Frozen ToothpasteFrozen ToothpasteA blog of ideas. All stripes, colors, and sizes, but ideas. Articles
Dispatches: A New Way to Fight Recession
2008-01-24 19:05:00 In light of recent financial news, Steve Finch files an interesting report that he asked us to file under, “I wonder if that would work.” Chris Phan (flickr) WASHINGTON — The Secratery of the Treasury today announced a interesting plan to combat the economic slowdown that has led many to speculate that the country is in the midst of a ... More About: Fight , Recession , Dispatches
Savage Politics
2008-01-23 19:16:00 Marc Nozell (cc) I admit it. I was wrong. I don’t like it. I don’t like this whole mess one bit. This presidential campaign has already disappointed me. A lot. Last time I addressed the presidential nomination process, I called it “exhilarating.” And though I did hesitate to use the word at the time, I decided it was ... More About: Politics , Savage
How To Spend a Do-Nothing Day
2008-01-22 19:05:00 Sarah Murray It’s not as easy as it sounds, doing nothing. It’s too easy to think of all that you could be doing. All that you should be doing. In a country that seems to possess a cultural bias against stillness, doing nothing can feel dangerous. Immoral even. It will also help, if you want to do nothing ...
Review: The Agronomist
2008-01-21 20:19:00 The Agro nomist is a 2004 film about the life of an agronomist. As you may infer from that sentence, it didn’t win large audiences. But to say it’s about an agronomist is to minimize the truth. Jean Dominique called himself an agronomist, as was his training, but this underestimates his work, his charisma, and his struggle. A ... More About: Review
OPW: I?ll Wave Good-bye When Butter Flies
2008-01-18 18:11:00 Today’s Other People’s Words, is a fun little poem from Jack Prelutsky, “I’ll Wave Good -bye When Butter Flies .” I wave good-bye when butter flies and cheer a boxing match, I’ve often watched my pillow fight, I’ve sewn a cabbage patch, I like to dance at basket balls or lead a rubber band, I’ve marvelled at a spelling bee, I’ve helped a peanut stand. It’s possible ...
Signal, Noise, and Lou Dobbs
2008-01-17 19:04:00 Jarrod Trainque (flickr) Signal to noise ratios are something most people are at least mildly familiar with. They’re the reason that you either turn off the radio or change the station as you drive out of the range of the station you were listening to. But where radio on road trips is the obvious place to begin this ... More About: Lou Dobbs , Noise
Moderating the ?Undocumented? Issue
2008-01-16 18:40:00 corazón girl They have a lot of names. Invaders. Spics. Terrorists. Wetbacks. Identity thieves. Less harshly, illegal aliens. Illegal immigrants. Undocumented workers. They have been, over the last few years, one of America’s most important political flashpoints. Derided by some as simple lawbreakers who deserve no rights or preference. Praised by others as hardworking immigrants in the greatest ... More About: Issue
On Dog Poop, Again
2008-01-15 18:12:00 memespring About seven months ago — wow, has it really been that long? — I instruct ed: So next time you?re walking your dog, and someone asks you if you?re going to pick that up, do the right thing. Say yes and walk away. Leave the excrement where it falls. And even when I wrote that, I wasn’t nearly so certain as it sounds. I ... More About: Poop
Retroview: Happiness: A Guide
2008-01-14 20:32:00 Matthieu Ricard’s Happiness : A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill is probably the most important book in my life. No work has ever influenced so many aspects of my life or caused me to see the world so differently. Were there only one book that I could take with my to a desert island, ...
OPW: Finding Commonality Inside Iraq
2008-01-11 19:32:00 Earlier this week I encountered a pretty interesting piece in the New York Review of Books. Entitled “As Iraq is See It,” the piece gives an inside look into the lives of Iraqis working for the McClatchy news organization, one of America’s biggest. McClatchy provides these reporters with a blog, called Inside Iraq, which is where ... More About: Mona
The Triviality of Difference
2008-01-10 19:34:00 mrpattersonsir Everywhere you look, especially as a teenager, the world is full of others. Of people “not like me.” And though teenagers feel this most intensely, few do not feel it regularly. Just look at the latent antipathy that exists in this country toward Iranians. Or Arabs. Or Mexicans. Or even the French. Surely these people are different from us. ... More About: Difference , Diff
Watching America?s Game
2008-01-09 19:17:00 IowaPolitics.com It’s chaos. It’s a circus. It’s a money parade. It’s undemocratic. It’s pointless. It’s cheap drama. It’s the real America n Idol. That’s right everyone, it’s the middle of America’s presidential politicking season. I could make a list, but I doubt I need to. You know that many people — in America, but especially in stable parliamentary systems — find this whole mess in ... More About: Game , Watching
My Problem with Fiction
2008-01-08 18:52:00 Rparle Everywhere I see people who don’t understand how the world works. This includes, but is hardly limited to, when I’m standing in front of the mirror. To my limited understanding, the world is wonderfully complex place full of wonderfully interesting people doing their absolute best to live the most useful lives they can. And I don’t understand ... More About: Fiction , Problem
Review: The Neitzsche Family Circus
2008-01-07 16:15:00 Since my early years of high school, I’ve become more and more convinced that comics published in the local newspaper are little more than bland space fillers. Foremost in my mind among these problematically bad comics — which are also those I used to like most — are Garfield, The Family Circus , and Dilbert. Garfield always mixes the loser, ... More About: Review
Twinkle, Twinkle, E-F-G
2008-01-02 23:18:00 Something a little — OK, almost completely — different today. I just wanted to do something before I come back for 5-a-week. This is a little song I came up with a few months ago. I decided that it’s a good present for the start of the new year. About the song… it’s (hopefully) not news to anyone who grew up speaking English ... More About: Twinkle
The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto
2007-12-27 21:37:00 Source: art_es_anna I saw it this morning, at about eight. I said, “Oh… my… God.” Benazir Bhutto , long — and probably accurately — seen as the best choice for prime minister of the troubled mess that is Pakistan, was assassinated. For good or ill, it’s the most important political assassination I remember. I’m far too young to have experienced the deaths of ... More About: Assassination , Benazir Bhutto , Hutto
On Break until 2008
2007-12-26 20:14:00 As the curious will probably have guessed by now, I’m taking a break until January 7th. It’s a Monday, the one after New Year’s Eve. I was rather negligent in announcing this. For that I apologize. And as my penance, I promise that at least one more thing will be posted between now and the seventh. I hope everyone ... More About: Break , 2008
OPW: Max Ehrmann?s ?Desiderata?
2007-12-21 18:38:00 There’s a large soft spot in my heart for broad and sweeping pieces of advice about how to live you life. Even if I don’t agree with everything such poems, columns, commencement speeches, or songs say, I still like them. And even if they seem to be off on a few points, they say things ... More About: Max Ehrmann , Desiderata
But What Is a Blog? & My Answer
2007-12-20 21:12:00 Source: topgold Aside from having been described by Jerry Seinfeld as a terribly ugly word (which it is), “blog” is a hard concept to pin down. Of course the word’s evolution from the original meaning of “web log” would suggest that they’re necessarily linear expressions of a set of idea, thoughts, and goals. A diary almost. ... More About: Answer , Blog
?There is almost no problem we can solve all by ourselves?
2007-12-19 19:22:00 Source: cursedthing Former President Bill Clinton was on Charlie Rose last Friday. He said a lot of interesting things, and though they also did a fair bit of rehashing tired arguments about the presidential campaign, it is a pretty good interview to watch. Without question, the line that most caught my attention was this one: Mr. Clinton said, ... More About: Problem
The Joys of Life, the Moon, and Reading
2007-12-18 19:09:00 Source: eye of einstein Last Wednesday evening, as I got up from the computer, I looked out the window. There in the sky, fragile and held aloft by what seemed to be nothing was a sliver of the moon. The horizon I could see over the nearby houses was an enchanting shade of mild orange, which ... More About: Life , Reading , Moon , The Moon
Review: Love Actually
2007-12-17 17:58:00 Love Actually is the kind of movie I tend to avoid. You know the kind: sweet “romantic comedies” that only the lobotomized can’t figure out the outcome of within 15 minutes of their beginning. Where you know that these people are going to get together after you sit though the long list of false obstacles ... More About: Love , Review
OPW: Hemingway on Parental Infallibility
2007-12-14 18:25:00 I briefly mentioned parental infallibility recently, and that lead me to seek out a story related to the topic from Hemingway , called “Indian Camp.” If you’re interested, you can read the whole thing (it’s pretty short) on the grand old internet. I should warn you, though, that if the story were a movie it would ... More About: Pare
State of the Blog, December 2007
2007-12-13 15:35:00 If you’ve ever come to the site before, you’ll probably notice that it looks different. To lessen the shock, here’s an introduction to what’s changed and is new. (Actually, those two sentences are no more than a thin facade to excuse me from feeling bad that this is an otherwise meaningless and self-indulgent post.) In any case, ... More About: Blog , State , December , December 2007
The Nuclear Dilemma
2007-12-12 18:08:00 I’m rather certain that my favorite Republican presidential candidate during the 2000 election cycle was John McCain. I’m also rather certain that he’s my favorite this time too. It’s not that he’s perfect. Far from it. I’m well aware that he’s got flaws, and I’ve certainly taken issue with some of the things he’s said. Lest we ... More About: Nuclear , Dilemma , Dile
?Bloggers,? ?Writers,? and Media
2007-12-11 19:13:00 Spend much time online, and you’re sure to find at least a few people telling you that reading and writing on the internet is like nothing you’ve ever done. They’ll tell you that readers don’t, well, read on the internet. Instead they skim and look for lists with bullet points. Oh, and pictures. They love ... More About: Media , Bloggers , Writers
Review: A Week of Colorado Weather
2007-12-10 18:44:00 Outside my window, the rarely-trafficked street is still white, only the manhole cover that managed to melt through gives a hint that there’s anything not white under there. The gray sidewalks — which must be shoveled both as a courtesy to fellow pedestrians and out of fear for the law — form a coherent border between the white over ... More About: Weather , Colorado , Review , Week
OPW: ?Beside the Point?
2007-12-07 20:15:00 Today’s “Other People’s Words” is a poem about what’s really important. It’s called “Beside the Point ” by Stephen Cushman. The sky has never won a prize. The clouds have no careers. The rainbow doesn’t say my work, thank goodness. The rock in the creek’s not so productive. The mud on the bank’s not too pragmatic. There’s nothing useful in the noise the wind makes in ...
The Mandarins
2007-12-06 18:01:00 A few days ago I created a new text document on my desktop—the way I almost always jot down notes when I’m at the computer—and titled it “the mandarins” and put this inside: I used to believe that the world was controlled by extraordinary individuals who were somehow different than people like me. I’ve come to ...
Of Teddy Bears and Ignorance
More articles from this author:2007-12-05 19:25:00 By now you’ve probably heard something about a teddy bear in the news. But it seems to me that the way people understood the story had a lot to do with where they heard about it. So in the tradition of this piece, I’ve created two very different interpretations pared down from different news sources. First ... More About: Bears , Ignorance , Teddy , Bear 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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