Re: Box Set

1
An Alice Walker poem begins, "Expect nothing. Live frugally/on surprise." Tyrone and I loved "The Wire" because it did surprise -- like life. People are often not who you think they are. Expectations get reset. Hope: There might be a cure. Reality: You must face death.

They put that paragraph in as a joke, right?


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 2:56 PM
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Also, she didn't say whether they finished the series or not! C'mon!


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 2:58 PM
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But then, almost as a compensatory action for his attempts to escape race, he applauded when O. J. Simpson was found not guilty of murder

don't you get the feeling that the OJ Simpson test is sort of the equivalent of the German guards saying "and good luck, fellows", at the end of The Great Escape?


Posted by: dsquared | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 3:05 PM
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4

That column is deeply depressing.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 3:12 PM
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5

The Craigslist story could have been a Modern Love.


Posted by: Econolicious | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 3:25 PM
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Tardigrades will take over the earth, mark my owrds.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 3:33 PM
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The saddest thing about that column to me is how the form and the NYT-approved style get in the way of what must be a loving and remarkable story. Both the author and her husband deserve better.


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 3:42 PM
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7: My thoughts as well, there is undoubtedly a great story to be told about their lives, but this isn't it.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 3:50 PM
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there is undoubtedly a great story to be told about their lives, but this isn't it.

First he was black! Now he's dead! In between we got married and watched some TV. sigh

Plus NYT standard rap: you rich honkies should be ashamed of yourselv... Darling! Look at this fabulous wine I found!

max
['I must admit that was the best Modern Crud ever.']


Posted by: max | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 4:10 PM
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7, 8: Agreed, though mostly the bits about The Wire have mercifully already faded for me and the images of Baltimore IRL and scenes from the relationship remain.


Posted by: Sir Kraab | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 4:12 PM
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I don't actually think it was that bad for an ML.

my aunt announced: "I don't have a problem with him being black -- the surgeon who operated on me was black. But how can you really talk to someone who doesn't read the books you read?"
was brilliant.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 4:17 PM
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There are some interestingly bad readings of the Wire in there, too; the idea that Stringer Bell wants to "learn the class codes that would make him respectable to the white community" is symptomatically wrong; he strives for respectability, but the show is careful to make it clear that it's not a "white" thing (specifically, that he's closer to a black nationalist). But of course, it's a commonplace that only white people are middle class, and that being middle class means being not black.


Posted by: zz | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 4:19 PM
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6: Better them than the roaches. It's more Biblical (at least they look meekish).


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 4:25 PM
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7: yeah, very weird feel to that story, bending over backwards to make a deep experience shallow enough to fit the NYT Styles section.


Posted by: PGD | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 4:31 PM
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I find it distasteful to read Modern Love columns. That's not exactly news, is it.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 4:47 PM
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From the link in 5: given the reasonable assumption that most women (and even a few men) would prefer earnest courtship to a quickie with a stranger, no strings attached

Aaaagh.


Posted by: Sir Kraab | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 5:02 PM
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16: Craigslist Casual Encounters occupies the Lagrange point exactly between Mars and Venus.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 5:06 PM
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If you don't want the newspapers to collapse for lack of advertising, be sure to murder or be murdered by anyone you meet on Craigslist. Or at least swipe their wallet.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 5:13 PM
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The Craigslist article turns amazingly male-centric on page 2 of the article. I didn't see that coming, for some reason.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 5:14 PM
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12: I don't think that's it at all.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 5:34 PM
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18 contains the seeds of a libelous, yet sexy, thriller where Patty Hearst trains a new generation of newspaper heiresses to murder people on Craigslist in their underwear.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 5:45 PM
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LGM is becoming my favorite site, in part (only in part) because they're the only political site (so far) who aren't talking about nothing but torture. I can't handle the torture discussions any more, having read a very long, very long, article in the NYRB this morning.

Anyway, LGM tells me that people who weren't familiar with the term "teabagging" until somewhat recently are embarrassments to themselves. Now I feel bad. As someone who did have to look it up a year or so ago.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 5:57 PM
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The first time I heard of teabagging was in a movie theater in 1998.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 6:06 PM
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22.2:I still don't know and don't want to know. My imagination is always nastier than the reality anyway.

22.1:Torture-outrage overkill and reflecting on JG Ballard (Atrocity Exhibition, Assassination of JFK as whatever entertainment) has me in one fricking dire trollish mood. Better to go watch schlock on PsyFy.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 6:11 PM
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19: I liked the panty-distribution lady, she seemed to have flair.

Craigslist allows more freedom to express yourself than any other personals site, since you have no continuing persona of any kind to maintain.


Posted by: PGD | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 6:14 PM
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21: I've been told I had a novel in me. By my proctologist, but still.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 6:16 PM
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23: The imdb link is taking too long to load. "Pecker" is a John Waters film, I seem to think.

24: bob, I understand. Schlock on the Sci-Fi channel sounds good.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 6:20 PM
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Is there any evidence that the term had any wide circulation before that movie? That's the first place I heard of it.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 6:28 PM
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Craigslist allows more freedom to express yourself than any other personals site, since you have no continuing persona of any kind to maintain.

Counterpoint: this actually makes it impossible to express yourself.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 6:51 PM
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Family Guy is the greatest show ever made.


Posted by: Sir Kraab | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 7:13 PM
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The greatest show ever made is in my pants.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 7:29 PM
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Family Guy is in Walt's pants.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 7:35 PM
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I have Hamlet set to the music of Carmen in my pants.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 7:45 PM
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Toreador / don't spit on the floor / use the cuspidor / it's actually Walt's butthole


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 7:51 PM
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re some earlier threads... mow the lawn!


Posted by: PGD | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 8:08 PM
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The link in 35 is so throughly unpleasant that I was glad to see this Sarah Haskins takedown, although I think she was unnecessarily gentle.


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 8:43 PM
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36: That's pretty awesome.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 8:55 PM
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"You know what I mean? Semiotics."

So great.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 8:57 PM
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Off topic, but does anyone have any good advice about what to do when someone you know is, um, addicted to watching that youtube video of they British woman singing that song from Les Mis? This is all hypothetical, you understand. Of course.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 9:00 PM
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39: set the computer on fire and throw it off the roof.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 9:01 PM
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40: I my friend was hoping for something a little easier. Like maybe making waffles. Something like that.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 9:02 PM
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41: Domestic violence is cheap and burns calories.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 9:06 PM
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43

Make waffles, then set them on fire and throw them off the roof.


Posted by: Nakku | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 9:06 PM
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I My friend told her that. She said she still prefers watching the video to pummeling me him.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 9:08 PM
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Dream your dreams, M/tchie. They can't help you now.


Posted by: Sir Kraab | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 9:10 PM
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You'll have to give her heebie's baby. It's the only thing more distracting.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 9:10 PM
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How is heebie?! How is the devil child?! Is Jammies handing out cigars like Goofy in that one cartoon?


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 9:14 PM
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46: And since heebie had quintuplets, surely they won't miss one of them!


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 9:15 PM
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||

It's amazing how easily some awful, looming tasks that one postpones and frets about for weeks can be finished once one realizes that doing a mediocre job is entirely sufficient for all practical purposes. Perhaps these words of wisdom will be useful to heebie in childrearing.

|>


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 9:18 PM
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49: I regret to inform you that Tax Day has already passed.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 9:56 PM
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36: extremely unnecessarily gentle.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 04-19-09 10:36 PM
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Posted by: ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 4:35 AM
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49: Just do a half-ass job
It's the American way!


Posted by: Chopper | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 6:59 AM
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What is the four of clubs trying to tell us?


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 7:24 AM
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To fold, IME.


Posted by: OneFatEnglishman | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 7:30 AM
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I'm the only card you need.


Posted by: ♠ | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 8:00 AM
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||

I don't think this has been linked here. Obama reads Where the Wild Things Are to a bunch of kids. Don't miss the "wild rumpus" bit 3 minutes in.

|>


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 8:08 AM
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57: Next on Fox News:

Obama Desecrates Easter, Leads Wild Rumpus on White House Lawn


Posted by: Sir Kraab | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 8:27 AM
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How do you do the suits? They're not ascii!


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 8:29 AM
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& = spades/hearts/clubs/diamonds + ;


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 8:31 AM
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Oops, "=" s/b "+" in 60.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 8:31 AM
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Obama Reads Children's Book While Millions Slave over Confiscatory Tax Returns. Where's Michael Moore?


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 8:33 AM
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Obama Reads Children's Book and No One Attacks US. Obama 1, Bush 0.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 8:34 AM
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My daughter loves Where the Wild Things Are.

We love gnashing our terrible teeth.


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 8:38 AM
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After Meeting with Chavez, Obama Urges Kids to Go Wilding.

max
['Chavez Calls Republicans 'the Devil'.']


Posted by: max | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 8:38 AM
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50: So?


Posted by: Cyrus | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 9:45 AM
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I've been told I had a novel in me.

That's nothing. I have the Kingdom of God in me.


Posted by: Populuxe | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 10:04 AM
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the night max wore his wolfson suit...


Posted by: tierce de lollardie | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 11:11 AM
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...and corrected their terrible grammar...


Posted by: JRoth | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 11:45 AM
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Where the Little Bitches Are


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 04-20-09 11:53 AM
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