Date: May 16, 2007 for May 17th
Time: 22:00
Place: Swankadero of the Future
Sharpton made a funny yesterday( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lGi0SS4w6I&NR=1) while debating Chris Hitchens of "God Is Not Great" fame over the place of faith or somesuch crap. Anyway, Hitchens brought up that Mormons (religion of GOP candidate and fan of "Battlefield Earth" Mitt Romney) officially considered black people subhuman until about 1965. In the clip above, Sharpton says words to the effect of "as to the candidate being a Mormon, people who really believe in God will defeat him". The implication is that Mormons don't really believe in God, which is actually a widely held view among many Christians. Smith's revelations are heretical in the eyes of most Christian sects.
Anyway, this is pretty funny. After Sharpton's braying over the Imus affair, the next 3 weeks of O'Reilly, Hannity, and Glenn Beck are going to pretty much write themselves. To me though, the one truly interesting point is this odd couple of Hitchens and Sharpton. Each has lost almost all credibility for insisting on supporting particular causes centered on persons now known to be either extraordinarily deluded or dishonest. They carry the respective albatrosses of Wolfowitz and Brawley.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Sometimes rain means steady rain
Date: May 16, 2007
Time: 21:43
Place: The Dry-odero
Careful readers of this blog may have caught my post a few days ago in which I rhapsodically described the ability to bicycle 2 flat miles to work on these lovely spring days. True indeed for the most part, but add steady rain into the equation, and the prospects become unpleasing indeed.
Nothing has happened to me recently that would suggest that I was on a "good luck" streak, so why I chose to ride to work this morning fully aware of forecasted "PM showers" is mysterious even to me. Perhaps I suspected they meant intermittent showers but couldn't fit it in the little box with the sun, cloud, and rain drops. It was also a most clement morning, the type which one believes would preclude such an egregiously hideous turn.
I left the buiding around 7:20 PM and it was pouring steadily. I got the bike into the subway, road to Rockefeller Center, transferred, and got to Roosevelt Island, for such is the nexus of the V and F trains. The two mile trip is a 5 mile subway ride. Because of all the construction on Roosevelt Island, the roads are all very badly crowned, so the few hundred feet I road north of the subway to the covered sidewalks was enough to thoroughly drench my pants as I road through one deep puddle after another. Note to self: the middle of the road is the highest point.
Time: 21:43
Place: The Dry-odero
Careful readers of this blog may have caught my post a few days ago in which I rhapsodically described the ability to bicycle 2 flat miles to work on these lovely spring days. True indeed for the most part, but add steady rain into the equation, and the prospects become unpleasing indeed.
Nothing has happened to me recently that would suggest that I was on a "good luck" streak, so why I chose to ride to work this morning fully aware of forecasted "PM showers" is mysterious even to me. Perhaps I suspected they meant intermittent showers but couldn't fit it in the little box with the sun, cloud, and rain drops. It was also a most clement morning, the type which one believes would preclude such an egregiously hideous turn.
I left the buiding around 7:20 PM and it was pouring steadily. I got the bike into the subway, road to Rockefeller Center, transferred, and got to Roosevelt Island, for such is the nexus of the V and F trains. The two mile trip is a 5 mile subway ride. Because of all the construction on Roosevelt Island, the roads are all very badly crowned, so the few hundred feet I road north of the subway to the covered sidewalks was enough to thoroughly drench my pants as I road through one deep puddle after another. Note to self: the middle of the road is the highest point.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
I guess the rapture's here
Date: May 15, 2007
Time: 15:00
Place: The RI 'dero
Yep, whoop it up all you gays, secularists, and other causes of G*d's wrath the world over. Just call him Jerry "Farewell". It must have been a pretty narrow rapture, since I was driving around this afternoon and discerned no effects of suddenly vacated driver's seats. Maybe it's just that there is nobody worth saving in New York. I've often thought that, particularly while driving around. All this talk of Armageddon does remind me of a great Wodehouse line where Bertie has a hangover and describes his aunt's loud voice as giving him the impression that "Armageddon had set in with unusual severity".
Anyway, I just returned from getting a P.E.T. scan to make sure there was no cancer elsewhere in the old corpus. P.E.T. stands for "Positronic Emission Tomography". Positrons are technically anti-matter, positively charged analogs of the electron, so if you see someone who looks like me with a goatee, look out. It's probably my evil twin from an alternate dimension. I don't know what Tomography is, maybe painting with tomatoes or the history of people named Tom. I don't see what is has to do with positrons, though.
Time: 15:00
Place: The RI 'dero
Yep, whoop it up all you gays, secularists, and other causes of G*d's wrath the world over. Just call him Jerry "Farewell". It must have been a pretty narrow rapture, since I was driving around this afternoon and discerned no effects of suddenly vacated driver's seats. Maybe it's just that there is nobody worth saving in New York. I've often thought that, particularly while driving around. All this talk of Armageddon does remind me of a great Wodehouse line where Bertie has a hangover and describes his aunt's loud voice as giving him the impression that "Armageddon had set in with unusual severity".
Anyway, I just returned from getting a P.E.T. scan to make sure there was no cancer elsewhere in the old corpus. P.E.T. stands for "Positronic Emission Tomography". Positrons are technically anti-matter, positively charged analogs of the electron, so if you see someone who looks like me with a goatee, look out. It's probably my evil twin from an alternate dimension. I don't know what Tomography is, maybe painting with tomatoes or the history of people named Tom. I don't see what is has to do with positrons, though.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Back in the Saddle Again
Date: May 14, 2007
Time: 22:00
Place: Top-o-the-40
I felt the old left shoulder was finally limber enough to steer the bike, so this Saturday I took a trial commute to the office. It's only two miles away through pretty flat territory, especially when one takes the elevator to the Welfare Island Bridge. These beautiful spring days are the best time of year to ride, warm enough to not need a jacket yet cool enough to not work up a sweat. This morning was my first real commute by bike since the shoulder surgery.
It is actually faster to get to work by bike than car, since by the time one negotiates the various parking structures and stop lights, any velocity advantage is lost. I'm on the bike as soon as I'm out the door of my apartment building, and I chain it up right next to the door of the office building. It takes less than 15 minutes door-to-desk, whereas driving takes a little over 20.
I also feel like I'm getting away with something, in addition to all the environmental and exercise benefits. The car is convenient, but the lot costs over 10 bucks. The bus is only 4 bucks, but they usually conspire to leave me standing around for at least a half an hour. As long as it doesn't rain, the bike is the way to go.
Time: 22:00
Place: Top-o-the-40
I felt the old left shoulder was finally limber enough to steer the bike, so this Saturday I took a trial commute to the office. It's only two miles away through pretty flat territory, especially when one takes the elevator to the Welfare Island Bridge. These beautiful spring days are the best time of year to ride, warm enough to not need a jacket yet cool enough to not work up a sweat. This morning was my first real commute by bike since the shoulder surgery.
It is actually faster to get to work by bike than car, since by the time one negotiates the various parking structures and stop lights, any velocity advantage is lost. I'm on the bike as soon as I'm out the door of my apartment building, and I chain it up right next to the door of the office building. It takes less than 15 minutes door-to-desk, whereas driving takes a little over 20.
I also feel like I'm getting away with something, in addition to all the environmental and exercise benefits. The car is convenient, but the lot costs over 10 bucks. The bus is only 4 bucks, but they usually conspire to leave me standing around for at least a half an hour. As long as it doesn't rain, the bike is the way to go.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Sean O'Hair sliding uphill
Date: May 13, 2007
Time: 21:45
Place: The RI 'dero
I was watching the Players Championship today which Phil Mickelsen won. He made it interesting on the very last hole by nearly putting his second shot in the lake, but I think he was losing interest in the game due to the incredibly slow play of his partner, Sean O'Hair. O'Hair could not hit a putt in any less than 5 minutes. One could argue that it was working for him since he was in second place but that evaporated when he put two shots in the lake at 17 on his way to a quadruple bogey. After chowdering the last two holes, he slipped to like 11th or 12th.
I can make a quadruple bogey. I also bogeyed Bethpage Black #1 within a month of Tigers Woods bogeying it.
You hate to be overly critical of the young man, but there is nobody more despised on the course than slow players. If you're going to choke , do it fast. NBC took the unusual step if reserving time until 7 PM, probably figuring they'd have plenty of time to chat with the winners. Instead, they ran a little late as O'Hair had to over-analyze every putt on a course he had played the previous 4 days. Perhaps that quadruple bogey was the golf gods' way of saying "TODAY, damn it".
Time: 21:45
Place: The RI 'dero
I was watching the Players Championship today which Phil Mickelsen won. He made it interesting on the very last hole by nearly putting his second shot in the lake, but I think he was losing interest in the game due to the incredibly slow play of his partner, Sean O'Hair. O'Hair could not hit a putt in any less than 5 minutes. One could argue that it was working for him since he was in second place but that evaporated when he put two shots in the lake at 17 on his way to a quadruple bogey. After chowdering the last two holes, he slipped to like 11th or 12th.
I can make a quadruple bogey. I also bogeyed Bethpage Black #1 within a month of Tigers Woods bogeying it.
You hate to be overly critical of the young man, but there is nobody more despised on the course than slow players. If you're going to choke , do it fast. NBC took the unusual step if reserving time until 7 PM, probably figuring they'd have plenty of time to chat with the winners. Instead, they ran a little late as O'Hair had to over-analyze every putt on a course he had played the previous 4 days. Perhaps that quadruple bogey was the golf gods' way of saying "TODAY, damn it".
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Fecal matter sliding uphill
Date: May 12, 2007
Time: 21:25
Place: The Roosevelt Island Swankadero
A childhood friend's father used to use a version of this metaphor to describe the speed of people who ran slowly. I ran around Roosevelt Island today, which I've heard is 3.9 miles, in about 37-38 minutes. This isn't bad since this is the first time I've done it this year, but it is by no means fast. I don't pass many other runners but many of them pass me. They're all shorter than me too so I got to work on my stride. I feel like I'm wasting my height.
I've also heard the Roosevelt Island promenade was 3.5 miles but I don't think that's correct. That might not include the Goldwater Hospital grounds south of the Queensboro Bridge. Lots of low trees and people in wheelchairs and gurneys. It's a very tough stretch to sprint. You also feel kind of bad running around so many people in wheelchairs. It seems to be in poor taste, as if one is flaunting one's ambulatoriness.
By the way, you may note I said the Queensboro Bridge, not the 59th Street Bridge. It's the Brooklyn Bridge, not the Pearl St Bridge. It's the Manhattan Bridge, not the Canal St Bridge. It's the Williamsburg Bridge, not the Delancey Street Bridge.
It's the Queensboro Bridge, and Paul Simon damn well knew it. "Feelin' Groovy" my ass.
Time: 21:25
Place: The Roosevelt Island Swankadero
A childhood friend's father used to use a version of this metaphor to describe the speed of people who ran slowly. I ran around Roosevelt Island today, which I've heard is 3.9 miles, in about 37-38 minutes. This isn't bad since this is the first time I've done it this year, but it is by no means fast. I don't pass many other runners but many of them pass me. They're all shorter than me too so I got to work on my stride. I feel like I'm wasting my height.
I've also heard the Roosevelt Island promenade was 3.5 miles but I don't think that's correct. That might not include the Goldwater Hospital grounds south of the Queensboro Bridge. Lots of low trees and people in wheelchairs and gurneys. It's a very tough stretch to sprint. You also feel kind of bad running around so many people in wheelchairs. It seems to be in poor taste, as if one is flaunting one's ambulatoriness.
By the way, you may note I said the Queensboro Bridge, not the 59th Street Bridge. It's the Brooklyn Bridge, not the Pearl St Bridge. It's the Manhattan Bridge, not the Canal St Bridge. It's the Williamsburg Bridge, not the Delancey Street Bridge.
It's the Queensboro Bridge, and Paul Simon damn well knew it. "Feelin' Groovy" my ass.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Dancing about architecture
Date: May 11, 2007
Time: 22:00
Place: Fernwood 2-night
Steven Colbert used this line as a preface to his interview with Jann Wenner on the 40th anniversary of the magazine "Rolling Stone". The quote "Writing (or talking) about music is like dancing about architecture". It's variously attributed to many people, the predominant suspects being Elvis Costello, Steve Martin, Frank Zappa, and Martin Mull.
My money is on Martin Mull. I own albums by all the contenders (several by Elvis and Frank) but that quote sounds to me like Martin Mull, of whose books I have owned two, "The History of White People in America", and the successor, "A Paler Shade of White" (if you're not laughing hysterically at this point, google (and I'm not making this up) "Procul Harem".
Martin Mull's 1978 epic "I'm EveryoneI've Ever Loved" is one of the great albums ever. Mull and Steve Martin were a team for awhile, writing for the Smothers Brothers. The song "Men" is from that collaboration. Martin used to have the rep as an edge comic, he kind of lost it due to exposure, but when you look at it, he's still there with something different. Like when in Roseanne, he plays a gay guy without the kind of "Will and Grace" trumpeting. Also, check out the Aristocrats.
Time: 22:00
Place: Fernwood 2-night
Steven Colbert used this line as a preface to his interview with Jann Wenner on the 40th anniversary of the magazine "Rolling Stone". The quote "Writing (or talking) about music is like dancing about architecture". It's variously attributed to many people, the predominant suspects being Elvis Costello, Steve Martin, Frank Zappa, and Martin Mull.
My money is on Martin Mull. I own albums by all the contenders (several by Elvis and Frank) but that quote sounds to me like Martin Mull, of whose books I have owned two, "The History of White People in America", and the successor, "A Paler Shade of White" (if you're not laughing hysterically at this point, google (and I'm not making this up) "Procul Harem".
Martin Mull's 1978 epic "I'm EveryoneI've Ever Loved" is one of the great albums ever. Mull and Steve Martin were a team for awhile, writing for the Smothers Brothers. The song "Men" is from that collaboration. Martin used to have the rep as an edge comic, he kind of lost it due to exposure, but when you look at it, he's still there with something different. Like when in Roseanne, he plays a gay guy without the kind of "Will and Grace" trumpeting. Also, check out the Aristocrats.
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