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Pumpkin Aid?
When I woke this morning, the phrase “Pumpkin Aid” (or the word “Pumpkinade”) was echoing in my head (much like the random phrases that Lionel on As Time Goes By sometimes speaks when he awakes). What could that mean? Had I been dreaming of some truly vile beverage, or was I imagining some sort of… — read more
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Something’s Really Wrong in the East
It‘s not safe for work and I have no idea what they’re saying, but the production values are impressive, you can dance to it, and a Buddha makes an appearance, so it can’t be all bad, can it? — read more
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Indians are the Jews of East Africa
In Dark Star Safari, his extraordinary account of a trip he made by boat, bus, and train from Cairo to Cape Town, Paul Theroux returns to Malawi, a country in which he served in the Peace Corps in the 1960s. He finds the country, as he finds much of the eastern portion of Africa through… — read more
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Podcasts, Podcasts, Podcasts
Meg asks: Is there some sort of memo that goes around telling everyone else who the cool indie/alt/edgy bands are? Why am I not on the mailing list? Since I can’t seem to post a comment on her Weblog at the moment, I thought I’d answer her question here. I don’t know about a memo,… — read more
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John Peel Day
Thirty-eight years ago this fall (less than a week after I was born, in fact), BBC Radio 1 went on the air in Great Britain. One of the disk jockeys on the new station was John Peel. One year ago today, John Peel did his last show on Radio 1, though he didn’t know it… — read more
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Incivility
The specter of incivility, currently threatening so much of our media and other shared culture, seems recently to be making alarming inroads in the pages of the New York Times Book Review. Last week, there was this in Clive James’s review of Elias Canetti’s Party in the Blitz: The translator, Michael Hofmann, has found all… — read more
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Common Sense
As Eric and others have described, Apple fanatics (long known for their level-headed reasonability) have become hysterical about the fact the Apple‘s new iPod nano gets scratched if it’s not properly protected. That a piece of plastic (and no matter how slickly styled it is, no matter how much it will enhance your life, the… — read more
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Threats
Was there a credible bomb threat to New York City’s subway system or not? The warning, coming as it did in the midst of a week full of continuing bad news for the Bush Administration, would be easily dismissed as politically motivated, except that the Department of Homeland Security are among those suggesting that the… — read more
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Envy and Pride
A teacher told this story last night (which I’m paraphrasing heavily), and I found it very helpful. Perhaps you will as well: I was working as a volunteer to pick up a teacher at JFK. I happened to own a van and was one of the junior volunteers, so I was driving the luggage van.… — read more
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Shipment Exception?
My new iPod nano seems to have run afoul of Chinese authorities before I even got to use it. Could it be because of Apple’s counter-revolutionary capitalization scheme? Should I be worried? — read more
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