’Antonia described her own...
Continue reading...Rand Paul is just afraid of imaginary beer
The Fancy Farm Picnic, a picnic held by the St. Jerome parish, is the traditional beginning of the campaign season in Kentucky. It’s a huge affair: so huge, in fact, that in 1985, it was recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “World’s Largest Picnic” for the consumption of 15,000 pounds of mutton, pork, and chicken at the 1982 picnic. Since it’s such an important event, you’d of course expect that Senate candidates Jack Conway and Rand Paul would have to make appearances. Democratic candidate Jack Conway made some news this weekend when he...
Continue reading...Does Eminem's new single make domestic violence sexy?
On Eminem’s new single, “Love the Way You Lie,” the rapper once again takes on the subject of abusive relationships. Somewhat telling, the song features Rihanna, last year’s face of domestic violence. The video highlights a violent and troublesome relationship between characters played by Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan. Many are claiming that the song and video romanticize domestic violence. Truth is, though, I just don’t see it. Other than the characters in this particular vignette being terribly attractive themselves, there’s not much in the song or video that makes a dysfunctional and violent relationship look good...
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Wednesday, 11 August 2010
Good morning, everybody. Britney\’s going to be on Glee this season. Now, your morning constitutional: Former Senator Ted Stevens died in a plane crash yesterday in Alaska at the age of 86. It was not his first plane crash—in fact, Alaska has a much higher aviation accident rate than the rest of the country. Why do so many planes crash in Alaska? The Census was 22% ($1.6B) under budget, and is returning the money to the government. President Obama signed into law a ban on cell phone use by federal prisoners. Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul is...
Continue reading...House Representative Mike Pence loves teachers
Earlier today, the House of Representatives passed a bill—by a vote of 247-161—providing states $16B in emergency funding to shore up their Medicaid budgets and $10B in an effort to stave off teacher layoffs. The bill is slated to be signed by the president this evening. According to Democratic estimates, the bill is expected to save 290,000 jobs, including 140,000 teachers’ positions. Republic House Representative Mike Pence of Indiana wasn’t a fan of the bill. When asked by ABC’s Top Line what the Republican strategy would be for teachers who have lost their jobs, his response is,...
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