Closings

Two restaurants were eliminated from the restaurant guide today because they closed. Goodbye to Mainland and La Maganette.

Mainland [1081 Third Ave. (bet. 63rd and 64th Sts.) 212-888-6333]
The setting is splendid. The food is high quality. The prices are insane. A nice choice for a special occasion (like Father's Day for example), as the overall quality of the restaurant was excellent. Perhaps the prices are so high because the rent is so high. Multiple restaurants have failed in the same location, but I hope that Mainland can succeed. To start, I would recommend the "Shao Leung" dumplings (essentially Shanghai soup dumplings) or the Steamed Vegetable Dumplings. For my main course, I went with half a Peking Duck and it was delicious. If the whole table wants some duck, go for the full. The Pan Roast Sea Scallops, while they tasted good, are not a good value at $25 a plate. I would say that the White Miso Glazed Escolar is a much better seafood option. On the whole, be prepared to spend a lot, but your taste buds will be well-rewarded.

La Maganette [825 Third Ave. (at 50th St.) 212-759-5677]
Solid but unspectacular standard Italian fare. I had the Rigatoni alla Vodka and it was certainly tasty, but they weren't exactly reinventing the wheel here. Prices are affordable though (at least for lunch), so it is a decent option if you are in midtown.

New Breed

Someone at the Onion has read about David Icke. Maybe on Delino? Either way, I am happy to direct my readers to this article.

Blast from the Past

Check out the video for "Freestyler." I first saw it on German MTV, and I loved it!

Also, see these two Peugeot commercials. The first is just funny. The second is just cool.

Subway

Not sure if this true, but I have found it to be the case that swiping an Unlimited Metrocard is more reliable than swiping any other Metrocard. I always receive that beautiful green "Go" instead of that deflating "Please Swipe Again" or the even worse "Please Swipe Card Again At This Turnstile." Anyone else?

Malaria and Technology

An oldie but a goodie from Malcolm Gladwell about Fred Soper and his fight against malaria.

An excerpt:

Once, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, a large ammunition dump--the Niterói Arsenal--blew up. Soper, it was said, heard the explosion in his office, checked the location of the arsenal on one of his maps, verified by the master schedule that an inspector was at the dump at the time of the accident, and immediately sent condolences and a check to the widow. The next day, the inspector showed up for work, and Soper fired him on the spot--for being alive.

Also, I am very excited to go to the WIRED NextFest this weekend! So much cool technology like the Hug Shirt or Brainball. I hope that I can test some of these things out.

Penny Anti

I still don't like the penny! Read more about the penny situation here.

I love it when...

...people make fun of Blockbuster Video. A great Onion article on the subject.

New Squash Rankings

1. Donald Rumsfeld
2. Noah
3. Tom
4. Rich
5. Dan
6. Dave

White and Nerdy

Weird Al is back and at his best in this "Ridin' Dirty" parody song and video.

Just another day at the office

I look at the phone and see a number that I don't recognize with a 305 area code. Tom has the same area code in Florida.

"Hello, Richard Berger, NFL."
"Hi Richard, I just had a question. Can a team get penalized if its fans make too much noise?"
"Um, I don't think so. I think that the fans can be warned maybe, but I don't think it ever turns into a penalty."
"Really? Cause I thought it could happen in places like Seattle. You know what I mean? Anyway, I just had a bet on this. A couple hundo. No big deal."
"Yeah, who is this exactly?"
"Oh, it's Peter."
(Peter can't see the confused expression on my face)
"Ok..."
"Yeah, well I'll just call you back on Monday and we'll settle things. Thanks, talk to you later."
(Click)

As it turns out, the NFL rulebook says:

Loss of team time out(s) or five-yard penalty on the defense for excessive crowd noise.

Need to transfer large files?

Try this site! Pando.com offers free file transfers of any size for anyone. And they have that great "pan-do" attitude. Hopefully their web site will say: "As featured on award-winning blog Not About Marquis Grissom!"

Hat tip to Tom of Delino fame.

Reading Matter

Look here to learn about smart people.

Look here to read about The Office around the world.

Repressing the urge for a sarcastic post title

Apparently everyone thinks he's as funny as America's original funnyman (Dan Berger) these days.

Ladies and Gentlemen...

...my graduation speaker. Watch Stephen Colbert and Eleanor Holmes Norton go at it in this wonderful installment of "Better Know A District." This is probably my favorite recurring segment of Colbert's show.

Typical Government Hypocrisy

Ok, so we can't gamble on anything sports-related. Unless it's horse racing or we live in Nevada. But at least we can "gamble" on the lottery, aka "The Poor Tax." Oh, and don't worry, gambling billions of dollars on the price of natural gas is perfectly fine as well.

What will they think of next?

Check out the latest in casket technology.

I hope I'm not the only one who finds it weird that a young girl was interested in posing inside a coffin at a football game tailgate.

Come on

Why is organized religion such a disaster?!?!!?

Target Practice

Yes, I went to archery lanes in Queens on Wednesday night. And I even got a legit bullseye on my 8th arrow.


Of course I was only about 15 feet away. But still. Unfortunately though, I didn't get to hunt the people in the parking lot at the Jets game today. It's an interesting cross-section of the population. Let's just say that I wasn't talking to anyone about shopping for suits.

At the game, I sat near a man wearing a Pat Tillman Arizona State jersey. Tillman was a class act. This man was not. I overheard him say:

"You know what's a fun trick. Just yell 'Blackhawk' any time you see an Arab. The sucker'll just hit the deck immediately. Now that is some fun shit!"

Simmons on Colbert

In case you didn't see Bill Simmons on The Colbert Report, check this out. His voice is a little high-pitched, but he did better than I expected after I first read about him. It's hard to compete with the brilliance of Colbert, but Simmons gave a decent understated performance.

Go on

Have some fun with this site that tracks the popularity of baby names from the late 19th century to today.

AKS

Read more about his book.

Reading time

Begin with this article about the burgeoning field of Neuroeconomics. Makes me wish I subscribed to The New Yorker. Then again, I can get a lot of their great articles for free on the internet...

Then take a look at the website for John Hodgman's book The Areas of My Expertise. Hodgman, a YALE GRADUATE, gave a good interview last night at the UCB Theatre. And his publisher's generosity gave me a good free book. Read more about the man (he's also the PC in the PC vs. Mac commercials) in his Wikipedia entry.

Ode to the Avocado

A haiku:

Beautiful green fruit.
Heart of the Turkey Av. Fill
me with your flavor.

For more about the avocado, read here.

Big News

All weekly NFL game tapes at the League Office are now available exclusively on DVD instead of VHS. This will make viewing them and carrying them around the office far easier for me. Huzzah!

NYC Junto

A good time was had by all (even though Ariel and I didn't stay long enough) at the most recent NYC Junto event, featuring Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution (and George Mason University) fame. The Delino Krew and Ariel were the youngest people there by a lot. Victor Niederhoffer put on quite a show.

Some thoughts on terrorism

Too much hysteria. Obviously it's a terrible thing, but the U.S. fearmongering only makes the terrorists feel more like they accomplished something. For more eloquent examinations of the subject, read John Mueller and Bruce Schneier.

Football is not that complicated

This is a good article about the insane hours that NFL coaches claim to work.

Something else

If you've got some free time, check out Serf City, the New York Libertarian newspaper. Wow.

Fearless Predictions

No one is gonna hold me accountable for incorrect predictions and I can shove these in your face 5 months from now if I am right.

But first, if you have a chance to look at today's USA Today sports section, check out page 8E. I wrote a bunch of NFL preview paragraphs. From the Saints-Browns game down to the Cardinals-49ers game.

Now on to the absurdity:

NFC East: 1. Giants, 2. Eagles (Wild Card), 3. Redskins, 4. Cowboys
NFC North: 1. Bears, 2. Lions, 3. Vikings, 4. Packers
NFC South: 1. Panthers, 2. Buccaneers (Wild Card), 3. Falcons, 4. Saints
NFC West: 1. Seahawks, 2. Cardinals, 3. Rams, 4. 49ers

AFC East: 1. Patriots, 2. Dolphins (Wild Card), 3. Bills, 4. Jets
AFC North: 1. Steelers, 2. Bengals (Wild Card), 3. Ravens, 4. Browns
AFC South: 1. Colts, 2. Jaguars, 3. Titans, 4. Texans
AFC West: 1. Broncos, 2. Chargers, 3. Chiefs, 4. Raiders

Super Bowl: Colts over Panthers (ugh, I just threw up in my mouth picking that obvious a choice...but I think it is the most likely scenario...which still makes it VERY unlikely)

Borat Update

The Gray Lady has an article about the Borat movie today.

The film is being screened at the Toronto Film Festival and:

Mr. Baron Cohen, who is appearing in Toronto as Borat, declined to be interviewed for this article and will be conducting interviews ahead of the film only in character.

Is this 1997?

Oh, wait, it's not. So Mark Brunell is not that good anymore. Which means that the Redskins could be in some serious trouble. The NFC East is probably the best division in the NFL now and every single team there has a very difficult schedule. I think that the Giants are the best team though, so they will win the division. More predictions to follow.

Something political

In my opinion, this is a great post by Glenn Greenwald. Don't worry though, I'm still a moderate on The Facebook.

Ah, parody

Ever hear of Michiko Kakutani? I thought not. Now, after you read that, read this article. It is excellent (thanks Eric).

For example:

I caused a lot of trouble when I characterized Zora Neale Hurston's work as "an overrated hodgepodge exalted by three generations of self-hating, guilt-ridden white men," but I got an A.

Crikey!

Steve Irwin, better known as the Crocodile Hunter, dies in an all-too-expected horrific accident with a deadly animal.

Tennis Instant Replay

A brilliant system that definitely should have implemented sooner. Baseball could learn a few things. Also, men's tennis is far more entertaining than women's tennis. The quality of play is much higher and there is way more competitive balance, except when it comes to Federer and Nadal, two players who are definitely a cut above. Watch the U.S. Open.

He's Still Got It!

Boris is back. For those of you with short memories, I refer you to this post. Boris cut my hair for the first time in many years and I think he did an excellent job (I hope so anyway...). Emin was not there today, so this made the decision easier. What happens next time when Emin is there? We shall see, readers, we shall see. But it was good to see Boris again after all these years.

My Name a Borat

The Trailer.

Bloggin' Ain't Easy

Although I think that vacations can inspire new blog posts.

Schiavo before there was Schiavo

A 13-year-old Theresa Marie Schiavo must have been transfixed by the Karen Ann Quinlan saga. Too bad there weren't blogs and the internet back then.