Of course, I may simply have been in a bad mood -- I've got an awful cold that has me sounding like a half-dead duck. I also berated a bicyclist who blew past Newt and me on a curvy, steep downhill path in a park, and I'm not sure I was right -- he scared me because I knew Newt didn't register that he was coming up behind us, and he went by us pretty fast, faster than running speed, so if Newt had stepped into his way he would have gotten hurt. I grabbed Newt and kind of hauled him out of the guy's way. On the other hand, he did slow down and he did yell -- 'pretty fast' was nowhere near full speed for that hill, and the problem was that Newt's six, and not reliably leaping out of the way of bikes yet. But I think the guy probably thought he was taking all necessary care. On the third hand, the park's a block square -- there's no reason to be riding your bike through it, on a narrow pedestrian path, rather than on the street.
So I shouted at the guy (oh, nothing abusive, just "Watch where you're going, this is a pedestrian path" but loudly and unpleasantly, and he shouted back at me (also not abusively, just "Whaddaya want from me? " and such), and I'm honestly unsure if I was in the right.
I may simply have been in a bad mood
and I'm honestly unsure if I was in the right.
You're too kind by half. Both seems like situations where you might be wrong, but they're small judgments, so it doesn't matter much.
Elvis impersonators have Vegas, but what city can John Lennon impersonators call their own if not New York?
I rode my bicycle today and someone drove up and their passenger blew an airhorn in my ear so I asked 'what would Jesus do?' and told the guy to go fuck himself.
And seriously. Tool.
sweet, I know what to wear next time i go to NYC.
We are all tools in the eyes of the Lord.
being a big-nosed, long-haired bloke with an accent that's often mistaken for Scouse, I have foresworn round sunglasses for more or less exactly this reason, despite the fact that, as the photographic evidence above proves, they would look really good on me.
I had some really good lemon pound cake at the farmer's market today.
The woman has asked me to represent her. She didnt have any money, so she offered to bake stuff for me. Kind of like a baked goods of the week deal.
I turned her down bc my belly is too big.
After the lemon pound cake, I regreted it.
I had some really good lemon pound cake at the farmer's market today.
The woman has asked me to represent her. She didnt have any money, so she offered to bake stuff for me. Kind of like a baked goods of the week deal.
I turned her down bc my belly is too big.
After the lemon pound cake, I regreted it.
I had some really good lemon pound cake at the farmer's market today.
The woman has asked me to represent her. She didnt have any money, so she offered to bake stuff for me. Kind of like a baked goods of the week deal.
I turned her down bc my belly is too big.
After the lemon pound cake, I regreted it.
If you feel that strongly about it Will, you should take the case.
Three tries and will still couldn't spell "regretted" correctly.
I'm honestly unsure if I was in the right
Instant karma's gonna get you, LB.
Will is doing to regretted what was done to traveller.
I wasn't aware that John Lennon owned the rights to "New York City" t-shirts.
1: For what it's worth, I think you were, especially if the path was for pedestrians. Bicycles are vehicles; they go in the road. But even if it wasn't, the implicit rules to me seem to be that the person who is more capable of watching out for potential collisions has the responsibility to do so.
I asked 'what would Jesus do?' and told the guy to go fuck himself.
Or, as Woody Allen put it, "I told him to 'be fruitful and multiply.' . . . though not in those words."
OT:
We saw Rhonda Vincent and the Rage and tenor Raúl Melo at Prairie Home Companion last night. Both were fabulous. If you have the opportunity to see either of them, do it.
LB, when I lived in Manhattan many years ago (87th & Central Park West), I used to see Yoko Ono all the time in the neighborhood. Eerie to see this photo. A time stopper.
I wanted to comment that John Lennon was born in the thirties, but he was born in 1940.
I call coincidence on the John Lennon guy. I have some Lennon-looking sunglasses! (which I wear unhappily since my other ones were -- grr -- sorta broken, by me)
And if he looked that good you should be pausing to smile.
I think the scraggly look is in this season.
http://www.observer.com/2008/baron-beatrice-inn-branches-out
but he was born in 1940
You know, I had the following train of thought: ah, that makes him one of 'these aging boomers' people keeping talking about in slightly worried, sometimes disparaging tones ... but no, no, older than that. My mom's age, actually. She is what? A senior.
I suppose so, Lennon is a senior (except that he's dead); but wait! He's, well. He's a hippie.
The undercurrent of generational warfare going on these days bothers me. Lennon is, I admit, an icon for me. We could use someone like him to bridge the gaps between the youngsters, the hippie-haters, the seniors, the boomers. That'd be a hell of a complicated thing in the context of support for Obama.
That is all.
Oh, I've just remembered that some people can't stand John Lennon. Oh, well.
Clarification on my 23.last: I don't mean LB! A friend of mine, actually, who's a raging left-winger, an Edwards fan originally, but can't stand Lennon. Due to the sanctimony, I gather.
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I came home this evening to a handwritten note in my mailbox from one of my neighbors exhorting: PLEASE MAINTAIN YOUR YARD.
I fucking hate Stepford.
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I'll agree that the crafting of that look can't have been coincidental. While I'm all for evoking certain eras or even personalities, when it gets that specific, tool tool tool. (See my comments to AWB's Gatsby-carrying guy.)
I actually got a New York Herald Tribune t-shirt as a gift once, due to my haircut. Never wore it.
Nobody tell Blume why I'm wearing a skintight suit with an S on the chest, and a cape. It's just, you know, my personal style.
We could use someone like him to bridge the gaps between the youngsters, the hippie-haters, the seniors, the boomers.
Not gonna happen.
4 and 25 are obnoxious. You know who sucks? People.
I actually got a New York Herald Tribune t-shirt as a gift once, due to my haircut.
That is pretty adorable.
You know who sucks even more? The kind of people who leave notes like that for single fucking mothers who have a hard enough goddamn time keeping their shit together as it is. Fuck.
Neighbors who leave notes should do so with the understanding that it could result in them receiving a beating.
I'm sure that understanding is precisely why the note was unsigned.
anyway, I suppose I should quit liveblogging my fucking nervous breakdown now. but fucking hell.
I'm sure that understanding is precisely why the note was unsigned.
Posted by: | Link to this comment | 05-24-08 7:15 PM
Ahem.
The collapse of the housng market reveals hithero unrevealed divisions, along many axes.
Just joshing. I agree that's a lame and annoying note for someone to leave, and I do empathize.
Shit like that is why I refused to look in areas with a HOA when we were looking at houses. In my sisters neighborhood in Indiana, vegetable gardens and clothslines are against the rules.
Homeowners Associations are the great lie of libertarian conservatism. No government regulation but the utterly undemocratic kind!
31 gets it exactly right. That's awesome.
41: Vegetable gardens? Ridiculous.
Hitler grew vegetables, Ben.
There is very little chance the guy's Lennon outfit was a coincidence -- I've never seen that "New York City" ring-necked T before other than in that picture of Lennon. The combination of the same shirt with the hair and glasses had to be purposeful. Sadly, he was not otherwise as attractive as Lennon, who was very charming in that picture. (Confidential to D2: If you think the glasses would look good on you, why avoid them? Surely being a stocky redhead is enough to acquit you of trying to look like Lennon.)
And anyone leaving rude notes should be injured severely. Short of that, I think this is probably the time to prepare a small sign on a stake saying "[Whatever County] Rewilding Project", jam it into your front lawn, and never mow again.
If I were capable of donning a certain shirt, and possibly certain glasses, and being instantly recognizeable as so-and-so from such-and-such, I would never wonder about what to do on halloween.
46: As a roundfaced, buck-toothed, wire-rimmed glasses wearing preteen, a cowboy hat transformed me instantly into Teddy Roosevelt one Halloween. It was kind of eerie how well it worked.
I see some fresh Art Garfunkel costumes in your future, Ben.
For that, I'd have to take my glasses off, and then I'd be blind.
Also, I don't think there's any one outfit in particular associated with Art.
w-lfs-n dresses like a rock star every day.
25 is obnoxious; I suggest you find some kind of ugly/offensive yard "decoration" and plonk it in the middle of the lawn.
Maybe the Lennon guy was given the tshirt as kind of an ironic joke? Plus, Parsimon's right; Lennon looks awesome in that photo.
And I hate to say it, but it sounds like the bicyclist *did* take reasonable precautions, what with slowing down and verbally warning you. It's annoying that not everyone realizes that kids that age are unpredictable and wander aimlessly, but no harm done and meh, I'm sure he's been yelled at before. He'll live.
Ben is Cornel West, people. Not boring Art Garfunkel.
Jeez.
It's like no one ever reads the archives.
But Ben hasn't made a hip hop album. So far as I know.
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C's bench turns it on when it counts!
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Lennon was indeed a tit. Also, there are far worse people to dress up as than Lennon.
I've never seen that "New York City" ring-necked T before other than in that picture of Lennon.
I've actually never seen that picture of Lennon before today. It's entirely possible that the guy you saw was similarly unfamiliar with it, and that it really was a coincidence. Either way, I don't think it necessarily makes him a tool.
61 reveals a rare moment of naive incredulity from stras.
You mean naive credulity, I think.
61 stuns me. Sometimes I forget that people here are younger than I am (Stras's youth being the only way that I can explain his never having seen that image). Also, there was a time, maybe 1985 or 1986, when people insisted that I looked a lot like Julian Lennon. I was insulted by this. But the people making the comparison insisted that it was a compliment. I'm still unconvinced.
61 completely invalidates all of stras' hitherto commentary on politics, mass extinction, oil scarcity and climate change. Whew.
Also Ms. Atwood I am very sad to say you've misused "hitherto".
70: "hitherto" is not an adjective. "All of stras' hitherto commentary": No! "All of stras' commentary hitherto": ok!
w-lfs-n regretfully makes me point.
makes me point
Next Jetpack will bust out Cockney rhyming slang.
I don't think I've ever seen that picture before, but I recognized it as Lennon.
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If you were filling out a rental application and it asked for your current and most recent addresses and for the contact information of those landlords, but both addresses were 1 month sublets and you never met the landlords and don't have their information, and don't think they ever knew your name what would you do?
This is for a 3 month rental; current tenant is fine with renting to me for the remainder of the lease and I'm paying most of it in advance.
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77: And how old are you, if you don't mind my asking (or even if you do)?
I can't be sure I've seen that specific pic of Lennon before. I'm 31.
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Fuck YEAH C's got this motherfucker.
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81: Pierce scored 11 points and the Cs won? How is this possible?
82: But you were raised in a cave by wolves, right? You don't count.
85: because the whole fucking team is, at long last, good.
82: Yeah, but you're a cop. Cops don't know shit about the counter-culture, man.
All these people who haven't seen that Lennon pic are making me wonder when it was very much in currency. Was it taken by Annie Liebovitz? Anyone know more about it?
84: Oooh, a puzzle! Um, I'm guessing you're about to turn 27. Am I right? And what do I get if I guessed correctly? A pony? I really, really want a pony.
90: That would be great. I could go back in time and not comment on blogs and do something more productive with the last few years, which would be the next few years.
I was born some number of years greater than 1 after that pic was taken.
92 -- A lot of people think that you can do time travel on a pony, but I've tried it, and it doesn't work.
EB's going to be thirty, and he's feeling blue about it, is my guess.
93: Think a brother could pull off this look?
Thanks, Nápi. Holy crap! I figured out the accent. I'm a genius. Now do you want to hire me, Nápi?
Ari, it's the transactional lawyers who get all impressed with cut and paste. We litigators are looking for a different talent.
B is right about the age, but I can't figure out if the number means anything to me unlike what other birthdays have meant. I sort of think you have to either care about round numbers a lot or have a fairly stable life for something like that to matter. My immediate concern is moving and only slightly less immediate if finding a job.
We litigators are looking for a different talent.
97: Yes, but you might need to modify the hair.
100: It obviously means something to you, judging from your tone. But fwiw, 30 is still amazingly young blah blah and you have your whole life ahead of you etc. Happy bday!
Ari, it's the transactional lawyers who get all impressed with cut and paste.
I read this first as a comment about transcendental lawyers.
"As I believe I have demonstrated, your honor, the very conditions of the possibility of cognition in general render the determination of my client's guilt or innocence an idea of reason, for which no possible testimony could be dispositive. Therefore, I move that the case be dismissed."
61: I've actually never seen that picture of Lennon before today. It's entirely possible that the guy you saw was similarly unfamiliar with it, and that it really was a coincidence. Either way, I don't think it necessarily makes him a tool.
I completely agree with stras.
Donning a certain shirt and a certain type of glasses, if you already have that shirt and those glasses and wear them in an everyday way anyway, is nothing worth remarking.
You people don't know how to use "hitherto" or "regrettably".
104.1: Also, lip reduction. And I'd have to change my name to "Michael Jackson-Lennon." But it might just be worth it.
Well, lips one way or the other aren't part of "the look." But the shoulder-length silky loose curls kind of are. Still, afros look great with that kind of cap.
109: Well, lips one way or the other aren't part of "the look."
I disagree; the lips are what bring the look together, as Derek Zoolander demonstrated. But you're right about the afro-cap combo. That's encouraging.
107: Not sure what that's referring to, but no, I don't remember having seen that photo of Lennon before.
DS, please don't get such a lip reduction that you have Lennon thin lips. I mean, it works for him.
111: But it would totally work for me, too! I promise to stop short of skin-bleaching. Unless Michael tells me otherwise.
I don't remember having seen that photo of Lennon before.
And you claim to be a hippy. Tsk.
The skin-bleaching is less of a problem than the complete removal of the nose. Don't go that far, man. It's wrong.
113: I do? Er, you should know that hippies aren't exactly up on things. Kind of slow, even. Might even inadvertently wind up looking, inadvertently, mind, like John Lennon or Joni Mitchell or Janis Joplin or somebody. Without realizing.
No worries, I already have the nose of a paleface. From the British Midlands, it's true, but it'll do.
So did Jackson, at one point, but did that stop him from whittling it down even further? I'm telling you, you need to be careful once you start down that road.
104.2: Thanks, B. Although it's really (my whole life - 30 years) ahead of me.
Don't fret. The 30s are fun. Really.
I'm with B: the 30s really are the best decade. Unless you're one of those assholes who loved high school.
Wait, I didn't say the 30s are the *best*. They're better than what came before them is all.
Shouldn't be difficult to improve on my 20s, really. Most of that was grad school and its continuing aftermath. As I said, I'm not actually that down about it. Just concerned about starting the decade housed and employed.
(Not that there's much doubt about either of those.)
So did Jackson, at one point, but did that stop him from whittling it down even further?
Seems like someone should have lost their medical license. "Come on buddy, that shit's way past do no harm."
122: Yep, grad school has a way of casting a pall over the better part of a decade. That said, it was way better than high school.
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This weeks NYT Magazine cover story by Emily Gould is like the ultimate Modern Love. Ugh.
Except she sort of surrenders to her tiresome narcissism and doesn't even bother straining for awful metaphors to make her plight seem Literary.
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I liked high school, which probably set me back in adjusting to post-high school life. Anyway, the last hour has been indistinguishable from the one before.
I liked high school, which probably set me back in adjusting to post-high school life.
We all liked high school, eb. I frickin's loved high school.
127: It's not yet midnight on the West Coast, eb. So you're not really thirty to me. Still, happy birthday. I hope your thirties are wonderful. And that your apartment and job situation work themselves out.
Thanks. (To be really technical, it's not really thirty years until just after 9 in the morning pacific time.)
Goddammit, Ari, how dare you be more sensitive than me? Where is your loyalty to this century's greatest Jewish icon? You fucker.
Golda, we all know that facing off with the Arab hordes hardened you. That doesn't make you any less of a woman.
Happy birthday, eb, you young punk.
Happy bday, eb! i think i wrote about my 30th bday the mammography notice and black roses here, the others 31, 32d etc i don't remember at all
yesterday i've been to the farmers' market too, wanted to buy the apple cider but to bring 2L all the way back seemed too burdensome, so i didn't
bought a book from the Strand, ate lunch at the japanese restaurant, pretty cheap like the lunch box's 12, and no other customers, almost empty despite the dishes were good and authentic, ate an ice sitting in the park, walked and talked around a lot
i saw many different people of all shapes and fashions, at the penn station and the streets, while waiting for my friend, we've been in the church, very silent inside, right in the middle of the city
wanted to see some show, but were tired and kinda cold, coz in the evening it got colder and we were wearing tshirts, so we were back
should have included
Happy Birthday, Eb!
i don't understand the yahoo news titles
'Powerful aftershock causes more misery in China, killing 1' like it is a joking matter
clicking on 'South Africa immigrant violence leaves 25,000 displaced' gives the Sri Lankan violence
strange
Happy birthday, youngling. Hope it's as gorgeously sunny in D.C. as it is here.
Thanks, oldster. There does seem to be sun today. Some of it is getting through the closed blinds. Maybe I'll go outside and enjoy it.
well if he really really looked a lot like that picture I guess you're wrong because I doubt the guy got up in the morning and said, hey I think I'll look like that old dead dude my mom thought was cool.
Who gets up in the morning and thinks "I'm going to dress up as John Lennon and go wander around an Upper Manhattan farmers' market"?
In the set of people who wander around Upper Manhattan farmers' markets, at least a few, I should think.
Continuing the "neighbors and notes and ordinances" vein I had an interesting experience this past weekend.
I was outside in the back doing yard work and suddenly realized that I had been hearing (but not noticing) a bird call. No, a , what? Damn, that is a rooster crowing.
My neighborhood is completely suburban with small yards, laws on what kinds of pets one may have, and where good fences make good neighbors.
The crowing seemed to come from my neighbor in back. I wanted to cut them some slack because I had recently fixed my back fence and discovered that it had been leaning an incredible amount over their property and they hadn't said a word. Still, these neighbors are kind of rural and last year they tried burning their garbage in a 55 gallon drum at the edge of their backyard about three feet from my wooden fence. Somebody (not me) called the fire department and the cops came as well and told the people you can't burn you garbage within the city limits.
I got to wondering why in the world they would have a rooster, even one that I couldn't see. The only possibilities I could image were:
A. They were building a chicken coop for eggs.
B. The were going to butcher the rooster for a Memorial Day celebration.
C. The rooster was going to a cock fight.
D. The rooster was somebody's pet?!
When the rooster started crowing at about 4 AM the next morning I decided to use that time to research my local animal control ordinances. The law seemed clear enough. Yes, you could keep up to three hens, but you needed a permit first. No, you could NOT keep a rooster no matter what.
Since yesterday the bird is gone but now I'm ready.
There was a rooster controversy in Portland for about a decade. It came up at any number of city council meetings. Tripp should get closer to the Earth,
Someone I know (in Louisiana) wound up with a rooster for a while because his son caught it in a Mardi Gras celebration where you are supposed to beg door to door for ingredients to a gumbo, then chase down the rooster. The son caught the rooster and then was all HELL NO YOU WILL NOT BUTCHER MY ROOSTER.
We had a feral rooster living in our neighborhood for a couple of months a while back. Nobody could manage to trap the damn thing so we all wandered around in an exhausted daze until it finally went elsewhere (or maybe someone managed to kill the damn thing).