September 20, 2007 10:05 PM |
Media,
Noted,
Politics
From a Slate article about the new trend toward calling political liars liars:
The Fact Checker column, written by longtime Post reporter Michael Dobbs with the assistance of researcher Alice Crites, applies what it calls “the Pinocchio Test” to statements. Following a sliding scale, the column gives between one and four Pinocchios to untrue statements, with four Pinocchios reserved for “Whoppers.”
Right, because the more Pinocchio lied, the more he... um... cloned himself? Shouldn’t the units of the scale be “inches of nose” or something?
September 20, 2007 8:15 PM |
Food
From washingtonian.com, an interview with two practitioners of flair bartending. Of course, there’s the inevitable question about Cocktail:
I hate when people say, “Hey, you’re like Tom Cruise!” I’m nothing like Tom Cruise. That movie has probably done more damage for flair bartenders than anything else. People get this misconception that we’re spilling a lot, because he spills a lot. And the flair he does is actually horrible.
But my favorite part was this:
Until you master the bartending part, until you practice so much that your fingers have bled, I don’t want you to even attempt flair.
And until your fingers have stopped bleeding, I don’t want you to mix me a drink.
September 12, 2007 10:18 AM |
Lyrics and Poetry,
Music
Gabe’s post about a Joni Mitchell poem in the New Yorker reminded me of an unfortunate fact. My favorite Joni Mitchell song is That Song About the Midway, possibly because of Dave Van Ronk’s cover of it on Sunday Street: one of the very few autoharp-based performances to which I will willingly listen. (Here’s a passable version of the song from someone on YouTube—couldn’t immediately find one by Mitchell, let alone Van Ronk.)
Anyway, ever since watching a particular Seinfeld episode, I have been unable to listen to any version of that song without hearing the following:
“And you stood out like a ruby in a black manssiere.”
September 6, 2007 3:55 PM |
Noted
I just came across this ad on one of my favorite sites.
I wanted to click on it, but I’m 34.
