there I go; turn the page

A week ago I was at Fraley’s birthday dinner at the Burren, right up the block, and another attendee mentioned his attempts to sell a book. I had just given Fraley a copy of Joel’s book, Your Religion is False (hilarious, I assure you), and used it as a conversation piece: how Joel had gone [...]

broke down on the brazos

Original content forthcoming, I promise. To tide you over, consider this most excellent blog, Concurrent Sentences, writing about how the war on marijuana drastically expands police powers: So marijuana has become a law enforcement go-to for probable cause. It is the result of an officers completely subjective sense of smell. It is often supported by [...]

the white asshole’s burden

New post up on Overthinking It today, in what’ll hopefully be the first post in a series overthinking Treme: The White Asshole’s Burden: Since these are problems that affect black people, even if they’re not “black problems,” the temptation must have been strong to create a Great White Hero who would swoop in and save [...]

playoffs?

Shorter Will Wilkinson: If it’s about pluralism, it’s about pluralism. It’s as simple as that. It ain’t about that at all. It’s easy to sum it up if you’re just talking about pluralism. We’re sitting here, and I’m supposed to be the franchise player, and we’re talking about pluralism. I mean listen, we’re sitting here [...]

in your eyes; the light, the heat

In the morning: my sinuses squeak open like a rusty gate. They literally emit a pitched squeal, like someone deflating a mostly-full inner tube by sitting on it. My eyes are Ping Pong balls trapped under a couch for six months and just now retrieved. My throat scratches. Nothing I do between April 2nd and [...]

youuuuuuuuuu

Soulja Boy. That was fun while it lasted, wasn’t it?

show them how funky and strong is your fight

NPR did a story last week on bands who make their living off of YouTube (hat tip to crasch for the link). The big example they use is the two-person remix/cover act Pomplamoose: While I love the phenomenon of bands making money in new, exciting Web 2.0 ways, I really wish these people weren’t the [...]

as one life finishes, the other one starts

So let’s see if I can put all my fancy talk about avoiding the sunk cost fallacy into practice. My Roomba, Master Wong, no longer works. He will disengage from his cradle, roll forward about five inches, then power down as soon as he hits the first obstacle. This is most likely because I’ve overcharged [...]

fear not, till birnam wood do come to dunsinane

The man in the blazer indicated a dining room the size of my studio apartment. Then he indicated a corner of that dining room. “This is your performing space,” he told me, describing the carpeted square with his hands. Harvard Square’s oldest and friendliest looked on, munching on nachos (courtesy of John Harvard’s Brew House), [...]

you’ve seen that man before, his golden arm dispatching cards

Like shooting pool, driving a car and fighting hand-to-hand, poker is one of those things that every American male likes to think they know one or two things about. We’ve all picked up a few trivia from watching Rounders or the World Series of Poker, or from losing money at smoky tables in college. We [...]