Archive for the ‘Raised Eyebrows Dept.’ Category
The Thrill of Museums
If you add up the attendance for every major-league baseball, basketball, football and hockey game this year, the combined total will come to about 140 million people. That's a big number, but it's barely a fraction of the number of people who will visit American museums this year. Museums are big business, attracting billions of […]
In: All, Music & Art, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
That McCain-Palin Mob
Via virtually everyone comes links to these worthy videos at Blogger Interrupted that Tim Russo following a Sarah Palin rally: The McCain-Palin mob in Strongsville, Ohio; and McCain-Palin Mob Part 2 – Woman’s child says of Barack “you need gloves to touch him” (I link to his page so that you can see his commentary […]
In: All, Current Events, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics
All Pleasure is a Risk
Isaac asked me to post this where we could find it easily, since it is these days frequently referenced in conversation. This little sign seems to have great predictive powers, eliciting gratifying responses–or non-responses–from people we find more fun to be around–or less so. [via Arnold Zwicky at Language Log ("Today's little amuse-bouche") whose attention […]
In: All, Laughing Matters, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Tortured, Opaque Prose
This morning I read a posting on a blog that began with this sentence. It's amazing how different some people like to perceive themselves as whilst maintaining an utterly normative attitude to life. I'm not attributing it because the author claims to be a writer.* Is it just me or is this about the most […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Writing
No-Sex Sex-Ed
I just read this sentence* and the little light bulb lit up. In a letter sent to the student body and faculty, and obtained by WIS News 10 Columbia, Irmo High School Principal Eddie Walker wrote, "The formation of this club conflicts with my professional beliefs in that we do not have other clubs at […]
In: All, Eureka!, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Close Door — Not!
Okay, since Garth Risk Hallberg at The Millions ("That Button Doesn't Work") invites us to help spread the word anyway, here he is quoting Nick Paumgarten from The New Yorker (link) on the efficacy of close-door buttons in elevators: In most elevators, at least in any built or installed since the early nineties, the door-close […]
Baroquen Bean-Paste
Matthew Guerrieri, at Soho the Dog (in "Miso, Soy of Man's Desiring") alerted me to a new product of immeasurable possible interest: Bach-Infused Miso Bean Paste. According to company officials, the bean paste fermented for 150 days while the music of Johann Sebastian Bach was playing continuously (nearby? loudly? within its hearing?). There is, however, […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Cheap Science Quiz
In a personal effort to promote science literacy, I took the very short# online quiz called "Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?" I'm sure you'll be relieved to know that I passed by answering every answer correctly. But perhaps this is really a quiz for the quiz-writer, a test that we might call "Could You […]
Doing the Impossible
Hillary would have to win 69% to 70% of the delegates in every remaining state in order to catch Obama. He [NBC's Chuck Todd] then says that if Obama and Clinton split Indiana and North Carolina on May 6, as expected, then she'd need to win 80% of the delegates in every remaining state. Basically […]
In: All, Current Events, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
History Flashes By
Last night Isaac and I decided to go to Annapolis for our dinner. It's about a twenty-minute drive from Bowie. We took the main highway between here and there. (US RT 50, for those following along on the map.) It was after dark. Not long after we got underway we saw the flashing lights of […]
In: All, Current Events, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Bush-League Irony
Is it just me or does it seem to anyone else the height of unintentional irony that our dear President should give a speech (at The Heritage Foundation, 1 November 2007) in which he says: History teaches that underestimating the words of evil, ambitious men is a terrible mistake. The context makes it clear that […]
Recent Googlettes
Herewith a few more gogglettes, all from the same 6-hour period (of 23 October 2007), as it turns out. 1. "Will liquids freeze at the same time?" This is a perennial favorite, and I'm only too happy to have provided at least a partial answer in my posting "Not All Things Freeze". Now, there is […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Hiccups & the Gay Lifestyle
Just in passing, this little note. I was catching up on my reading at Improbable Research and saw this delightful item: "Another hiccup victim goes untreated". Tragically, young musician Christopher Sands has been hiccuping continually for the past five months (at that time, 15 July 2007) and has not eaten properly nor had adequate sleep […]
NY DP Penalty
Is it a slap in the face, salt in the wound, proportionate fees, or a bureaucratic oversight? Likely the latter as claimed, but still it seems an amusing but niggling thing: in New York City, one pays $35 to get a marriage license, but to register a domestic partnership costs $36. Fewer rights for only […]
In: All, Faaabulosity, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Questioning Snobbish Validity
Each week I get from the Baltimore Sun newspaper people an email that tries to entice me to read online various of their "Food & Drink" articles. This week's "newsletter" had this curious teaser in it: A few gaffes, a lot of golds The July announcement set the wine blogs buzzing: Charles Shaw Chardonnay, the […]
In: All, Food Stuff, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Bush Coup Finally Realized?
Fascinating, and so, so not surprising. The BBC, in a radio programme* called Document ("The award-winning investigative series returns, in which Mike Thomson takes a document as a starting-point to shed new light on past events.") that apparently aired this past Monday evening asserts that Prescott Bush, the First Grandfather, was once a conspirator in […]
In: All, Briefly Noted, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Please, Call Me Rod
It seems to me that the Republican party has two options when it comes to their homosexual menace: Purge the party of all known and unknown homos; the difficult part, as recent history has shown, is the "unknown homos" bit; or Recognize that fags happen and go with the flow; they needn't, of course, participate […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Raised Eyebrows Dept.
When is Discrimination not Discrimination?
Many people have been raising an eyebrow at how odd-sounding are some of the arguments that The [Catholic] Church has been using in Great Britain to obtain an exemption from a new equality law concerning adoption by gays and lesbians. Now they have moved from arguing that being allowed to discriminate is central to their […]
In: All, Current Events, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
I'll Be President When Pigs Fly
Newt Gingrich:* I am not 'running' for president. I am seeking to create a movement to win the future by offering a series of solutions so compelling that if the American people say I have to be president, it will happen. I'm thinking that this should best be read accompanied by "Torch Song #1 (Newt)" […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
No Xmas Sales — We're Christian
With the sounds of the cannons of the War on Xmas# booming in the background, Pat Boone had this bit of praise* for Wal*Mart: This year, instead of bowing and kowtowing to militant atheist and super liberal "political correctness," so-called, I'm thrilled to see that Wal-Mart has banished "the Grinch" that threatened to steal Christmas, […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept.