A LOT has happened on this trip down to good old Argentina...but I don´t have time to tell you about it now. As I sit here, the sounds of honking horns and clinking pots and pans is incessant because of the huge strike going on down here. Tomorrow brings a day trip to Uruguay, so we´ll see how things develop.
Luckily I haven´t been affected at all by the beef shortages...yet.
A few people must have read my last post about cast members from The Wire being at the HBO Shop and found out about today's event because the line was much longer and the crowd was much whiter (j/k!). While waiting on line a black guy walked by and said: "Why are you all waiting on line to see some TV characters who sell drugs? Just come up to my hood and you can see it live! We shoot each other too." The little girls in front of us (Berger père, mère et moi) said that they too had drugs in their neighborhood.
Once we got inside and got over the panic of realizing that the posters were all sold out, we got two of the last three Wire books, and set out to get them signed by Omar (Michael K. Williams), Carver (Seth Gilliam), and Marlo (Jamie Hector). I convinced my mom to ask Omar to sign "It's all in the game," but HBO said no personalization. So when she asked, he said "No" and she was crushed...until he flashed that big smile and changed his mind, bringing much joy to our little enclave of fandom. Next, my dad told Omar that he was "the best gay, black stick up artist on television," to which Omar replied that he was the ONLY one. Finally, I snuck in and got Omar to sign "Man's gotta have a code" and all was well in the world.
My dad congratulated Carver on making rank, I told him that I loved his story arc and then I was face to face with Marlo for first time since January. As he was signing my book, he looked over my shoulder and said: "Is that your father?" To which I replied: "Yeah, is it that obvious?" Marlo finished: "The resemblance is there no doubt."
This is not "odd," it's actually logical and I would expect it to appear on an econ blog, not on the "Oddly Enough" ticker in my Gmail. Basically, for those too lazy to read the link or the title of this post, Japan is offering incentives to people over 65 to get them to give up their drivers' licenses. This makes a lot of sense and I have been arguing for this for years. I think that there should be a re-testing mechanism in place as well, but overall I really like this idea. A car in the wrong hands is a death machine, so the fewer death machines on the road, the better.
This problem of old people on the road was most forcefully driven home for me when an elderly driver drove into the lobby of my hotel at the Fashion Mall in Ft. Lauderdale sometime in the late 1990s because he or she could not tell the difference between the gas and the brake pedals.
Eric, you're welcome for the gratuitous Florida reference...I hope you enjoyed it.
I really hate it when people hold open subway doors during rush hour. The worst offenders are people who do it as a favor for someone else, thinking they are doing a good thing. In reality, they are delaying hundreds of other people! Classic tragedy of the commons?
The fact the Times would even mention the idea of Romney as VP should excite all of us! Mittmentum is growing...
Just wanted to get your attention (yes you, Eric). It's a sad day for television (and me), so as AG suggested, I'll just try and get fixated on something else soon.
If you've seen the ENTIRE series, check out this interview with David Simon.
I know that this has been out for awhile, but I'm just starting to use it. SICK! Check out the new search bar!
Like many of my peers, I am constantly on e-mail (work, personal, iPhone). Most of the day, as soon as I get something, I know about it. But sometimes when I respond too quickly I feel sort of weird and pathetic for being so fast, like I was just waiting for this e-mail and I had to respond to it immediately, even when that wasn't the case. I still do it all the time, although sometimes I wait, without much rhyme or reason. Do other people feel this way too?
At least it seems that way. Behold the genesis of Stuff White People Like:
TAN: How did SWPL get started? Take us through the moment of inspiration, white people love knowing that. Behind the Blog, DVD Extras etc.
SWPL: IM conversation. about The Wire. simple as that. my friend declared he didn't not value the opinions or trust anyone who did not watch The Wire. we said "they don't watch because they are too busy doing yoga" and it just spit balled from there. or snowballed. fuck it, it just grew from there.
I just said blog time and up it went.
It's the small victories that count in the global fight against internet addiction:
After Chang-hoon descended, he said, “That was better than games!”
Was it thrilling enough to wean him from the Internet?
“I’m not thinking about games now, so maybe this will help,” he replied. “From now on, maybe I’ll just spend five hours a day online.”
