Archives: May 2007
Wed May 30, 2007
Bumpersticker
"Could somebody give George Bush a blowjob so we can impeach him?"
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Sat May 26, 2007
His Dark Materials Arrives
The on shelf next to Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, sits Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" triology. Most people I know have never heard it it. This December, the first book's film adaptation is released. The trailer looks very good, expecially the witches.
More...
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Thu May 24, 2007
Retired
Everyone once in a while, a phrase keeps repeating and repeating in my head. Sometimes the repetition ends with my writing something that contains or explores the phrase. I hope very much that it is not pathological. Anyway, today the phrase was "threw up in my mouth a little." The Google index contains 48,000 instances of the phrase, including this one from March 27, 2005 " 'I just threw up in my mouth a little bit' has seen its day." One can take heart there there are only 796 meaningful results. Not that I looked at every one, but I didn't see any that pre-dated 2005.
I hope that worked. whew. I think it did.
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My Heroes
I may have told this story before, but I'll tell it again. When I decided that I would write for my college newspaper, liked it enough I thought I might be a journalist my entire life. And if I did, I hoped that I might interview two people: Douglas Hofstadter and Linus Pauling. Hafstadter because I was reading Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid that year; and Pauling because he was my favorite chemist. I was able to interview them both in my first quarter of writing for City on a Hill. More...
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Spring, 2007
I swear, the essays by Garrison Keillor are worth the price of an annual Salon subscription. More...
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The Importance of the Performance Bonus
The McArthur Maze will be opened this weekend. Although the contract when to the lowest-bidder, officials have no fear that the work was completed with substandard materials or craftsmanship. There was a $200,000 per day bonus for finishing early on a $900K job. More...
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Boardwalk Stories
The papers have been full of stories (in the Mercury, and here's more from City on a Hill, Salinas Californian, Sentinel, and KPIX) commemorating the 100th year of the building of the current casino and the Big Dipper. Lots of people are telling stories of their boardwalk memories. I have a story too. My First Lesbian Experience in Santa Cruz.
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Twisted and Sick
I love the work of Elain Pagels, a scholar who specializes in the Gnostic Gospels. Here's an interview with her on her new book about the Gospel of Judas. More...
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Moneygami
Long ago a homeless mechanic taught me to fold a dollar bill into a ring. I'm proud to have that skill and I'm bummed I can't put it on my resume. The art has evolved.
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Tue May 22, 2007
Why are the bees dying?
Everyone is worried about the bees. I'm not sure if this is true, but this article says that the organic beekeepers who don't try to grow supersized bees, who don't use pesticides, and who don't move the colonies around and around the countryside don't lose their hives. I don't know how dependable the source is, but of course it makes sense.
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Stealing Our Money
Recently, all UC employees were required to take an online "ethics briefing." The briefing stated clearly that the intent was not to teach us ethical behavior, but to simply make us aware of university policies. They do this so that when any of us is accused of stealing taxpayers' money, we can't claim that "everybody was doing it and therefore I didn't think it was wrong." The briefing is offered AFTER millions have already been stolen by Regents and their friends. More...
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Sun May 20, 2007
Dirty Food
We can all learn from the results of 5-second rule experiments. Peace of mind.
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Fake Accent
This Salon article which pretends to be an interview with Tinky-Winky commenting on the death of Jerry Falwell is funny enough on its own. But I liked it because I think it was written by an American trying on an English accent.
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