How Big Really? Turns out, pretty big! Or! Not so big. Depends on how you look at it.
I am gonna start patronizing Geek Chic Cosmetics. I don’t know how many mornings I’ve stood over my huge collection of eyeshadows and thought, “Nothing here is nearly Battlestar Galactica enough!!” I mean, I need some red eyeshadow. It will be so much better if said red eyeshadow is called Six instead of something lame like “fire” or “hearthrob” or something.
How Snooki Got Her Gucci is actually a really interesting article on trends in marketing. It turns out that luxury designers are sending Snooki their competitor’s bags, hoping that she’ll carry them and get her Snooki-taint on that brand so that the original house seems that much classier in comparison. Really, really interesting.
If you read nothing else today, please read The Sources of American Anger by Victor Davis Hanson at National Review. And I mean actually read it and maybe think about it some. There’s so much I want to say about it, I don’t really know where to start. Maybe I should have saved this one and done a post just for it. I still may.
Via Vox Populi: From Liberation to Chattle. It seems that more and more women are choosing to become concubines– a woman who attaches herself to a wealthy man for child bearing purposes so that he will support her and her offspring, but she will receive no benefits, legal or otherwise, that should would if she were his wife.
For young women, a life as a concubine is often preferable to being married to a poor man, and increasingly that option is open to them in the US. For the lucky few women – usually the exceptionally attractive and mercenary – a sexual relationship with a wealthy businessman, athlete or politician can guarantee decades of support if she manages to get pregnant. Rielle Hunter, John Edwards’ adulterous lover, is an example of a woman who pulled it off. Scores of women manage to hit the jackpot with young, unsophisticated athletes; thousands upon thousands of others we’ve never heard of take advantage of relatively wealthy men. In these cases, where child support will be enough to live on, the arrangement is concubinage in all but name. The only argument against equivalency is that sexual exclusivity is not guaranteed, as it usually was in ancient forms of concubinage, but given that sexual exclusivity is neither guaranteed nor enforced in marriage any longer and concubinage has always been held to be a lesser alternative to full marriage, it is fulfilling the exact same role the institution did in ancient times.
A very interesting, provocative article.
From Apollo, Neal Stephenson’s Digital Novel Revolution has started. What do you all think? Pro? Con? Apollo and I had a good long talk about story telling and the various methods thereof and trends in storytelling and it was excellent and I think we need a chat room around here.
When it comes to personal relations and even more so to formulating social policy, intending to do good is largely worthless. Given how much evil has emanated from human idealism, the heart is an awful guide to doing good.
In order to do good personally and in order to support social policies that do good, what humans need even more than a good heart (as beneficial as that can be) is wisdom.
From Marcella, Brick Hole. It’s round Tetris. It’s very, very hard.
According to Apollo, “Fuck You” by Cee Lo Green might be the best song of the summer or the year or of ever. What do you think?
Speaking of music, io9 featured a bunch of classic sci-fi theme songs slowed way down. I love Doctor Who’s the most. It sounds like some giant mutant seamonster is approaching and going to eat you in one big bloody bite.
The Red Army does Beat It:
So hilarious. So very terrifying.
An ex-beauty editor lists the all time best drugstore makeup. I am here to confirm that Prestige eyeliner is just about as good as it gets. I was using “sable” this morning and it’s down to this little nub half as long as my pinky finger. I love it!
The Greatest Squee of All Time:
Wait for 2:25. I know it’s a while. Just wait. And then cheer! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Also from Apollo, the Top 50 Videos of the 90s. There are some oldies and goodies on here, y’all. Although I really get worked up that “Buddy Holly” by Weezer is higher on the list than “Big Me” by the Foo Fighters.
Apollo and I also talk a lot lately about what I refer to as Correct Thinking, which is a combination of political correctness and moral grandstanding you get around certain people who think their opinions are, for various and sundry reasons, unimpeachable. With that in mind, would you deny Earnest Borgnine a lifetime achievement award because of his opinion of the film Brokeback Mountain?
An interesting, somewhat funny article on why parents hate parenting. Or why they hate parenting articles. Or people who write parenting articles.
I hope it requires no elaboration that had the writer chosen to see the clip as a story about a curious but bored child tormented by a descriptionless gadfly, this would have been a very different article indeed. But it wouldn’t be in NY Magazine, it would be in Omni.
And finally, the GIF of the week (there were contenders, y’all!): Jason Stackhouse wants you to GET THE FUCK OUT!
Again, sorry for all the videos, y’all. Or maybe I’m not. Except that I am because I don’t always like to have to watch a video. But hopefully you’re entertained, stimulated, enlightened, whatever you like.
Well. It’s been a week and I’ve failed to post anything else, and not for lack of ideas. That said, I’m reserving some of the things I might have posted in today’s FfaF for maybe some additional weekday content next week.
Paula Deen fries some cheesecake. With chocolate inside. And then adds sugar, more chocolate, strawberry stuff, more sugar, whipped cream and mint. I’m here to tell you I would try this. More than two bites would probably kill me, but I’d take those two!
Filed under Fucking Finally: “Cathy” comic strip to end after 34 years. I don’t know about you all, but I enjoyed reading Cathy from ages 12 to 16 or so. Then I grew up. And realized that there are only so many jokes you can make about swimsuits, diets, and weddings. To wit– three of them. Over and over for 34 years. Jeez.
More on how college education really might not be worth it. She makes a point above and beyond what most people make and this is grad school: don’t do it. By the time you get a Ph.D., the only thing you’re qualified to do is teach and there are tens of thousands (if not more) people just like you.
If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it’s easy or trendy or popular. It’s because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. It’s because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched—and we want an alternative. It’s not because we want more of the same.
Let’s talk Big Issue of the Day: the mosque near Ground Zero. What do you all think? I am ashamed at my gut reaction, which is two, simultaneous thoughts. First, y’all can build whatever kind of holy building where ever you want and worship anyway you choose. Second, tacky, y’all! TACKY!! Here’s one of many, many articles on the subject: Ground Zero Mosque hurts Islam.
At this point, all my rumination is judged against, “Yes, but does that compromise religious freedom?” The Imam is well-known to be anti-American. Do we compromise his religious freedom? The backers are anti-American. Do we compromise their religious freedom? The original name was a reference to the conquer of Christendom and the subjugation of Jews and Christians. Do we compromise their religious freedom. Is this just another step toward dhimmitude? Do we compromise their religious freedom?
The psychology of restaurant menus. Can I talk about one of my pet peeves? When people watch a commercial or look at a picture on the menu and then they order the dish they saw and get all butthurt when it doesn’t look exactly the same. Well duh! I thought everybody learned this lesson around age 9. Apparently not!
From Apollo, Whiskey becomes biofuel! Apparently, the byproducts of the scotch and whiskey making process can be easily converted into an additive that would make possible the use of less petroleum per gallon of gasoline. And unlike ethanol, no additional agriculture would be required, so regular food prices wouldn’t go up! This is all win win win and I think I would be even more winnerer about it if I liked whiskey even a little bit.
GIF of the Week: Bzuh? From Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Band Candy,” season 3. Check out the near-Wash cameo in the background! I’d like to note that we have a habit of quoting this episode a lot at our house, particularly, “Summers, you drive like a spaz!”
Also from Apollo, Trends in Fantasy Cover Art, with bonus clarification that “stiletto” means shoe, not blade.
So! I didn’t go looking for avocados. And none found me. So I think maybe the whole FfaF food meme is over. But there are other memes. Let’s stick with those.
And now, in a somewhat particular order:
They Fight Crime! Poptart posted this link to cheer me up and hell yes, it cheers me up! Pop’s life has not been in vain!
Speaking of Poptart and things of interest to Poptart: The 25 Hottest Actresses and Singers with Really Short Hair. (Poptart likes: actresses, singers, hair, short hair, bold hair, lists; among other things, of course.) My hair is right now sort of a cross between the Kate Beckinsale and the Carey Mulligan. I go back and forth about whether or not I’d like to grow it out, but I think I’ll probs keep it pixied for a while longer. Therefore, I need a trim!
Also from DT’s excellent weekly Ephemera (Free for All Friday for people with class!), a Teen Chat Decoder. While I pride myself on being pretty up to date with the newest trends in webernetter slang, I often forget very frequently used abbreviations, like “MTE.” What does that mean? My thoughts exactly. But whatever portion of my brain would be dedicated to remembering that has been killed. Probs by alcohol. That’s your cue for IAWTC.
Although ADHD and ODD are often dismissed as recently “invented” disorders, they describe personality types and traits that have always existed. A certain kind of boy has always had trouble paying attention in school. A certain kind of boy has always picked fights with friends, gone smoking in the woods, and floated down the river on rafts.
She also points out the comments, which get intense. I tend to agree with the reactionaries– boys are boys are boys and if there is a genuine biochemical issue, medication can help so much. But I fear many, many normal little boys are being medicated into comas merely because they are normal little boys in a society that increasingly hates men and masculinity.
For our ongoing discussion on the absolutely normality of pubic hair: Sasha Grey sparks bush backlash. Another, notably professional, vote against pubic topiary.
Short this week, huh?
In other news, I’ve got to get this place dressed up, so I can do things like have sidebars where you all can browse back, and send me emails and stuff. Theme recs appreciated!
So, FfaF is still lacking in food. I just don’t have any ideas about what I want to eat all the time or what you all want to eat all the time. Cheese was out there for a while, but wow, that’s a huge category. So, you know, still working on that.
Speaking of cats, would you like one? I have several spare. Like, 6 spare, plus several two-day old kittens that will be ready for homes in a few weeks. Help me not become a crazy cat lady, please!
It doesn’t matter that much of the world may actually know better. This template has become propriety itself, a form of good manners, a political correctness. Thus it is good manners to be outraged at Israel’s blockade of Gaza, and it is bad manners to be outraged at Hamas’s recent attack on a school because it educated girls, or at the thousands of rockets Hamas has fired into Israeli towns—or even at the fact that Hamas is armed and funded by Iran. The world wants independent investigations of Israel, not of Hamas.
How to Drink Like Mad Men: the rules, the booze, the gear and the recipes. I’d just like to take this opportunity to say, “Ha! Tanqueray! IN YOUR FACE, SKILLZY!”
That right there is not an example of being smooth like a mad man or like Joan Holloway, but it felt good.
California’s epidemic has blossomed in a state that gives some of the most generous “personal belief exemptions” from vaccination — and the epidemic’s worst hot spots neatly correlate with the most concentrated areas of vaccine refusal.
Just like the measels!
Are you a cosmetics hoarder? Here’s a handy checklist. I’m not. I can’t imagine buying pretty makeups and not using them!
When hubris sent America in pursuit of overseas empire, the venture coincided with the offshoring of American manufacturing, industrial, and professional service jobs and the corresponding erosion of the government’s tax base, with the advent of massive budget and trade deficits, with the erosion of the fiat paper currency’s value, and with America’s dependence on foreign creditors and puppet rulers.
Phew. Little political today. But boozy, with a tasty Harry Potter finish.
So this is your new, probs not improved Free for All Friday. Since we last did these, I’ve completely changed my reading habits. I cheerfully use google reader now and subscribe to about 200 different blogs. I use the “share” and “share with note” feature A LOT. And getting into that habit, I think, has made it a bit harder for me to determine what should, and should not be, FfaF material. Among any other comments you might make today, please let me know what are the sorts of things you’re interested in reading here, or having here. You know you can always send me stuff, and it will appear.
And just to get it out of the way, I think I’m done with the bacon, y’all. I am just baconed out. I’ll eat it, certainly. But I am no longer willing to commit time to scouring the internet for tasty bacon recipes. I am, however, willing to entertain the idea of another food or foods or something that we could all get excited about every week. Please make suggestions. And don’t just say, “meat.” It’s a big internet.
Otherwise, here we go. Remember that if you’re going to get down and dirty, you need to do it in the pudding. Otherwise, high fives all around.
Natural Movement Training and Conditioning:
I’m interested in this sort of training. I’m finding again this summer that running is just not for me above about 80 degrees. And even when I get up and out onto the trail by 5:15 a.m., the heat index is still usually 85 or so. I shamble along for 2.5 or so miles before I just want to drop dead. I’m a drag on my training partners and I’m getting burnt out and hateful. So I need a new workout. I’d like to try something like that.
Getting your Internet Surfing License is a necessary prerequisite in making the web safe for everyone. Before governments made the ISL mandatory, people often found themselves lost in the myriad of web sites, naively double-clicking Hit The Monkey to Win iPad ads, finding themselves spammed by pop-unders. Acquiring the license typically takes only between 2-5 days of education by your local Surf Training School. You will need to carefully prepare for the final test, in which you are required to answer simple questions like:
* What is a pyramid scheme, and do they really work?
* How do I replace the solar cells on my cyber glove?
* Why exactly is it bad for people to badmouth their governments or big companies online?
What do you think of the coffeehouse that fired its customers? I say more power to ‘em. I was at the Starbucks in Cahaba Heights the other day and it was covered up with middle-aged men, with Bluetooths and laptops, yammering into nothingness. I ordered a standard drink and waited 20 minutes for it. There was an occasional moment of eye contact where I felt a very, “What are you doing in my office?” vibe. I nearly said, at one point, “Trying to get a latte!” They gave me a free one for the wait.
Related: Plants vs Zombies is an awesome game. I highly recommend you get it. Well worth the $10. I think it’s only $5 if you get it via Steam. If I could, I would buy it for everyone reading as a Christmas present.
In an agrarian antebellum society obsessed with the noble ideals of ancient chivalry, Rhett’s attitudes are shockingly modern. He is a calculating capitalist, shamelessly professing his pursuit of self-interest. When Scarlett reproaches him for doubting the Confederate cause, Butler memorably retorts, “I believe in Rhett Butler. He’s the only cause I know.”
There’s nothing quite like a man totally unashamed to be a man.
“There’s a sense that this return to style, or to a consciousness of how you look, is an attempt by young men to recover a set of values that were at one point very much present in American society and then lost,” he said.
Learn to Fucking Spell isn’t about spelling so much as usage, but you fucking get the idea. (Via C)
For further contemplation: what’s the difference between and egg pie and a quiche? Is there one? Technique? Depth? Willingness to say “quiche” in conversation?
Can I just say, if you want to cut down on total verbiage, don’t say, “The Brussels blah blah blah.” Who does that? They’re sprouts. They come from Brussels. Or whatever. Point is, just say sprouts. Yes I’m being intolerant and irrational. I don’t care anymore. I am so fucking sick of bacon. There are adjectives and there are nouns and they don’t do the same thing. Parts of speech! They’re sprouts!
Bacon-wrapped stuff medjool dates. I’ve made bacon-wrapped dates twice now and both times they were a tremendous hit. I highly recommend them. Christopher’s cousin recommend we start calling them Indiana Joneses, but I don’t remember why.
Sugar-free chocolate dipped pork rinds. I’m not saying I would eat these. But if I had some and no one else was around or knew I had them, I would try them. And like them. And never tell anyone.
I’m making that last one tomorrow night for people we’re having over (along with a big pot of plain potato soup). I’ll report back if you’re interested.
Honu Girl forwarded me an article saying People Really Love Bacon. Yes, they do. I think now we need to put a lot of research money into finding out whether or not people think the sky is blue.
It seems to me that every winter I find a new album and listen to it incessantly. This year it’s Hold Time by M. Ward. It’s a little folky, a little rockabilly, a little singer-songwriter, a little gospel, a little everything. And I love it. So today’s free for all begins with Her Majesty Mount Zion….
At one point I was informed, “If you have nothing to hide, just answer the question.” I cringed as I listened to the argument used by those who give preeminence to the state over the individual. This line of training had apparently been bred into in these agents and was unfortunately well engrained in whatever type of training they had received.
You’d think even the bleariest 2am blogger would realise that £84 for a miniature shot of something that looks like a plaque removal treatment is a bit steep. But logic and cult status do not roam the plains of desire hand in hand.
From Skillzy, Man in a Lady Wig. He sent that to me because he knows I totally have a crush on the UPS artist guy, with the long black hair and big nose. He’s hott. Even if he is wearing a lady wig.
Here’s a bunch of stuff that should have gone up last week and some stuff from this week and some bacon, but not a lot, so maybe next week we’ll have a bacon bomb? Who knows!
If you sent me a link and it’s not present here now, it’ll be here now next week. Here then. But now:
Psalm? Does not understanding how music works, that is, being able to read music and make your voice or another instrument follow a pattern based on that music, affect your relationship with God?
This blurring of the lines owes itself to the detachment of most, Jew and non-Jew, from the actual scenes of anti-Semitic behaviors and from actually feeling oneself at risk. This detachment from harsh realities is eased by the moral relativism that pervades much of Western intellectual culture, where the existence of right and wrong is increasingly a mere notion to be dismissed in almost all cases. Common-sense morality is replaced with a casualness toward insult and attack when perpetrated by some group favored due to its purported grievances.
From Apollo, Where to Eat: Chain Restaurant Edition. I was surprised at how I had to work to get to Houlihan’s. I’ve only eaten there a few times, in Indianapolis, but they used to have an amazing big meaty salad thing. And why’s it impossible to get to The French Laundry? Because it’s not a chain restaurant? It’s the opposite of one? I’ve never been there. We honeymooned in Napa Valley, and Yountville to be precise, but I don’t know if we even tried to get reservations there.
What does Climategate mean for science and for communicating scientifically with people in general? Reason calls it a “tragedy.”
Via Counting Cats, another perspective: Caught Green Handed. Which sums things up pretty directly:
In less than three weeks, the world’s governing class – its classe politique – would meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, to discuss a treaty to inflict an unelected and tyrannical global government on us, with vast and unprecedented powers to control all once-free world markets and to tax and regulate the world’s wealthier nations for its own enrichment: in short, to bring freedom, democracy, and prosperity to an instant end worldwide, at the stroke of a pen, on the pretext of addressing what is now known to be the non-problem of manmade “global warming”.
This week I collected a bunch of stuff but largely failed to remember to note where I got it. That blogroll over there on the right holds everything I read every day. It probably came from one of those places.
A really polarizing editorial (jeremiad?) from Dr. Laura on the Evolution of Feminism:
The young women of today automatically think of themselves as feminists because they’ve been brainwashed by their mothers and much of society. Problematically, these women, many of whom write to me or call my radio program, don’t understand much about the male mind. They are convinced that men should be just like women in their thoughts and reactions and are frustrated when that mentality doesn’t work.
In other words, we cannot expect the new cruelism to burn itself out. It’s more likely to burn us out. At the stake, while vipers in lawn chairs roast hotdogs and marshmallows as they critique the sincerity and intensity of our screams.
Pardon-Moi cards, wake up calls with humor and tact. I wonder about this item in relation to the previous article, even though the two are not related. But I wonder if it’s not a slippery slope. I wonder if letting slide a few basic courtesies here and there eventually leads to the dissolution of civilization. Not that failing to say gesundheit after someone sneezes will bring the barbarians over the walls or anything, but maybe being constantly subjected to people’s rudeness, and hesitant to do anything about it because we know that two rudes don’t make a proper, might make us less able to determine what the limits of public behavior and discourse are.
Also, do you think these are too twee? Do you think they’re cowardly? Are they really effective? What do you think would be more effective: those little cards, or tapping someone on the shoulder and saying, “Excuse me, you’re speaking very loudly about personal subjects you probably don’t want the rest of us to hear.”?
It seems the United Nations would prefer to hide the truth and cut off all further scientific research instead of facing the embarrassment of having to retract its ridiculous assertion that Himalayan glaciers may disappear in the next 25 years. Perhaps the United Nations really believes nonscientists and staffers from alarmist environmental organizations are better qualified to report on Himalayan glaciers than actual scientists who have been studying the glaciers for decades.
From Wade’s tweetstream: Cats for Gold! Some days I wish this worked the other way around.
I'm Sarah. I'm a dying breed, who still believes, hunted by American dreams. You can contact me at Sarah &c anytime you like to talk about anything you like. I like words, spaceships, wizards, and lots of other things.
