I haven't posted in a while, so it is unfortunate that my reappearance is to share with you the demise of our beloved Yankee Doodle. No, not the one with the macaroni. The famous lunch counter in New Haven, wedged between Tyco and a corner spot with a rotating assortment of proprietors. (It was a Wawa when I was a student, but has since been a swanky shoe store, inter alia.)
Some may say that the place was doomed in an age of no trans fats and increasing flexitarianism. Or it could be that as Yale has spiffed up the area surrounding it, students had more and better choices for their comestibles. Less well known, though, is that the Doodle record went to a professional competitive eater some years back, which I think took away some of the attraction for the plus-size men on campus.
In any case, its doors are closed, apparently for good, and we will miss you, O fair Doodle!
| Food | Hamburger | Pig-in-a-blanket | Old-fashioned | Soda Shop | Milkshake | Mmmm . . . |
I recently re-read the "His Dark Materials" trilogy -- which the second time around is philosophically more interesting, but story-wise less so. In the ending acknowledgments Pullman cites three works: Paradise Lost, the works of William Blake, and On the Marionette Theatre by Heinrich von Kleist. So I went and found it. It's clear why it was an influence on Pullman, and there's a scene with Lyra and Iorek from the first book that's lifted from part of this essay.
| Essays | Philosophy |
I had Jury Duty yesterday. This was my third time on duty -- served once on a trial, the second time I was picked but the case settled just before the trial started. I've seen plenty of potential jurors try to get out of service during voir dire, but yesterday this guy really won the prize.
The case I was called for was a murder trial. Stabbing in East New York, defendant claiming self-defense. (I think I got off because the case I served on ten years ago was an assault case where the perp also pled self-defense.) As we were sitting in the jury box, the defense attorney asked us yet again if there was any reason we might be biased. "Yeah," said the guy who was "in construction" in the back. This was the guy who had earlier volunteered the fact that he once found two bodies in a building, as if that might disqualify him. "I guess I feel bad for your client, because you're kind of boring. The prosecutor is a lot more interesting so I'd be more likely to listen to him."
I don't think he got picked.
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I've decided, after watching three seasons of Lost, that the designers have deliberately screwed up the kerning in the title sequence, in order to subtly increase our sense of unease:
It's the only explanation. More on the typography of Lost.
Oh, and speaking of the Lost title sequence, this spoof is pretty funny.
| Typography |
| Star Wars | Geek Cred | RSS |
Last week was the 7th anniversary of our first Ishbadiddle post. Yay! This makes post 4506, giving us 1.76 posts per day. Thanks for sticking around, folks.
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Vs.
Journey "Separate ways" from patsevc on Vimeo.
Play them both at once for extra cheese. Via Waxy.
| Remix Culture | Remakes | Journey |
In an April 1995 memo, Bush invited his staff to come to his office to look at a painting. … The picture is a Western scene of a cowboy riding up a craggy hill, with two other riders following behind him. Bush told visitors—who often noted his resemblance to the rider in front—that it was called A Charge To Keep and that it was based on his favorite Methodist hymn of that title, written in the eighteenth century by Charles Wesley. As Bush noted in the memo, which he quoted in his autobiography of the same title: “I thought I would share with you a recent bit of Texas history which epitomizes our mission. When you come into my office, please take a look at the beautiful painting of a horseman determinedly charging up what appears to be a steep and rough trail. This is us. What adds complete life to the painting for me is the message of Charles Wesley that we serve One greater than ourselves.” Bush identified with the lead rider, whom he took to be a kind of Christian cowboy, an embodiment of indomitable vigor, courage, and moral clarity.Only that is not the title, message, or meaning of the painting. The artist, W.H.D. Koerner, executed it to illustrate a Western short story entitled “The Slipper Tongue,” published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1916. The story is about a smooth-talking horse thief who is caught, and then escapes a lynch mob in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. The illustration depicts the thief fleeing his captors. In the magazine, the illustration bears the caption: “Had His Start Been Fifteen Minutes Longer He Would Not Have Been Caught.”
| Wadministration | Crusaders | Art |
Naples Pizza Now Wall Street Pizza
Noooooooooo!
Thanks to Sandra for ruining my morning with this terrible news. What's next, renaming the Doodle "Beckwith's Bistro"? Perhaps "Post-Modern Apizza"?
| New Haven | Pizza | Old Wine in New Bottles |
Tom Hodgkins at the Guardian rants against Facebook. Some of this is familiar neo-Luddite stuff ("Why would I want to waste my time on Facebook when I still haven't read Keats' Endymion?") and the usual privacy concerns but the stuff about the politics of the founders is news to me.
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Corpse Wheeled to Check-Cashing Store Leads to 2 Arrests
Just sign here, Mr. Lomax....
| New York City | Bring Out Your Dead | Scams |
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.
I don't know why this makes me happy, it just does. I didn't even see the White Castle movie. Maybe the fact that this looks like a major motion picture which is absurdist and political. Actually, best not to think about it too much.
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GOP Candidates :: Buffy Villains Mapping. Also the Democrats.
And, you're probably tired of hearing about Iowa, but the Brooklyn Paper's coverage of the caucus in Brooklyn, Iowa is great.
| Buffy |
Clothespin Iconography
Via Coudal.
| That Obscure Object | Design |
GiveWell astroturfs Metafilter. Their mea culpa is here. Ouch.
Oh, and here he does the same thing at the expense of DonorsChoose.org. (For any of you who don't know, I work at DonorsChoose.org.) Which is disappointing, as Holden and I have gone back and forth over the issues he raises on Luxist.
There are two issues here: one is "astroturfing" or "sock puppetry" -- promoting one's own business on the web while posing as a disinterested third party. (See the Aquasana thread for another example.) The second issue is that in the do-gooder business, there's an unspoken agreement that while it's OK to promote yourself, you don't do so by tearing down other do-gooders. Unless specifically asked for a comparison to others in our field, we just don't generally talk about "the competition." Perhaps that taboo should be breached in the interests of transparency or efficiency, but it's still a taboo, and I don't think Mr. Karnofsky quite understands that.
Update: Story picked up by the Chronicle of Philanthropy blog. Also a good summary at Uncivil Society.
What irks me most is that GiveWell actually invited DonorsChoose.org to apply to its "Clear Fund," earlier in 2007. (I almost said "earlier this year." Happy New Year everyone!) I made it as far as reading through the application, and it seemed that we were not a good fit for what the Clear Fund was trying to do -- that is, give individual donors access to quality research on effective nonprofits. This is something we come up against frequently when applying to foundations -- it's really hard to prove the educational outcomes of putting a reading rug in a kindergarten classroom. Our basic philosophy is that giving teachers the tools they ask for will be good for education. But we can't show increases in test scores, precisely because every DonorsChoose.org project is completely different. (There may be some ways to do a study, but we haven't the bandwidth.)
So Holden and I went back and forth over this, as I explained why I wasn't applying.
Then in December he makes this disparaging comment about us without identifying himself -- with the apparent intent of siphoning donors to his own site.
For a competitor to have engaged in such a practice would be Very Bad Indeed. But for a potential grantor to anonymously slam us, Heifer, and others is just Flat Out Bizarre.
2nd Update: The GiveWell board demoted Holden to Program Officer. More at the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Move along here, folks, nothing to see.
3d Update: I received a personal apology from Holden, which I accepted.
| Philanthropy | Astroturf | GiveWell | DonorsChoose.org |
