"Oh no. Love of my life, please don’t cry. I don’t mean to scare you. For every potential bad omen there will be a favorable one. Just remember, when you are laying in bed and you feel your left arm become numb—that’s me, holding onto you tight… or it’s a stroke. Take a couple of aspirin and go to the nearest ER. You know, just in case, baby."

A Pragmatic Romantic Says Farewell To His Lover, from McSweeney’s

1 month ago on December 15th, 2009 at 9:17 am | Permalink

“Necessity does not imply enthusiasm, however, and Icelanders remain lukewarm europhiles at best – as illustrated by this map, sent in by Icelander Anna Rögnvaldsdóttir. She explains that it is the product of Fiton, an Icelandic ad agency. “Recently, [they] held an in-house poster competition (just for the fun of it, I gather). The challenge: To design a propagandistic poster either in favour of Iceland joining the EU or against.”

(hat tip to the awesome Strange Maps)

3 months ago on October 29th, 2009 at 4:27 pm | Permalink

3 months ago on October 25th, 2009 at 12:17 pm | Permalink

"Believe me, every heart has its secret sorrows, which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad."

Henry W. Longfellow (via MeFi, used in the context of a woman’s guide for men on approaching women without ‘getting maced’)

3 months ago on October 23rd, 2009 at 2:15 pm | Permalink

Adams Morgan metro

3 months ago on October 21st, 2009 at 8:00 am | Permalink

U St metro

3 months ago on October 15th, 2009 at 9:55 am | Permalink

really feeling the Fall today…i must be ready for Halloween and Thanksgiving

3 months ago on October 13th, 2009 at 11:00 am | Permalink

A recent poll discovered an unsettling trend emerging for the first time. American families whose household income is $75,000 or less now have zero dollars of discretionary income. According to Luker, that means about 75 percent of the country can never responsibly afford to go to a live professional sporting event. Franchises want them to be fans, to buy the gear and pull for their teams and watch the telecasts the leagues are paid billions for. But they don’t need them to come to their stadiums. There are, right now, plenty of rich people who love games. The prices reflect that. The reason sporting events cost so much now, Luker’s research shows, is because they are designed to be affordable only to those making $150,000 or more a year.

(great article @ ESPN on the new Yankee Stadium, its relevance to Wall Street, and how the sporting event marketplace has drastically changed)

4 months ago on October 9th, 2009 at 4:41 pm | Permalink

(borrowed from xkcd)

4 months ago on October 9th, 2009 at 9:13 am | Permalink

“I believe firmly in the need for the FCC to preserve Internet openness, whether a person accesses the Internet from a desktop computer or a wireless laptop or netbook,” Mr. Genachowski said.

(great news for Net Neutrality supporters; more on the future of wireless networks at the WSJ)

(side note: back to non-news stuff tomorrow!)

4 months ago on October 8th, 2009 at 2:15 pm | Permalink

Health Care Reform Is a Woman’s Issue

Last week Michelle Obama gave a powerful speech explaining why health insurance reform was a woman’s issue. Her arguments were subsequently dramatized by a telling exchange between Senator John Kyl, a Republican from Arizona, and Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat from Michigan, last Friday in a Senate Finance Committee meeting.

Senator Kyl articulated the view that the federal government should not tell private health insurance companies what benefits they should offer. For instance, he does not think he should be required to pay premiums to help finance maternity costs, since he has never needed maternity care.

As Senator Stabenow calmly observed, “I think your mom did.”

(great read all the way through, you can find it here at the NYT; thanks Maricar)

4 months ago on October 4th, 2009 at 12:06 pm | Permalink