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Norman Borlaug passed away yesterday. He most likely did more for humanity than anyone in history. Most of the people whose lives he saved were extremely poor, in Mexico, Pakistan and India. Despite a boatload of awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, nearly nobody know who he was. He deserves, but likely will not get, [...]
Willy DeVille, who brought street elegance and soul to New York’s punk scene in the late ‘70s, died yesterday of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 58.
Tall, thin and debonair with almond-shaped eyes, DeVille was an anomaly on the punk scene centered at CBGBs on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He could sing in a smooth [...]
I see no reason to improve on last year’s Memorial Day entry, so I’m repeating it in full below. All of the links have been updated with new information since last year.
In addition to you fun with friends and family, and catching up on your chores, please spend some time this weekend to commemorate [...]
Stopped by the NYC teaparty on the way home. The crowd was forced into tight labyrinthine cattle pen on the sidewalk next to City Hall Park. This made it impossible to attend on the periphery, hoping to make a quick exit. If you wanted in, you had to commit for the duration, as [...]
It’s been widely reported today that President Obama gave the Queen of England an iPod as a gift. There is no word, however, whether it came with the special case:
The Anchoress has one of her amazing link-fests up. Just the sort of thing I would do if I had more energy on a Sunday afternoon. Here’s a sample:
“This administration will not torture”: Unless we feel it’s prudent to. Any criticism from the left? :::I hear chirping:::
“This administration will ban lobbyists”: Except [...]
Here is Jim Miller on Obama, written on the eve of his taking the oath of office:
He has no executive experience. He has never even headed a small law firm, much less commanded a regiment, ran a company, headed a Cabinet department, governed a state, or served as vice president. As far as [...]
This is creepy and unintentionally funny. You’re better off not watching the whole thing. The scary quote is at 3:54
This is an intentionally funny “transcript” from Iowahawk.
But really, how can you not be concerned about this level of mindless voluntary zombiefication? Yet there are people who are charmed by this but worried [...]
In my entry on the MTA and labor costs, I stated that I feared that New York would become too much like New Orleans and Detroit — once thriving cities that choked their productive class out of existence, left with taxeaters and — at least in New Orleans, a concentrated professional class and tourist section. [...]
At the risk of sounding like too much of a grouch, I nevertheless want to express my disappointment at most of the cards my family received these past few weeks. Very few mentioned Christmas at all, much less had any explicit religious content. This is especially unsettling because most of the people who sent us [...]
