The Rat
Thursday, September 30, 2010
      ( 9:39 PM ) The Rat  
MUSICAL LISTENING TEST.

# Posted by The Rat @ 9:39 PM


      ( 9:27 PM ) The Rat  
TO THE READER who got here looking for "rats eat people duringsex rats": Um, welcome?

# Posted by The Rat @ 9:27 PM


      ( 9:15 AM ) The Rat  
RATTY IS LISTENING TO Sutherland singing "Or sai chi l'onore" (lyrics and translation here; can't seem to find it on YouTube—which is odd since Giulini's Giovanni may be the definitive recording of, well, the definitive opera*—but for Diana Damrau's version, go here), on a rainy morning, over coffee. If the windows of this cafe just opened onto Europe—or the Pacific—rather than Connecticut, this would be damn near the pinnacle of human experience in my book. (Seriously—she's not even on my shortlist of favorite Mozart characters, but did anybody ever lose her mind even half as gorgeously as Sutherland's Donna Anna?)

*Though actually Ratty's least-favorite of the da Pontes... but that's a ridiculously high bar. Kierkegaard was rather a fan, though (don't miss the tags on this page!).

# Posted by The Rat @ 9:15 AM


      ( 9:10 AM ) The Rat  
THE RISE OF THE ACRONYM. Link via Arts & Letters Daily.

# Posted by The Rat @ 9:10 AM



Wednesday, September 29, 2010
      ( 9:26 PM ) The Rat  
PRIORITIES, via Failbook; also see You Asked, ibid., and this, from TFLN.

# Posted by The Rat @ 9:26 PM


      ( 5:43 PM ) The Rat  
"A FLOURISH OF STRUMPETS." Short comic story by Richard Matheson.

# Posted by The Rat @ 5:43 PM


      ( 2:34 PM ) The Rat  
ITALY COAST GUARD HUNTING 2 MISSING U.S. BALLOONISTS. I wasn't aware they still had balloon races?!

Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer Davis were participating in the 54th Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race, an annual race in which teams of balloonists try to see who can fly the farthest from a set point on a maximum of about 1,000 cubic meters (35,300 cubic feet) of gas...

# Posted by The Rat @ 2:34 PM


      ( 2:19 AM ) The Rat  
STEPHEN FRY'S LETTER TO HIS 16-YEAR-OLD SELF. A letter to Ratty's 16-year-old self would consist entirely of profanity...

I hope you are well. I know you are not. As it happens you wrote in 1973 a letter to your future self and it is high time that your future self had the decency to write back. You declared in that letter (reproduced in your 1997 autobiography Moab Is My Washpot) that "everything I feel now as an adolescent is true." You went on to affirm that if ever you dared in later life to repudiate, deny or mock your 16-year-old self it would be a lie, a traducing, treasonable lie, a crime against adolescence. "This is who I am," you wrote. "Each day that passes I grow away from my true self. Every inch I take towards adulthood is a betrayal."

Oh, lord love you, Stephen. How I admire your arrogance and rage and misery. How pure and righteous they are and how passionately storm-drenched was your adolescence. How filled with true feeling, fury, despair, joy, anxiety, shame, pride and above all, supremely above all, how overpowered it was by love. My eyes fill with tears just to think of you. Of me. Tears splash on to my keyboard now. I am perhaps happier now than I have ever been and yet I cannot but recognise that I would trade all that I am to be you, the eternally unhappy, nervous, wild, wondering and despairing 16-year-old Stephen: angry, angst-ridden and awkward but alive. Because you know how to feel, and knowing how to feel is more important than how you feel. Deadness of soul is the only unpardonable crime, and if there is one thing happiness can do it is mask deadness of soul.


# Posted by The Rat @ 2:19 AM


      ( 2:11 AM ) The Rat  
NORTHERN LIGHTS HIT 100-YEAR LOW POINT.

# Posted by The Rat @ 2:11 AM


      ( 12:18 AM ) The Rat  
In these love lyrics [early Arab poetry] one reads that the ideal Arab woman must be so stout that she nearly falls asleep; that she must be clumsy when rising and lose her breath when moving quickly; that her breasts should be full and rounded, her waist slender and graceful, her belly lean, her hips sloping and her buttocks so fleshy as to impede her passage through a door...
—Richard Ettinghausen's Arab Painting, quoted by Robert Irwin in The Arabian Nights: A Companion

# Posted by The Rat @ 12:18 AM



Tuesday, September 28, 2010
      ( 11:11 PM ) The Rat  
THE LARGEST DISCO BALL.

French artist Michel de Broin built a massive disco ball that measures 23.5 feet in diameter and contains a whopping 1,000 individual mirrors. Then he attached the sphere to a 165-foot crane and suspended it in the Jardin du Luxembourg during the Nuit Blanche event in Paris.


# Posted by The Rat @ 11:11 PM


      ( 9:39 PM ) The Rat  
THE WORLD'S LIGHTEST BIKE.

# Posted by The Rat @ 9:39 PM


      ( 9:34 PM ) The Rat  
THE NYROB REVIEWS a new biography of the fascinating Sarah Bernhardt. (Don't miss the last paragraph.)

Edmond de Goncourt overheard a conversation in a Paris restaurant: "The Sarah Bernhardt family—now, there's a family! The mother made whores of her daughters as soon as they turned thirteen." For once, the gossip was more or less true. Sarah’s sister Régine died at the age of nineteen, "after a miserable life of neglect and prostitution." Sarah seems to have taken a more businesslike approach to prostitution. She collected about her a group of male admirers whom (according to a rival actress) she called her "stockholders"...

# Posted by The Rat @ 9:34 PM


      ( 1:17 PM ) The Rat  
BEAUTIFUL SHROOMS, via WO.

# Posted by The Rat @ 1:17 PM


      ( 12:52 PM ) The Rat  
MENCKEN, in the only extant broadcast interview, recorded after he traveled a section of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to visit the Library of Congress (from a recent Americana).

Mencken. I suppose there are boulevards just as terrible but I'd never have seen any—no, no... It's a disgrace to humanity, without question.

Interviewer. Why?

Mencken. Well—because it—it represents the American lust for the hideous... the delight in ugliness for its own sake. It's—very appropriately, it leads to the capital of the United States.

# Posted by The Rat @ 12:52 PM



Monday, September 27, 2010
      ( 8:21 PM ) The Rat  
ZOMG. IS IT CHRISTMAS?! The Met is also bringing back the lottery they offered two seasons back! Ratty saw her first Don Giovanni in a $205 seat that cost her just $25. (Orchestra seats have their own drawbacks—and at the Met, you can't beat the acoustics in the dress circle and balcony—but still, you can't not do them at least once in awhile.) Of course, within about a month people will realize this lottery's back, it'll get oversubscribed (NYC being what it is), and you'll never place in it again... but hey, party till then, right?

The Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman Rush Tickets program has expanded and will now offer almost 14,000 seats for weekend performances throughout the 2010-11 season. The seats, in the Orchestra and Grand Tier, will be available for $25 through a weekly drawing. Sign up for the drawing every Monday for tickets for the upcoming weekend, beginning September 27 through the end of the Met season...

# Posted by The Rat @ 8:21 PM


      ( 8:11 PM ) The Rat  
OPENING NIGHT AT THE MET began at 6.45p tonight. Woot!

Um... also, you can listen to tonight's performance live on their website. I wasn't exactly on top of things with this one, but hey, it's Das Rheingold—probably won't be over till Thursday, right?

# Posted by The Rat @ 8:11 PM


      ( 6:20 PM ) The Rat  
BRAIIIIINS!!!

# Posted by The Rat @ 6:20 PM


      ( 6:08 PM ) The Rat  
THE WAIT WAIT STAFF EATS "The (Sandwich That Helped Kill) Elvis."

Maybe Elvis liked his so much because he also put pills on his sandwich. Peanut butter, banana, bacon, and quaaludes.

# Posted by The Rat @ 6:08 PM


      ( 6:00 PM ) The Rat  
FRENCH MEP RACHIDA DATI CONFUSES ORAL SEX WITH INFLATION.

The 44-year-old former justice minister and MEP is frequently nicknamed 'Rachida Barbie' because of her poor understanding of complicated political issues.

But nobody expected her extraordinary mistake on the national Europe 1 radio station on Sunday.

Asked about overseas investment funds profiteering during a period of economic uncertainty, she said: 'I see some of them looking for returns of 20 or 25 per cent, at a time when fellatio is almost non-existent.'

In French, fellatio—a sex act performed on a man—is 'fellation,' which sounds a bit like inflation, which is the same word in French and English...

# Posted by The Rat @ 6:00 PM


      ( 5:50 PM ) The Rat  
POD HOTELS IN A BID TO TAKE NEW YORK BY STORM. Woot! This is pretty much Ratty's strategy when traveling solo in Europe—look for a well-run and centrally-located hostel and book a single room. You'll have everything you need, little that you don't, and you won't have to feel like an ass for dropping 100+ Euros for a hotel somewhere where you ought to be outside exploring anyway. (Berlin's Circus is probably the nearest equivalent I've stayed in in terms of amenities, though I'd imagine pod/capsule hotels tend to have less hectic common areas; and I've stayed here a couple of times while in Paris, though would recommend simply renting an apartment if you're staying long enough.) Which is not to say I turned down five nights at the W Istanbul when they were offered... my point's just that if the choice is between traveling frugally and not traveling at all, you're an ass to stay at home just because you can't afford the Ritz.

The precursor to the trend was the Pod Hotel, which opened in 2007 amid the skyscrapers of Midtown Manhattan. This trendy spot offers 345 rooms, with sizes varying from 85 to 130 feet squared (eight to 12 meters squared) for 89 to 169 dollars a night.

Their minimalist design recalls the interior of a plane, from stainless steel sinks embedded into the wall to lighted signals indicating whether the shared bathroom on the landing is free.

With an average occupancy of 93 percent, the Pod's success is such that it plans to open a second location near Grand Central Station in 2012.

As early as next spring, British chain Yotel plans to open at a new location on Times Square, complete with 669 "capsules" of less than 160 square feet (15 meters squared) for 150 dollars a night.

Already present at London and Amsterdam aeroports, the British chain already proposes cabins inspired by Japan's capsule hotels, complete with purple neon lighting and featuring a bed, retractable desk and shower.

These hotels promise "micro-luxury": air conditioning, a safe, a flat-screen television and free Wi-Fi. The Jane also offers its clients a bathrobe and slippers.

"We don't sell a bed, we sell a room," said Pod Hotel managing director David Bernstein. "The atmosphere is much cleaner and more upscale than in a hostel. The size is really what makes them affordable."


# Posted by The Rat @ 5:50 PM


      ( 5:27 PM ) The Rat  
TO LIFE: VANESSA'S WEDDING SURPRISE. Holy cats. Via IKM, who notes, "I feel like most families are way not organized enough for that sort of thing, even if they had the guts..." N.B. The groom is this guy, which makes the whole thing somewhat less insane, but only somewhat.

# Posted by The Rat @ 5:27 PM



Sunday, September 26, 2010
      ( 2:11 PM ) The Rat  
THIS CAT is probably more advanced than some of my students (even without the fez)...

# Posted by The Rat @ 2:11 PM



Saturday, September 25, 2010
      ( 4:01 PM ) The Rat  
CITY'S PARKING TICKETS TELL DRIVERS TO STRIKE YOGA POSE, ibid. This link is to an interview with somebody on the Cambridge Arts Council, but I prefer Peter Sagal's closing comment on this story: "Locals, strangely, are not soothed by the new ticket envelopes—quote, 'It's not working!' one resident told the Boston Herald, speaking while in a pose called the Enraged Taxpayer..." (To listen to this week's episode in full, go here.)

# Posted by The Rat @ 4:01 PM


      ( 3:53 PM ) The Rat  
BACTERIA TO FIGHT BEER STENCH AT OKTOBERFEST (from a couple weeks back), via Wait Wait of course.

The organizers of Oktoberfest have banned smoking this year from the world's biggest beer tents. Now they have to find a way to mask the lurking smells the cigarette smoke once hid...

# Posted by The Rat @ 3:53 PM


      ( 10:08 AM ) The Rat  
"PRENDERÒ QUEL BRUNETTINO" ("I'll take the little dark one," sung as the girls divide up their "Albanian" suitors), with Isabel Leonard—who's in far fewer YouTube clips than you'd think, and who is singing the role at the Met this fall—as Dorabella. Ratty has just realized Leonard is the only crush she and JN have in common...

# Posted by The Rat @ 10:08 AM



Friday, September 24, 2010
      ( 6:41 PM ) The Rat  
DRINK UP, MIKE! via Failbook.

This is also funny.

# Posted by The Rat @ 6:41 PM


      ( 3:26 PM ) The Rat  
IT'S NORTHERN LIGHTS SEASON! Nom!

# Posted by The Rat @ 3:26 PM


      ( 10:12 AM ) The Rat  
KFC PAYS COLLEGE WOMEN FOR AD SPACE ON BUNS.

The nation's largest women's group doesn't like it one bit. "It's so obnoxious to once again be using women's bodies to sell fundamentally unhealthy products," says Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women. What's more, she says, KFC has forgotten something important: Women make more than half the decisions about what to eat for dinner.

But KFC marketing chief John Cywinski says it's an effective way to catch the attention of young men—KFC's key customers and the biggest fans of Double Down...

# Posted by The Rat @ 10:12 AM



Thursday, September 23, 2010
      ( 8:41 PM ) The Rat  
SOME PHOTOGRAPHS from Sebastião Salgado's The Refugees.

Over the past decade the photographer Sebastião Salgado traveled across five continents to observe the great relocations of people caused by war, famine and the whiplashings of the global economy. In Africa, Asia and the Balkans, war produced millions of refugees. In Asia and Latin America the simple but still desperate search for work moved millions to the packed cities. The pictures on this and the following pages, from his new book Migrations (Aperture; 431 pages; $100), are a portrait of what Salgado calls "the reorganization of the human family."

Salgado's images are successors to the lost tradition of history painting, They remind us that battlefields are mostly piled with civilian casualties, that the developed world, so plump and abundant, is home to the lucky few and that the epic of our time remains what it was before our time, the everyday struggle to survive.

# Posted by The Rat @ 8:41 PM


      ( 7:49 PM ) The Rat  
ALSO VIA THE ONION: How to Play Golf Against the Man Whose Wife You're Banging on the Side.

# Posted by The Rat @ 7:49 PM


      ( 5:39 PM ) The Rat  
MORE COLLEGES OFFERING DICK-AROUND ABROAD PROGRAMS.

For students like Oden, who are seeking opportunities to waste enormous amounts of time in a specific field, some schools offer specialized programs for dicking around abroad. Engineering majors at MIT, for example, can spend a semester in a drunken haze at the school's Munich location, while juniors studying art history at Northwestern University may sign up for a year of yanking their puds in the museums of Paris.

But it's not just Americans who are interested in an international education: The Department of Education has also seen a steep rise in the number of foreign students taking buckle-down-and-succeed programs here in the U.S.

According to the report, applications for IIT Bombay's Spend Every Waking Second Making the Most of Your Education Abroad program are up 30 percent since 2009, while in the past decade enrollment in Peking University's Get an American Ph.D., Don't Draw Too Much Attention, and Report Back for Duty program has nearly tripled.

# Posted by The Rat @ 5:39 PM


      ( 4:53 PM ) The Rat  
OCTOPUS CHANGING COLOR.

# Posted by The Rat @ 4:53 PM



Wednesday, September 22, 2010
      ( 8:18 PM ) The Rat  
ANOTHER BBC RECOMMENDATION: The recent Great Lives episode on Churchill, which can be streamed online here (30 mins.). One of my favorite parts was this bit; the speaker is Prof. David Reynolds.

One of the things that I remember very vividly finding in the archives, was an account given by Gen. Ismay—Hastings Ismay, who was Churchill's military secretary, right-hand man—of what happened six days before that speech. The speech was the 18th of June—12th of June, Churchill goes to see the French for what proves to be the last but one time, and it's absolutely clear they're going to sue for an armistice in the next few days. And... he and Ismay then drive back to the airfield in France, and—Churchill's in the car, and he's looking pretty glum. And Ismay tries to cheer him up—he says, Well, you know, okay, the Battle of France is over... we'll—we'll win the Battle of Britain. And Churchill looks at him and he says, 'You and I will be dead in three months' time.'

Now, when I read that in the archives, it's one of these—sort of light-bulb moments... You find you turn over lots of papers, and suddenly something really hits you. Now—that wasn't Churchill's view for the whole of the summer of 1940. But on that day, he could see the magnitude of the task ahead of him. He in a sense looked into the abyss—and yet six days later he could stand up in the House of Commons, and then later on on the radio, and say, 'If the British Empire lasts for a thousand years, men will say, That was their finest hour...' Now that, for me, is the sign of leadership.


# Posted by The Rat @ 8:18 PM


      ( 6:54 PM ) The Rat  
MARZIPAN VAMPIRE.

# Posted by The Rat @ 6:54 PM


      ( 6:53 PM ) The Rat  
HOW TO AVOID A BEDBUG INFESTATION, a rather timely article just now.

# Posted by The Rat @ 6:53 PM


      ( 5:25 PM ) The Rat  
HOW TO WATCH THE SUPER HARVEST MOON TWILIGHT SHOW TODAY.

For the first time in two decades, the Sun will sink as the full Moon rises exactly opposite to it on the day the summer ends, creating in a strange 360-degree twilight show.

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, today is the autumnal equinox and a Super Harvest Moon will cross the sky after almost 20 years since the last time it happened. When the Sun starts to set on the Western horizon, a full moon will rise opposite to it on the East, reflecting the light of our home star.

Being close to the horizon, the orange Moon will be gigantic thanks to a psychological effect called the Moon illusion. The sky will be illuminated by the Sun and the Moon at the same time, creating a weird 360-degree effect that is rarely seen...

# Posted by The Rat @ 5:25 PM



Tuesday, September 21, 2010
      ( 10:44 PM ) The Rat  
MAO'S GREAT LEAP FORWARD 'KILLED 45 MILLION IN FOUR YEARS.'

Mr Dikötter, who has been studying Chinese rural history from 1958 to 1962, when the nation was facing a famine, compared the systematic torture, brutality, starvation and killing of Chinese peasants to the Second World War in its magnitude. At least 45 million people were worked, starved or beaten to death in China over these four years; the worldwide death toll of the Second World War was 55 million...

# Posted by The Rat @ 10:44 PM


      ( 7:34 PM ) The Rat  
READING PLAYBOY TO THE BLIND. Via somebody at SYSK's Facebook page—Team SYSK has now funded over 250K in microloans at Kiva.org btw!

# Posted by The Rat @ 7:34 PM


      ( 7:28 PM ) The Rat  
MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROWERS JOIN TEAMSTERS UNION.

"I didn't have this planned out when I became a Teamster 34 years ago, to organize marijuana workers," said Lou Marchetti, who acted as a liaison between the growers and Oakland-based Teamsters Local 70...

# Posted by The Rat @ 7:28 PM


      ( 8:09 AM ) The Rat  
Many of us had to struggle since we were children. Even before becoming teenagers, we were out there with no family... so I had to try to excel. So I guess that we became fighters—we wanted to write to our relatives in Cuba that we were doing great, that we got a job, and this and that, so... So I guess that it was part of the experience. It's just like boot camp, but without father and mother.
—Miami mayor Tomás Regalado, quoted in the BBC radio documentary "The Children of Pedro Pan"

# Posted by The Rat @ 8:09 AM


      ( 7:11 AM ) The Rat  
RECURSIVE PIZZA, via ET.

# Posted by The Rat @ 7:11 AM



Monday, September 20, 2010
      ( 6:46 PM ) The Rat  
UM... NEWS FLASH?

George W. Bush marketed the campaigns launched in the wake of September 11 as democratic crusades. According to Moore, they actually conformed to the classic definition of "rich man's war and poor man's fight." When it came to fighting and dying, Moore argued, Americans near the bottom of the socioeconomic heap were doing more than their fair share. Meanwhile, those nearer the top—the offspring of the political class not least of all—were largely shielded from the wars' effects. In an especially memorable segment, Moore showed that the military seemingly endorsed this arrangement: in search of warm bodies to ship to the combat zone, recruiters specifically targeted kids with few apparent prospects for making it back on the block...

# Posted by The Rat @ 6:46 PM


      ( 5:57 PM ) The Rat  
AN AWESOME REPLY from Texts from Last Night.

# Posted by The Rat @ 5:57 PM


      ( 5:54 PM ) The Rat  
RHYMING SLANG.

# Posted by The Rat @ 5:54 PM


      ( 5:38 PM ) The Rat  
"FINALLY, TWO GREAT TASTES THAT GO TOGETHER LIKE CHOCOLATE AND LUTEFISK!"

# Posted by The Rat @ 5:38 PM


      ( 5:36 PM ) The Rat  
"I admire the exaggerated way you tell the truth."
—Arthur Balfour (reputedly) to Winston Churchill

# Posted by The Rat @ 5:36 PM


      ( 11:16 AM ) The Rat  
OPENING NIGHT is in a week!

# Posted by The Rat @ 11:16 AM



Sunday, September 19, 2010
      ( 6:06 PM ) The Rat  
WONDERBRA AD GOES 3D.

# Posted by The Rat @ 6:06 PM



Saturday, September 18, 2010
      ( 8:21 PM ) The Rat  
"THEY ALSO HAVE A SANDWICHERIE BUT I'M NOT SURE WHAT SHAPE THOSE COME IN." France's first gay boulangerie-patisserie, via Why Travel to France. More photographs (incl. of the baguette magique) here.

# Posted by The Rat @ 8:21 PM


      ( 7:15 PM ) The Rat  
THE PORSCHE EFFECT, ibid. This is also fun.

Research shows that the sight of an attractive woman sparks a man's interest in luxury goods from designer watches to flash cars such as Porsches and Ferraris.

It is thought he is subconsciously working out how he could afford them, in a bid to prove he is financially sound—and a good catch.

A frumpy female, on the other hand, inspires thoughts of a more mundane kind, say the researchers from Amsterdam's VU University...

# Posted by The Rat @ 7:15 PM


      ( 7:02 PM ) The Rat  
MELON FARMER FINDS PERFECT ANSWER TO SUPPORT HEAVY FRUIT. Via (like you couldn't have guessed) Wait Wait.

Rowie, 45, came up with the lingerie idea after her galia melons grew so big they threatened to break the vines they grow on.

She found DD bras provide the perfect support for a pair of juicy melons as they grow.

Mum-of-three Rowie made an appeal for unwanted bras and customers have already donated 40. She said yesterday: "We had such a fantastic crop of galia melons and I was struggling to stop them swinging too low"...

# Posted by The Rat @ 7:02 PM


      ( 4:02 PM ) The Rat  
U.S. INTERNET USERS STAYING CONNECTED DURING SEX.

Computer security firm PC Tools late Wednesday released a study showing that nearly a quarter of U.S. residents think it is fine to be "plugged in" to the Internet during sex.

The survey conducted by Harris Interactive also showed that 29 percent of people in the country believe it is not a problem to be connected online during a wedding and the percentage climbed to 41 percent for family dinners.

When it came to protection from computer viruses or other Internet-transmitted woes, people said they would rather change a diaper, be stuck in traffic, visit a dentist or get a colonoscopy than clean machines...

# Posted by The Rat @ 4:02 PM


      ( 12:00 PM ) The Rat  
STUDY: POPULAR PEOPLE GET FLU FIRST. Oddly Onion-esque.

The study, which appears in the journal PLoS ONE, was based on a concept known as the "friendship paradox": When people are asked to name their friends, their friends tend to have more social contacts than they do.

"If you take a random group of people and you ask them to nominate their friends, their friends will be more central in the network than they are," says one of the study's authors, Nicholas Christakis, M.D., a professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School, in Boston. "That means you can identify central individuals who are more likely to catch contagions earlier."

In the study, Christakis and his co-author, James Fowler, Ph.D., a professor of medical genetics at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, chose 319 Harvard undergraduates at random and asked them to name their friends, which yielded a group of 425 students who were named at least once.

Roughly one-third of the students reported catching the flu in the fall and winter of 2009. Students in the "friends" group were diagnosed 14 days earlier, on average, than those in the randomly chosen group. And the epidemic peaked among the friends group a full 46 days before it peaked in the general population of students.

Identifying a group of central individuals using the method described in the study would provide a simple way of tracking and fighting epidemics, especially in self-contained settings such as college campuses and military bases...

# Posted by The Rat @ 12:00 PM


      ( 11:56 AM ) The Rat  
"AS A MODERN SEMI-ADULT, YOUR DESIGNER POSSESSIONS REPRESENT MOST OF YOUR NET WORTH..." Awesome; via IKM.

# Posted by The Rat @ 11:56 AM


      ( 11:52 AM ) The Rat  
IHOP VS. IHOP, from earlier this week.

Pancakes and prayers—have we reached a point where even those two can’t get along?

Frankly, yes. So praise the Lord and pass the syrup, the International House of Pancakes and International House of Prayer are fixing to throw down.

IHOP (pancake), based in Glendale, Calif., has sued IHOP (prayer), based in Kansas City, for trademark dilution and infringement. The lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, essentially said there was room for only one IHOP and that would be the restaurant chain that has been using the initials since 1973.

The religious group drawing thousands from around the world to south Kansas City to prepare for "end times" was started just 10 years ago...


# Posted by The Rat @ 11:52 AM


      ( 11:22 AM ) The Rat  
REI IS COMING TO NEW YORK! Not till fall 2011, alas, but still.

# Posted by The Rat @ 11:22 AM



Friday, September 17, 2010
      ( 7:33 PM ) The Rat  
It is this that makes life the queer, solitary thing that it is. You may live with another for years and years in a condition of the closest daily intimacy and never know what, at the bottom of the heart, goes on in your companion. Not really.
—Ford Madox Ford, Joseph Conrad: A Personal Remembrance

# Posted by The Rat @ 7:33 PM



Thursday, September 16, 2010
      ( 9:41 PM ) The Rat  
CUPCAKE CAMP NEW HAVEN.

# Posted by The Rat @ 9:41 PM



Wednesday, September 15, 2010
      ( 1:57 PM ) The Rat  
I AM THE LORAX; I SPEAK FOR THE TREES!

# Posted by The Rat @ 1:57 PM


      ( 10:39 AM ) The Rat  
"ONCE MORE TO THE LAKE." A classic from E.B. White.

# Posted by The Rat @ 10:39 AM


      ( 10:34 AM ) The Rat  
SNOPES INVESTIGATES an urban legend I hadn't even heard of.

Though the regulation does not exist and airlines are under no obligation to reward inflight deliveries from the stork, at least a few high-flying babies have hit the jackpot...

# Posted by The Rat @ 10:34 AM



Tuesday, September 14, 2010
      ( 2:03 AM ) The Rat  
"OUR ROOMMATE WENT SKYDIVING TODAY SO JUST TO HEDGE OUR BETS TO MAKE RENT NEXT MONTH WE NEED A PERSON ON RESERVE." Ridiculous Craigslist roommate ads, via Nerve.

I am looking for someone who is sweet and honest and earnest (like me) and who likes to have presents made for her and her pillow fluffed and also wouldn't mind making me a ham sandwich now and again. NOT because she HAS TO, but because she LOVES me...

# Posted by The Rat @ 2:03 AM



Monday, September 13, 2010
      ( 4:21 PM ) The Rat  
"ITALY, NOT RECOMMENDED TO TOURISTS, 125; EXAMPLES OF WHAT GOES ON THERE, 204, 219, 221." The entire index to The Stuffed Owl is accessible online over at its Amazon page, because sometimes the cosmos is generous like that.

Astronomy, pursuit of, inconsistent with social obligations, 230
Botanist, as mountaineer, inferior to goat, 82
Christians, liable to leak, 4
Creation, one vast Exchange, 72; staggers at atheist's nod, 174
Drunkards. See Bacchanal, Costermonger, and Feather-beds
Englishman, his heart a rich rough gem that leaps and strikes and glows and yearns, 200-1; sun never sets on his might, 201; thinks well of himself, ibid.
Fire, wetness not an attribute of, 28
Fish, Tennyson contrives to avoid mentioning, 247. See also Female, scaly
George II, his particularly nice virtues, 9; his half-share in the universe, 52; his fortunate philoprogenitiveness, 52, 54; his blooming honours, 68; his godlike appearance, ibid.
Grapes and embrocations, suitable gifts for invalids, 213
Grave, living, see Shark; rose-covered, 4, 160; suicide's, rendezvous at a, 86; mother's, habit of dancing on, reprobated, 218
Hats, unfashionable in heaven, 216
Heaven, system of bookkeeping in, 32; vogue of Mr. Purcell's music in, 37; unexpected grandeur of its architecture, 48; knowledge of languages useful in, ibid.; blasted, 188; haloes the only wear in, 216
Henry spares no expense in his nefarious designs on Jessy, 82
Interview of Paolo with Francesca, 132; of Rev. Jay with Miss Hollybrand, 228
Lamprey, osculatory feats of, 108
Lays, female, tuneful but immoral, 103
Lee, Miss R., said to resemble a cucumber, 184
Leeds, poetical aspects of, 78
Muse, reformed by a pension, 5; fooled by grovelling sons of verse, 73; the manurial, 91; invited to celebrate Mr. Baker's return to health, 109; proves unequal to the task, 110
Newspaper editors, not always truthful, 240
Nitrogen, discreet amours of, 108
Oysters, when in season, 20; reason why they cannot be crossed in love, 108
Panegyrics upon Royal Personages, 9, 12, 38, et passim; upon Peeresses and Court Ladies, 10, 103-4; upon Mr. Philips (by Mr. Philips), 57; upon tadpoles, tapeworms, etc., 108
Planets, mercantile activities of, 72
Sewage system, metropolitan, eulogised, 207
Shark disposes of Bryan in two instalments, 89
Silk-worm, Spartan tastes of, 150; sinks into hopeless grave, 152
Snail, domesticated, 150; affectionate, 171
Spade, so denominated, 1
Trains, rapture of catching, 6; used indiscriminately by all ranks, 195
Truffle, love-lorn, 108
Wives should wash occasionally, 63; a modicum of intelligence desirable in, 158; but not too much, 211
Woman, useful as a protection against lions, 118

# Posted by The Rat @ 4:21 PM


      ( 4:08 PM ) The Rat  
RIDING THE TANDEM UNICYCLE.

When Corbin Dunn first met his future wife, Louise, he was intrigued by her mountain unicycling; she by his homemade treehouse in a grove of California redwoods. He soon took his tinkering to Apple, where he worked on the first-generation iPhone; she taught aerial silks at the circus. He arrived at their wedding via homemade zipline...

Also see the DIY Backyard Rollercoaster.

# Posted by The Rat @ 4:08 PM


      ( 3:19 PM ) The Rat  
NIKE PATENTS PLAN FOR SELF-LACING SHOES, ibid.

# Posted by The Rat @ 3:19 PM


      ( 2:10 PM ) The Rat  
SPEAKING OF WHICH, Wait Wait will be taping at Carnegie Hall on Oct. 7-8!

# Posted by The Rat @ 2:10 PM


      ( 2:05 PM ) The Rat  
MISTRESSES AND WIVES CLASH OVER TRAPPED CHILEAN MINERS. From the week before last. Link (of course) via Wait Wait, which Ratty is gleefully catching up on after a whole week without her laptop.

Authorities at Camp Hope have had to deal with a rush of women coming forward claiming to be first in the Chilean miners' affections in order to receive government handouts.

At least five wives have been forced to come face to face with mistresses whose existence was kept from them by their husbands, who have been trapped more than 2,300ft below since a cave in on August 5.

One miner has four women fighting over him in an effort to claim compensation offered to the families of those facing between three to four months underground until a rescue shaft can reach them.

Government officials are considering asking the 33 trapped miners to name those they want to claim the benefits entitled to them in a bid to solve problems on the surface...


# Posted by The Rat @ 2:05 PM


      ( 10:56 AM ) The Rat  
25 PROSTITUTE-THEMED NOVELS, a link I was recently sent by AbeBooks.

# Posted by The Rat @ 10:56 AM



Sunday, September 12, 2010
      ( 6:59 PM ) The Rat  
FAKE AND COUNTERFEIT GOODS PROMOTE UNETHICAL BEHAVIOUR. This, of course, is why Ratty will settle for only real goods from Hermès and Bottega Veneta... her only concern is being ethical.

Francesca Gino from the University of North Carolina has shown that counterfeit products actually make people behave more dishonestly. They cheat more in tests and they judge others as unethical with greater abandon. Even worse, they're completely unaware of this impact. This effect is heavily ironic. People often buy fake goods to look good to other people. But Gino's study shows that these products can affect our moral choices precisely because they make us look worse to ourselves. As she writes, "Feeling like a fraud makes people more likely to commit fraud."

In her first experiment, Gino told volunteers that they were going to wear a pair of real of fake designer sunglasses while doing certain tasks. Their job was to test out the glasses. In reality, all the eyewear on offer was real and each cost a princely $300. But even though everyone had the same shades, the volunteers who thought they were wearing the fake ones were more likely to cheat in the tests...


# Posted by The Rat @ 6:59 PM


      ( 5:26 PM ) The Rat  
"FOR A BETTER START IN LIFE, START COLA EARLIER!" Ads you will never see again, via JT. I actually wouldn't necessarily be offended by being compared to a car, if it were some car other than a Subaru.

# Posted by The Rat @ 5:26 PM


      ( 5:23 PM ) The Rat  
MY NINE YEARS AS A MIDDLE-EASTERN AMERICAN.

Then I'd go on Facebook, and engage in more online warfare with friends of friends, real flesh-and-blood people with real-life names, who a bit more politely and grammatically stated the same. And there was me—a non-Muslim, who has publicly criticized certain Islamic practices—flaccidly battling for Muslims worldwide. It got to the point that I was telling people I didn't even know that their opinions were making my life downright "unlivable."

It reminds me of how I used to experience so many mixed emotions when I'd see women in full burqa in Brooklyn: alarm at the spectacle (no matter how many times I’d seen it), followed by a certain feminist irk, and finally discomfiture at our cultural kinship. And then it would all turn into one strong emotion—protective rage—when I'd see a group of teenagers laughing and pointing at them.

Every day, I lose America and America loses me, more and more...

# Posted by The Rat @ 5:23 PM



Friday, September 10, 2010
      ( 4:37 PM ) The Rat  
LIGHTS, CAMERA... via Catalog Living.

# Posted by The Rat @ 4:37 PM



Thursday, September 09, 2010
      ( 10:19 PM ) The Rat  
RATTY has lately been catching up on several months' worth of one of her favorite BBC podcasts, The Interview. (N.B. Carrie Gracie's quite good too, but OB-J is the bomb.) From the April-August period I especially recommend the interviews with Amanda Galsworthy (official interpreter to presidents Mitterand, Chirac, and now Sarkozy), and professor/author/inventor Temple Grandin. Virus hunter Nathan Wolfe and author/journalist Robert Harris were also interesting. And former FDA commissioner David Kessler and Nike president Charlie Denson were both (unintentionally) hilarious—particularly Kessler.

From the article Galsworthy hyperlinked above (she tells this story in the BBC interview as well):

Mr. Mitterrand called her over at the end of a meeting of European heads of state and told her to "please say this" to Mrs. Thatcher.

"He said 'this young lady is one of yours' and she said 'yes,'" Mrs. Galsworthy told the Hay audience.

"Then he smiled and said, 'but she is one of ours now.'

"Years later after a lunch she called me over and said 'I have some advice to ask of you,'" Mrs. Galsworthy told the audience.

"Then, in her very loudest voice, so that everyone could hear she said 'I've been meaning to ask you, a great friend of mine has a son who has failed all of his exams.'

"'I suggested that he become an interpreter. What do you think?'"


# Posted by The Rat @ 10:19 PM


      ( 10:16 PM ) The Rat  
THE REAL 'STUFF WHITE PEOPLE LIKE,' via MTM.

# Posted by The Rat @ 10:16 PM


      ( 9:24 PM ) The Rat  
"IF YOU TRY IT OUT AND LET ME KNOW IF YOU LIKE ME TOO MUCH." Wait Wait on Google Scribe.

# Posted by The Rat @ 9:24 PM


      ( 9:23 PM ) The Rat  
FUN COMMENTS THREAD at the SYSK Facebook Wall, here (responding to Chuck's question: "What was the worst job you've ever had and how long did you stay there?") (and yes, Ratty was tempted to put: "Grad student").

# Posted by The Rat @ 9:23 PM


      ( 9:19 PM ) The Rat  
I'm gonna pick me a choice woman and I'm gonna smother her in minks and choke her with diamonds. Boy, I'm gonna be happy.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

# Posted by The Rat @ 9:19 PM



Wednesday, September 08, 2010
      ( 6:49 PM ) The Rat  
TWO RECENT JUSTICE-THEMED ENTRIES from A Huge Spider for Daddy, here and here.

# Posted by The Rat @ 6:49 PM


      ( 6:39 PM ) The Rat  
"UP TO 36 HOURS OF STIFFNESS." Uh... no comment.

In the 21-second ad for "Snafi," a man is seen entering his home while his wife sits by the living room table with their three children.

"How are the kids?" he asks.

"They've finished all their chores, and you, Abu Faisel, don't forget your chore," the wife responds.

The husband looks at the children, smiles, and slips into a room—apparently the bedroom—with his wife...

# Posted by The Rat @ 6:39 PM


      ( 6:31 PM ) The Rat  
THE FIRST SENTENCES of Dan Savage's responses to this week's first and second queries are both worth a giggle.

# Posted by The Rat @ 6:31 PM


      ( 6:29 PM ) The Rat  
RAPE BY DECEPTION TURNS OUT TO BE A PLEA BARGAIN.

[T]he victim actually accused the perpetrator of "simple" violent, forcible rape, and the charge of "rape by deception" was a plea bargain agreed to by the defendant to avoid trial on the real charge, and agreed to by the prosecutor because the victim, a past victim of significant sexual violence, would have been traumatized by pursuing the case...

# Posted by The Rat @ 6:29 PM


      ( 6:27 PM ) The Rat  
WORLD'S LONGEST SUSHI ROLL RECORD SET. Via IKM, of course.

# Posted by The Rat @ 6:27 PM


      ( 6:22 PM ) The Rat  
On certain days, however, though these came seldom, she would call upon him in the afternoon, to interrupt his musings or the essay on Vermeer to which he had latterly returned. His servant would come in to say that Mme. de Crécy was in the small drawing-room. He would go in search of her, and, when he opened the door, on Odette's blushing countenance, as soon as she caught sight of Swann, would appear—changing the curve of her lips, the look in her eyes, the moulding of her cheeks—an all-absorbing smile. Once he was left alone he would see again that smile, and her smile of the day before, another with which she had greeted him sometime else, the smile which had been her answer, in the carriage that night, when he had asked her whether she objected to his rearranging her cattleyas; and the life of Odette at all other times, since he knew nothing of it, appeared to him upon a neutral and colourless background, like those sheets of sketches by Watteau upon which one sees, here and there, in every corner and in all directions, traced in three colours upon the buff paper, innumerable smiles. But, once in a while, illuminating a chink of that existence which Swann still saw as a complete blank, even if his mind assured him that it was not so, because he was unable to imagine anything that might occupy it, some friend who knew them both, and suspecting that they were in love, had not dared to tell him anything about her that was of the least importance, would describe Odette's figure, as he had seen her, that very morning, going on foot up the Rue Abbattucci, in a cape trimmed with skunks, wearing a Rembrandt hat, and a bunch of violets in her bosom. This simple outline reduced Swann to utter confusion by enabling him suddenly to perceive that Odette had an existence which was not wholly subordinated to his own; he burned to know whom she had been seeking to fascinate by this costume in which he had never seen her; he registered a vow to insist upon her telling him where she had been going at that intercepted moment, as though, in all the colourless life—a life almost nonexistent, since she was then invisible to him—of his mistress, there had been but a single incident apart from all those smiles directed towards himself; namely, her walking abroad beneath a Rembrandt hat, with a bunch of violets in her bosom.
Swann's Way

# Posted by The Rat @ 6:22 PM


      ( 5:47 AM ) The Rat  
Then practice losing farther, losing faster...
—Elizabeth Bishop, "One Art"

# Posted by The Rat @ 5:47 AM



Tuesday, September 07, 2010
      ( 12:56 PM ) The Rat  
PORTABLE WATERMELON COOLER/HEATER, via JWB.

This $230 portable watermelon cooler/heater is a Japanese invention because of course it is.

# Posted by The Rat @ 12:56 PM


      ( 12:48 PM ) The Rat  
THIS SEASON'S ROH PRODUCTION OF COSÌ FAN TUTTE is being simulcast in a bunch of theaters around the world, for those of us unfortunate enough to be elsewhere than in London. Sir Thomas Allen is singing Don Alfonso! Swoon!

The site is unfortunately not very user-friendly, but I spotted at least one Stateside venue—there's a showing at Symphony Space (Broadway and 95th) on November 28.

# Posted by The Rat @ 12:48 PM


      ( 12:45 PM ) The Rat  
'MAGIC MUSHROOMS' INGREDIENT MAY EASE END-OF-LIFE ANXIETY.

The study included 12 patients who took a small dose of psilocybin—the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms"—while under the supervision of trained therapists. In a separate session, the participants took a placebo pill, which had little effect on their symptoms.

By contrast, one to three months after taking psilocybin the patients reported feeling less anxious and their overall mood had improved. By the six-month mark, the group's average score on a common scale used to measure depression had declined by 30 percent, according to the study, which was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry...

# Posted by The Rat @ 12:45 PM


      ( 2:55 AM ) The Rat  
We received a letter from the Writers' War Board the other day asking for a statement on "The Meaning of Democracy." It presumably is our duty to comply with such a request, and it is certainly our pleasure.

Surely the Board knows what Democracy is. It is the line that forms on the right. It is the don't in don't shove. It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles; it is the dent in the high hat. Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is a letter to the editor. Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea which hasn't been disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad. It's the mustard on the hot dog and the cream in the rationed coffee. Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the middle of a morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy is.

—E.B. White, "Democracy" (1943)

# Posted by The Rat @ 2:55 AM



Monday, September 06, 2010
      ( 2:33 PM ) The Rat  
So many persons traveling to a strange land are inclined to see its life so clearly,its essential national character, they could write a book about it as other foreign correspondents have done ("highly humorous... definitely a must"), but fifty words is a better length for what you really know.
—Garrison Keiller, "Postcards"

# Posted by The Rat @ 2:33 PM



Sunday, September 05, 2010
      ( 7:13 PM ) The Rat  
GREAT MOMENTS IN COLLEGIATE MARKETING: DRAKE UNIVERSITY'S 'D+' CAMPAIGN. This was sent to me by both WCC and IKM...

If you were going to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a higher education, would you want the end result to be known as a "D+" education?

Probably not.

And therein lies the problem some have with Drake University's new marketing campaign.

Touting the ways it can help students "be transformed by an experience that puts opportunity into action and gives purpose to your passion," the Des Moines, Iowa-based school has elected to dub its added pedagogic value the "D+ Advantage" campaign. The tagline for the promo campaign: "Your passion + our experience."

Of course, as many Drake faculty, students and alumni have pointed out, D+ is universally synonymous with sub-par academic performance. As Ad Week's Tim Nudd noted, the campaign "seems to position Drake as a school whose standards barely exceed total failure"...


# Posted by The Rat @ 7:13 PM


      ( 7:11 PM ) The Rat  
YELP REVIEWER GIVES 1 STAR TO RESTAURANT THAT HASN'T OPENED YET, via IKM.

As with any community-sourced online content, Yelp's reviews can vary widely in quality. Still, this may be one of the most ridiculously self-entitled and clueless reviews anyone has ever posted about a restaurant:

My wife and I were downtown and had recently read a review of Graham Elliot Bowles new endever, a sandwich shop. The Chicago magazine made it seem like an enteresting spot and Chef Bowles is a happening food personality, the only problem is the joint isn't open yet. It was a pleasant walk ruined...

# Posted by The Rat @ 7:11 PM


      ( 7:06 PM ) The Rat  
THE INSIDE SCOOP ON ROME'S GELATO.

# Posted by The Rat @ 7:06 PM


      ( 5:18 PM ) The Rat  
But the praise he would have valued most, for though he was an agnostic nobody believed more profoundly in the worth of human relationships, was Meredith's tribute after his death: "He was the one man to my knowledge worthy to have married your mother."
—Woolf, "My Father: Leslie Stephen"

# Posted by The Rat @ 5:18 PM


      ( 3:26 PM ) The Rat  
A TASTE OF HOME IN FOIL PACKETS AND POWDER. Don't miss the "interactive graphic" here.

Each year, among the countries with troops in Afghanistan—the current number is 47—tens of millions of dollars are spent researching how to fit the most calories, nutrition and either comfort or fun into a small, light package. The menus and accompaniments are intended not just to nourish but also to remind the soldier of home. Some include branded comfort foods—Australians get a dark-brown spreadable yeast-paste treat called Vegemite, for example—while others get national staples like liverwurst (Germany), or lamb curry (Britain's current culinary obsession).

Some of the contents are practical. Italians get three disposable toothbrushes per day of combat. Americans get pound cake, which military folklore says reduces the need for toilet breaks.

Other items are just, well, quirky. For nine years now, I’ve been travelling mostly with the Americans when I'm in Iraq and Afghanistan, and one item they’re known for is the Assorted Charms that are one of several hard candies randomly distributed with M.R.E.'s.

Never eat the Charms, the troops say; they're unlucky. It's just a superstition, of course—I've never met a soldier who could tell me why they were unlucky—but the G.I.'s take it seriously...

# Posted by The Rat @ 3:26 PM



Saturday, September 04, 2010
      ( 11:58 PM ) The Rat  
"'DO YOU LOVE ME, MY MOTHER?' HE ASKED. SHE ANSWERED, 'MORE THAN A HUNDRED EXISTENCES.'" "The Spring Lover and the Autumn Lover," a Japanese fable Ratty has long been fond of. Thought of it earlier today as you can almost start to feel the approach of Ratty's favorite season (called by the Chinese, "the executioner," according to some anthology or other of old poetry that I stumbled upon a decade-plus back).

# Posted by The Rat @ 11:58 PM


      ( 2:17 PM ) The Rat  
THE TUESDAY BOY PROBLEM.

[A]t last year's Gathering, puzzle-maker Gary Foshee got on stage and proposed a problem that has had mathematicians arguing ever since.

It goes like this:

"I have two children. One is a boy born on a Tuesday. What is the probability I have two boys?"

"Your first impression is: what does Tuesday have to do with it?" says Gary, "And you might think that it doesn't. But in fact Tuesday has everything to do with it. And the actual answer to the problem is 13/27."

If you're scratching your head, don't worry. All will become (reasonably) clear...

# Posted by The Rat @ 2:17 PM


      ( 8:07 AM ) The Rat  
There's everything in life but hope.
The Lion in Winter

# Posted by The Rat @ 8:07 AM



Thursday, September 02, 2010
      ( 8:47 PM ) The Rat  
FIRST LINE of Amazon review on J.P. Donleavy's The Lady Who Liked Clean Restrooms (a slight novella, but not without its charms).

Our book club chose this book because we all loved the title and could definately relate to the desire to use clean restrooms...

# Posted by The Rat @ 8:47 PM


      ( 4:27 PM ) The Rat  
ORANGE COUNTY IS NO LONGER NIXON COUNTRY. Hmm... (Link via ET.) Edited to add: This largely sums up how Ratty felt reading this piece too (i.e., most of the changes in this article have been underway for some decades now, but you might not realize that if you were new to this beat); link via JB.

At the end of 2009, nearly 45 percent of the county's residents spoke a language other than English at home, according to county officials. Whites now make up only 45 percent of the population; this county is teeming with Hispanics, as well as Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese families. Its percentage of foreign-born residents jumped to 30 percent in 2008 from 6 percent in 1970, and visits to some of its corners can feel like a trip to a foreign land.

"I was a city planner in San Diego in 1960 when Orange County was just orange groves and typecast as a conservative stronghold," said Marshall Kaplan, the executive director of the Merage Foundations, which runs educational and other programs for recent immigrants here. "It isn't anymore. I live in Irvine. My wife is Asian. In Irvine, I sometimes feel like I'm her affirmative action program."

Manuel Gomez, the vice chancellor of student affairs at the University of California, Irvine, said the county where he was born 63 years ago is almost unrecognizable to him today. "With diversity comes more cultural voices and political voices," he said. "And certainly better food."

Orange County is not unique in being a reliable Republican region in California. But this county has always boasted of a zesty political brand: almost defiantly conservative, the anti-Los Angeles, a land of gated communities and great wealth that managed to produce a steady stream of colorful conservative figures...


# Posted by The Rat @ 4:27 PM


      ( 2:47 PM ) The Rat  
THINGS FALL APART.

What is remarkable is that for all the bits of gears and equipment that are slowly failing around us, our bodies have remained fairly resistant. We are getting stronger, gaining endurance and perspective—if only our gear would do the same. Things are falling apart faster than we can replace them, but we do our best—repairing with glue and thread the things we can repair. It is a race against the natural order of things.

When we are in towns, we hope that people don't notice that the color of our shirts are fading a little and our shoes are dustier than most. This is the great irony of course, when vagabonding you spend a large amount of your time dirty and disheveled. You don the clothes of a pauper for the freedom of a king...

# Posted by The Rat @ 2:47 PM


      ( 10:34 AM ) The Rat  
IT'S PRETTY MUCH the opposite of green, but Ratty confesses herself charmed by this umbrella concept. Go here for 24 more.

# Posted by The Rat @ 10:34 AM


      ( 10:20 AM ) The Rat  
"GRACE KELLY: STYLE ICON" at the V&A. Have really never been as into the shiksa goddess thing as WCC (who once named her as his candidate for "most beautiful woman in the world"), but I bet there are some yummy clothes in this show...

The exhibit was "a dream come true" for curator Jenny Lister, who spent 18 months assembling a show that has drawn 150,000 visitors since it opened in April.

The exhibit opens with a fairytale-like, strapless pink gown designed by Parisian Maggy Rouff and accented with a sequin-studded net that drapes the gown just below the shoulders. Kelly first wore the gown at her new home—the Princely Palace of Monaco—shortly after wedding Prince Rainier, who at one time was known as Europe's most eligible bachelor.

The exhibit includes the uncharacteristically floral McCall's paper-pattern dress Kelly wore when she first met the prince at the Cannes film festival in 1955 (the two wed less than a year later); the Branell polka-dotted shirt dress she wore and the Hermes bag she carried the day their engagement was announced; the Helen Rose lace suit she donned for the civil wedding ceremony; and two of the 40 American-designed dresses that made up her trousseau. Other notable pieces include the pale green Edith Head dress Kelly wore to accept her 1955 Oscar for best actress in "The Country Girl," as well as the bright green fringed Hubert de Givenchy dress and jacket Kelly wore to meet fellow style icon Jacqueline Kennedy at the White House in 1961.

While Lister marvels that so many of Kelly's dresses still exist in pristine form (they have been maintained by the seamstresses to the royal family of Monaco), she adds: "Grace Kelly was very sentimental about her clothes"...


# Posted by The Rat @ 10:20 AM


      ( 10:19 AM ) The Rat  
Complacencies of the peignoir, and late
Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair...
"Sunday Morning"

# Posted by The Rat @ 10:19 AM


      ( 8:10 AM ) The Rat  
TOP 10 ODDLY INSURED BODY PARTS.

# Posted by The Rat @ 8:10 AM



Wednesday, September 01, 2010
      ( 6:12 PM ) The Rat  
THE TRUTH ABOUT 12 HEALTH MYTHS.

# Posted by The Rat @ 6:12 PM


      ( 5:21 PM ) The Rat  
WHO ARE THE HAPPIEST AMERICANS? The Keirsey sorter (based on Myers-Briggs) is here.

# Posted by The Rat @ 5:21 PM


      ( 5:18 PM ) The Rat  
"THE LARGEST CUT EMERALD EVER TO BE FOUND IN NORTH AMERICA" rather reminds Ratty of "the finest mind ever to emerge from the Isle of Man." I mean, you have to figure the Burmese, Colombians, et al., are snickering about this.

# Posted by The Rat @ 5:18 PM


      ( 2:32 PM ) The Rat  
CHOOSE THE BEST AIRPLANE SEAT. Of course, if you were really serious you'd be looking at SeatGuru.com.

# Posted by The Rat @ 2:32 PM


      ( 12:28 PM ) The Rat  
DATE HARVARD MEN WITHOUT STREETWALKING DOWN MASS. AVE. In a word, yikes. Link via IKM.

In my day, we didn’t need fancy websites to help Harvard men hook up with desperate women. We just went to BU parties and chewed with our mouths closed, exclusively. That usually did the trick.

DateHarvardSq is open to people who graduated from Harvard Law School, Harvard Business School, and even those sorry undergraduates who were only able to obtain one Harvard degree.

As Bess pointed out, the beauty of the site is that women have to pay—and, one would hope, engage in some sort of oil-enhanced wrestling match—for the opportunity to even send an email to Harvard guys. That’s right, throughout mammalian evolution, the males have battled for the right to access females; but I guess once you go to Harvard, you can tell Darwin to suck on your prestige...


# Posted by The Rat @ 12:28 PM


      ( 12:44 AM ) The Rat  
ONLY 26 DAYS TILL OPENING NIGHT!

# Posted by The Rat @ 12:44 AM


      ( 12:38 AM ) The Rat  
JUDY SYFERS'S "I Want a Wife."

# Posted by The Rat @ 12:38 AM




A page I'm starting to get the overlords at EveTushnet.com to stop $#@! bugging me


06/01/2002 - 07/01/2002
07/01/2002 - 08/01/2002
08/01/2002 - 09/01/2002
09/01/2002 - 10/01/2002
10/01/2002 - 11/01/2002
11/01/2002 - 12/01/2002
12/01/2002 - 01/01/2003
01/01/2003 - 02/01/2003
02/01/2003 - 03/01/2003
03/01/2003 - 04/01/2003
04/01/2003 - 05/01/2003
05/01/2003 - 06/01/2003
06/01/2003 - 07/01/2003
07/01/2003 - 08/01/2003
08/01/2003 - 09/01/2003
10/01/2003 - 11/01/2003
11/01/2003 - 12/01/2003
12/01/2003 - 01/01/2004
01/01/2004 - 02/01/2004
02/01/2004 - 03/01/2004
03/01/2004 - 04/01/2004
04/01/2004 - 05/01/2004
05/01/2004 - 06/01/2004
06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004
07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004
08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004
09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004
10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004
11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004
12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005
01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005
02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005
03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005
04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005
05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005
06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005
07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005
08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005
09/01/2005 - 10/01/2005
10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005
11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005
12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006
01/01/2006 - 02/01/2006
02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006
03/01/2006 - 04/01/2006
04/01/2006 - 05/01/2006
05/01/2006 - 06/01/2006
06/01/2006 - 07/01/2006
07/01/2006 - 08/01/2006
08/01/2006 - 09/01/2006
09/01/2006 - 10/01/2006
10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006
11/01/2006 - 12/01/2006
12/01/2006 - 01/01/2007
01/01/2007 - 02/01/2007
02/01/2007 - 03/01/2007
03/01/2007 - 04/01/2007
04/01/2007 - 05/01/2007
05/01/2007 - 06/01/2007
06/01/2007 - 07/01/2007
07/01/2007 - 08/01/2007
08/01/2007 - 09/01/2007
09/01/2007 - 10/01/2007
10/01/2007 - 11/01/2007
11/01/2007 - 12/01/2007
12/01/2007 - 01/01/2008
01/01/2008 - 02/01/2008
02/01/2008 - 03/01/2008
03/01/2008 - 04/01/2008
04/01/2008 - 05/01/2008
05/01/2008 - 06/01/2008
06/01/2008 - 07/01/2008
07/01/2008 - 08/01/2008
08/01/2008 - 09/01/2008
09/01/2008 - 10/01/2008
10/01/2008 - 11/01/2008
11/01/2008 - 12/01/2008
12/01/2008 - 01/01/2009
01/01/2009 - 02/01/2009
02/01/2009 - 03/01/2009
03/01/2009 - 04/01/2009
04/01/2009 - 05/01/2009
05/01/2009 - 06/01/2009
06/01/2009 - 07/01/2009
07/01/2009 - 08/01/2009
11/01/2009 - 12/01/2009
12/01/2009 - 01/01/2010
01/01/2010 - 02/01/2010
02/01/2010 - 03/01/2010
03/01/2010 - 04/01/2010
04/01/2010 - 05/01/2010
05/01/2010 - 06/01/2010
06/01/2010 - 07/01/2010
07/01/2010 - 08/01/2010
08/01/2010 - 09/01/2010
09/01/2010 - 10/01/2010
10/01/2010 - 11/01/2010
11/01/2010 - 12/01/2010
12/01/2010 - 01/01/2011
01/01/2011 - 02/01/2011
02/01/2011 - 03/01/2011
03/01/2011 - 04/01/2011
04/01/2011 - 05/01/2011
05/01/2011 - 06/01/2011
06/01/2011 - 07/01/2011
07/01/2011 - 08/01/2011
08/01/2011 - 09/01/2011
09/01/2011 - 10/01/2011
10/01/2011 - 11/01/2011
11/01/2011 - 12/01/2011
12/01/2011 - 01/01/2012
01/01/2012 - 02/01/2012
02/01/2012 - 03/01/2012
03/01/2012 - 04/01/2012
04/01/2012 - 05/01/2012
05/01/2012 - 06/01/2012
06/01/2012 - 07/01/2012
07/01/2012 - 08/01/2012
08/01/2012 - 09/01/2012
09/01/2012 - 10/01/2012
10/01/2012 - 11/01/2012
11/01/2012 - 12/01/2012
12/01/2012 - 01/01/2013
01/01/2013 - 02/01/2013
02/01/2013 - 03/01/2013
03/01/2013 - 04/01/2013
04/01/2013 - 05/01/2013
05/01/2013 - 06/01/2013
06/01/2013 - 07/01/2013
07/01/2013 - 08/01/2013
08/01/2013 - 09/01/2013
09/01/2013 - 10/01/2013
10/01/2013 - 11/01/2013
12/01/2013 - 01/01/2014
01/01/2014 - 02/01/2014
02/01/2014 - 03/01/2014
05/01/2014 - 06/01/2014

Bookfinder.com
Pandora.com
Encyclopedia of Life
Shakespeare Search Engine
World Time Clock
XE.com
ReliefWeb
Airport Mileage Calculator
Mileage Mall
ResponsibleTravel.com

60 Second Idea
SYSKPodcast on Twitter
Two Gomers
Runkeeper
Map My Run
PostSecret
1,000 Awesome Things
Cracked
Theodore Dalrymple
Met Live Stream
Londonist
London Panoramas
Why Travel to France
Manolo's Shoe Blog
Daily Puppy
Miss Manners
Jess+TheMess
Ramit
Sandwich Mondays
Consumerist
Cradle to Cradle
A Daily Dose of Architecture
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Strange Maps
About Last Night
Paula Poundstone
The Daily Mirror
Classic Bloom County
Better Book Titles
Piled Higher and Deeper
Nietzsche Family Circus

Mail




Powered by Blogger