Sunday, May 22, 2005

Sunday Times Catchup From a Sunday visit to The New York Times, here are the stories I plan to spend more time reading, as soon as I finish reading a book that I should have finished months ago, writing a review of it, and figuring out my summer plans: So many Americans apparently now see journalists as self-interested, careerist and unprofessional that perhaps it would make sense for media executives to call up another group of bosses who once faced fundamental questions about their product: the makers of Tylenol in the 1980's... Let's get this straight. Jerry Garcia invented the Internet while he was tripping... (I didn't mean to make drugs a theme of today's posts, but see the final section of the Austin Lounge Lizards item below, too). In case you missed its obituary, the joke died recently after a long illness, of, oh, 30 years... Boilerplate and plagiarism are not the best ways to find a job... For all the hype about the communications revolution, the information capacity, or bandwidth, of FedEx is 15 times greater in this instance... Can you catch obsessive-compulsive disorder? Finally, the Times "public editor" for the past year and a half, David Okrent, titles his farewell column, "13 Things I Meant to Write About but Never Did." Among other things, he comes out against gratuitous nastiness (by others) and against reducing a complex issue to a soundbite (his own "Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper?" column). 2:16:23 PM    comment [] Hey, Little Minivan Owner This song is dedicated to Dave... On Deadman's Curve, I used to shut 'em down, I had the hottest muscle car in my hometown I could burn rubber in all four gears, But I haven't done that in a million years. Hey little minivan... (Similar Hey little minivan audio clip from MP3.com) Also see the lyrics, at the Austin Lounge Lizards' own site. (Or see Gunther for the guitar chords, but please don't strum and drive.) OK, so I'm glad to hear Dave has a new car, but this is also an excuse to wish  happy silver anniversary to "The world's oldest boy band," the Austin Lounge Lizards, currently celebrating their great success in the drug business! (That last link lets you choose your favorite media player to see an animated commercial with the Lizards' song, "The Drugs I Need.") I can't believe I missed a New York Times article back in March that mentioned the commercial, along with some other great online animations. 1:00:06 PM    comment []

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