February 2008
You are browsing the archive for February 2008.
The political winds
There was a New York State Senate election yesterday in a mostly-rural district along the eastern edge of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, an area where 300 inches of snowfall in a year is not unusual. Republicans hold an 8-5 registration advantage here and have held this seat for nearly 100 years. Polls […]
Mr. Universe
Question from my fifth grade son’s math book: When Arnold Schwarzenegger was named Mr. Universe, he had a chest measurement of 56 7/8 inches and a waist measurement of 32 1/4 inches. How much larger was his chest than his waist?(Next to the answer, in the smallest possible writing, he wrote “why do we care?”)
Hello, New Jersey!
Well, Jack’s bittersweet tale of a love that never was has been linked by nj.com, endearing him to the locals, who are rooting him on with comments and tributes such as, “What a wuss” and “stop wasting time and space on this crap.” First of all, the concern about “column inches” seems to be misplaced. […]
Oscars (I know, I know, it’s such a cliche blogging topic the day after… so shoot me)
Please. I mean, come on. I love wonderful stories about taking clandestine photos of quirky girls on subways, but we must do our duty here and at least give some nod to the Oscars. And by nod, I mean shit. Whether it be good shit or bad shit, there’s shit to be discussed. My few […]
Subway connections
(The artist is Adrian Tomine).
Curse You, Patrick Moberg
I was intrigued by the tale of Patrick Moberg. He was the wonderboy who created a website a few months back to find the “girl of his dreams” who he’d spotted on the New York subway. And, by gum, he found her! The Internet was all a-buzz—as it is wont to do—and the happy couple […]
Grand Gestures
I have been fascinated by the hand gestures of politicians for a long time. You can really tell a great deal about a person through the manner in which they use their hands to get a point across. The pictures above demonstrate four very different people using four different types of hand gestures. I chose […]
The Firness Center
There’s too much ice and not enough snow, so I decided to join the gym at Micaela’s employer. Curiously, it overlooks our house. I can lean forward right now and make out the vague shape of a treadmiller in the topmost window in the distance. Someday this might come in handy, somehow. The guy in […]
The Ball Pit
Who in the world ever came up with the ball pit? Hundreds of hollow plastic, multi-colored balls that fill a plastic lined “pool”. Remember the ball pits at Chuck E Cheese? With food and God only knows what else in them. Yick. I think they are still a major attraction at IKEA where you let […]
Poop!
Yesterday, as I was driving, I happily slowed down for a procession of about six horses, walking single file in an orderly line, as far to the side of the road as possible. I have never seen a line of cyclists do this. I’ve written here and here about my war with cyclists. But up […]
Jack Silbert, curator