Wednesday, May 28, 2008

UPDATE: Editorial Lightning Round (*)

Barnes Foundation Editorial:

The Barnes' future
Let it end.
And let it begin.

A Montgomery County judge ruled May 15 that the Barnes Foundation can move its world-class collection of Impressionist, African and modern art from Lower Merion to a site on the Ben Franklin Parkway.

A group called Friends of the Barnes Foundation had sought to block the move, but Judge Stanley Ott of Montgomery County Orphans' Court ruled that the group lacked legal standing.

We hope this is the last chapter in a long, tedious, tortured story. Opponents have fought the move since 2002. They will be sad when the move occurs. But the new home offers the best shot at the future the Barnes collection merits.

The Philadelphia Inquirer
Editorial Page
May 27, 2008


(previously)


(*) Note: The Editorial Board of Automotive Acne (Productions) STRONGLY disagrees with the Inquirer editorial published 05-27-08 in the Philadelphia Inquirer

The Precipice Of Pop Insanity


Gilbert & George
POWER 1988
169 x 142 cm
Private collection

“Sister Oum Obeyda is virtuous among the virtuous; her life is dedicated to the good on this earth.

For her, the Taliban was a model Islamic government and reports of its mistreatment of women were untrue. “Women didn’t have problems under the Taliban,” she insisted. “They had security.”

(full article)

other tribal news:

Oyster Farmers Find a Boutique in the Bay

more food:

"I’M forever looking for new ways to cook soft-shell crabs. So when the splendid Los Angeles chef (Angeli Caffe) and radio host (KCRW’s “Good Food” show) Evan Kleiman mentioned to me that she served soft-shells on top of pasta, I thought, 'Yes, well, that’s obvious enough — once a good cook mentions it to you!' Then I got to work."

MARK BITTMAN

Article & Recipe

All My Friends In LA Love Me More Than You


!Go Spurs!

updates:

Part III - Spurs have more talent in pipeline

Part II - Five wrongs and NBA still can't get it right in Fisher-Barry no-call

Part I - NBA: Foul should have been called at end of Game 4

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The Value of a Human Life: $129,000

In theory, a year of human life is priceless. In reality, it's worth $50,000.

more health news:

Children in Katrina trailers may face lifelong ailments

May 27th

Today's Highlights in History

On May 27, 1964, independent India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, died.


On May 27, 1907, Rachel Carson, the American biologist whose books helped inspire the environmental movement, was born. Following her death on April 14, 1964, her obituary appeared in The Times.


On May 27, 1865, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the capture of Jefferson Davis at the end of the Civil War.


On this date in:

1647 Alse Young became the first person executed as a witch in America when she was hanged in Hartford, Conn.

1896 A tornado struck St. Louis and East St. Louis, Ill., killing 255 people.

1935 The Supreme Court struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act.

1937 The Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, Calif., opened.

1941 The British navy sank the German battleship Bismarck off France with a loss of more than 2,100 lives.

1963 The album "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan," which featured the song "Blowin' in the Wind," was released.

1994 Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia after spending two decades in exile.

1995 Actor Christopher Reeve was paralyzed when he was thrown from his horse during a jumping event in Charlottesville, Va. (He died in 2004.)

1996 Russian President Boris Yeltsin negotiated a cease-fire to the war in Chechnya in his first meeting with the rebels' leader.

1997 The Supreme Court ruled Paula Jones could pursue her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton while he was in office.

1998 Michael Fortier, the government's star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing case, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after apologizing for not warning anyone about the deadly plot.

1999 A U.N. tribunal indicted Slobodan Milosevic for crimes against humanity, holding the Yugoslav president personally responsible for the horrors in Kosovo.

2006 A 6.3-magnitude earthquake in central Indonesia killed at least 5,800 people.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Low & Outside

Slams yes, cycles no

Mike Lowell hit one of Boston's two grand slams Thursday night against Kansas City.

But he assured reporters afterward that he probably will never hit for the cycle. With a single, double and homer, he came within one hit of the cycle for the seventh time as a member of the Red Sox, and 14th time in his career.

"I can't hit a triple," the third baseman said in the Boston Globe. "I need two outfielders to run into each other, and they both have to be on stretchers as the third outfielder throws home while I'm sliding head-first into third."

Home run historian David Vincent told the Globe that two grand slams by the same team in the same game has happened only 72 times since 1876. Over that identical time period, there have been 245 no-hitters.

related:

High & Inside

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

herspace.com



Hillary Clinton's run for her money


Clinton pushes on despite $20,000,000 debt, Oregon loss

related:

Hillary's Interests

Favorite food to cook: Im a lousy cook, but I make pretty good soft scrambled eggs.

Desert island necessity: A good book.

Favorite reality TV program: American Idol.

Favorite fitness activity: Speed walking.

Worst habit: Chocolate.

Sleeping-in time: I feel lucky when I can sleep until 7 a.m.

Hidden talent: I love crossword puzzles.

Last music purchase: Carly Simons Into White.

Cars you drive: For security reasons, we drive in Secret Service vehicles but the Service lets us use a Ford hybrid when were home in New York.

Home task that needs tending: Organizing my closets.

Last work of non-fiction read: Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Pets at home: Seamus, our Lab.

Best and worst grades or subjects in school: I always loved history and got good grades, but I never did well at math.

Item that most reminds you of where you came from: Olive burgers from the Pickwick in Chicago.

updates:

Clinton evokes ghosts of Bush v. Gore

What Does Hillary Want?

In most inclusive count, Clinton has the numbers

Obama's political team out-organized Clinton

Monday, May 19, 2008

Kahn house draws no takers at $2 million



"Modernist homes can work, however, if this home is priced at 4 times the neighborhood average, then that could be a serious obstacle to a sale in this depressed economy. Perhaps, if the home could be moved to the Parkway and used as a museum attraction it might work better."

more:

background information and photographs of the Esherick House designed by architect Louis Kahn

(*) commentary:

Live in, but don't touch

(*) editor's note: don't agree with the tone of the article although I think the final (summary) paragraph is mostly correct.

"the animals are practically giddy as they waddle up to the feeding tube"

cookcabulary:

Foie gras (FWAH GRAH)

Currently occupying what might be the food world’s most contentious love/hate relationship, foie gras (literally translated as “fat liver”) represents the height of gastronomic pleasure or a reprehensible act of cruelty, depending on your point of view.

While the term classically applies to goose liver, ducks also get in on the act. The bird’s exercise is restricted, and it’s force-fed by a feeding tube, producing a liver enlarged up to 10 times its normal size. Animal rights groups such as PETA condemn the activity. Gourmands, who admire its delicate taste and satiny texture, counter with claims that the birds’ esophageal structure makes force-feeding painless and say the animals are practically giddy as they waddle up to the feeding tube.

Foie gras production is now prohibited in 17 countries, including the United Kingdom, Italy and Israel. Legislation in California will ban production there by 2012. Movements to outlaw it are making inroads in New York, and Chicago’s recent ban erupted in colorful controversy.

Whatever your views, the practice is nothing new. The French are the world’s biggest consumers of foie gras, which dates back to ancient Egypt and was well known in classical Rome. The tradition was kept alive by Jews, whose dietary laws prohibited the lard their central and western European neighbors used in cooking. By the Middle Ages, gentile gastronomes were going to Jewish neighborhoods on liver-shopping expeditions. Pope Pius V was apparently a fan.

Wherever you live, you’ll pay dearly for a taste—prices can run you up to a hundred bucks a pound.


related:

What Does Chicago's Repeal of the Foie Gras Ban Mean for Philly?

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Quote

"They couldn't be practicing Muslims, no way. The Quran forbids a man to imitate a woman," said Fareed NuMan, an Islamic researcher, after three armed men, two of whom were wearing hijabs and face veils called nik-abs, robbed a bank in Philadelphia Saturday that ended with a dead police officer, a dead perp, one suspect in jail and one suspect on the lam (since apprehended).

(Full Story)



unrelated video:

A confrontation Monday night between three shooting suspects and Philadelphia police turns violent

(article)

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Update

The Last Shot, a small bar located on Alleghany Ave. in the Port Richmond area of Philadelphia was closed by state and city authorities Thursday afternoon because of illicit gambling (horse racing/slot machines) and declared a "nuisance bar". The slot machines were removed from the premises on Wednesday and on Thursday vice squad members noticed a prevalence of betting on the horse races being shown on numerous television screens in the tavern.

No further word when and if the Last Shot will reopen.

(Previously)