February 2012
20 posts
2 tags
How 50 Big Companies Got Their Names | BuzzFeed →
I seriously nerded out over this. It was pretty much impossible not to.
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The Hunter Becomes the Hunted | Esquire →
This Esquire article about “Omar Mohammed” by Daniel Voll is beyond fascinating. Beyond reporting the personal experiences of a man determined to make his country a better place—not to mention resolved to redeem himself in a number of ways, whether he actually needs to or not—it gives a good, if all too brief, look at how the United States treats its allies in Iraq, both well and...
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Guy Walks Into A Denny's, Cooks A Burger, Gets... →
From the police report:
He never announced he was one of the pros from Dover, but the briefcase toting gentleman wearing a maroon tie and long black trench coat was quite clear: he had been sent by corporate. He claimed he was the new general manager, that he had worked for the restaurant chain for 30-years and was starting his new job - right now.
It reads like a parody of a noir! More...
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The Umbrella Man | NY Times →
On the 48th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Errol Morris explores the story behind the one man seen standing under an open black umbrella at the site.
This is a couple months old, but it’s still fascinating. I’ve only heard of the Umbrella Man in passing, but I had no idea that he came forward and identified and explained himself some fifteen years...
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The Fifty Most Quoted Lines of Poetry | The Inky... →
On the Internet, at least, as compiled by Google.
So yeah.
Pro Basketball's First Asian-American Player Looks... →
Sports and history together! Love it.
Heart and Heartlessness | Sci-ence! A Skeptical... →
Because it’s Valentine’s Day, after all. Plus I’ve always wondered this myself.
[via It’s Okay to Be Smart]
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Syria's First Family | Slate Magazine →
A graphic about the Assads, the ruling family in Syria currently led by Bashar al-Assad, who used to be a ophthalmology student of all things.
This was especially interesting since I know absolutely nothing about modern Syrian history.
Dutch Volunteers Clear Snow Off Ice, Hoping For A... →
Hans Brinker can suck it.
“Yes, the world’s a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and...”
– Ishmael, Moby-Dick
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“Man is a sinner who needs an overwhelming love.”
– Francis Schaeffer in Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus
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“Suddenly I turned around and she was standin’ there
With silver bracelets...”
– Bob Dylan, “Shelter From the Storm,”
January 2012
23 posts
5 tags
A Fighter Abroad | Grantland →
Alan Jacobs linked to this piece by Brian Phillips about a freed American slave who fought what amounted to England’s unofficial boxing champion in 1810.
Not only is the tale supremely interesting (and, as Jacobs mentioned, powerful), but its glances into how we view sports and players (not to mention the importance of good and thorough sportswriting, although I suppose that goes for all...
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“I want no women in my life.
[…]
I could have conquered Europe—all of...”
– Henry II in The Lion in Winter [by James Goldman]
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“Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.”
– Ishmael, Moby-Dick
draggedfightingfromhistomb:
it’s not so much that expectation always leads to disappointment. it’s just that things don’t ever go the way we plan them, and our expectations make us miss all the accidental gold.
“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what’s a heaven for?”
– Robert Browning, Andrea del Santo
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Power *Moby-Dick*: The Online Annotation →
I have finally decided to read Moby-Dick, that masterpiece of American literature, but my attempts to find my Modern Library copy of the novel have resulted in me living the plot, only my copy of Moby-Dick is my Moby-Dick, as it were.
Thanks to NPR’s pop culture blog Monkey See, however, I’m able to read the whole thing online, meaning that I can read it wherever I am and have my...
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“But no more of this blubbering now, we are going a-whaling, and there is plenty...”
– Ishmael, Moby-Dick
"graupel" | Merriam-Webster Online →
This is a word? Unbelievable! When would anyone ever need a synonym for “granular snow”?
Doesn’t matter. Man, do I love the English language.
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Nothing good gets away | Letters of Note →
When John Steinbeck’s oldest son fell in love, he asked his dad for advice, which was given:
And don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens—The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.
This is just wonderful. Read the whole thing.
[via Brain Pickings]
“There isn’t any symbolysm [sic]. The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man....”
– Ernest Hemingway
New Year’s Resolution Reading List: 9 Essential Books on Reading and Writing | Brain Pickings
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“Finally” I join Huffduffer | Practically... →
J. Eddie Smith IV:
Huffduffer is kinda like Instapaper for podcasts. Ever want to listen to a single episode of a show but not subscribe to the show? Yes? Then Huffduffer is for you. It lets you create your own custom podcast feed.
Not only that, but you can really add any kind of linked audio file to Huffduffer, meaning that I’ve actually started catching up on some of my backlog of...
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A flabby mass of clichés | Letters of Note →
Raymond Chandler wrote a nice little note to Alfred Hitchcock about working on the script for the director’s classic Strangers on a Train:
What a waste of money! What a waste of time! It’s no answer to say that I was well paid. Nobody can be adequately paid for wasting his time.
Wonderful. And I don’t even think I agree.
[via IMDb]
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Poe at 200 | The Smart Set →
Nick Mamatas:
Imagine the school board meeting — the kids are reading some dangerous literature in English class. Murder, drunkenness, torture, madness, and not even a sliver of moral instruction. If the students weren’t already so resentful, they might even like what they’ve been given to read, it’s so cool. Imagine the class discussion about the theme of, say, “The...
Eight sure-fire weight loss tips | kottke.org →
If your idea of a holiday workout is lifting glasses of beer late into the night, then it’s not just the extra calories you need to worry about. Randy Nelson and his team at Ohio State University in Columbus found that mice exposed to light at night weighed 10 per cent more at the end of the eight-week study than mice that had experienced a standard light/dark cycle, even though they ate...
How the potato changed the world | kottke.org →
Mmm… Potatoes.
North Korea’s Mickey Mouse Club | Now I Know →
Disney ruins everything, I guess?
December 2011
1 post
WatchSaturday Night Live – “Colon Blow”
Phil Hartman never fails. It is a fact beyond all fact.
November 2011
2 posts
“Attractive as some things are, you have to weigh your risks. How badly do you...”
– Marten in The Wise Man’s Fear [by Patrick Rothfuss]
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“I am a kind of burr; I shall stick.”
– Lucio in Measure for Measure [by William Shakespeare]
September 2011
1 post
“The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and his compulsion is...”
– C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy
July 2011
4 posts
2 tags
“I believe that we’re all capable of doing awesome stuff, and we’re...”
– Zachary Levi
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“‘Oh, Jake,’ Brett said, ‘we could have had such a damned good...”
– Jake Barnes, A Farewell to Arms
It's Time For The All-Star Game: Try To Restrain... →
None of this — none of it — is a slight against baseball, which I love. But to love it, you have to sit back and love it a little bit at a time and wait for one or two big moments when you can love it a lot all at once. It’s momentum-driven and every at-bat influences the next one, so it’s enormously ill-suited for superstar exhibitions to begin with. That’s why the Home Run...