YM Nimfographics: Weight For It

Never forget, obvs.

I have near-firm confirmation that Ban Ki-moon, or a pneumatic hussy, reads YM daily. He appreciates our solemn approach to increasing awareness of international issues (we call it math-rock subterfuge, Mr. Secretary-General) and our dedication to the pillars of the UN:

1. security
2. development
3. human rights
4. blogging like fuck to make a difference

He might get us "A" series diplo-plates for our Vespas.

Less Than 100 Words On...100 Words

With a hat snatch from globetrotting Jeff Koyen (currently in Pakistan) and his 100Words.com, we're posting "100 Words On..." submissions from some of the writer-type guests at the 92nd Street Y and Makor on the 92Y Blog. Old friend Jami Attenberg was nice enough to kick it off. As with the 92YQ and other recurring features, there is no regular schedule or promise of frequency. Long live micro-content, short-attention spans and unpredictability.

Almost forgot to mention that the old "50 Words On..." snippets on HiFiNY are pretty great. I like this one and this one.

Save Oscar

The men looked sharp in their uniform of black and white.

Most wore a standard black tie or skinny version.

Frocks, as expected, were either strapless, halter or Grecian-inspired one-shoulder designs. The fishtail silhouette also prevailed.

She had piled the diamonds on, as many as she could, as well as dangly pearl earrings.

White was mostly absent, instead pastel shades - pale mint, pink, grey, lemon and gold shone through. Bright red, deep purple, inky blue and canary yellow also made a statement.

She looked like a flower fairy in her pink gown.

The Bible Rewrite Project

And now back to The Bible Rewrite Project...

NOTE: Original Text appears in Italics. Rewrite follows in Plain Text.

Genesis 17

The Special Act Of The Agreement

And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram and said unto him, "I am the Almighty God. Walk before Me, and be thou perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly." And Abram fell on his face; and God talked with him, saying, "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."

The Special Act Of The Agreement

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Nate came to him and said, "I am Nate All-powerful. Obey Me, and be without blame. And I will keep My agreement between Me and you. I will give you many children." Then Abram fell on his face. Nate said to him, "My agreement is with you. You will be the father of many nations. No more will your name be Abram. But your name will be Abraham. For I will make you the father of many nations. Many will come from you. Kings will come from you. Great new animals will come from you. I will make My agreement between Me and you and your children after you through their whole lives for all time. I will be Nate to you and to your children's children after you. I will give to you and your children after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan for yourselves forever. And I will be their Nate."

And God said unto Abraham, "Thou shalt keep My covenant, therefore, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is My covenant which ye shall keep between Me and you and thy seed after thee: every manchild among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant between Me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every manchild in your generations, he that is born in the house or bought with money from any stranger who is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy money must be circumcised; and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised manchild whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken My covenant."

Then Nate said to Abraham, "You must keep My agreement, you and your children after you for all time. This is My agreement between Me and you and your children after you, which you must obey: Every man among you must have this religious act done. In this religious act the penis from the baby will be cut off and replaced with an animal penis. You may choose from which animal the penis comes from. This will be the special act of the agreement between Me and you. Every male child among you who is eight days old must have this religious act done, through all time. The same must be done to all the men born in your house or bought with your money from any stranger, who is not one of your family. He that is born in your house and he that is bought with your money must have this religious act done. So will My agreement be marked in your flesh, an agreement that lasts forever. But the man who has not had this religious act done, of cutting off his piece of skin, will be cut off from his people. He has broken My agreement."

And God said unto Abraham, "As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her and give thee a son also by her. Yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her."

Then Nate said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, do not call her name Sarai. But Sarah will be her name. And I will bring good to her. I will give you and her a son. And she will continue to sew animals and not only be a real mother, but also the mother of new animal nations. Kingdoms of new animals will come from her.”

Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed, and said in his heart, "Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear?" And Abraham said unto God, "O that Ishmael might live before Thee!" And God said, "Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. Twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant will I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year."

Then Abraham buckled and laughed. He said to himself, "Will a child be born to a man who is 100 years old?" Then Abraham said to Nate, "If only Ishmael might live before You!" But Nate said, "No, but your wife Sarah will give birth to your son. And you will give him the name Isaac. I will make My agreement with him and for his children after him, an agreement that will last forever. As for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will bring good to him. I will make him grow in number. He will be the father of twelve rulers. I will make him a great nation. But I will make My agreement with Isaac, who will be born to Sarah at this time next year."

And He left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him. And Abraham was ninety years old and nine when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son. And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money from the stranger, were circumcised with him.

When He had finished talking with him, Nate went up from Abraham. Then Abraham took his son Ishmael, and all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money. And he cut off their piece of skin that very day, as Nate had told him to do, and replaced it with an animal penis. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he had the religious act done of cutting off his piece of skin. He chose a dolphin penis. His son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he had the religious act done. Abraham and his son Ishmael had this religious act done that very day. And all the men of his house, who were born in the house or bought with money from a stranger, had this religious act done with him. Many different penises were used.

The $500 Bottle of Wine

Audience participation requires an audience, mostly. There are several workarounds, all of which involve the heavily-lean use of "obvious subtle irony" but I'm not nearly skilled enough to pull off a tightrape contradiction like that. With or without lip service receipts, I busted out HD image map technology for this one and at the very least I'm expecting a "yay for effort" commendation from the Haloscanian Relief Fund.


Here's a hike, click image to take it or believe it.

Rina 911!

Even though I never make it past the headline and top image, I keep Gawker in my Bloglines (cue 99: "you expect us to believe that shit? plus, RSS isn't sexy!") because when the story breaks that Britney Spears is sporting a merkin, I wanna be one of the first million to re-blog it. So imagine my surprise (sorry, trick statement) when Rina, former Blottered contributor and veteran Team Party Crash helper, made the pre-jump cut on a post today. That's her, the non-cop hanging out on the far left. She helps edit Court TV's Informer among other web-related duties now, just one more TOP Media alumni success story.

UPDATE: Rina (maybe "online cub reporter for Court TV's Hollywood Heat" is a better job description) gets an interview with the Reno 911! cast. No doubt she learned those skills during TOP Boot Camp.

FRIEND PROMOTION ALERT: CLEAN UP ON AISLE SEATS

Cocaine Angel, directed by my friend Mike Tully (OMG, did you notice I mentioned that he's MY FRIEND? So freakin' COOL!), was reviewed in the New York Times yesterday. It's playing at Two Boots Pioneer Theater through February 27.

Next up for Tully, MY FRIEND, his documentary of David Berman in Israel, Silver Jew, is premiering at SXSW which got a nice write-up on Pitchfork.

It should be noted that he currently paints apartments to pay the bills.

Previously (here and there): Tully's Tops, Saturday's Kids, My Street, Huffers, Through Las Vegas Softly, Gothamist Interview

Prouder Than Bombs

This is a bit like something from a bad '90s online installation art class project meets Jewschool/Zeek at the doorsteps of the Makor Gallery but at least I didn't pit Rachel Corrie vs. hilltop settler youths trashing Pali olive trees.


Click image to engage.

White Flog

Due to a contributor revolt (around here that equates to a reader revolt) I've been forced to reverse course and unstitch all the retro-shit-fitting. What did you miss and/or unfortunately see?

The Big Picture

Complaints

Dead Presidents

Day Three: Your Phone's Off The Hook, But You're Not

Day-Glo Abortions, The Other Canadian Punk Beat

Time To Leave New York

You will not get a customer bill of rights from me (no JetBlue balls here) but don't worry, more John Yates-inspired fagitprop is on the way. Today is body count day!


Click image to enlarge your ability to think.

The Sun Starts to Set on the "Blog Fast, Die Young" Empire

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Presidents Day

It gets bigger if you click.

Day-Glo Abortions, The Other Canadian Punk Beat

Danielle, publisher of the wildly popular Celebrity Baby Blog and former (maybe current?) contributor to Blottered, ran into a little trouble with her mannered readership over an item about a Canadian serial killer who recently gave birth - presumably to something containing human matter. She retracted, apologized and turned to Blottered to bail her out. Wherever there's injustice and fork-wielding mobs on the buffet line, you can lean on us for moral suppository.

I won't lie, it felt good to visit a crime scene again. It's been so long, I almost forgot the smell. (Nah, like diapers of dead squirrels, you never forget that.) Here's to copping feels and feeling cops. It's Barney Miller Time.

time to leave new york.

you wake up in the middle of the night having dreamt of (a) sitting in a classroom with nick denton and mustering the courage to call him an asshole, but realizing he did his homework and you didn't, and therefore finding yourself reluctantly conceding that, say what you will about him, the man has his shit together and (b) listening to maer roshan tell you, earnestly, that the dugout of life is full of people who are looking for their second--hell, third--chance to hit a home run, that there's no reason you shouldn't have another shot at swinging the bat. And agreeing that this is probably the most profound thing you have heard in quite some time.

If You Left Here, You'd Be Home Now

Young Manhattanite is attempting a feed-only approach to content updates. That won't make a difference to you, savvy RSS readers, but Krucoff.com is where all the comment action is going down. Swing by and say hi to Sac.

The Impossible Blog

This blog is more impossible than YM at the moment but that is temporary. Comment is free, as a bird.

Classic Blottered (Retouched): Busts of the Week

Image: "Milk, Milk"

Beijing police have raided an underground factory making fake Viagra pills, the anti-impotence drug, state media reported Wednesday. Pfizer takes a hard stance. [USA Today]

The driver of the vehicle, Danny Ralph Jr. of Nevada, reportedly was found to be in possession of suspected crack cocaine and several stolen credit cards from the Marion area. Three people staying at the motel were also arrested. Jennifer Smith of Prospect, Harlina Bell of Nevada and William Dailey of Marion were arrested after police accused them of paying for their hotel stay with one of the stolen credit cards. William blames the bad luck on Harlina for leaving a hat on the bed. [Bucyrus Telegraph]

Firefighters called to a Miami home because of a smoking electrical meter broke through the garage to find a hydroponic marijuana growing operation. The illegal pot farmers had rigged the garage to take their power directly from a nearby pole but because it takes so much electricity to keep the operation going, the meter box got stressed and began to smoke, police told Tuesday's Miami Herald. That is one paranoid meter box. [Earth Times]

A 13-year-old Long Island boy yesterday surrendered to cops to face charges that he sodomized a male classmate with a drumstick. Evidence points toward a "dirty trombone" as well. [NY Post]

At about the same time, CODE detectives stopped the other vehicle associated with the suspected drug buy, and arrested the occupants -– Ivan Rodriguez Ocompo, 26, and Arthur Alfredo Lauriana, 19 -– both Bend residents living at 19952 Ashwood Drive. Ocompo was allegedly in possession of $1,605, said the lieutenant, some actually in his hand at the time of the stop. His elusive bush had twice as much. [Bend Weekly]

Wordsx2y (x > Ze Frank)

Save The Assistants gets the kind of press only a subway commuter could appreciate. (Me? I take a taxi to work everyday and if I'm lucky someone's left behind a half-eaten Post front page. Mostly I read the looks on people's faces to get the news.)

I was one of the judges for the Six Points Fellowship musician selection. The others were: Annette Ezekiel of Golem; Noel Grey, Grey Entertainment; Jim Loeffler, Assistant Professor at University of Virginia; Jody Rosen, Slate's music critic; and Francesco Spagnolo, American Sephardi Federation. I think my role was non-musician fanboy blogger. I voted for a guy who wanted to spread klezmer love with ice cream truck songs. I imagined a Mitzvah Tank with a cherry on top. He didn't make it past the first round.

Henry Stern is a daily must-read. This might be my favorite web page ever.

I was told I would like Fair Game from PRI with Faith Salie a lot. This is a fact I cannot deny.

Making the very wise choice not to work for Denton (would you want to wake up one day and find out you were fired for no reason?), Delly Hayward shakes her Schticksa for Canonist's new blog, Jewess. [Disclosure: Delly and I were once a trendy interfaith-intercontinental couple. She always claimed she was more Jewish than me and proved so one day at White Hart Lane. Come on you Yiddos.]

Gang of Darfur

Good morning, Captain. The winner of the first YM Linking-Diggless Debate has been determined. First, I'm gonna stall and congratulate myself before bestowing an honor onto anyone else. I must say that the response was overwhelming; an infinite amount of more entries were submitted this time than when the contest did not exist. (That's not entirely true. Without provocation, reader "TBD" summoned uncharted prognosticative powers in late 1999 with an answer to the as-yet-unproposed pitting of Granta #64, Russia: The Wild East vs. Granta #65, London: The Lives of the City. But to be honest, I still don't understand how putting Ian Jack, Ian Buruma, Ian Hamilton and Ian Parker on a Siberian science camp would have a greater effect on "global wording" than forcing Vitali Vitaliev into a South Bank glory hole with Dale Peck.) Nonetheless, picking a winner was easy due to the exclusive use of random algorithms. Jim Nachlin, aka Gawker Media's Greatest Writer Ever, this Botswana's for you.

Affirmed: The U.S. should substantially increase its public health assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa.

I mean, we have lots of spare money, we're already blowing a ton of it on these stupid wars, and they could really use the help and would probably do the same for us if the tables were turned, because they seem like very cool people, especially given the circumstances.

Dodgeball your location to redeem your prize.

The Bible Rewrite Project

*above pic by Lucy


And now back to The Bible Rewrite Project...

NOTE: Original Text appears in Italics. Rewrite follows in Plain Text.

Genesis 16

Hagar and Ishmael

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children; and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, "Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee, go in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children by her." And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. And Sarai said unto Abram, "My wrong be upon thee. I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. The LORD judge between me and thee." But Abram said unto Sarai, "Behold, thy maid is in thy hand. Do to her as it pleaseth thee." And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her face.

Hagar and Ishmael

Abram's wife Sarai had not given birth to any children. She was not interested in child bearing. Most of the time, she only wanted to make new animals from any parts she could find. She had a female servant from Egypt whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, "Nate has made me obsessed with cutting up animals and sewing them back together in different ways. I think this is what has kept me from having children. Abram, you should have sex with our servant, Hagar. I could have a child through her." So, Abram did it. He had sex with Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when she saw that she was going to have a child, she began to hate Sarai. Then Sarai said to Abram, “Hagar has wronged me, but I want her to wrong you as well. I gave the woman who served me into your arms. But when she saw that she was going to have your child, she began to hate me. Are you two in love? May Nate judge who is guilty between us, you or me." But Abram said to Sarai, "Is she not your servant? She is in your power. Do what you want with her." So Sarai made it hard for Hagar. And Hagar ran away.

And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain on the way to Shur. And he said, "Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou? And whither wilt thou go?" And she said, "I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai." And the angel of the LORD said unto her, "Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands." And the angel of the LORD said unto her, "I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude." And the angel of the LORD said unto her, "Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son and shalt call his name Ishmael [that is, God shall hear], because the LORD hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man. His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." And she called the name of the LORD who spoke unto her: "Thou God seest me." For she said, "Have I also here looked upon Him that seeth me?" Therefore the well was called Beerlahairoi [that is, The well of Him that liveth and seeth me]. Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.

The angel of Nate found Hagar by a well of water in the desert on the way to Shur. He said, "Hagar, you are Sarai’s servant. Where have you come from and where are you going?" And she said, "I am running away from Sarai. I have Abram’s baby with me. Sarai’s hands are stained with the blood of many animals. Should a baby be touched with such hands? My hands are clean and worthy of this gift from Nate." Then the angel of Nate said to her, "Return to your boss. Put yourself under her power. Making new animals is not a sin when it is done carefully. In fact, it is the highest honor to Nate, which I’m sure you already know. But gloves are necessary. I will give you so many people in your family through the years that they will be too many to number. See, you are going to have a child, a son. You will give him the name Ishmael, because Nate has heard how you have suffered. He will be a wild donkey of a man. His hand will be against all people. And the hand of all people will be against him. He will live to the east of all his brothers." So Hagar did what she was told.

And Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called his son's name, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. And Abram was fourscore and six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

Hagar gave birth to Abram's son. Abram named the baby Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old at this time.

Next Stop: Avenue Q*bert

The picture that scared the New York Times into writing not one, but two articles on Dennis Crowley in less than a week.

Very Short List is turning into very fuckin' awesome. I was skeptical at first and doubted the value proposition of another email newsletter that would be better blogged. But the magic is in the details. Eventually I turned on the HTML graphics in my email reader and - shazamath rock! - Venn diagram. I love Venn diagrams. I would read more books if they were written in the open space of Venn diagrams. I live in one.

Anyway, today they featured the Go! Team's Ms. Pac-Man video and they give proper credit to NYU's Pac Manhattan. That's mighty right of them, but let's just remember who initially had the idea to make that music video.

UPDATE: I forgot Josh's Go! Team video. Man, I can't believe that dog lived in my apartment. If it feels like another lifetime, that's because it was.

Walk of the Wow

Hell's Kitchen 1, Young Manhattanite 0.

I just threw up a little bit in my toilet.

BREAKING: EXCLUSIVE: YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST: THIS JUST IN: SHOUT SHOUT LET IT ALL OUT

YM staff meeting tonight. Topic: Some Serious Shit. Special guests will include several members of the MSM and perhaps a hobbled blogger or two. All other details are on a need to blow basis.

Classic Blottered: Tire Iron & Wine

Teens in Jersey are still using it. Couples reluctantly resort to it when sorting out relationship issues. It mixes well with large wooden sticks, hammers, various other examples of tool shed inventory, and it is not the sole province of cartoons to describe the conking effect. Stay calm people, but the "tire iron" shows no signs of reducing its role in desperate criminal activity or going the way of the sword cane.

Image from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation's Safety and Consumer Protection website on "Aggressive driving"

Originally published on Blottered, 8/23/05

SAVE BALK

That is all.

P.S. Anyone know a good photoshop?

Reader Submitted Update: All Along the Water Tower

The Bad Humor Man

People often ask me, "How do you, Citizen Blogger, get such amazing scoops?" Well, it's not hard really and the science is rudimentary. First I run my hands under scolding hot water for roughly 30 minutes. (Don't be fooled, there's no numbing and it doesn't get any easier after the first 5. If you can manage to wiggle a toe into a light socket at the same time, that might help.) Now with those raw sonic-boom-burger dripping flesh hooks, I dig right into the cool stuff: batch-processing bland item gossip buckets of chum chocolate, mostly vanilla, and a little pistachio. The whole order usually melts before I even get a chance to sprinkle with my special sauce. Some like it lukewarm, I guess. Here's a taste.

Later: Help Wanted
Much later: Curbed Expansion

Oh, Contrarian!

Well that was the easiest 500 Linden bucks I've ever made. I didn't even have to blow a shirtless squatty guy milling about an otherwise empty casino. Sac, 99 and I made a bet last week on where fired Gawker editor Chris Mohney would land next. Valleywag was the obvious choice and while I usually side against conventional wisdom, there was too much steam on this one to make it a clap-trap. Daulerio wouldn't even give us a line on it. (And yeah, I suggested the idea to Nick and Lock so maybe I had insider knowledge. Unethical? Probably. Legal? In all states but two.)

99 learned to gamble from instructional videos he bought in college. He prefers early season home dogs in non-conference match-ups, but still, I was a little surprised when he picked Menu Pages. I mean, sure, the Gridskipper experience is somewhat relevant and Mohney certainly knows a crow pie from baby stabbed-in-the-back ribs but his jaw-inspiring column ideas would never flourish in an a la carte environment. (i.e., The Pickler - daily stories of customers who couldn't order their way out of a wet Chinese carry-out bag.)

Sac gets credit for doing his research and plotting the publishing points-of-exit of past Gawkerites to come up with a regression analysis that suggested two possibilities for The Moan: a gig being Radosh's intern or reviving Low Culture. Don't rule these out completely.

It ain't all Park Avenue, Man.

Darth Vader, a star turn as Robert Zimmerman. Fourth wall: Nico takes a break from Nick Rhodes or whatever the guy's name is from Duran Duran. And Jimmy Fallon, your thing is stuck on you like 90210 on Luke Perry; ain't no Chuck Wein gonna do anything about that. What else? VU, per usual. Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick: the drugs and the dirt of glamour, that kind of thing. Some punchline about L'eggs; a little Insidery Scoop. Real voicey-like. Jesus, I can't believe you people have to come up with twelve posts of played-out drivel like this every single day. Or that the new guy thinks that's where it's at. No wonder you take to the drink. Clearly, Gothamist's the way to go.

Is that a convincing penis?

That's One Way to Screw Amanda Congdon

It's common knowledge that Denton and Lockhart do some pretty shady shit with Gawker Media and often hide the truth with "no comment" or a cold stone stare in the face, but this is really unbelievable. I hope there's a SWAT Ethics squad rappelling down the side of a building right now.

Gawker Media mystery ads appear on YouTube [News.com]

Thanks for the tip, M.A. and J.F.!

UPDATE: My sources tell me that Nick and Lock planned this whole thing deliberately and leaked it when the time was right. They're laughing about it right now. They wanted to create a media story out of using copyrighted material. Apparently they thrive on this type of attention and rely on the assumption that no one will ever really call them on their shit for fear of a link ban. (Talking about bloggers here, the court of public opinion will be greater than any corporate lawsuit.) Sick fucks. Kinda reminds me of something Bill Gates said earlier: "Does honesty matter in these things, or if you're really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it? There's not even the slightest shred of truth to it."

YM Linking-Diggless Debate #1

On Jan 8, the 2007-2008 nationwide high school debate topic was announced.

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its public health assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa.

Here's your chance to be an aff-hole or rotten neg. Locker-slam your opponent in the comments and the winner, as determined by me, will win a copy of The Smoking Gun's The Dog Dialed 911. Debate ends at 12pm EST, Friday Feb 9 (or, if my instincts are correct, in the next 5 minutes).

Softer Tits Will Greet You (Dragons Awake!)

Paul Weller recently made my TO-DONT list. Kenneth in the (212) had a similar experience on the 2nd night.

Franz discovers my cousin Neil's blog and music log from the comments on this post. I've linked to him before.

From another older relative: "I saw that article by Jessica Pressler. Since then, I've been trying to think of what the equivalent of 'blue-eyed soul' would be for black rock 'n rollers. In case that's a generational thang, 'blue-eyed soul' groups included the Righteous Brothers and, although I never understood it, The Four Seasons. The R&B jocks in Baltimore referred to them as such, something I doubt would be tolerated today."

The Y goes feed crazy.

New York Magazine Hardcore (Y co-worker's blog)

Monster Glacial Linkslide of New York Housing History