The CTO at a previous employer (smaller division of a very large dot-com company) was worse than useless. He came to the division after it was acquired, presumably because people in the acquiring company had figured him out. He surrounded himself with yes-men, both from the acquiring company and selected from within. He pushed forward his pet projects to meet his quarterly goals, despite huge technical problems and warnings from his employees. When one of his pet projects imploded and took an unrelated but much more important project along with it causing massive damage to the reputation and finances of the business, he was promptly shit-canned, to much rejoicing.

Additional humor value came when we had a job candidate come into my most recent employer. The new company was full of people from the old company, so when the candidate said "Oh yeah, I know <ex-CTO>, he's a good guy, smart, knows his stuff," there was much laughter outside the interview room.

Richard Nixon

I for one am slightly saddened by Thomas's fall from grace.

Oh yeah, I know Richard Nixon, he's a good guy, smart, knows his stuff.

Rummy.

Nicolae Ceauşescu

Forgetting Sarah Marshall? Jeez AO: "Guys are permitted to be flabby, lazy emotional wrecks, but as long as they crack jokes, some action will come their way. Girls, ideally, should have a sense of humor -- mainly so they can laugh at those jokes -- but for the most part they should look good in a bikini and like sex (though not too much and not anything too weird)."

In other news: Lowrie. Ellsbury. And now Pedey. The kids are alright.

I think I'm going to like this movie.

I think one of my facebook friends was paid to virally promote that movie to her facebook friends. so, well, I didn't want to see it anyway, but I don't want to support that kind of thing either.

You sure about that, Ogged?

Also, there's this: 'Sup, America. Jason Segel knows what you're thinking. You're thinking: "Hmm, I wonder what is going on with Jason Segel's penis? I certainly would like to have a look." Right? Well, look you shall. Segel's down-below dirty front-parts appear in this movie at least as many times as Paul Rudd does. Or, to be specific, like, five.

7: PEDEY!!!!!

(I am convinced I invented that nickname. No need to disabuse me)

Cocks as a sight gag? Now I know I'm going to like this movie.

Also I agree with the post that Isaiah Thomas looks good in a hat. The most hatable? Not sure. But he can rock a chapeau.

Te-he, people pay money to see a movie like that, eh? Blow me down with a feather!

Eliot with one 'l'.
Also, not welcome at my eating club.

My fiancee was terrorized at her first year of employment by a senior staff member who seemed vital to the organization and to have the trust of the very-top of the company. After a year they innocently hired a management consultant to do an workplace efficiency study, and more than half of the staff, from near-top to bottom, said they hated the guy and tried to avoid working with him at all costs.

The very-top came around.

it's so strange to be mistaken for someone else
so undeserving
2-3 mo ago we had to use an equipment in other lab and my coworker took some small plastic containers from there, cheap ones, not worthy of stealing imo, i said him to not take it, but he said everything is OK in order to proceed your exps, he even says that book theft is not theft etc that kind of logic
now the guy who works at that lab treats me as if i was some kind of thief, never answers to my greetings, today for example he abruptly changed direction where he was going when he saw me etc
or for example at the Grand Canyon, the skywalk was scary but worth of every cent charged imo, our tour guide and driver asked after climbing how was the skywalk did you enjoy it and the chinese lady who sat before me said 'Expensive!' in a very obnoxiously harsh loud voice and it coincided with me saying scary, which of course was not loud enough to be heard
everybody looked our direction and saw me saying something while she was looking down and i had to catch reproachful even like disgusted glances as if they were saying she(me) is cheap
but these causes are so so petty to grieve or explain to others and still it hurts

ed

In high school, I was constantly mistaken for one particular friend. It wasn't hurtful, though, even when my mom did it.

Everybody's excited about the new film from the Apatow crowd, what about the new book from the n+1 crowd! I wonder if there is more cock in All the Sad Young Literary Men than there is in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. One of the characters looks at porn when he's supposed to be disserting, so I bet yes.

Please tell me that All the Sad Young Literary Men is the real title.

I don't care if you have to lie. Tell me what I need.

Yo Ben, is your Unfogged address working? I sent you a not-at-all-urgent technical question about the archives.

Yes, that is the real title.

A stunning and hilarious portrait of young adulthood at the opening of the twenty-first century, All the Sad Young Literary Men charts the lives of Sam, Mark, and Keith, as they overthink their college years, underthink their love lives, and struggle through the encouragement of the women who love and despise them to find a semblance of maturity, responsibility, and literary fame.

Heartbroken in his university town, Mark calls a group of lonely intellectual men to convene and form a hockey team, only to watch his own ideals slip away from him. Sam binds himself to the task of crafting "the first great Zionist epic" even though he speaks no Hebrew, has never visited Israel, and is not a practicing Jew. Keith, thwarted by inherited notions of greatness and memories of his broken family, finds solace in the arms of a selfless women who most reminds him of his past.

At every turn, at each character's misstep, All the Sad Young Literary Men radiates with comedic warmth and biting honesty and signals the arrival of a brave and trenchant new writer.

I don't think the copywriter knows what "semblance" means.

Whoa, runaway diagonals. Sorry about the formatting.

Yo Ben, is your Unfogged address working? I sent you a not-at-all-urgent technical question about the archives

It should be. How long ago did you send it? You can also reach me at w-lfs-n at sign gmail dot sign com.

aaaaathethethe
24 looks nice

My amour propre is telling me that I should have known about the existence of this book already, perhaps should have read it already, and should have an opinion about it.

Sam, Mark, and Keith, eh? Gessen, Greif, and Someoneelse, are we invited to imagine?

OK, Isiah has been a total disaster with the Knicks, good riddance and stay away. However, the most hatable Chicagoan of all time reveals your usual penchant for buying into Narratives White People Like. Thomas gave some of the more thoughtful interviews as a player I have ever seen, clearly had a tough and controversial personality even in his playing days, but was a great competitor and leader on the floor who was shamefully left off of the 1992 Dream Team. (Probably due to the machinations of MJ, who was about Isiah's equal in being a total prick.)

The North Shore offhandedly judging the arrogance of West Side Chicago is why we really fight.

I'm so eager to read it that I think I should see if I can get Middlemarch and Tristram Shandy done by the time it comes out in paperback.

It is the sort of thing I oughta buy now, though. I have a very slight personal acquaintance with the author. Which obligates me to hardback.

I was pretty pleased when George H.W. Bush was handed his walking papers.

Every bigtime evangelist or family values politician caught up in a pants-off scandal ever.

Seriously, it never gets any less entertaining with repetition.

Who really fucking deserved it, and then got it?

This douchebag Fox News Reporter. Yay hard-bitten kick-your-ass urban catholic priests!

34: So awesome. The priest's Wikipedia page says he has been scolded by the diocese for his campaign to have parishoners buy time from prostitutes in order to take them to job counseling.

Did he get canned, though? Or did he just get told?

34, 35: Oh, that priest is awesome. I seem to recall that the diocese tried to remove him from his parish a while ago (like 10 years). They insisted that it wasn't any sort of punishment, but it was clear that they no longer wished to grant him access to any more rabble for rousing. (I also confess to a giant soft spot for the Catholic Left. I picked Thomas Merton's prayer for my father's mass card.)

I was kind of hoping to get an unsolicited resume from Cully Stimson. No such luck. I doubt Sec. Jackson will be much missed.

shamefully left off of the 1992 Dream Team

Oh, puhleez. The same Thomas who was petty enough to freeze out Jordan in the all-star game, and also petty enough to walk off the floor while pointedly refusing to shake hands after losing the series to the Bulls? I can't believe anyone defends the guy. He ran the CBA, the Raptors, and the Knicks into the ground, while managing to make time to sexually harass his employees. You could be smart and dedicated, and hatch your life plan at an early age, and still not manage to screw up as many things as Isiah Thomas.

And the guard lineup on that team was what, Magic, Jordan, Stockton, and Drexler? I don't know that I'd call picking those guys ahead of Thomas "shameful".

I don't think the copywriter knows what "semblance" means.

I'm sure he meant to say "modicum"

That's got to be the worst review ever; while it appears the reviewer likes the book, he makes me want to hijack the edition on its way to the bookstores and push the truck off a cliff.

34/37

That priest is really impressive. He just destroys the reporter.

Ok, so I just finished watching Jindabyne with Laura Linney and Gabriel Byrne in an Ray Lawrence Australian interpretation of a Raymond Carver story...and my big toe was hurting. Now I had thought I had stubbed my toe about two weeks ago, with a tiny cut, but it swole up and got pussy so I took my nail clippers to it, cut some flesh away, cleaned, salved it bandaid.

But two weeks later still hurting. So I says fuck it, grabs the surgical scissors and really go at the thing...and sumagun, I found something. Looked like a dead worm or a seed. I feel so much better now.

Oh yeah, the wrist I sprained or broke way back is all better now too. Stopped wearing the splint last month, and no more pain than the usual arthritis. I was getting worried after three months on that one. No carpal tunnel, full movement.

I remember a firing that pleased me. Genevieve Bujold leaving ST:TNG shortly after production. Nothing against GB, fine actress, but that she couldn't or didn't want to handle the nightmare grind of a weekly TV series somehow made me respect the performers that do handle it.

That's Voyager not TNG. I lost my geek creds.

That's got to be the worst review ever

It appears to be the jacket copy.

It appears to be the jacket copy.

Really? That explains some of the badness. Maybe it was written by an intern to whom the author was rude.

Maybe it was written by an intern to whom the author was rude.

...or the author read one of those advertisements for self-published novels in the back pages of Harpers or the Atlantic Monthly and thought to himself, "That's the guy I want to write the jacket copy for my book!"

34 the priest is so great
43 sounds like gout, may be it's better to see a doctor and get checked your bloodwork, no?

Read, do you sleep?

Heartbroken in his university town

Now that I read the copy again, that strikes me as unintentionally snicker-worthy. At least I hope it's unintentional.

Anyway, sorry I didn't clarify that it was only jacket copy. I pretty much agree with mcmc in 41.

Gonerill's link is pretty great. I'm always impressed when people run across good video links. I have almost infinite tolerance for skimming text to find good selections, and almost total unwillingness to do the same with video or audio.

why, i sleep like 8 hrs exactly everyday

but it swole up and got pussy

Bob's toe is the mack daddy.

40: I don't know that I'd call picking those guys ahead of Thomas "shameful".

Yes, a great lineup, leaving Thomas off: SHAMEFUL (on a par with the NBA's Jordan and Shaq reffing).

39: All-Star game (yes I know about that one, I am sure that was Isiah all on his own) and a team not shaking hands = part of most hatable Chicagoan of all time? Look he was a bit of a highly competitive prick then (so was Michael Jordan, and Isiah did not have a whole league bending its rules in his favor, you guys are creatures of white fanboy narrative on this one.)

And yes he has been an embarrassing disaster since then, clearly unsuited for the rules that he has had.

'roles".

sounds like gout

Ouch. It would magnify Bob's physical suffering greatly if he found out he was suffering from the stereotypical occupational illness of plutocratic capitalists.

39: I can't believe anyone defends the guy

First they came for the arrogant pricks and I spoke up, because I was .... sensitive.

Plus my impotence has been acting up a bit this week.

sounds like gout

Nah. Looked it up. I have great blood sugar etc.

This is Texas, and we had had two cosecutive years of abnormally high precipitation, so probably one of our typical exotic sub-tropical insects that laid eggs hatched larvae in my big toe moved thru the blood stream to my brain etc...

Gout? Not about to let my imagination run off into dreadful fantasies or anything. Not my style. Botfly. Chiggers.

you mean uric acid, good if it's not that
just to be sure that you read, sorry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gout

Hey, I just watched the video in 34. Michael Pfleger has been doing great work in Chicago for a long time now; he really does rock.

If it weren't for the sexual harassment, I'd feel a tiny bit sad for Isiah as well. Destroying the Knicks counts in his favor people. And don't forget his scene in Hoop Dreams.

S/B "My impotence has been especially torpid this week".

don't forget his scene in Hoop Dreams.

I have forgotten it. What happened?

He ran the CBA, the Raptors, and the Knicks into the ground, while managing to make time to sexually harass his employees

1. The CBA: He played hardball with the NBA and lost. His mistake, but it's a defensible mistake, given what we knew at the time.

2. The Raptors: that's hardly clear. He drafted pretty well for them, and lost in a management battle.

3. The Knicks: his reign was indefensible from the standpoint of a Knicks fan. But (a) the Knicks were well and truly screwed well before that thanks to the Ewing deal and the Houston contract, and (b) I hate the Knicks.

4. I didn't follow the sexual harassment trial. I can't quite remember if the primary charge was that he harassed the woman or that he created a hostile environment in which others (inc. Starbury) harassed the woman.

His great sin is overconfidence bordering on megalomania, resulting in a belief that bluffing is the same as knowing. I wouldn't hire him for anything, except to stay as far away from me as physically possible at all times. But I note that he never destroyed a number one pick just to feed his own vanity.

(A long, long time ago, Isiah was my favorite player.)

He helps recruit Gates and Agee to St. Josephs by playing 1-on-1 against them.

(A long, long time ago, Isiah was my favorite player.)

Tell me this was during your Reagan-worship years, and we can bundle it all up and forget it.

But I note that he never destroyed a number one pick just to feed his own vanity.

Nice! We've talked about the other definition of "Wizard Cocksucker" here, correct?

But I note that he never destroyed a number one pick just to feed his own vanity.

That's just incorrect. Kwame is and always has been soft. Not to mention that he never could have been great, because his hands are so, so bad. A bad pick by Jordan, but trying to toughen the kid up wasn't a sin.

More on Pfleger: interesting that he's picked up the intonations of black speech. Also, I think he missed a couple of opportunities. When the turd asked him about whether the government injected AIDS into blacks, I think the response there should be a reference to Tuskegee, and when the guy said "But Barack Obama isn't called angry!" he should have noted that, but here we are, discussing any angry black person he's associated with. Anyway, totally awesome job by Pfleger. I wonder who the turd was.

So, which great players actually became great/good NBA GMs? Here's my off-the-top of my head list:

Good:
Jerry West
Joe Dumars

OK:
Bird
Elgin Baylor
Chris Mullin

Awful:
Isiah
McHale

Tell me this was during your Reagan-worship years, and we can bundle it all up and forget it.

Of course. I think you're forgetting that, for a while, the Pistons were humanity's only hope of stopping the Celtics.

We've talked about the other definition of "Wizard Cocksucker" here, correct?

I'm not sure, but I'm certain Doug Collins has come up in other contexts.

but trying to toughen the kid up wasn't a sin.

Huh:

No results found for "in defense of sam vincent".

You sir, are incredibly nerdy. But I can't disagree with your list, nor, however, can I think of another player-turned-gm off the top of my head. Oh wait, yes, I can, the Paxson brothers. John trending awful, Jim trending ok.

70 was me.

69: I think the jury's out on Baylor (bad ownership, Curse of the Clippers) and Bird (I don't know how much influence Walsh had).

incredibly nerdy
But! I!

the Paxson brothers
If we're going to count good-fair NBA players, it's probably a longer list. Steve Kerr, Danny Ferry...

Oh, you did say "great players." Ok, nevermind.

I was out shooting baskets one day in suburban Chicago and a little kid came up to me and asked me if I was John Paxson. I said I was, but he only believed me for a few minutes.

Totally fair point on Baylor. As for Bird -- I think the trend is towards bad

a little kid came up to me and asked me if I was John Paxson.

I think that might be code for "you look like a cop."

35: My naiveté is once again laid bare. That guy is considered a reporter? Even for Fox, that's positively shocking.

Pfleger is incredible in the video, though his claim that Farakhan isn't anti-semitic is ridiculous and fairly offensive.

The Conservative party, that night in May 1997. Patten, Portillo (who was actually annoyingly gracious I seem to remember!), Mellor ... it was great.

1. Danny Ainge isn't a GM I guess, but he's seemed pretty good at whatever the hell he's doing so far.

2. I never realized Isiah Thomas spells his first name wrong before.

3. "hateable" and "hatable" are really both correct? I'm using "hateful" from now on.

Danny Ainge is a GM! Teach me to only read the first half of the sentence. So, baa, where's he fit in?

Good question on Ainge. He definitely fits into the Steve Kerr/John Paxon OK player --> GM category.

It's hard for me to judge Ainge. I wouldn't have said he was too good before he turned Delonte West, Jefferson, Gomes, and the #5 pick into Garnett and Allen. Which still feels more like a miracle than the "normal science" of traditional personnel moves. But you have to hand it to him on drafting Perkins and Rondo, and getting Posey, House, etc. as backups.

feels more like a miracle

Ain't it the truth.

82: a really good GM makes his fellow GMs worse. That's Danny's magic.

It's hard for me to judge Ainge. I wouldn't have said he was too good before he turned Delonte West, Jefferson, Gomes, and the #5 pick into Garnett and Allen. Which still feels more like a miracle than the "normal science" of traditional personnel moves.

The miracle was having his best friend as the GM of a team that needed to trade Garnett and had no reason to mind becoming the worst team in the league.

Just watched the end of Cleveland/Washington (team-oriented arrogant prick pwning selfish arrogant prick), why are the Wizards not disqualified on sartorial grounds alone?

If you're tired of Gilbert, you're tired of life.

87: Well, yeah, that too.

Also, it would be worth a certain amount of money to me if fans were able administer a shock to the ABC camera/production crew. Not a disabling amount. Each fan would OK only a really small--trivial--amount of electricity. And yet, I feel certain that the camera work would improve quickly.

89: Fine, if they also employed it with their debate moderators.

That would be an interesting disseminated Milgram experiment. They could have dials on screen showing the arrows inching toward the potentially-fatal red zone.

It's a Beavis and Butthead nation. They'd be smoking within thirty seconds.

91, 92: There would be costs to actually killing them or incapacitating them: there wouldn't be anyone to operate the camera for the rest of the game. After some fits and starts, the fans would work out a reasonable punishment system.

Heh-heh, he said "flag pin", heh-heh.

||

This is mostly for stras and Emerson, but I've really been enjoying Who Is IOZ?

|>

'97 election night was pretty good; I wonder if there's a similar experience in my future when Brown goes down? I doubt it; I now despise the Labour Party and fear the Conservatives.

Further, I just did my annual re-read of The Smartest Guys in the Room. Here's the dismissal of Andy Fastow:

At 8 am the next day, Greg Whalley walked into a conference room on the 50th floor of the Enron Building where a handful of executives were already gathering. They included Ken Lay, treasurer Ben Glisan, former treasurer Jeff McMahon, now running Enron Industrial Markets; and Andy Fastow.

Whalley pointed to Fastow: "You're not the CFO any more," he told him. Then he pointed to McMahon; "You are". As the meeting continued, the talk turned to a finance issue. When Fastow tried to chime in, Whalley instantly shot him down. "Didn't you hear me?" Whalley snapped. "You're fired!"

That was me, of course. The crooked E being a rather nice freudian.

re: 96

That's the problem, isn't it? There isn't a party that represents even moderate left or liberal opinion, so while there may be some joy that the Labour machine is out, there's no pleasure to be had from a Tory victory.

The Labour party aren't substantially interested in promoting a more egalitarian society, and are actively bad when it comes to civil liberties and the authoritarian state. The Conservatives aren't substantially better on either issue. There are a few Tories with libertarian leanings* -- on civil liberties, I mean, rather than economically -- but it's unlikely they'd be a significant influence.

It's back to hoping there's a hung parliament, and that the Lib Dems or nationalists or whoever ends up holding the balance of power, make some degree of electoral/constitutional reform a condition of coalition.

* some who seem to be quite sincere and who've been paying attention to these issues for a while ...