Frozen ToothpasteFrozen ToothpasteA blog of ideas. All stripes, colors, and sizes, but ideas. Articles
Dispatches: Free and Fair Elections
2008-03-06 18:20:00 Back sooner than expected, our roving reporter, Steve Finch, has another story to be filed under “that’s something that would really benefit humanity.” openDemocracy (ASA) SANTA MONICA, CA — The YZ Prize Foundation has announced a second interesting initiative to help the world to move toward stability. Unlike the YZ Prize for Peace, this one strikes straight at their vision ... More About: Elections , Free , Fair , Dispatches
By the People, For the People
2008-03-05 19:08:00 No Known Restrictions Recently, I noticed — during a television commercial in which an S. C. Johnson representative was telling us that their products are both environmentally friendly and effective — that by consumer demand “green” in becoming essential for business. Not because laws were passed that mandated that S. C. Johnson make less harmful cleaning products, but because the ... More About: People , The People
Foolishness
2008-03-04 19:11:00 DWQ “What a fool?!” thought the old man, seeing a young man coming up the path. He wasn’t looking out at the pond. He seemed to see little more than his feet and the dog that would sometimes wander away from him. “What a fool?!” thought the young man. This grandpa had stopped on the path, put down ... More About: Foolishness
Retroview: In The Aeroplane Over the Sea
2008-03-03 19:13:00 A few years ago, a friend let me borrow a CD. It’s cover was odd (below right), the band name — Neutral Milk Hotel — and title — In The Aeroplane Over the Sea — obscure. “But it’s really good,” I was assured. And indeed, as I found after finally listening to it, it was. Surely the instrumentals were unconventional — bagpip es appear, as do many other ...
OPW: ?Riveted?
2008-02-29 19:31:00 Today’s Other People Words, like much this week, reminded me of “Be Your Own Protagonist.” The poem’s “Riveted” by Robyn Sarah. It is possible that things will not get better than they are now, or have been known to be. It is possible that we are past the middle now. It is possible that we have crossed the great water without ...
What is Dispatches?
2008-02-28 19:05:00 This is one of those things I’ve thought I probably should write for a long time but never got to actually doing. Until now. Dispatches , for those who don’t know, is a semi-regular feature on this site. It consists, essentially, of a few sentences that laments that our (fictional) reporter hasn’t been in touch in a while ...
Kosovo and Separatism
2008-02-27 18:53:00 Last week, I counted Kosovo ’s declaration of independence as a good thing. I still think that, on balance, it was. But I’m increasingly interested and perhaps troubled by how much I didn’t and don’t know about the whole thing. And sadly, what commentary I’ve seen about it hasn’t really clarified the issue for me. Most visible opponents ...
The Coming Spring
2008-02-26 19:36:00 Powi It happened yesterday for the first time. For the first time in months I recognized that winter was fading and spring was coming. It’s not coming quick or earlier than usual, but it’s coming and the first signs were there. The mid-morning walk offered some clues. It’s been getting warmer out. Recently, a hat and gloves have ... More About: Spring
Review: Protagonist
2008-02-25 18:26:00 protagonistthemovie.com Having been rather satisfied with “Be Your Own Protagonist ,” the movie Protagonist — which seems to be available from Netflix (whose Red Envelope Entertainment holds the rights) and nowhere else — almost necessarily piqued my interest. And though the summary sounded luke-warm, I decided that on the title alone I had to give it a shot. I’m glad I did. Much ... More About: Review
OPW: The Great Gatsby
2008-02-22 19:02:00 I mentioned recently that The Great Gatsby has the best first and last lines of any book I know. So on today’s Other People’s Words, those lines. In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, ...
Of Ideas and Word Counts
2008-02-21 19:19:00 MousyBoyWithGlasses (CC-ASA) I think that every person at every time has only so many words they can spend on an idea before they end up repeating themselves. A quick example: consider the stereotypical young male bachelor. When he’s single, the number of words he can or will spend on the topic of romantic love probably doesn’t go above ... More About: Ideas , Word
A Good Week For International Change
2008-02-20 19:38:00 Irotzabal If there are four big pieces of international news this week, it would be hard to make them anything but these. And if there were for big pieces of good international news this week, it would be hard to make them anything but these: The Kofi Annan-led mediation team seems to be getting close to a real ... More About: International , Change , Week , Good
Be Your Own Protagonist
2008-02-19 18:45:00 jquiz I was walking past a bus stop about a year ago, and there in front of the bench (which was all this bus stop consisted of) was a blue graffito. I saw that it was blue, that it was clearly made with a stencil, and I kept walking. When I actually realized what I’d seen, I doubled ... More About: Protagonist
Review: Philosophy Bites (Podcast)
2008-02-18 18:39:00 Helder da Rocha (CC) I’ve alway fancied philosophy, but never was able to find the time to appreciate it’s affinity for semantics and over-thought fictional scenarios. And though I don’t mind reading philosophy, but I’m not exactly able to find the time to do it often. It is there that I see the excellent Philosophy Bites filling the ... More About: Review , Podcast
OPW: ?All That is Glorius Around Us?
2008-02-15 18:21:00 Today’s “Other People Words” is a poem by Barbara Crooker which celebrate the oft-forgotten glories of life. All That Is Glorious Around Us (title of an exhibit on The Hudson River School) is not, for me, these grand vistas, sublime peaks, mist-filled overlooks, towering clouds, but doing errands on a day of driving rain, staying dry inside the silver skin of the ...
Writing is Useful
2008-02-14 20:45:00 This is the second part of a two-part argument that I seem to be constantly having with myself. The first half, Writing is Wasteful, was posted on Tuesday. bookish in north park (CC) The idea that all writings a copy of a copy of a copy is easy and convenient. And because of that, we should be especially ...
What Might Have Been: Unity ?08
2008-02-13 19:37:00 David Berkowitz This is something that’s been sitting on my computer for sometime. I recently found it again and decided it was interesting enough to put up here. This is a platform/speech that I devised for (recently shuttered) Unity ‘08 around August of last year, likely with Mr. Bloomberg in mind. It’s more eloquent than I ...
Writing is Wasteful
2008-02-12 18:36:00 This is the first part of a two-part argument that I seem to be constantly having with myself. The second half, Writing is Useful, will be posted on Thursday. D’arcy Norman If this site exists for one reason, its for me to write. If it exist for a second reason, it’s so I’ll be listened to. If it ... More About: Wasteful
Retroview: The Microwaved Quesadilla
2008-02-11 18:32:00 Warning: This quesadilla may not have been microwaved — Photo by Borderline Amazing There would seem to be two obvious ways of looking at the microwaved quesadilla: “sounds good” and “sounds gross.” When I was younger — around about 12 — I was firmly in the “sounds good” camp. Recently, I was pretty firmly in the “sounds gross” camp. And then a ... More About: Dill
OPW: Matthieu Ricard on Busyness
2008-02-08 19:13:00 I’ve talked about Matthieu Ricard’s excellent Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill twice before. This bit is about how we’re all so afraid to slow down. “Living it up” has become the leitmotif of modern man — a compulsive hyperactivity without any downtimes, no gap of unscheduled time, lest we end up alone with ourselves. The ...
Dispatches: An X Prize for Peace
2008-02-07 20:25:00 Our roving reporter, Steve Finch, has an interesting story today that he asked us to file under “that’s something that would really benefit humanity.” SANTA MONICA, CA — The X Prize Foundation announced a new reward today which they’ve called simply the Peace X Prize. Like all X Prizes, the foundation is offering substantial financial reward — they’ve estimated that it ... More About: Dispatches , X-Prize
About Super Tuesday
2008-02-06 18:52:00 Josh Thompson Let’s recap: A lot of people in a lot of states participated in presidential nominating contests yesterday. Though no one expected Huckabee to win anything, he did. And no one expected that McCain would be derailed; he was not. No one expected that the Democratic race would have a decisive conclusion; it does not. ... More About: Super , Tuesday , Super Tuesday
Tidbits
2008-02-05 20:48:00 From the “In Case of Emergency, Break Glass” box: Sometimes you try to write something and come up completely empty. Having had had a number of interesting, strange, and outright unusable ideas, you’ve found nothing that could become a coherent set of sentences that seemed to say anything valuable. So instead, readers will have to accept some half-formed semi-coherent ... More About: Tidbits
Review: Blame it on Fidel
2008-02-04 19:07:00 Foreign films have a reputation for being boring. So, a random line from this one: Mickey Mouse is a fascist! I said don’t read it! If that’s doesn’t make you sit up and pay attention, nothing will. The line also succinctly explains the chief struggle in Blame it on Fidel (La Faute à Fidel). Young Anna is a moderately spoiled and ... More About: Review
OPW: ?The Future?
2008-02-01 18:14:00 Today on Other People’s Words, a beautiful poem by Wesley McNair called “The Future .” On the afternoon talk shows of America the guests have suffered life’s sorrows long enough. All they require now is the opportunity for closure, to put the whole thing behind them and get on with their lives. That their lives, in fact, are getting on with them even as ... More About: The Future
On Privilege
2008-01-31 19:27:00 White privilege, as you may know, is a sociological concept describing the advantages enjoyed by white persons beyond what is commonly experienced by the non-white people in those same social spaces (nation, community, workplace, etc.). It differs from racism or prejudice by the fact that a person benefiting from white privilege need not hold racist beliefs themselves. There is ...
Kenya and International Impotence
2008-01-30 21:00:00 DEMOSH The world recently celebrated a rather unceremonious “monthiversary.” Kenya — which up until a month ago was often described as the brightest spot in East Africa, if not the whole continent — is still in chaos. See some of the haunting reports and photographs of The Vigilante Journalist if you doubt that fact. A month ago Kenya’s president, Mwai Kibaki (at ... More About: International
Of Originality and Theft
2008-01-29 19:29:00 bettyx1138 Hanging above my desk, you’ll find a sheet of paper taped to the wall. It’s titled “The Great Gatsby” and one of the quotes on it says this: In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told ... More About: Theft
Review: Obama?s SC Victory Speech
2008-01-28 18:57:00 In my younger years, I was given some advice that I’ve always taken quite seriously: Never have any heroes who remain above ground. And though that may sound like a claim that a person should only make heroes of sewer rats, subway conductors, and water sanitation engineers; it’s not. Depending on who you ask, it ... More About: Victory , Review , Obama , Speech
OPW: ?Radical Love Gets A Holiday?
More articles from this author:2008-01-25 17:53:00 This last Monday, this country celebrated — to the extent that it celebrates any federal holiday — Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. In honor of the occasion, the New York Times ran an interesting essay by Sarah Vowell that I couldn’t help but agree with. Here?s what Dr. King got out of the Sermon on the Mount. On Nov. 17, 1957, ... More About: Holiday , Love , Radical 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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