May 2008
42 posts
Flashbacks
Goooooo Celtics! I’m gonna have to unearth the scrapbook I kept back when Larry Bird & Co. were around. When I was, like, eight years old, going to Boston Garden was the most amazing thing ever.
Are we not gchat friends?
I recently switched my gchat buddies list to “large” (yeah, yeah, that’s what she said, nyuk nyuk), and so I basically get a list of almost everyone I’ve ever emailed if they’re online, because, of course, the fundamental difference between gchat and IM is that gchat adds people automatically. I was talking about this with Jessica last night—basically, about how...
Seriously, wtf, Technorati
It seems like every time I’ve tried to search Technorati lately, I’ve gotten an error or this crazy message: D’oh! The Technorati monster escaped again! We’re scouring the blogosphere attempting to find it. Back in a flash! Hrrrrmmmmm. Right, then. Guess it’s Google Blogsearch for me?
Cruel, cruel world
What is there to say about a woman who lived in an iron lung—an iron lung—for almost 60 years and then died… not because she was sick, but because her family’s house lost power and they couldn’t get the emergency generator working? I mean, this is just about the most depressing thing I’ve ever seen: Family members were unable to get an emergency generator working after a...
"His OCD is worse than ever"
In this week’s Observer, I wrote about Jeff Lewis, the “deeply neurotic” (my words) host of Bravo’s Flipping Out. The quote in the headline is from his assistant, Jenni, who does things like dance and rap for him. It’s quite a work environment.
Poll: What is the most pointless poll ever?
It may be this one: the “Top 10 Worst American Accents,” by British actors in American film and television, as voted upon by the good people of the United Kingdom! (The winner: Michelle Ryan, the star of the late Bionic Woman.) This poll might be pointless but it also made me giggle. Maybe because the article about it contained paragraphs like this one: Helen Hackworthy, the editor of...
Blogs to books blah blah blah
So Newsweek ran a story in their print edition this week about this crazy new phenomenon—perhaps you’ve heard of it? Apparently people called “bloggers” can sometimes get deals for their “blogs,” but some of these “blogger books” (at least they didn’t call them “blooks”) haven’t sold a lot of copies so maybe all blog books will...
Amanda Lorber, you have sort of forsaken me
So last night’s doubleheader of The Paper was mostly enjoyable, except for the elaborately staged ritual of Amanda running out at 7:15 in the morning to check the mail (also: why does the mail come at 7:15 a.m. in Florida? Do they have a different union or something?) to see if she got into NYU early decision (non-spoiler, since it’s already been reported a gajillion places: yes, she...
A rebuttal to 'Millennials' criticism:...
perpetua: jessicagoldharalson: Why isn’t there a dialogue about how our generation volunteers more than any generation in recent history? Well, it certainly would be interesting for someone to examine it, but I’ll warn you: It’d be pretty much impossible to do such a thing without challenging the sincerity of most of it, given that it’s basically a requirement for resumes and getting into...
Novel gazing
Sometimes I feel like I’m reading bulimic: There are weeks when I can’t stand to pick up a book and all I want to do is look at the pretty pictures in Domino magazine of Craftsman cottages in Venice or charming one-bedrooms (terrace, d/w, w/d, wbfp) in the West Village; and then there are weeks when I feel like I must absolutely devour the books I pick up. Right now I’m in the...
Timbaland, high school, etc etc
We got a great submission about Timbaland going back to his high school on Postcards From Yo Momma.
We went back! Allen & Delancey, take two
The power was on and John, the manager, wished me a happy belated birthday and bought us a round of drinks, and we ordered way too much food but it was all delicious: to start, crab ravioli and scallops (which were much tastier, I’m sure, than Dale’s disgusting butterscotch scallops—all I could think about was Butterscotch Stallion, thanks!—on Top Chef last night, though [SPOILER!] I...
Rule of thumb
If you ignore something it really does go away, unless it is an STD or flesh-eating virus.
Jimmy Fallon, man of the ... people? Maybe.
In this week’s Observer I did a piece on Jimmy Fallon and how he’s gonna be the new Conan. Well, not exactly, but he IS taking over Conan’s job. Then I get into all sorts of heady discussions about what late-night talk show hosts really mean. Jimmy’s take? “It’s like hosting a party—I’ve just got to make sure it’s all fun. Once it’s fun and you’re all having fun,...
Photo finish
It’s Gawker week at the Times! In addition to Emily’s piece, there is this kind of odd piece by Eric Konigsberg up on the City Room blog about Nikola, Gawker’s photographer. Nikola’s right when he says: “I like that hour between three and four in the morning when desperation sets in, when you see all the anticipation of going out starting to fade. The masks drop and...
"My teacher was a better writer than YOU"
One of the weirder New Yorker pieces I’ve ever read is in this week’s issue; it’s sort of a reported personal essay by Ian Frazier about a writing workshop he’s run at a Chelsea soup kitchen for 14 years. I found myself oddly captivated by it, but I couldn’t tell if it was because of the WTF quotient or if it was really interesting on its own. Maybe both? It’s...
Gangs of New York
1: For Urban Baby newbies, it takes a little time to catch on to the patois. The gist is that the SAHMs (stay-at-home-moms) trade barbs with the WOHMs (work-outside-the-home moms) and the women who E.B.F. (exclusively breast-feed) go after the mothers who F.F. (formula-feed). But some find the redesign more confusing than the code. “I’ve been on several times since the change, but I find myself...
Electric Company
Sam took me out to Allen & Delancey tonight to celebrate my birthday. Neither of us had ever been there before. We decided to get there a little early to have a drink at the bar (I had what was basically a mojito, he had a Manhattan) (incidentally, having a drink at the bar before dinner is criminally underrated). We sat down and ordered wine. Arcade Fire came on the stereo and I remarked that...
Presumably in the same way that Joel Stein is a...
alexbalk: “‘The young kids think he’s the cat’s meow,’ says Caroline Hirsch, proprietor of Caroline’s on Broadway, the comedy club where Fallon got his start performing stand-up in the mid-1990s.” Yes, she’s talking about Jimmy Fallon.
Just one more thing...
Of course, Daily Intel has the Gossip Girl roundup locked down, but they missed one very crucial unrealistic point, which is that Blair had a shopping bag from Bluefly.com in her bedroom. Uh… NO. This show isn’t quite getting the product placement right; first there was the laughable Victoria’s Secret episode, now this. What’s next, Serena starts wearing shoes from Payless?...
Myanmar
Noticing that the NYT is going to great lengths to keep the identities of its correspondents in Yangon under wraps; I’ve noticed a bunch of bylines are just The New York Times, and today’s story has this reporting byline: “A correspondent for The New York Times reported from Yangon, Myanmar. Graham Bowley contributed reporting from New York.” Creepy.
Oh yeah
The red-eye is always one of those “it seemed like a good idea at the time” ideas. Want to sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep…..
What qualifies as an exclusive these days
“The singer and his family declined to be interviewed at the event, but David Archuleta did speak with the Salt Lake City Fox affiliate, KSTU-TV. “Wow,” he exclaimed as he viewed the cheerleading squad outside his stretch limousine.”
Madness
There’s an article about my old boss in tomorrow’s Styles section. It’s all about how she has bipolar disorder and blogs about it and is apparently part of a “mad pride” movement that says, Hey, it’s okay to be crazy!
I’m glad that a lot of people are reading her blog and finding some sort of solace in it, or what have you. But… sometimes she was...
LA so far
Keep forgetting to bring my camera. Ate ramen but not at the place someone recommended because it was closed. Sadness. Bought a dress on Third Street yesterday. Wore it today. Into it. Fell asleep at 10 p.m. last night. Woke up at 6:30 a.m. Yay, jet lag! Ran into one of the, like, three people I know in L.A. last night. At the Grove. Of course. Kind of love the tiny car I rented. Not so in love...
Hello Upper East Siders!
I wrote about a book club in the Observer this week. I also wrote a couple other things but I think this one was my favorite.
What's wrong with the French
That kind of attitude is why we never get anything done around here! On April 11, the finance ministers of the United States, Canada, Japan and Europe said they were “concerned” about recent “sharp fluctuations in major currencies,” a statement widely seen as endorsing the possibility of an intervention by the United States Treasury and other finance ministers to prevent a steep drop in the...
Going to LA! Tomorrow!
So I’m heading to LA tomorrow for a few days. I’ll be staying with friends in West Hollywood but I’ll have a car, and other than a few random plans I’m going to be on my own a bit… so who has suggestions for me. High on the list is wanting to eat amazing tacos and ramen. But really I want to eat/shop/do other stuff you can’t do in New York. I’ve been to LA...
Oh right, that photo
Thanks for the reminder, Lux—that lovely screecap is now at Boinkology.
Gawker-to-Fleshbot transformation complete
Good thing I screengrabbed Nick Douglas’s completely gross post before the post was hurriedly taken down, probably because like five people got fired in the time that it was up! I’m not going to post it because this is a family blog. So there. And to think, I got in trouble for posting an image of a dildo! Not even a real penis! Nick posted full-on penetration! I think that calls for...
On embargoes
I reviewed Barbara Walters’s new autobiography, Audition, for Wednesday’s Observer. (It’s not up yet! You’ll have to wait at least another day for my scintillating thoughts!) The manuscript Knopf sent me came with a big warning across the top that no reviews were to run before May 6. Lo and behold, the Times ran their review today. On the one hand, whatever; embargoes, as I...
Where you will find me this evening
I’m reading at tonight’s installment of Ritalin Readings at the Slipper Room (at Orchard and Stanton) at 8pm, along with Edith Zimmerman, Carolita Johnson, Matt McCarthy, and Jon Friedman. Come!
Not again.
In Salon today, Megan Hustad—whose new book, How to be Useful, I hear is quite entertaining—rehashes this REALLY tired idea about people’s online profiles and which books they put on there and what that says about them and BLAH BLAH BLAH, OMG I could never date anyone who put How to Win Friends and Influence People on their Nerve.com profile or whatever people are looking at these days! But...
Counting Crows were not a band that I thought I...
Dita Von Teese
postcardsfromyomomma: Check out Fredericks of Hollywood Dita Von Teese collection. Very nostalgic and tasteful. Love Ya, Mom I love when moms talk lingerie with their daughters. This one reminds me of one of my favorite PFYM posts, which of course I can’t find right now, where a mom buys a lace bra for her daughter and writes, “You only live once.”
