Category: Words

Those of you who read this through a feed, have a look at the actual page: all new and now in color. It’s not quite perfect yet– that picture of lychee nuts at the top of the page is misshapen and way too heavy a download– but it does have the advantage of being all WordPressy and colorful. Let me know if you have opinions.

I was thinking about Jenny Holzer yesterday. Of course, I can never remember her name. I have to try to remember one of those pithy little statements and search for them. So today I looked them up and found an extensive, perhaps complete, list of Jenny Holzer’s truisms.

I remember the first time I saw anything by her. It was a 7th grade trip to Washington DC and I was one of a few kids who opted to go to the Hirshhorn instead of the Air&Space museum in the afternoon, and I somehow wandered off alone into a little side room and there were these marble plaques and benches with words carved into them. Things that seemed true and deep and also vaguely disturbing: “TEASING PEOPLE SEXUALLY CAN HAVE UGLY CONSEQUENCES.”

And then, behind me, in a corner, a monitor came to life and started playing Laurie Anderson’s video of “O Superman.” To this day it’s one of the best art experiences I have ever had. It’s why I keep going back to contemporary art museums looking for things that will shake me and make me shiver.

The Guardian reviews Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road.” A wonderful book, a sort of postapocalyptic Hemingway with more accessible emotion and less machismo.

The New Yorker reviews the new Bond movie, “Casino Royale.” I loved Bond when I was a kid, and even though I generally avoid movies now I look forward to seeing this one. Yes, even though there are fewer gadgets. I loved the gadgets when I was a kid. I spent hours designing supercars that could fly and had smoke screens and rockets. Hell, I spent hours designing rocket boosters for my three-speed bicycle. The gadgets were the best part of the old ones, but I hear that this one substitutes acting and character development or something. Whatever.

My company just released its latest venture, Lisensa, which lets you set licensing terms for my blog and, if you demand payment for reuse, handles the payment. I selected a non-paying license. TechCrunch covered it this weekend, about a day before we were ready for our closeup.

See BoingBoing for explanation, other variants, and other post-election nerd humor.

Jack and Jill Politics says the latest Kerry Healy ad attacking Deval Patrick is racist. I’m not 100% sure, but it’s definitely sleazy.

What really bugs me, of course, is the vague grammar of the final line: “Lawyers have a right to defend admitted cop-killers, but do we really want one as our governor?”

Is Kerry Healy’s campaign trying to imply that Deval is a cop-killer, or a lawyer? And which is worse in the eyes of the public?

Now, it’s not as dirty as Overheard in New York, but I think today’s office banter might qualify for something:

Dev: What do you want to do for the Page of the Day tomorrow?
Editor: Well, I’m thinking we’ll feature the Mark Foley scandal at the top of the page.
Dev: And what goes on the bottom?
Other Editor: How about one of Mark Foley’s interns?

I’m running the Top 10 for the ’06 elections, and I have to say it makes my tummy hurt. People are so mean!

Those of you old enough to remember welfare queens and Willie Horton will recognize the rhetoric coming out of the right today. Here’s someone complaining that Mexicans are destroying our economy with their social dependency. She also claims that “Muslims and Islam have a propensity for violence. It is no accident that it is called The Religion of Death. It is tantamount to death worship.” Plus, here’s Michelle Malkin calling Muslims animals. Classy.

Do people really have such short memories? Or do they remember it, and agree now just like they did back then? Maybe that’s it. Already today I saw someone claim that Iraq is just like Vietnam, in that we’re not killing and torturing enough. If the left would just let us fight that war to the hilt and flatten the country, we’d win the hearts and minds of the surviving rubble.

Next, let’s rehabilitate Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon and blame the queers and commies for whatever’s wrong.

Hey, those adjustable rate mortgages that seemed like such good ideas three years ago don’t look so good now.

Every couple years they do something on intersexed children. Every time I wonder why people keep freaking out and picking surgery if their children look funny down there. Apparently for many many years it’s been the official standard practice. “Huh, this organ looks a little funny. Let’s remove it.”

Idiots. And they wonder why people don’t trust them on immunizations?

Complete the sentence: To a young kid lookin’ up to me, life ain’t nothin but…

a) Bitches and money.

b) Milk and honey.

c) Blood, sweat, and tears.

d) Beers, steers, and queers.