Month: January 2006

Letter to the Rights

The author of the following isn’t someone I know directly, but he is dating someone whose sister I know, so that’s close enough for me to call him a friend on the Internets. Plus, he’s funny, and politically astute. He’s written a goodbye letter to his rights, now that Alito is coming:

Dear Abortion Rights, Fourth Amendment & Checks and Balances:

I am so sorry to hear that you guys are leaving. I’ve known you my entire life, and I guess I just sort of assumed that you would always be around. I’ve gotta admit, I’m kinda nervous about facing the future without you. I guess I never really told you how much you guys mean to me. You guys have totally been there for me when I needed you. Especially you, Abortion Rights, you really had my back when the chips were down. We should all totally hang out before you guys take off, reminisce about old times, you know? Remember that time when Richard was all like getting totally out of control and wrecking our house, and Checks and Balances straight-up regulated his ass? That was awesome. That’s the kind of thing I’m really going to miss about you guys. Nobody was quite like you, and I’m so worried that I’ll never meet anybody like you guys again.

Fondly,

Tracy

PS. I always used to think that Second Amendment was sort of a dick, but recently I’m really starting to see why you guys hung out with him so much.

Best Business Travel Horror Stories

The Romance of Business Travel, and Other Myths at the NYT, includes this gem:

MOST UNWELCOME SURPRISE After being picked up at the airport in Damascus, John Denson, an international lawyer in Houston, felt something hard near his feet. It was an Uzi. He asked the driver if it was his, “and he replied that he had his own, and that one was mine, ‘just in case we need it,’ ” Mr. Denson said. “It is amazing how little room a Mercedes has in the back seat when you’re trying to avoid touching a loaded Uzi.”

He can’t be a man beacuse he doesn’t smoke the same cigarettes as me

Four Democrats crossed the aisle to join in selling out the American people:

Byrd (WV), Conrad (ND), Johnson (SD), and Nelson (NE). I get Byrd, because he’s been a Democrat since Reconstruction. The rest of them I don’t know.

I do know, however, that the Honorable Gentleman from my home state, George Allen (R, VA) is pretty hilariously ignorant of certain key goings-on for someone with presidential ambitions:

Indeed, here is what Senator George Allen of Virginia, who is considering a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, said when asked his opinion of the Bernanke nomination.

“For what?”

Told that Mr. Bernanke was up for the Fed chairman’s job, Mr. Allen hedged a little, said he had not been focused on it, and wondered aloud when the hearings would be. Told that the Senate Banking Committee hearings had concluded in November, the senator responded: “You mean I missed them all? I paid no attention to them.”

Not like he’s the only one, mind you. People were paying attention to Alito, and that’s obviously more important. Besides, I think Fed positions are shorter-term. He can worry about that kind of thing when he’s president.

I’m sure Bernanke will be fine. And George Allen in ’08? Well, he’s not the worst politician Virginia has ever had (Ollie North? Jefferson Davis?)

Walking the Line

I have seen only one of the movies nominated for any of the Oscars this year. I am somewhat proud of this fact. I have walked a line. A line that involves no film except for Harry Potter, and that only because, well, how could I not?

Walking the line between comic and disturbing is A Softer World, a series of photographic comics that range from creepy to funny and often achieve both at once. I recommend it highly.

User privacy, adware, and so forth

Rather alarming PCWorld article on Adware. Sample:

How do VCs explain giving money to companies who monitor users’ Web browsing habits? “Adware is here to stay,” says Venetia Kontogouris, a managing director at Trident Capital. “Privacy for the [Internet] consumer is a lost war.”

Outfits like SiteAdvisor are trying to fight back, but it’s an uphill battle: prevention requires effort, and people won’t even expend any effort to prevent tooth decay or type II diabetes . I’m not sure it’s a lost battle, but it’s not one I’m particularly confident about.

One more thing I learned from the article: If I want to start an ethically dubious software company (and the privacy statement at WhenU doesn’t reassure me any more than the logo-and-nothing-more at “next-generation online advertising network” Turn does), I know where to look for funding.

Job Hunt Website of the Week

And the “most bizarre information architecture decision” award goes to Xign, which has posted seven different career tracks in its “Employment Opportunities” page. There are no positions available in any of those categories.

Nice work organizing that mountain of data. Maybe you should add a search function.

Review: Cat Power, “The Greatest”

Cat Power’s new album, “The Greatest”, was first recommended to me as similar to singer-songwriter Kristin Hersh. The comparison is pretty valid — emotionally damaged tone, a variety of instrumentation centered on guitar and vocals — but Cat Power’s vocals are smoother and have greater range. And Cat Power has awesome cover art, too.

An earlier album from Cat Power is entirely composed of cover songs, and has a really haunting, mopey cover of “(I can’t get no) Satisfaction” which I don’t think has the words “I,” “Can’t,” “Get,” “no,” or “Satisfaction” in it at all. What it does have is this soft, loping minor key and and quiet lyrics in a sad, sad voice. Really, it’s the opposite of the Rolling Stones’ version, and is not only a good song in itself, but brings new layers of meaning to the original.

Her songs have more instrumentation, accompaniment, and range, but “Satisfaction” from “The Covers Record,” and the song “Hate,” from the new album, have an ultra-spare style which just grabs me.

I tried to look up the lyrics for “Hate” online, but the various lyrics sites don’t have it yet, so I had to go and listen to 5-10 second bits of it again and again until I got the lyrics right.

And it’s not a happy song at all. My transcribed lyrics in the extended entry. They look a little melodramatic written down, but trust me: major weepiness could ensue if you listen to her singing them.
Continue reading “Review: Cat Power, “The Greatest””

Something Fishy

M. not being much of a fish eater, I have try to take advantage of her absence to experiment with fish dishes in the hope that once I perfect them, I can get her to eat them.

Tonight she’s out at the West Side Lounge with the ladies, and I’m making brook trout steamed with ginger, scallions, red peppers, and shiitake mushrooms. I made two sauces: one a sort of dipping sauce made of local cider vinegar, ginger, hot peppers, and soy sauce, and the other a thicker Chinese-black-bean-paste style sauce: garlic, Chinese black bean paste, sriracha, hot peppers, sesame oil, olive oil, and miso to sweeten and thicken.

I plated it all Iron-Chef style.

The faults are as follows:

  • Steaming robbed the peppers and scallions of their color; I should have sauteed the peppers separately, and reserved more of the green part of the scallions as a garnish.
  • It didn’t need two sauces. The thicker sauce is probably the one to keep. It would have been improved by using about a cup of white wine or sake, and by remembering to sautee the garlic before adding everything else.
  • Trout is probably not the best fish for this. Flounder or tilapia might be safer; cod, skate, or grouper might be more interesting.

Signs posted in Cambridgeport

I found this sign posted on a number of telephone poles in Cambridgeport:

SPY ALERT!
Cambridgeport Residents Please be notified that certain persons claiming to be Cambridge police (undercover) and “working for public safety” have been observed in your neighborhood. THE TRUTH? The are Bush-Romney operatives spying on activists and Muslims. Bush-Romney spies have been seen on the following streets: Erie, Pearl, McTernan, Brookline, Magazine, Hamilton, Speridakis & Valentine.

They sit in parked cars (with lights on) after dark. If you see them, kindly tap on their window and tell them to move on. JUST SAY NO to Bush-Romney spies in Cambridgeport!

-D.D.P

I’m not sure what to say about it, really. It’s misguided, and sad, and probably the product of a genuinely tortured soul. On the other hand, it’s also hilarious.