shit

Posted on June 23, 2008 - Filed Under

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The Rake:
I thought at a certain point that his later material had gotten carelessly nihilistic; then I got a bit older. Now I see that he was just so damned disappointed, and that no one that disappointed is a nihilist.
Atlantic City

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Ashes to Ashes

Posted on January 7, 2008 - Filed Under

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There is an impressive, but flawed, database out there at work. Donate 20 bucks to the ASPCA, and within weeks, 8 different animal-protection agencies start to bombard me as frequently as Chase. The flaw being the annoying fact that the ASPCA becomes one of the 8 in the rotation–good to know that my [...]

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minerals, ice deposits daily

Posted on December 3, 2007 - Filed Under

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Sometimes — in piques of egomania, no doubt — I consider what song(s) I would like played at my funeral. Summer Babe may be in my current top ten (power ranking in the works?). Trevor at Creekside Review takes us back a bit, digging up this Alex Ross New Yorker piece from ‘97 (along with [...]

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Death Wishes

Posted on August 15, 2007 - Filed Under

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[This is the inaugural edition of "Who's $.02" where you get to match the photo of the man on the street with the response to $.02. Kind of like liars club, dig? I'll even throw in one "fake" response. Bonuse points if you can separate it from the "real" ones. Be sure to send your [...]

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It’s kind of dangerous to be an M.C.

Posted on August 11, 2007 - Filed Under

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Indeed, because an earlier productive optimum means that a writer can die younger without loss to his or her ultimate reputation, poets exhibit a life expectancy, across the globe and through history, about a half dozen years less than prose writers do.

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RIP Lee Hazlewood

Posted on August 7, 2007 - Filed Under

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Met up with a friend in Vegas this weekend who told me his brother is in a phase (actually “phase” is our condescending appellation for what I’m sure he believes is a permanent state) in which he refuses to listen to anything made after 1972. I could see the merit to the position, the [...]

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Gay Bomb - $7,500,000

Posted on June 12, 2007 - Filed Under

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The US Gov’t reportedly spent 7.5 million dollars trying to develop a gay bomb, proposed by the US Air Force in 1994, that would include a two pronged attack on enemy soldiers:

Include a chemical to make them gay.
Include an aphrodisiac so they would drop their arms & pants.

On the one hand, I have to give [...]

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A whole lot of walking to do

Posted on June 6, 2007 - Filed Under

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At bluoz blog: another liberated billboard

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back to choking the chicken

Posted on March 29, 2007 - Filed Under

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A Half Moon Bay man who shot an ostrich to death after the flightless bird pummeled him and his friend when they trespassed on a coastal ranch was ordered released today after serving five months in jail for animal abuse.
Jonathon Porter, 20 — who prosecutors say killed for revenge after the bird humiliated him in [...]

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Murder By Death By Robot

Posted on March 12, 2007 - Filed Under

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From the 30 Strangest Deaths (in HISTORY, no less):
Death by Robot
Robert Williams [wiki] was the first man ever killed by a robot. On January 25, 1979, Williams climbed into a storage rack at the Ford Motor’s Flat Rock casting plant to retrieve a part because the parts-retrieval robot malfunctioned. Suddenly, the robot reactivated and slammed [...]

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Burn ‘em (or don’t become famous)

Posted on January 25, 2007 - Filed Under

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A large collection of Willa Cather’s letters have been donated to the University of Nebraska (despite her instructions for them to never be reprinted - which I guess is slightly different). This article gives a few revelations here and there including that “She had written the epilogue of “Sapphira and the Slave Girl” five years [...]

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Executive Summary

Posted on January 12, 2007 - Filed Under

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Aside from warm woolen mittens, two of my favorite things: (1) Brevity (2) Robot Brains. Happily these two passions of mine collide in Microsoft Word’s “Auto-Summarize” feature, as brought to my attention by Maud Newton.
To make a long story short: here’s the “executive summary” of our state’s executive’s summary: “Our troops in Iraq have fought [...]

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True Crime w/ The Hold Steady?

Posted on December 4, 2006 - Filed Under

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In an interview with Pitchfork, The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn talks about an idea for a novel that’s been bumping around his noggin:
I don’t want to say too much, but it’s a mystery, kind of. But it’s not like a detective story; it’s about people going back into their past. It takes place around a [...]

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Now taking bets on…

Posted on November 20, 2006 - Filed Under

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… how long before Geraldo answers the call.

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I’m In Love With The Living And The Dead

Posted on November 16, 2006 - Filed Under

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Dave Eggers next book: How We Have Very Low Food Security?

George Bush’s next book: How I Might Have Killed Thousands of Iraqis?

The new Bond, Daniel Craig … a British Steve McQueen?

The Tom Green / Bill Clinton defense? Prosecution of a case involving alleged sexual contact with a dead deer may hinge on the legal definition [...]

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and they didn’t so he died

Posted on October 25, 2006 - Filed Under

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By way of Books, Inq, I see today is the late John Berryman’s birthday. Since Sgt. Schultz knows more about poets than I do, I admit not knowing about him until a Hold Steady show in San Diego last year. But better late than never, no?
the devil and john berryman took a walk together
they ended [...]

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Clicks and Hisses

Posted on October 23, 2006 - Filed Under

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The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn in an interview at the Star Tribune:
being a Saul Bellow fan, I was drawn to the fact that Bellow called him [John Berryman] America’s greatest writer,” Finn said. “He became Minneapolis’ most famous suicide. He also had converted to Catholicism before his death. In my mind, all that added up [...]

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Buck O’Neil

Posted on October 9, 2006 - Filed Under

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The Kansas City Star has put together a special section (available online) in their Sunday edition in memory of Buck O’Neil who passed away this weekend. MLB.com also has some multi-media links.

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Can you spot the difference?

Posted on June 19, 2006 - Filed Under

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Florida dog calls 911: receives award; owner lives. Detroit youth calls 911: gets scolded, mom dies.

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Link Dump of the Beast

Posted on June 6, 2006 - Filed Under

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The Omaha World-Herald has given an online platform for cranks to write what they would say to President Bush regarding Immigration to the United States. I’m no stats wizard, but there seem to be two common threads to those wishing to speak to El Jefe.

They speak in incomplete sentences, often switching between yelling and normal [...]

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