Appearing in September. Guest entry by Patti Digh, author of Life Is A Verb.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Flowers... a weekly conservative comedy
"HOW DOES rejecting Obama mean that we're racists? It might mean that for some people. But there are an awful lot of voters who actually prefer John McCain because they're attracted to his experience, his politics and his values."
excerpted from Winning... & Whining
by Christine M. Flowers
published Aug. 29, 2008
Philadelphia Daily News
excerpted from Winning... & Whining
by Christine M. Flowers
published Aug. 29, 2008
Philadelphia Daily News
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
strange horoscope
Aries (March 21 - April 19)
"Provoke arguments by trying to force your opinions on others."
click here for complete zodiac, Aug. 27th
"Provoke arguments by trying to force your opinions on others."
click here for complete zodiac, Aug. 27th
Monday, August 25, 2008
Maybe It's a Leonardo DiCaprio*
When a portrait of a mysterious young woman with an enigmatic smile came up at a Christie's auction in 1998, it was attributed to the German School, early 19th century, and sold for $21,850. Now some are saying - and others disputing - that it's a previously unknown drawing by Leonardo da Vinci. The difference would run into quite a few million dollars.
complete article by ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
Published: August 22, 2008
*actual New York Times blurb headline
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Time for ... soup?
You bet. Chilled varieties, flavored and fortified by the season's harvest, offer a fresh alternative to the usual summer fare.
Chilled Avocado Cucumber Soup With Jumbo Lump Crab and Cherry tomatoes
Makes 4 servings
For the Soup:
4 avocados
1 clove garlic
1/2 cucumber, chopped
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons scallion, chopped
2 limes, juiced
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
6 cups water
Salt and pepper to taste
For the Garnish:
1/2 pound jumbo lump crab meat (cleaned)
6 cherry tomatoes halved
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped chives
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of cayenne (optional)
1. In a blender, combine all the ingredients. Leave on high until completely smooth. Taste for seasoning. You may have to do two batches if your blender isn't large enough.
2. Pour the soup into a storage container and put in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Refrigerate the serving bowls at this time.
Prepare the Garnish:
1. For the garnish, pick through the crabmeat and make sure there are no leftover shell pieces. Place the crabmeat in a mixing bowl with the oil, halved cherry tomatoes, and finely chopped chives. Season with salt and pepper.
To Serve:
1. Pour the soup into 4 chilled bowls. Spoon the crab salad into the center of each soup. Drizzle some of the leftover oil from the mixing bowl around the salad. For a little spice, sprinkle some cayenne pepper over the top.
- From chef Ben Puchowitz, Matyson restaurant, Philadelphia.
Per serving: 597 calories, 19 grams protein, 36 grams carbohydrates, 14 grams sugar, 47 grams fat, 55 milligrams cholesterol, 190 milligrams sodium, 19 grams dietary fiber
More Chilled Soup Recipes including:
Sweet Corn Vichyssoise
Sweet Pea Soup With Cucumber Salsa
Chilled Melon Soup
Mango and Lime Soup
from an article By Dianna Marder
Philadelphia Inquirer Food Columnist
published Thu, Aug. 21, 2008
Chilled Avocado Cucumber Soup With Jumbo Lump Crab and Cherry tomatoes
Makes 4 servings
For the Soup:
4 avocados
1 clove garlic
1/2 cucumber, chopped
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons scallion, chopped
2 limes, juiced
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
6 cups water
Salt and pepper to taste
For the Garnish:
1/2 pound jumbo lump crab meat (cleaned)
6 cherry tomatoes halved
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped chives
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of cayenne (optional)
1. In a blender, combine all the ingredients. Leave on high until completely smooth. Taste for seasoning. You may have to do two batches if your blender isn't large enough.
2. Pour the soup into a storage container and put in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Refrigerate the serving bowls at this time.
Prepare the Garnish:
1. For the garnish, pick through the crabmeat and make sure there are no leftover shell pieces. Place the crabmeat in a mixing bowl with the oil, halved cherry tomatoes, and finely chopped chives. Season with salt and pepper.
To Serve:
1. Pour the soup into 4 chilled bowls. Spoon the crab salad into the center of each soup. Drizzle some of the leftover oil from the mixing bowl around the salad. For a little spice, sprinkle some cayenne pepper over the top.
- From chef Ben Puchowitz, Matyson restaurant, Philadelphia.
Per serving: 597 calories, 19 grams protein, 36 grams carbohydrates, 14 grams sugar, 47 grams fat, 55 milligrams cholesterol, 190 milligrams sodium, 19 grams dietary fiber
More Chilled Soup Recipes including:
Sweet Corn Vichyssoise
Sweet Pea Soup With Cucumber Salsa
Chilled Melon Soup
Mango and Lime Soup
from an article By Dianna Marder
Philadelphia Inquirer Food Columnist
published Thu, Aug. 21, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Typo As Truth
"His top contenders are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Less traditional choices mentioned include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential prick in 2000 who now is an independent."
link
via Wordie: Errata
link
via Wordie: Errata
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Did You Know?
Grass Goes Dormant in Summer Heat
If your lawn is brown and dry, don't stress it with too much watering. During the hottest months of July and August, grasses can become semi-dormant but return to a healthy green in cooler wetter weather of autumn.
With good lawn maintenance throughout the rest of the year, watering during the summer months could be kept down to an acceptable minimum. The best time to do your watering is in the early hours of the day. Doing this will allow the water the chance to evaporate during the day and prevent damage to your lawn.
During the driest period of the summer, our lawns usually will require about one inch of water every week to stay green and growing. Water infrequently (weekly) and deeply (six to eight inches) with one inch of water each time.
Lawns will come back in the cooler, wetter weather, and then you can think about reseeding and refurbishing. Meanwhile, the good news is that dormant lawns won't need frequent mowing.
If your lawn is brown and dry, don't stress it with too much watering. During the hottest months of July and August, grasses can become semi-dormant but return to a healthy green in cooler wetter weather of autumn.
With good lawn maintenance throughout the rest of the year, watering during the summer months could be kept down to an acceptable minimum. The best time to do your watering is in the early hours of the day. Doing this will allow the water the chance to evaporate during the day and prevent damage to your lawn.
During the driest period of the summer, our lawns usually will require about one inch of water every week to stay green and growing. Water infrequently (weekly) and deeply (six to eight inches) with one inch of water each time.
Lawns will come back in the cooler, wetter weather, and then you can think about reseeding and refurbishing. Meanwhile, the good news is that dormant lawns won't need frequent mowing.
Monday, August 18, 2008
"Again, if you vote for John McCain you are a complete moron."*
one more example:
McCain: Obama tried to legislate Iraqi failure
*title quote via:
Zoe Strauss
gif imagery via:
sodahead
Bad Writing, Inspired by New York
The annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest for bad writing has produced another collection of painful prose, The Associated Press reported. The competition, sponsored by the San Jose State University English department since 1982, invites writers to submit the worst possible opening sentences to imaginary novels and includes awards for a variety of categories. This year’s winner compares a New York City street to a romantic relationship.
“Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped ‘Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J.’ ”
The passage was written by Garrison Spik, 41, , a communications director and writer from Washington. The contest, named for Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, whose 1830 novel “Paul Clifford,” begins, “It was a dark and stormy night,” awards a $250 prize to the winner.
excerpted from Arts, Briefly
Compiled by Julie Bloom
Published: August 14, 2008
The New York Times
“Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped ‘Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J.’ ”
The passage was written by Garrison Spik, 41, , a communications director and writer from Washington. The contest, named for Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, whose 1830 novel “Paul Clifford,” begins, “It was a dark and stormy night,” awards a $250 prize to the winner.
excerpted from Arts, Briefly
Compiled by Julie Bloom
Published: August 14, 2008
The New York Times
Saturday, August 16, 2008
call-and-response
I Love You, I Hate You
comment:
August 15th 2008 1:01 PM (23 hours ago) | Posted by: Greg
i hope you get an STD and die you golddigger
original post:
PUSSY FAVORS
Hey this goes out to the guy that likes me and he is married!! Ok, get a clue you are fuckin old and I am not!! Do you think that you and I really can get together and get it started without any money going in my hand!! If you were a real baller you would give me money in my hand and say to me..go ahead and go shopping and get what you want! Don't you think that is what younger girls want...nothing else but money.....and you can keep your old dick to yourself...I don't want that either...maybe you can eat the pussy...maybe depending on how I feel..but just don't scream out your wife's name while your dumb ass is pleasing me!! Truthfully STOP coming at me wanting me to go out with you cause it is not going to happen..if it does it will be on my terms. Sign soon to be counting your money in my hands!
August 14, 2008
Philadelphia Weekly
comment:
August 15th 2008 1:01 PM (23 hours ago) | Posted by: Greg
i hope you get an STD and die you golddigger
original post:
PUSSY FAVORS
Hey this goes out to the guy that likes me and he is married!! Ok, get a clue you are fuckin old and I am not!! Do you think that you and I really can get together and get it started without any money going in my hand!! If you were a real baller you would give me money in my hand and say to me..go ahead and go shopping and get what you want! Don't you think that is what younger girls want...nothing else but money.....and you can keep your old dick to yourself...I don't want that either...maybe you can eat the pussy...maybe depending on how I feel..but just don't scream out your wife's name while your dumb ass is pleasing me!! Truthfully STOP coming at me wanting me to go out with you cause it is not going to happen..if it does it will be on my terms. Sign soon to be counting your money in my hands!
August 14, 2008
Philadelphia Weekly
Then Everybody Launched Into the "Kit-Kat" Song
(woman walks into packed theater looking for boyfriend)
Woman, yelling: Jim*? Jim, where are you?
Random guy in the audience #1: Here!
Random guy #2: Over here!
Random guy #3: Here!
(entire theater starts shouting "here!")
Woman: C'mon, gimme a break.
--Imax Theater
Overheard by: Goober
[via]
Woman, yelling: Jim*? Jim, where are you?
Random guy in the audience #1: Here!
Random guy #2: Over here!
Random guy #3: Here!
(entire theater starts shouting "here!")
Woman: C'mon, gimme a break.
--Imax Theater
Overheard by: Goober
[via]
Reclaiming English from the English
Are you listening, England? We’re taking English back from you. Sorry it had to come to this.
You did a bang-up job carrying it along for the last millennium or so (rounding up, anyway), and don’t think we don’t appreciate that. We really do.
But last week, in the Times Higher Education magazine, British criminology professor Ken Smith wrote a piece advocating the acceptance of the 20 most common misspellings he sees on students’ papers. The list is an abomination.
“Febuary,” “arguement,” “opertunity,” “speach,” “truely,” “thier”—all okay in his book. A book, one might imagine, that’s damn near unreadable.
“Instead of complaining about the state of the education system,” Smith writes, “university teachers should simply accept as variant spelling those words our students most commonly misspell.”
His reasoning, an oversimplified descriptivist argument, sounds innocent enough: “The spelling of the word ‘judgement,’ for example, is now widely accepted as a variant of ‘judgment,’ so why can’t ‘truely’ be accepted as a variant spelling of ‘truly’?”
I’m all about language adaptation, but you won’t find a descriptivist on the planet who says it’s okay for the spelling of every word to change with the wind. Do that and it’s chaos on a stick.
Remember, Britain? That’s how you used to write. And it sucked. You standardized things for a reason.
Ever read an unedited Shakespeare folio? Godawful. “Whether ’tis Nobler in the minde to suffer/ The Slings and Arrowes of outragious Fortune … ” There’s nothing noble about suffering the piss-poor spelling mistakes of undereducated university students.
British bloggers and commenters, to their credit, are up in arms about this. Smith, though he has some defenders, has been largely flayed.
But it’s not enough. We’re in charge now.
And boy, there are gonna be some changes.
First up: Get on the bus, “queue,” “petrol” and “holiday.” Yer outta here.
Now anybody got some extra Zs? These Brits are gonna have to recognise a new organisation around here.
--The Angry Grammarian
by Jeffrey Barg
You did a bang-up job carrying it along for the last millennium or so (rounding up, anyway), and don’t think we don’t appreciate that. We really do.
But last week, in the Times Higher Education magazine, British criminology professor Ken Smith wrote a piece advocating the acceptance of the 20 most common misspellings he sees on students’ papers. The list is an abomination.
“Febuary,” “arguement,” “opertunity,” “speach,” “truely,” “thier”—all okay in his book. A book, one might imagine, that’s damn near unreadable.
“Instead of complaining about the state of the education system,” Smith writes, “university teachers should simply accept as variant spelling those words our students most commonly misspell.”
His reasoning, an oversimplified descriptivist argument, sounds innocent enough: “The spelling of the word ‘judgement,’ for example, is now widely accepted as a variant of ‘judgment,’ so why can’t ‘truely’ be accepted as a variant spelling of ‘truly’?”
I’m all about language adaptation, but you won’t find a descriptivist on the planet who says it’s okay for the spelling of every word to change with the wind. Do that and it’s chaos on a stick.
Remember, Britain? That’s how you used to write. And it sucked. You standardized things for a reason.
Ever read an unedited Shakespeare folio? Godawful. “Whether ’tis Nobler in the minde to suffer/ The Slings and Arrowes of outragious Fortune … ” There’s nothing noble about suffering the piss-poor spelling mistakes of undereducated university students.
British bloggers and commenters, to their credit, are up in arms about this. Smith, though he has some defenders, has been largely flayed.
But it’s not enough. We’re in charge now.
And boy, there are gonna be some changes.
First up: Get on the bus, “queue,” “petrol” and “holiday.” Yer outta here.
Now anybody got some extra Zs? These Brits are gonna have to recognise a new organisation around here.
--The Angry Grammarian
by Jeffrey Barg
Friday, August 15, 2008
Age of Aquarius
Horoscope as Koan:
The rules for the airport and the rules for life are the same: Don't pick up any baggage that doesn't belong for you. At best, doing so is an awkward mistake and at worst, it's downright dangerous.
--Holiday Mathis
August 14, 2008
The rules for the airport and the rules for life are the same: Don't pick up any baggage that doesn't belong for you. At best, doing so is an awkward mistake and at worst, it's downright dangerous.
--Holiday Mathis
August 14, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Poetry
To Whom It May Concern
-- by J.V. Cunningham
After so many decades of ... of what?
I have a permanent sabbatical.
I pass my time on actuarial time.
Listen to music, and going to bed
Leave something at the bottom of the glass,
A little wastefulness to end the day.
via: The Dust Congress
-- by J.V. Cunningham
After so many decades of ... of what?
I have a permanent sabbatical.
I pass my time on actuarial time.
Listen to music, and going to bed
Leave something at the bottom of the glass,
A little wastefulness to end the day.
via: The Dust Congress
Update
most recent cookie fortune:
You find beauty in ordinary things.
Do not lose this ability.
Daily Numbers: 3 1 9
Lotto Six #'s: 26 44 20 45 22 31
previous fortune:
A good time to start something
new.
Daily Numbers: 9 4 8
Lotto Six #'s: 11 26 35 44 38 30
You find beauty in ordinary things.
Do not lose this ability.
Daily Numbers: 3 1 9
Lotto Six #'s: 26 44 20 45 22 31
previous fortune:
A good time to start something
new.
Daily Numbers: 9 4 8
Lotto Six #'s: 11 26 35 44 38 30
Monday, August 11, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
A.A. Dispatch From The Field (8/5/08)
Breaking/Readers Write: Aboard The 15 Trolley Wreck
Was just on the 15 trolley. Left before more police and medical personal arrived on the scene. Trolley had about 15, maybe 20 passengers on board. No serious injuries among passengers though the driver was in pain. You can never tell how serious internal injuries are until checked out but again, no blood. Accident occurred around 10:45 a.m.
We had just made the large turn off Richmond St. onto Girard Ave, (over the large hill and under 95) and were slowing down when the flatbed, carrying no cargo tried to make a u-turn on Girard (was traveling West trying to go East/North).
Trolley horns/honks plus curses when we hit the empty bed of the truck. We were stopped dead in the tracks. Visible damage to the front end of the trolley. Door was open so I left. Didn’t think it appropriate to ask driver for transfer. Like I said, he seemed to be in pain.
Didn’t have a cell phone so no pictures. Also, the license plate of the flatbed was Pennsylvania issued not New Jersey."
[via]
Was just on the 15 trolley. Left before more police and medical personal arrived on the scene. Trolley had about 15, maybe 20 passengers on board. No serious injuries among passengers though the driver was in pain. You can never tell how serious internal injuries are until checked out but again, no blood. Accident occurred around 10:45 a.m.We had just made the large turn off Richmond St. onto Girard Ave, (over the large hill and under 95) and were slowing down when the flatbed, carrying no cargo tried to make a u-turn on Girard (was traveling West trying to go East/North).
Trolley horns/honks plus curses when we hit the empty bed of the truck. We were stopped dead in the tracks. Visible damage to the front end of the trolley. Door was open so I left. Didn’t think it appropriate to ask driver for transfer. Like I said, he seemed to be in pain.
Didn’t have a cell phone so no pictures. Also, the license plate of the flatbed was Pennsylvania issued not New Jersey."
[via]
Monday, August 4, 2008
most recent cookie fortune
Age can never hope to with
you while your heart is young.
Lucky Numbers 4, 8, 12, 18, 29, 39
you while your heart is young.
Lucky Numbers 4, 8, 12, 18, 29, 39
