As the Luke Turns

Where Have I Been?

2007-03-26T23:21:00.000-04:00

You may have been wondering, "Wheeeeere's Luke?"

A Bad Dream

2007-02-03T16:28:00.000-05:00

Last night, my girlfriend Ioana and I saw 'Dreamgirls' in Newport Mall right here in Jersey City. If you're having trouble with that name, it's pronounced Joana. Really, it's Romanian and it's pronounced 'you-wanna'. OK, not exactly but I can't pronounce it right in Romanian so I just say Joana. Sometimes I call her Iona just to get a rise out of her. I digress.
Anyway, so I bought the tickets, met up with my better half (scoring a point or two if she's reading) and went to the movie.
Now, we walk into the theater and it's about 60% full. The theater, though, is small. The screen felt like a big plasma screen TV. We pick a seat and sit.
Not long after the movie starts, this girl to our left calls her friend on her phone and proceeds to have a long conversation on speaker phone. Not to be undone, her boyfriend whips out his blackberry and starts waving it around, checking emails and making his own calls. During one of 'Effie's' (played by Jennifer Hudson, the new media darling) songs, the guy behind decided he wanted to get in on all the fun. He started to add his own loud whistels (the two hand in the mouth kind) punctuated with some 'UH!!!!!'s, 'YEAH!!!!'s and 'YOU GO GIRL!!!!!!'s. A baby started crying soon after, followed by more phone calls from the power couple to the left, to the left. It was completely ridiculous, I think I saw a twister game break out in the corner. A-mazing. At one point, I turned to Ioana and said, loud enough to be heard, 'are we in the movie or the zoo? These people are acting like animals.' She got upset and said something about me making the situation worse. She then turned to the sixteen year old girl and said, 'Excuse me can you stop talking on the phone?' The girl looked at her with a like she had been told that no one is allowed to wear shoes in theater effective immediately. She sort of quieted down for a while but then started up again. I was reaching the explosion point. I'm pretty relaxed, but when I get to the point where I'm pissed I get like beyond reason, beyond good taste and beyond all reasonable levels of vengeance pissed. I was almost there. I was making plans, I had just the right insults for the gangster-blackberry guy and just the right trajectory worked out for his girlfriend's phone - I think I could have caught the whistler's head and still hit the wall hard enough to have broken it. Anyway, I'm sitting there steaming, Big Pun is on his blackberry, the guy behind me is yelling and whistling, babies are crying and I turn to Ioana and say 'OK, time to leave.' She refused and again goes to would-be JLo and Marc Antony and says 'We're in a movie, why are you talking?' The girl replies, indignant, 'because I wanted to talk to my friend'. You got the sense that it didn't even occur to her that it was inappropriate. My girlfriend said, 'OK but I paid money to be here and I just want to watch this movie and hear what they say'. Again, the logic was lost on them. Ioana may have well been speaking Romanian by the look on their faces. This was followed by a 'YEA!!!!, UHHH!!!! ALRIGHT!!!' from behind us. I just started laughing, having reached the 'acceptance' point of the situation. The movie pretty much went on like this, as if everyone was in their own 'Choose Your Own Adventure' experience. It ended, we left, my girlfriend complained to the manager and we got our money back, which was nice.
Anyway, I bring this up because maybe it colored my experience but this movie has been getting a LOT of press. Everyone is indignant that it didn't get best picture. Jennifer Hudson is getting talk for 'best actress' or was it supporting actress? Awards awards awards!
I'm here to tell that it just wasn't that good. Here's why:

It was too long. At the end I just wanted to fucking thing to be over. Keep in mind the aforementioned Carnival in which it was viewed, maybe that is why but I don't think it was the only reason.
They couldn't decide if it was a musical or a movie about music. Here's what I mean: you've seen musicals before, right? OK. You have to suspend disbelief. It's ok that the guy at the restaurant is singing 3 verses about wanting, say, bacon and eggs. You just accept it. The dialogue is overdone. Whatever. In a regular movie, usually the scenes are realistic, you feel like the conversations sounds like conversations. This movie bounced back and forth. For the most part it was a movie about music but like two or three times they'd just break out in song. It just didn't feel like it worked.
I feel like I should have more bullet points now that I've started them but it was OK. Pretty good. That's it. Eddie Murphy was very good and could sing pretty well. He was in the movie for maybe 20 minutes. Effie - Hudson, has a great voice. I mean really great. Beyonce is hot and she was good, Jamie Fox was good. Everyone was good. The plot was very cliche and it mostly worked itself from song to song and that was pretty much it. It was definitely not an injustice that this didn't get nominated for an Oscar.

So what's my point? I'm not sure but I guess: Newport Theater is a shitty place to see a movie and the movie gets a solid 'B'. Fairly entertaining, nothing that special. Yawn.

Gilbert Arenas' Shoe Commercial

2007-01-27T21:56:00.000-05:00

This would be a pretty funny commercial.

In his own words, this is Gilbert's 'vision' for his own shoe commercial:

"You know how I always throw my jersey into the stands after a game? In Washington, they just go crazy for it. So in this commercial, that's what I'm gonna do with my shoes. I've just hit a game winner, and I throw these shoes. Everyone starts to react, and you see everything in slow motion. Everyone's pushing, shoving, doing whatever it takes to try to get to these shoes. People from the 400 level, they're jumping off the ledge, they're missing the pile, hitting nothing but chairs, and you can just see in people's faces like, Ooooh, that hurt. While all this stuff's going on, one of the shoes pops out of the crowd, and a little girl gets it and she takes off. A couple of people see she has it, and they start chasing her, and she's looking back running—and then she gets clotheslined by a kid in a wheelchair. So he picks the shoe up and says—he's gonna have the only line in there—"They said I couldn't get it. Heh. Impossible is nothing." And then he rolls off."

And On The Third Day He Blogged Again

2007-01-19T11:39:00.000-05:00

Last night after work, I headed to the village to meet up with my good friend Hasdai at the Art Bar on Eithgh Avenue between Horatio and Jane Streets.
I just had a hell of a time trying to spell eighth. I find as I get older my spelling abilities decline.
I digress.
While there, I hung out with two of Hasdai's friends - Faith and Kate. Actually, Faith was his friend and Kate was Faith's friend. Maybe Kate is now his friend but I guess you'd have to ask Hasdai or Kate. Maybe Faith would know, too. I'm not friends with any of these people but Hasdai but the other two seemed nice and they lived in Jersey City.
Anyway we all convinced Faith she should have a blog and now she does, so you should check it out: boo-yakasha!
Kate also has one but she's apparently a blog snob and I don't have access. You can try to read it by following this link: https://www2.blogger.com/blogin.g?blogspotURL=http%3A%2F%2Fanteriorcommissure.blogspot.com%2F

Isn't It Ironic?

2007-01-14T02:15:00.000-05:00

“Victory will not look like the ones our fathers and grandfathers achieved. There will be no surrender ceremony on the deck of a battleship.”

-President George W. Bush

I'm completely stealing this from my friend Hasdai's blog - which is about a million times more sophisticated and than mine and you should check it out if you haven't already.
I couldn't believe Dubway said this, I mean did the image of him declaring victory on a battleship not pass through everyone's minds as he made the above statement?

Kicking Off 2007 With Some Not-So-Deep Thoughts

2007-01-13T12:37:00.000-05:00

It's a new year and I haven't gotten around to blogging in 2007 yet.
I seem to have come down with the plague, leaving me with nothing but free time on this long weekend to wax philosophical on my only world-wide-venue.
I have some random thoughts I'd like to share and then I have some more lengthy things that I will devote entire entries to later on.
But first, things of little consequence:

Justin Timberlake: I've always considered this guy a bitch. Mickey Mouse Club. N-Sync. Getting "Punk'd". Bitch. Bitch. Bitch. See the thing is the guy is obviously such a cornball, which I don't have a problem with really but he tries to act like he's mad hard. Case in point, when he was 'Punk'd'. Justin comes home to find everything in his house was being seized by the government because his accountants didn't pay his taxes or whatever. JT flips out. But not like, he's going to fuck anyone up flipping out - more like Steve Erkel getting kicked in the balls. Anyway, he's whining and shit but then eventually Ashton Kutcher and his cameras come out and Justin turns all tough-guy "Yo, dawg! You had me trippin, yo! YouknowwhatI'msayin, kiiiid?!". Give me a break. Anyway, that being said - Sexyback is a great song. I have it on my mp3 player and I listen to it all the time. Well, not so much anymore but it definitely had song-of-the-week status for maybe two weeks. The guy is talented. His 'Dick in a Box' skit on Saturday Night Live is very funny. If you haven't seen it follow the link. Also, dumped Cameron Diaz and fucked Britney while she was hot.
New Jerseyans are Retarded on Subways: I lived in New York City for over four years and spent hours upon hours on the 1/9 and 2/3 trains. Whatever. I moved here to Jersey City because I bought a condo and I work downtown in Manhattan, so now my commute is on the Journal Square/Newark to World Trade Center PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson, if you don't know, now you know) line. I was born and raised in Jersey and I do love my home state but people from here are fucking retarded on subways. First of all, they have no sense of spacing on the train. You look in a PATH car and it looks mad crowded but when you get it, you see mad people bunched up around the door but on the ends of the cars there is a ton of free real estate. Why don't they just move to where people aren't? I don't get it. It really confuses me. I mean if these same people were in an elevator together, I'm sure they'd spread out. Four of them wouldn't just be all up by the floor number buttons. Anyway, while that's confusing, it's not that bad because as someone that will go to open space it actually works to my advantage. What drives me crazy, though, is that people getting on the train don't understand that it is in everyone's best interest to let the people off the train before they get on. It really makes me furious. Here's how it goes: you're either end of the train; it stops; you start to make your way to the door; there are people to avoid but then when you get closer to the door people are just streaming in while you (and others) are trying to get off. It's like you're a running back but with no offensive line. You juke past the first person, spin around the next, side step the next but after that you put your head down and just ram through for the first down. People of New Jersey, what is wrong with you? Let the people off. Then you can get on. Is this hard?
Sports: Now that the Knicks are horrendous, I really don't regularly watch many sports. I still enjoy them but I seem to prefer my sports in print. I love Bill Simmons. I read the NY Times Sports Page every day. I read CNN/Sports Illustrated and ESPN.com. So, I'm fairly well informed of happenings in the sports world but I don't really watch them. Is that unusual? Anyway, I don't know what the Giants were thinking. It seems to me that Coughlin lost this team. You get the feeling that the players all think he's just a big idiot and tuned him out. I don't know what they were thinking giving him an extension, except that they thought he deserved another year due to all the injuries and thought he wouldn't be respected if he was a lame duck. Also, Tiki Barber is a bitch. Fuck that guy. Now, I respect his right to retire, in fact I understand and commend him but why did he have to announce it? Why did he volunteer to the news media he didn't pay attention in team meetings? He wanted it to be a story, that's why. By the way, he's not going to be half as succesful as he thinks he is. You heard it hear first. For a football player, he's good on TV and radio, I'm sure. For a TV/radio star, does he cut it? I'm guessing no. I think Bill Simmons said, you'll see him on the preview channel in five years telling you not to check out the WE channell in that little box on the upper left hand corner with a look on his face like, 'man, I should have played a little longer." I mean is it really going to be that great being the fifth host of 'The View'? Granted, I haven't seen him much but that's just my gut feeling - we'll see. I don't know how to indent bullet points for sub-points, so this paragraph has too many thoughts for one paragraph. I'm like the James Joyce of the blogging world with this stream-of-consciousness thing going on right now. Moving on, the Mets were right to not sign Barry Zito. Omar Minaya was right to walk away, he got way too much money which may end being bad for Zito because it creates unrealistic expectations. He got Roger Clemens in his prime money but he's really Andy Petitte at best. Speaking of Petitte, the Yankees are looking better and better. Now that George Steinbrenner is spending most of his time in Tampa Bay eating baby food, Brian Cashman is going to get their house in order. They've got the money and if they have the discipline, they're going to put together some very good teams that will win championships. Remember, their dynasty of the 1990s was built when 'The Boss' was away on suspension. The Knicks suck. I don't know their record right now. I don't care. Eddy Curry was The Man for about a week and a half. They're going to do well enough to make the playoffs in the Atlantic Division which just may be the worst division in all of sports and Isaiah is going to keep his job. The fight with Denver wasn't that bad and it got way too much attention. Carmelo really bitched out. Not because he got into the fight but because he smacked Mardy Collins and ran away. Ew. I don't mean to snitch, but that was a real pussy move.
Britney Has Lost Her Mind: What is going on here? Doesn't she have people telling her to chill out? Can't see just have people go to her house and get wasted there? I mean, she knows the paparazzi is going to follow her around? Does she enjoy being in these magazines? Has she just gone Whitney-and-Bobby Crazy?
Rick McKay: He is, by far, the worst blogger ever. Rick came over my place about a month ago or so and wanted to start a blog. I helped him set it up. Now he has one. The man has, not counting titles, two words written since his blog's inception. Two. One, two. Actually, I haven't checked it in a long time. Let's see. Yep. Two words. I guess he just really busy these days.

That's all I have to say about that.

Let Me Blog You Something

2006-12-28T22:20:00.000-05:00

Bro, let me tell you:
http://www.a-mazing.blogspot.com/

And Now For Something Completely Different

2006-12-21T20:52:00.000-05:00

I first brought the world it's first electronical glimpse to Ricky's head in a one time only series.

Slightly unnerved but strangely riveted, the world has been clamoring for a more complete view.

So, without further ado, I bring you (drumroll please) ...............The World According to Rick!

I Don't Even Hate the Knicks Anymore

2006-11-21T20:58:00.000-05:00

The NY Knickerbockers are currently sporting a 4-8 record. A .333 winning percentage.

Watching from about age 12 - 22 was a lot of fun. They never won it all, largely because of Michael Jordan's dominance, but they were always a gritty team you could get behind.

Starting with the Patrick Ewing trade it all went downhill. Mostly because of awful cap management (seriously, Scott Layden could work in George W's budget office) but also due to draft picks like that French guy Frederic Weiss, they began a rather quick decline.

The last few years, I have found myself filled with hatred for them. Last year's early optimism was only cause for more loathing.

At this point, I'm all frustrated out. They suck. The players suck, the coach sucks, the GM sucks (and the last two are the same person) - but most of all, and most importantly the owner sucks.

They're terrible, there isn't much sign of a brighter future as long as Isiah and Dolan are there.

Marbury is an asshole, I thinkwe can all agree, and this back-court of him and Francis isn't working.

I don't even watch anymore. They're a boring and shitty team. I sort of find myself hoping they'll just be terrible this year so we can fire Isiah and get rid of these asshole, except for the second team, which is pretty fun to watch (Lee, Robinson and Balkman).

I'm at the point, where I'm not even mad anymore - and some of you probably remember my Allan Houston rant of '05.

New York Knicks, meet apathy. Apathy, New York Knicks. I hope you get along, as you will most likely be spending some quality time together.

My New Favorite Website

2006-11-21T20:22:00.000-05:00

Is PerezHilton.com

It's a fun blog/website. Perez Hilton is, a gay spanish dude from Miami. I assume he lives in L.A. now but wherever he lives he's pretty entertaining as a mid-day procrastination tool for a few reasons:

He updates his site numerous times a day. It seems like once an hour or two there is a new story on there.
He often breaks the celebrity gossip 'news' first. The term news is used rather lightly, of course.
He's mean. Let's admit it, seeing someone funny make fun of someone else (assuming it's not us) is often quite entertaining. Perez, for some reason hates Jennifer Aniston, Kirsten Dunst and various other celebrities. He outs people a lot. He accuses people of using drugs and doing all kinds of stuff.
He doesn't censor himself at all. Come on, don't you want to see Lindsay Lohan's vagina? (Keep scrolling down.)

You looked, didn't you? Thought so.

Us Weekly, used to be my favorite gossip site, but Perez is definitely better.

Salvaging whatever manhood I have left after the above, Bill Simmons is probably the best writer/blogger around. He's dope. He'll start off talking about the Giants or whomever and go into a prolonged analytical discussion about Seinfeld or a comparison of Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. Highly interesting. Unfortunately, though, he only writes about two columns a week.

Jumping back to more conventional print, last week was John Tierney's, a columnist for the New York Times last op-ed column. He wrote the he is resigning because he wanted to go back to the Science Times section. Yeah, OK John. In any case, good riddance to him. He was horrendous. He was supposed to fill in as a conservative voice when William Safire retired. Turns out he was just a boring pussy. I'd much rather see a real conservative that makes me think, personally. I don't think they've picked a replacement yet. It will be interesting to see that choice.

Hey, John - Fucking Go Away!

2006-11-01T20:37:00.000-05:00

Will John Kerry, please just shut the fuck up?

John, you lost. You had it handed to you on a golden platter and you voted against it, before you voted for it.

Yesterday, Kerry said something to the effect of: "Study and get good grades or else you'll end up stuck in Iraq". Now, apparently, he mangled a joke that was meant to say essentially, "Study hard or you'll end up getting us stuck in Iraq". A coworker of mine told me he heard the whole speech and there it was pretty clear as to what he meant despite the poor joke-telling. Even still, Kerry has managed to give the Republicans and Bush a sound bite to harp on just as they are poised to lost Congress. However, in this sound-bite world it really doesn't matter. This will play out in thousands of voters minds as John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for President said that soldiers are dumb."

Now, John, I know you didn't mean to do anything wrong but FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST!!!

FUCKING GROW A BEARD, GO TEACH SOME GRADUATE COURSES FOR FIVE YEARS AND COME BACK AS AN ELDERSTATEMEN!!!

John, it's over. Fucking know when to fold ' em.

Der Administration

2006-10-16T16:54:00.000-04:00

I try to avoid posting articles on the blog, but I have to put this one up.
I have to make note of the fact this was on progressive.com but if it's basically factual, this is pretty horrendous. In the great scheme of things, this is not up there with Iraq and Katrina but just a little reminder of just how out of control our current administration is:

Criticizing Cheney to His Face Is Assault?

By Matthew Rothschild

October 4, 2006

Steve Howards says he used to fantasize about what he’d say to President Bush or Vice President Cheney if he ever got the chance.

That opportunity arrived on June 16, the same day he says he read about U.S. fatalities in Iraq reaching 2,500.

“Initially, I walked past him. Then I said to myself, ‘I can’t in good conscience let this opportunity pass by.’ So I approached him, I got about two feet away, and I said in a very calm tone of voice, ‘Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.’”

Howards says he was taking two of his kids to their Suzuki piano camp in Beaver Creek, Colorado. They were walking across the outdoor public mall area when all of a sudden he saw Cheney there.

“I didn’t even know he was in town,” Howards says. “He was walking through the area shaking hands. Initially, I walked past him. Then I said to myself, ‘I can’t in good conscience let this opportunity pass by.’ So I approached him, I got about two feet away, and I said in a very calm tone of voice, ‘Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.’ And then I walked away.”

Howards says he knew the Administration has a “history of making problems” for people who protest its policies, so he wanted to leave off at that.

But the Secret Service did not take kindly to his comment.“About ten minutes later, I came back through the mall with my eight-year-old son in tow,” Howards recalls, “and this Secret Service man came out of the shadows, and his exact words were, ‘Did you assault the Vice President?’ ”

Here’s how Howards says he responded: “No, but I did tell Mr. Cheney the way I felt about the war in Iraq, and if Mr. Cheney wants to be shielded from public criticism, he should avoid public places. If exercising my constitutional rights to free speech is against the law, then you should arrest me.”

Which is just what the agent, Virgil D. “Gus” Reichle Jr, proceeded to do.

“He grabbed me and cuffed my hands behind my back in the presence of my eight-year-old son and told me I was being charged with assault of the Vice President,”Howards recalls.

He says he told the agent, “I can’t abandon my eight-year-old son in a public mall.”

According to Howards, Reichle responded: “We’ll call Social Services.” Before that could happen, however, “my son ran away and found my wife,” who was nearby, Howards says.

“First of all, I was scared,” Howard recalls. “They wouldn’t tell my wife where they were taking me. Second of all, I was incredulous this could be happening in the United States of America. This is what I read about happening in Tiananmen Square. They hauled me away to Eagle County jail and kept me with my hands cuffed behind my back for three hours.”

At the jail, the charge against him was reduced to harassment, he says, and he was released on $500 bond. The Eagle County DA’s office eventually dropped that charge.

On October 3, Howards sued Reichle for depriving him of his First Amendment right of free speech and his Fourth Amendment right to be protected from illegal seizure.

Howards and his attorney, David Lane, have not demanded a specific dollar amount.

“We will go to trial and let a Colorado jury decide what type of damages are appropriate,” says Howards. “This isn’t about anything I did. This about what I said. There is a frontal assault occurring on our constitutional right to free speech. We brought this suit because of our belief that this Administration’s attempt to suppress free speech is a greater threat to the long-term integrity of this nation than ten Osama bin Ladens.”

Reichle did not return my call for comment. Nor did he respond to The New York Times in its article on this incident.

Lon Garner, special agent in charge at the Secret Service’s Denver office, says he has “no reaction” to the lawsuit. “It’s in litigation,” he says. “We have no comment.”

Before his encounter with Cheney, Howards says he had a clean record.

“I was never arrested before,” he says. “I don’t have so much as a speeding ticket.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The court filings

Eh

2006-10-02T22:09:00.001-04:00

A few month ago, I read about how Jessica Simpson was hooking up with some guy Dane Cook. I had no idea who he was. Turns out, apparently he's a comedian. In the opinion of many, a good one, too.
My friend Brian, recently wed, gave it his customary 'three thumbs up'. A few other people were also fairly enthusiastic about this guy.
So, when his special 'Vicious Circle' showed up on HBO On Demand - I turned it on, eager to be amused.
The name Dayne wasn't all Ron and Cook had in common. Both were built up to be dope by many but turned out to be less than that in reality.
A few laughs, but he just wasn't that funny. My impressions: everyone there screamed and cheered and seemed to be really enjoying themselves; he definitely played up to the women in the audience, who seemed to love that; he seemed to laugh at almost ALL of his own jokes but his material just wasn't that great; he (and his audience) seemed super New England-y. His whole ten minute riff on crying was kind of stupid, he basically stole the whole cheating section from Chris Rock and the whole thing about him doing "B&E"'s just seemed dumb.
An underwhelming experience. He wasn't terrible, just not that great. Maybe had he not been built up beforehand, it would have been more satisfying of a viewing.

son of a BITCH!!!

2006-09-25T22:50:00.000-04:00

Unbelievable.
Many of you read my last post about my run-in while replacing my defective Motorola phone this past Tuesday.
The saga has not yet ended. Today, I walked home, cooked dinner and for perhaps the first time ever decided to do laundry for a second day in a row. In that load of laundry, I included the pants I wore to work today. Along with some other stuff, I threw my pants in and took batch of laundry down to the basement. A girl in my building was down there so I couldn't do it right away. Once upstairs, I half heartedly looked for my phone but could not find it. Now I often temporarily misplace things such as my keys, glasses and, yes, my phone. Normally, whatever I can't find is on my bed or the floor or something like that so it's not something I really get worked up about.
The girl from my building knocked on my door and advised she was done with the washer. As I went downstairs, I thought to myself "I better check my pants to make sure my phone is not there". After a cursory pat-down of my just-worn pants evidenced no cellular phone, I threw the laundry into the washing machine and headed upstairs. Soon after a more thorough search, I began to get worried. I checked the usual spots - the counter, the bathroom, the dresser, the floor and then called - hoping I could hear it ring, or at least vibrate - nothing. I called the deli I stopped at for quarters - no phone. I retraced my steps back to the deli - nope. I asked the guy, whom I had just called (using my land-line) if he had, perhaps located my phone - you no dice. I walked home, with my eyes fixated to the pavement and sidewalk. Is that it? Nope, a piece of dog shit. How about that? Tin foil. By this time my laundry was sure to be done.
I walked downstairs and pulled out all of my clothes and what do I find on the bottom of the machine? Yep, my motherfucking phone.
Fuck me.
Luckily, I have the phone insured.
For those of you keeping track at home, since re-upping my contract and getting this model I have lost it, had it die and, now washed it.
My insurance is now dead because I've used it twice within twelve months.
Son of a bitch.

The Verizon Monologues

2006-09-19T22:43:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, I got a new cell phone - a Motorola. The silver one, at least in the middle, with the black rubber-ish stuff around the sounds. I don't like it. At least my first two. The first one, I lost and the second one just died. You have to shut it off to plug it in before you charge it or it doesn't charge right. That really annoys me, even though I realize it's not that big of a deal.
Anyway, today I went back to the Verizon store to return it. I gave it to the guy and he looked at it for a while, then went away, then came back and said he'd be a little while and disappeared again.
Bored, I started to wander and browse phones. I have to say, there aren't many cool cell phones out these days. I guess the LG Chocolate is OK but it's a little girlie or something. Anyway, as I was walking around this woman walks in. She was late-40s or so, bleach bonde hair and in excellent shape. Not great shape, like' she's really hot but like great shape, like too great of shape and too-thin and old enough that her skin was a little saggy. Certainly too saggy for the short-shorts and tank top she had on. After noticing her for maybe a second or two, I continued to wander. Soon after the guy with my phone came back so I walked up to the desk again. Between the beginning of my wandering and the guy coming back, I guess a line had formed but I took little notice.
The guy comes back, I walk up to the desk and he starts talking. A moment after that, the older-bleach-blonde-in-shape-but-to-skinny-and-saggy lady is yelling at me about "There's a line here!!!! You can't just cut!!!". I think some expletives got in. Me and the guy are like, "I [he] was here. She continued to yell so, in my diplomatic way, said - "I was already here, so why don't you just get the fuck out of my face". In the nicest possible way, of course. Then she says, "I wasn't the one who care, she was!" while pointing at this other lady. I said, "well, you're the one screaming at me", to which she replied "that's because I'm more aggressive!!"
At this point, I'm thinking 'who the fuck is the bitch?' but realize I don't want to lose it in this store. Calmly (but not being able to help myself from being slightly antagonistic, admittedly) say something to the effect of OK, just get out of my face Ma'am. OK, that's not what I said but I'm going with that (I was calm though).
Now, she's really pissed. "Gay Boy!! Gay Boy!!" When that got no response, she went with "You're Fat!!! No one wants you FATTY!!!"
I turned to her and said, "Come on, you can do better than that, can't you?" She looked at me dumbfounded. "You can be more creative can't you, Iggy Pop?"
She went nuts with a string of expletives, clearly she had gotten the reference and was not amused. This gave me great satisfaction.
So I just ignored her and went about my business. She continued to yell at the lady helping her about how important she was and she missed a business call and things like that.
The guy informed me that the phone was broken (duh) and that I should come back in a few hours. I said thanks and turned to leave. The woman had kind of calmed down.
I know I shouldn't have.
I know.
"Hope everything works out with your phone, Iggy", with a warm smile.
I chuckled to myself as walked out to the sweet sound of four letter words screamed in my direction.

If you don't know who Iggy Pop is you probably don't think this is a funny story. Perhaps this will help: http://www.iggypop.com/

YOGURT!! YOGURT!! YOGURT!!

2006-09-13T00:48:00.000-04:00

As many of you know I haven't blogged now for many, many moons.

Wading back in to this e-pool can be a bit intimidating, do I write a serious post explaining my absence? Not acknowledg it at all? Or just write a random post about a not terribly earth-shattering subject?

What is Option C, Alex?

Yogurt has been one of those food's that I've always just known I've hated. Nasty. Dried up milk. Bacteria-laden waste.

All of the above, or so I thought during the first 28 or so years I've spent on this earth.

I am here to tell you today, ladies and gentelmen I have been wrong.

Yogurt is dope.

Try it, it's like ice-cream, without the ice.

Or the cream.

A hearty and nutritious snack, believe or not.

I Think I Can Hear the Ocean

2006-09-13T00:39:00.000-04:00

Game Six & RBI Baseball

2006-04-10T21:53:00.000-04:00

As a NY Mets fan growing up, the Mets winning the World Series in 1986 was the greatest thing ever to me at the time. Game Six of that World Series, in particular, was a highlight of my youth - and still is even today. My aunt Susan was baby-sitting me (my parents were in California) and she let me stay up to watch the game even though it was a Sunday Night. I vividly recall running around and around my house with her when Mookie Wilson hit that ground ball in between Bill Buckner's legs.
At about that time, one of my favorite video games was RBI baseball.

That being said, you can imagine how great this is to me - Game Six (with the real commentary) but played out on in RBI Baseball video game form: http://www.sandiegoserenade.com/2006/04/1986_world_series_game_6_reena.html

Non-Courtesy Laughers

2006-04-10T13:13:00.000-04:00

This is a post about 'non-courtesy laughers' from my friend Nat's website. I couldn't agree more(http://va-gentlemen.tripod.com/home/index.blog?entry_id=1446987):

I don’t like non-courtesy laughers. See, usually when I make a comment- whether it be an attempt at humor or just an observation on life- it elicits a chuckle or a “yeah.” But not with non-courtesy laughers. All they offer is a blank stare- a mute slap in my face.
A month ago I would have looked at this issue introspectively, asking why? What’s wrong with me? Am I not even mildly amusing? Have I been living a courtesy laugh lie my whole life? Do they think they’re that much better than I that they won’t feign even the slightest acknowledgement?
Thanks to a month of therapy and Wellbutrin, though, I can see that there’s something wrong with THEM. Simply put, the non-courtesy laugher is discourteous. They don’t care about the feelings of others. I have often wondered how I end up in the presence non-courtesy laughers. Why would I choose to hang out with individuals who don't respect my emotions? Alas, I have had little choice in the matter. I recently realized most of them either go to my law school or are related to my girlfriend. Indeed, non-courtesy laughers are extremely difficult to avoid. I must now learn how to cope with the discourtesy of the non-courteous laugher. Up until now my solution has been not to talk. I just sit there offering nothing but own courtesy laughs (because I’M courteous and I care about other people’s feelings).
Not anymore my friends. From now on, when someone denies me a courtesy laugh, I will up the distasteful ante. I will pay the discourteous sensibilities of the non-courtesy laugher a Nasty visit, one that will offer no choice but to acknowledge my commentary. Yes, I will fight discourtesy with discourtesy- my triumph in their undeniable reaction. In the end, I’d rather be outwardly loathed than dismissed. Nobody, and I mean nobody who knows what’s good for them, will deny Sir Nasty Natroneus his courtesy laugh again. In reaction I find solace and in loathing lies my sweet victory.

My Personality Type (According to 25 Questions on a Website)

2006-03-21T09:53:00.000-05:00

*I stole this from Jerry (http://chuckjerry.blogspot.com/2006/03/ill-bet-you-didnt-know.html)

Find out your personality at: http://www.blogthings.com/typeaquiz/

iPod, uPod, we-allPod

2006-03-06T21:17:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, I turned 28 years old a week ago today.
My parents gave me an iPod video for my birthday and I must say, it is dope. I've never had an iPod before and didn't really see what all the fuss is about.
I now see.

I am a serial compact disc destroyer. No-more, they can all just be on the digital iPod.
They're very small. Not awkward like a disc-man.
They don't skip.
Podcasts are really cool. Didn't ever think I'd get into them but you can download podcasts of pretty much anything. I especially like downloading political talk shows like Meet the Press. They are also all free on the iPod iTunes site.
Video Podcasts are also dope. I didn't think I'd really use it for that but I recently flew to and from Colorado and was glad I had the video feature. What did I watch you ask? Desperate Housewives. I said it, I said it - what?!

The only corny thing so far is that you can only upload songs from one computer. So, for instance, I can't just download some songs from Dave's software on his computer. If you do, it erases all the files currently on your iPod. Wack.

Overall, however, I'm a fan.

The Westbrook Plan

2006-03-04T17:14:00.000-05:00

What to do in Iraq? That's the Trillion Dollar Question these days .
Stay?
Go?

One option I don't think I've heard in the mass media is - 'Why don't we ask the Iraqis what they want'?

My good friend, Hasdai Westbrook , poses just that in an unpublished (until now, in what may prove to be his big break making on a respected online publication such as this) article he wrote back in October:

"That's a lie," cried Walter Woflgang from the balcony, heckling British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw as he defended the war in Iraq at last month's national conference of Britain's ruling Labour party. The "lie" in question was Straw's claim that Britain is in Iraq solely to build a democratic state and remains only with Iraqi consent. But Mr. Wolfgang got no response from Straw. Instead, the diminutive 82 year-old anti-war activist was seized by burly security guards and bundled out of the assembly hall, setting off a media frenzy and a series of self-flagellating apologies from Labour party officials. Wolfgang's claim, however, was never addressed. (Nor, for that matter, was Straw's.)
Wolfgang is a steering-committee member of the Stop the War Coalition. Like much of the international anti-war movement, Stop the War considers the American and British coalition's intervention in Iraq an illegal colonial enterprise. It demands a swift withdrawal of all coalition troops, insisting that the people of Iraq "have time and again insisted that they are opposed to war and occupation." As for the coalition, its stated policy, in the words of President Bush, is to "stay the course," having committed itself to securing a democratic Iraq governed by the will of its people. The coalition insists it has no imperial designs on Iraq or its resources and that, as Jack Straw says, its forces remain only with the consent of the Iraqis.
On the ground, the spectacular incompetence of the Bush administration's efforts to secure Iraq after the defeat of Saddam Hussein have resulted in strategic paralysis. Despite the extraordinary bravery of everyday Iraqis in defying terrorists to exercise their vote, resulting in the formation of a civilian Iraqi government and the ratification of an Iraqi constitution, the insurgency continues unabated, massacring civilians almost every day and seemingly at will. Despite its high-minded talk of building democracy the coalition's efforts are seen as having little legitimacy, either in the Arab and Muslim world or among western Europe's liberal democracies. In America a majority now believes the Iraq war was a mistake but still opposes withdrawal. Thanks to the Rumsfeld doctrine of "Shock and Awe" there are too few troops on the ground to provide adequate security, but the suggestion of increasing troop strength is considered political kryptonite.
The policy debate is similarly paralyzed. Anti-war activists seem to have made the rather curious assumption, given the evidence, that the Sunni and Salafist terrorism campaign against Iraqi civilians and their government is a popular insurgency. They insist that the coalition must go. The governments of Britain and the United States say the Iraqi people have given their assent to the occupation and insist that the troops must stay. Both the coalition and the anti-war movement claim to know and be acting in accordance with what the Iraqi people want. Quite a wonder then that no-one has asked the Iraqis.
It's about time we did. Shouldn't it be Iraqis themselves who decide whether coalition forces stay or go? The coalition has no moral basis to do either without Iraqi consent. If the coalition's aim is democracy and not imperialism, the only legitimate course of action is to hold a plebiscite on the question of whether and for how long coalition forces should occupy Iraq, and to abide by its results.
Holding such a plebiscite is the only responsible way out of the current paralysis. To withdraw without Iraqi consent would be a moral and strategic disaster. A betrayal of our commitments, it would abandon Iraqis to terrorist slaughter, making a mockery of our credibility and crippling American and British foreign policy for the foreseeable future. To remain in occupation without consent is also morally unacceptable and strategically reckless. It exposes Britain and America to the charge of venal colonialism and hampers the war effort politically, diplomatically and ultimately militarily. The result of such an ongoing occupation would most likely be an emboldened insurgency, popular Iraqi uprisings and ultimate failure.
Given the current state of play, the coalition can only benefit from holding and abiding by a plebiscite. Whatever the outcome, its credibility would be bolstered (as would that of the Iraqi civilian government, which could no longer be portrayed as an American puppet regime). If the Iraqi people told the coalition to stay, "staying the course" would suddenly be imbued with immense legitimacy - the coalition would be in Iraq because its people wants it there, making good on its commitments by acceding to their democratic will. Opponents of the war would be hard-pressed to argue that we should defy their wishes. Critics such as Mr. Wolfgang would have to pipe down and support for the war would likely increase. The coalition would become less isolated, the insurgency more so, and other democratic countries might even join the war effort. At the very least, the Iraqi insurgency would no longer be able to exploit the coalition's international isolation and domestic opposition to weaken its resolve.
If the Iraqi people told the coalition to leave, Britain and America could claim a victory for democracy - what, after all, is more democratic than a people deciding their own fate? And since the most likely alternative under current circumstances is defeat by slow and costly attrition, withdrawing in acquiescence to the will of the people would be the most graceful and honorable exit the coalition can hope for. Whatever chaos might ensue in the wake of withdrawal would have less strategic impact on the coalition powers, who would be inoculated against more extensive blame by their democratic deference. Perhaps most crucially, an Arab and Muslim world suspicious of American motives and resentful of its domination would see the world's superpower leave Arab land at the behest of an Arab people - a boon to America's image abroad worth a thousand Karen Hughes. But is holding a plebiscite even feasible? Two successful national elections in the most difficult of circumstances suggest that it is. Coalition forces have proven that they can provide a basic, though not perfect level of security throughout the country for the limited period of time such a vote would require. The insurgency has failed in both of its attempts to scare the Iraqi majority away from the polls. Not only would a vote on the question of whether coalition forces should stay or go be more likely to draw Sunni participation, attempts to intimidate Iraqis into voting for withdrawal would likely backfire, convincing people of the need for a continued coalition presence.
A great deal of care would certainly need to be given to the crafting of the question. To eliminate any potential disputes over interpretation the plebiscite would need to pose the question of whether coalition forces should withdraw completely by a set date, for instance six months from the date of the vote (probably the minimum amount of time needed to withdraw the 174,000 coalition troops in an orderly fashion) - "yes or no" - and then provide a choice to those voters who say no between another plebiscite in say another 12 months or leaving the final decision to the Iraqi government. To avoid even the appearance of impropriety or a conflict of interest, the coalition and the Iraqi government could hand the administration of the plebiscite vote over to the auspices of the United Nations - which has successfully overseen plebiscites in conflict zones such as East Timor - perhaps allowing for a diplomatic rapprochement.
Any substantive objection to a plebiscite is ultimately an argument against either staying in Iraq or against withdrawal. True, the people of Britain and the United States can exercise their own democratic will by demanding that the troops leave, but not without ignoring the will of the Iraqi people and repudiating democracy for Iraq. True, to risk an Iraqi vote for withdrawal might be inimical to our national interest - a Balkan-style civil war might ensue or the world's second largest oil reserve might fall into the hands of another wild-eyed dictator. But that is the price of a truly pro-democratic foreign policy, of liberation - "freedom is messy" as Donald Rumsfeld said. The alternative is colonialism. Does it serve the strategic interests of the United States and Britain to betray their democratic commitments, exposing themselves to the world as hypocritical colonial powers and continuing to fight a losing war without the benefit of legitimacy or Iraqi support?
Perhaps, however, the point is moot. The most valid objection to the idea of a plebiscite is that the Bush administration will never allow it. As a political analyst for the Pentagon who works closely with the administration's neo-conservative hawks told me recently, the war's architects are rigidly committed to redeeming their strategic vision of regime change through the use of small, flexible expeditionary forces. They will not contemplate a withdrawal without a military victory over the insurgency.
In the current debate, however, Bush and Rumsfeld can parry the anti-war movement 's demands for withdrawal with high-minded appeals to democracy and warnings against capitulation to terror. Cutting and running, abandoning Iraqis - these are not strong rallying cries. But if the demand were a plebiscite the administration would either have to accede or be exposed as frauds. An argument for true democracy, for giving Iraqis the means to express their will on the most basic question of the war, would be impossible to reject on any grounds of principle. It might even be something worth heckling for.

So, Was There Really a General Tso?

2006-03-03T00:58:00.000-05:00

I bet you didn't think so, did you?

From Wikpedia.com (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Tso):

Zu Zōngtáng (左宗棠) (November 10, 1812-September 5, 1885), spelled Tso Tsung-t'ang in Wade-Giles and known simply as General Tso to esterners, was a gifted Chinese military leader born in Wenjialong, north of Changsha in Hunan province, during the waning of the Qing Dynasty. He served with brilliant distinction during China's most important (and the world's
largest) civil war, the 14-year-long Taiping Rebellion, in
which at least 30 million people lost their lives.

A chicken dish, "General Tso's chicken" was apparently named after him, though the reasoning behind this, if it exists, has not yet been discovered. The dish is said to have originated in New York City.

There's No "I" in Kobe

2006-01-31T09:26:00.000-05:00

Kobe Bryant forced out the game's most dominant player and arguably its best coach (although he did come back this year) two years ago because he wanted to be 'The Man'. He got exactly what he wanted, a mediocre team where he can be the unquestioned star and score a zillion points.
Yesterday, he threw some 'it's all about the team and winning' cliches out to the news media. This quote is up there with "I did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky" on the disingenuous scale (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2312674):

Kobe Bryant feels a bit sheepish about his 81-point performance and says he is not caught up in a chase of Wilt Chamberlain's record of 100.
"I'm a little bit embarrassed, actually," Bryant told reporters Monday
after the Los Angeles Lakers practiced for Tuesday's game against the New York Knicks.
"I think it's exciting for the game and the organization because of all the buzz, but personally it's a little embarrassing."
Bryant, who leads the NBA in scoring with a 35.9 average, said the bottom line for the Lakers (23-20) is winning.
"The concept is not about going out there and putting on a show or going out there and scoring points. It's to win games," he said. "Whatever it takes. You have to gauge the flow of the game and then decide when to pick your spot to take over."
"I'd much rather go out and score 25 points and get 10 assists and see everybody in a rhythm, everybody in a groove."

"Oh, I don't care about me. All this attention is so embarassing, I never asked for it. I'm glad because it's good for my teammates, basketball and world peace but it makes no difference to me."

YOGA! YOGA! YOGA! YOGA!

2006-01-24T20:53:00.000-05:00

Today I took an Ashtang yoga class at the New York Sports Club on Wall Street. I had done Pilates two or three times but I think this is even harder - maybe less of a workout but more stretching.
First of all, before anyone scoffs at the notion of taking a yoga class - I challenge you to try it first. That shit is difficult.
There were like 20 people in the class and about 17 of them were girls. The two other guys were a hippy and an effiminate asian dude. I was most definitely out of place. Actually the Asian dude got really into it right away and after about five minutes took his shirt off, which I thought was a bit strange. The yoga-master or whatever they are called quickly instructed him that club rules were to wear a shirt at all times. Also, a note to all you guys out there - there are some pretty hot girls in yoga classes.
A yoga session is pretty much what you'd expect. They start and end with this 'ommm' chant thing, which I can't bring myself to do. I just feel too stupid. Then you go into the 'up-dog', which is arching your back toward the ground, then you do the 'down-dog' which is the opposite. Then they get into some ill shit. You kind of like jump into all sorts of crazy positions, like balancing on one leg while raising your other above your head, or sitting in the 'lotus' position and generally moving your body in all sorts of strange contorted ways.
Breathing seems to be very important, long and deep breaths and you get into some sort of rhythym. I'm not there by a long shot. I was concentrating on the pain of moving my legs and arms into positions they've never been in before.
The lady yoga-master also speaks in some weird code. She'd calmly call out something that sounded like total gyberrish and everyone would jump into a position. My reaction was generally: 1. 'What the does that mean?' 2. Then I'd look around and see what everyone else is doing and think to myself, 'you've got to be kidding me' 3. Try to get as close as I could to what everyone else was doing (to varying success levels).
In any case, it's a pretty good workout and I kind of like it and think I'll do it again.

Wikipedia is Dope

2006-01-05T20:44:00.000-05:00

Over the last month or so I've started using Wikipedia and it is really cool.

Curious about anything at all? Type it in the search and 95% of the time you'll learn all about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

P.S. - Dan Goldman has an entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Goldman

NYC Subway Map - Updated on 12/20/2005

2005-12-20T13:37:00.000-05:00

One and One and One is Three

2005-12-19T21:23:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite Beatles' songs has always been Come Together, which kicks off Abbey Road, perhaps their best, as well as last, recorded album.

Its original concept was for a campaign song for Timothy Leary in his race against Ronald Reagan for governor of California. His theme was to be to 'come together over him" - with him being Timothy Leary and asked John to write a campaign song.I think Leary got thrown in jail or something - so that put an end to the race but John was left with the beginnings of a song.

Anyway, I never really knew what the song was about and figured it was just like random words but I was kind of just surfing the internet and came upon an article that, interestingly, argued that the song, written by John, was actually about the four beatles themselves.

There are four verses and each verse kind of describes someone in each vers but all four verses aren't necessarily about the same person. Does this argument hold any water?:

Here come old flattop he come grooving up slowly
He got joo-joo eyeball he one holy roller
He got hair down to his knee
Got to be a joker he just do what he please

George.
The first part, Here come old flat top, is from a Chuck Berry song. (John actually got sued by the guy who owned the rights, not Chuck Berry, and as part of the settlement John agreed to release an album with a bunch of this guys songs he owned which is what led to the Rock and Roll album - which isn't that great, incidentally.) George's big song in the early days which was a Chuck Berry song, Roll Over Beethoven; He one holy Roller - George was, in fact, a holy roller in 1969 - Hare Krishna, meditating and whatnot; Hair down to his knees - his hair was mad long; Got to be a joker he just do what he please - he sort of did his own thing (ie - play the sitar and shit).

He wear no shoeshine he got toe-jam football
He got monkey finger he shoot coca-cola
He say I know you, you know me
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free

Ringo.
Wear no shoeshine - something along the lines of 'keeping it real' or not a fake person; monkey finger - he was left handed; 'coca cola' - I read that this was something about Ringo's, who was apparently a huge drinker, favorite drink - rum and coke; I know you.... again something along the lines of along the lines of them being friends; One thing I can tell you is you gotta be free - maybe he's saying "do your own thing" - Paul did apparently bitch him on the regular and tell him what, exactly, to play.

He bag production he got walrus gumboot
He got ono sideboard he one spinal cracker
He got feet down below his knee
Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease

John.
This one seems to be the most obvious. Bag production - him and Yoko were doing that bagism shit where they'd do interviews while both in a paper bag; Walrus is pretty self-explanatory; Ono sideboard - Yoko; feel his disease - John was like a serious heroine addict at the time, he also was pretty open about being a fucked up person sometimes.

He roller-coaster he got early warning
He got muddy water he one mojo filter
He say one and one and one is three
Got to be good-looking ’cause he’s so hard to see

Paul.
Roller-coaster - I think "Helter Skelter" was what the British called a roller coaster at the time, early warning - OK, well this may be a stretch but a little backround: While this was the last album they recorded - it wasn't the last album they released. They had recorded Let it Be and it was apparently a terrible experience and they fought a lot. After that John was pretty much ready to bounce but they decided to not go out with a shit album and did Abbey Road - which was reportedly a pretty happy experience because they all sort of knew that was going to be the last one. Anyway, muddy water/mojo filter - I don't know, One and one and one is three - it was sort of three vs. one at the time b/c Paul wanted his wife's father to be their manager and the other three wanted Allen Klein, I think which caused big problems; He's got to be good-l00king - Paul was considered the 'cute' Beatle; 'cause he's so hard to see - maybe saying he's full of shit.

And, of course Come together over me - would be him saying, 'let's forget the shit for a while and do one last album'.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

Here's a link: http://beatlesnumber9.com/together.html

Click here for a an animated video thing of the song: http://www.devilducky.com/media/16037/

Random Non-Political Thoughts on a Thursday Night

2005-12-01T21:36:00.000-05:00

I've been basically copying and posting (hy!) 95% of the time the last few weeks. About Republicans, no less.
I will now share some random non-political thoughts on this, the first night of December, 2005:

"That Seventies Show" is dope. Come on, you know you like it too. People seem to hate on it, as I once did, but it's consistently funny.
I love celebrity gossip. I don't think I'm a very dramatic person but I love celebrity gossip. I could live my life reading only three publications: 1. The New York Times, 2. The Economist and 3. Us Weekly. Not necessarily in that order.
The Mets are looking good for next year. There problem this year was a lack of another big bat and a kick-ass closer. And, AND they still may get Manny. Even if they don't they're definite contenders.
I read an article yesterday where Joe Torre apparently was talking about Jeter playing center-field (in lieu, of Bubba Crosby). He denied it. I think it's an intriguing idea. Jeter would probably be a dope center fielder. He's got a good arm, he's mad fast, athletic, smart and he's definitely a 'leader-type' guy. I doubt he'd ever do it because of his pride, especially when his replacement would be former-friend A-Rod getting the position. Jeter's always been about winning, I wonder if he'd do it.
The Knicks.....Let's hold off judgement just yet everyone. Yes, they kind of suck now but Larry Brown is s a great coach. He always wins. He's got some players. Channing Frye has been a nice surprise, almost Camby-esque - hopefully without the injuries. Curry has talent, although he may just be a guy without the heart and an attitude but the jury is still out - I kind of think it's bullshit that he's out for like five games with a calf injury. Stephon, Stephon, what's goin' on? I don't know what I think of Marbury. I think he'd be well served to be a two-guard, as I've said before. But, sometimes, I think maybe he's just an asshole. He always seems pissed or something, he never looks like he's having fun and, as the star, I think that attitude can really spread and hurt the team. All his teams got better when he left. Still, I don't think he's an awful and mean guy (see him crying like a like a 13 year girl old at Dave Strauss' Bar-Mitzvah in seventh grade after hurricane Katrina), and he's undoubtedly talented. Plus Brown does well with point guards and vice versa, so let's see what happens. They have some other exciting younger players - Nate Robinson is fun to watch, Trevor Ariza has potential - even Jamal Crawford and Quentin Richardson are also pretty young (although I don't know about those trades). Anyway, I'm still hopeful that they'll be .500 and on the upswing come the end of the year. One playoff series win this year.

Well, have a good night.

Wherever I Look, I Think I See, A Republican Committing a Fe-lo-ny (to be sung to the tootsie roll jingle-tune)

2005-11-28T15:07:00.000-05:00

Ah yes, the Grand Old Party.

Standup guys, they are (from CNN.com):

California Republican admits to taking $2.4 million in bribes
SAN DIEGO, California (AP) -- Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy and tax charges and tearfully resigned from office, admitting he took $2.4 million in bribes to steer defense contracts to conspirators.
Cunningham, 63, entered pleas in U.S. District Court to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud and wire fraud, and tax evasion for underreporting his income in 2004.
Cunningham answered "yes, Your Honor" when asked by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns if he had accepted bribes from someone in exchange for his performance of official duties.

He's Such a Dick

2005-11-18T15:43:00.000-05:00

Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday lambasted Democrats accusing the Bush administration of misleading the country on prewar intelligence about Iraq, calling their allegations "one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city." - 11/16/05
"I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time," Cheney said. "The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency." - 6/20/05
"We need, obviously, a large force and we’ve deployed a large force. To prevail, from a military standpoint, to achieve our objectives, we will need a significant presence there until such time as we can turn things over to the Iraqis themselves. But to suggest that we need several hundred thousand troops there after military operations cease, after the conflict ends, I don’t think is accurate. I think that’s an overstatement." - Dick Cheney, answering Tim Russert on Meet the Press, 3/16/03
"We Will, In Fact, Be Greeted As Liberators" - Dick Cheney, answering Tim Russert on Meet the Press, 3/16/03
"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." - Dick Cheney, 8/26/02
"George W. Bush will repair what has been damaged. He is a man without pretense and without cynicism. A man of principle, a man of honor. On the first hour of the first day he will restore decency and integrity to the Oval Office. He will show us that national leaders can be true to their word and that they can get things done by reaching across the partisan aisle, and working with political opponents in good faith and common purpose. I know he'll do these things, because for the last five years I've watched him do them in Texas. " - Dick Cheney, 8/2/2000
"I had other priorities in the '60s than military service." - Dick Cheney, 1989, on why he received FIVE deferments from military service during the Vietnam War.

Does President Bush Have Any Credibility Left at All?....With Anyone?

2005-11-08T11:03:00.000-05:00

"We do not torture" - President Bush earlier today in Panama City, Panama.

Meanwhile, back in the good ol' U.S. of A.......

Over White House opposition, the Senate has passed legislation banning
torture. With Vice President Dick Cheney as the point man, the administration is seeking an exemption for the CIA. It was recently disclosed that the spy agency maintains a network of prisons in eastern Europe and Asia, where it holds terrorist suspects.
(from CNN.com)

The Worst Job in Sports

2005-10-31T23:40:00.000-05:00

Out of all team sports I think the position I would want to occupy least (assuming you're a regular starter - not an Eric Anderson) is a field goal kicker in football. You just sit around the whole game and if you make a field goal, you're supposed to but if you miss, you suck. Talk about pressure. Yes, you could end up as Adam Vinatieri but you could also be Scott Norwood. What a stressful job.
My roomate, Chris, argues that punting is the worst job because you don't even have a chance to be dope. I can see his point.
I still think I'd hate to be a kicker, though.

Yes, She Said It With a Straight Face

2005-10-24T17:15:00.000-04:00

From yahoo.com:

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas derided any potential perjury charge as a "technicality," and suggested Fitzgerald may be trying to show that "two years' of investigation was not a waste of time and dollars."
Other Republicans with close ties to the White House suggested that Fitzgerald was looking at perjury and obstruction charges because he was having trouble proving that officials knowingly leaked the identity of a covert operative.

When Republican strategists are coming up with talking points on how to handle these possible indictments, I wonder if they don't realize how much statements like these just drip with irony. I mean, they must, don't you think? When someone points out how hypocritical the "perjury isn't that big of a deal" defense is, what can they possibly counter with? "Well, Karl Rove and Scooter Libby were lying about whether or not they outed a spy to smear a critic that claimed the administration manipulated evidence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in order to justify a war they really wanted to fight, I mean, come on! How petty can you get?! Bill Clinton, now that guy was lying about blowjobs - that's morally reprehensible and he should have been kicked out of office!"

Onnnn Our Way Back Home, On Our Way Home, We're Goingg Hooooooo-oome

2005-10-21T18:43:00.000-04:00

We have located Pacherski - he is safe and sound.

He advised that, in the future, should he disappear for a week or so, we should not be alarmed. "If I disappear and die", he assured us, "you'll see it on TV."

I will sleep better at night.

Turns out Chris was home for part of last week. Dave was in Teaneck for the majority of the week celebrating various Jewish holidays and hanging out with the Ner and the Marge. I was working fairly late and getting home at like 9 or 10. Chris, one may say, is on a different schedule than I. So, for Tuesday through Thursday afternoon while I was at work, Chris was home. When I was home, Chris was............doing whatever it is Chris does. Then, on Thursday, he drove to Georgia (cue in "The Best There Ever Was") with the Hollywoods to go to a wedding. He didn't tell me or Dave. He heard our messages from Friday but couldn't call back because his phone was shutoff. Apparently neither Luke nor Phil has a cell phone Chris could use. Yea, I don't believe that either. Anyway, he came home Monday night and that was pretty much that. How anticlimactic?.

It also turns out that Chris had, in fact, informed Dave of his impending trip to help celebrate his friend's nuptials but it had slipped his mind. The following conversation ensued on Monday night:

Chris: "Dude, I told you where I was going"
Dave: "No you didn't"
Chris: "Yes I did"
Dave: "When?"
Chris: "Saturday night when we were hanging out at the back room of The Black Bear Lodge"
Dave: "Oh yea"

And, thus, the saga ended.

The Great White Hoh-Yes!

2005-10-20T12:32:00.000-04:00

From ESPN.com:
OKLAHOMA CITY -- A man got a prison term longer than prosecutors and defense attorneys had agreed to because of Larry Bird.
The lawyers reached a plea agreement Tuesday for a 30-year term for a man accused of shooting with an intent to kill and robbery. But Eric James Torpy wanted his prison term to match Bird's jersey number 33.
"He said if he was going to go down, he was going to go down in Larry Bird's jersey," Oklahoma County District Judge Ray Elliott said Wednesday. "We accommodated his request and he was just as happy as he could be.
"I've never seen anything like this in 26 years in the courthouse. But, I know the DA is happy about it."

What can you say? I bet it won't seem like such a good idea to the guy in 2035. But, hey, at least his sentence will match Larry Bird's old jersey number.

Where in the World is Chris San Diego?

2005-10-17T17:00:00.000-04:00

Dave and I haven't seen our roomate, Chris Chaberski, since last Monday - have you?

When Bush Comes to Shove

2005-10-13T21:14:00.000-04:00

The second term has not been kind to President Bush, so far. It's probably too early to call his second term a failure just yet but things are looking bad for Dubya and the Republicans as well. Luckily for them, the Democrats are a bunch of pussies in whom I have little faith. In fact, I can't even tell you anything about what they stand for or believe in. Let's recap what's been going on in The Second President Bush, Part II:

Upon winning a 'decisive victory' by, what - 3% of the popular vote? - declared he had 'political capital and intended to spend it'. Them's fightin' words, Dubya! And fight he did, he picked the Big Motherfucker: Social Security. Yep, the third rail of American politics. Privatizing accounts to some degree, which I don't know is a bad idea but, as he is wont to do, just glossed over the enormous gap there would between incoming and outgoing money. Oh well, I guess we could just borrow it from China. Survey Says: X
Iraq voted on a referendum in a free in election. They voted on the people who would go and write the Constitution. An important and very positive step on the rocky road that could lead to democracy and stabilization in the middle east, of course it could also lead to a failed, rogue, civil war stricken, terrorist harboring country. I bet figuring out where to go must feel like driving throught Queens the first time. This was certainly a bright point, though. Survey Says: Ding
John Roberts nominated as new Supreme Court Justice and then Chief Justice. I don't know if there was anyone more well-qualified and less controversial person in the country. Yes, he may not vote how I want and I may end up really not liking him but it was hard to argue against his confirmation. Brilliant! (to be said in that Guinness commercial voice)
Iraq in General. I mean, come on. X
N'awlins. What in God's name was he thinking? I have no idea. Apparently, after a few days Scott McClelland made a DVD of all the fucked up shit going down and was basically like, "yo man, you probably ought to do something about this shit". Only then did Bush act. Then he went down there and told 'Brownie' he was doing a 'helluva job'. He's promised to build the most super duper city ever and spend whatever it takes and all that but no one is in charge and there are no plans. This is poised to turn into a mess. This is when the Bush Presidency may have jumped the shark. Worse than Leonardo DiCaprio joining 'Growing Pains'. X
Nominating Harrier Myers to the Supreme Court. What was he thinking? What we she thinking? I guess she was thinking, 'Wow I'm going to be a Supreme Court Justice - cool!" (Get it?) I think Bush was thinking that she's his friend, she kisses his ass, she's a bright woman, she's a...lawer! (can't you see the imaginary light bulb go off in that cartoon bubble as he thinks of this?), she's God-fearing Christian and that means she'll vote against abortion and, on top of that, she has absolutely positively has no paper trail at all. All I've read so far are some very boring, uninteresting, no statement taking newsletter that she wrote as the President of the Texas Bar Assocation. Things like, "We must end collective acceptance of this inapropriate conduct and increase education in professionalism". Well, that and like 20 birthday cards of mutual cheesy exclamation point filled admiration between her and Dubya. Great. He managed to piss everyone off. Conservatives are more pissed than Liberals. She probably will vote conservative I think. Bush seemed to basically be saying, 'Trust me, she'll vote how I would want her to' which is bordering on inappropriate. The right sees two words: David Souter. But wait! She's mad Christian. She won't change her mind - like .... when.... she ....became a born-again Christian in her late 30s. And what's up with Nathan L. Hecht - are they fucking or what? What if it turned out she were a lesbian? Pat Robertson's head would explode*. He'd probably suggest asassinating her. Did i spell that wrong? I feel bad for her, I'm sure she's a smart lady but I don't think she's like Supreme Court brilliant with credentials that scream Supreme Court Justice. I wouldn't be surprised if she got denied. Survey says: X.
Economics in general. Not looking so good. Oil prices spiking, deficits skyrocketing, the Iraq war is not ending anytime soon, New Orleans needs to be rebuilt, the massive drug bill coming into effect in '06 - what to do? Cut taxes, of course. He just keeps cutting taxes and keeps spending more money. It's ridiculous. X
The Rove factor. What is going to happen? Did he or didn't he? What about Scooter? Will they be indicted, fired or be given a promotion and the Presidential Medal of Freedom? (Jeopardy music begins to play....)

Stay tuned....

*Guiney, Brian - blogpost # 2 of 4. (http://bplog1.blogspot.com//)

If Scott McLellan is Denying It, It Must Not be True

2005-10-07T10:34:00.000-04:00

From yahoo.com:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House has denied that US
President George W. said God told him to invade
Iraq and Afghanistan, as a new BBC documentary is expected to reveal.
"That's absurd. He's never made such comments," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Thursday.
The documentary series set to be broadcast later
this month in Britain claims Bush made the claim when he met Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and then-foreign minister Nabil Shaath in June 2003.
He also told them he had been ordered by God to create a Palestinian state, the ministers said.
Shaath, now the Palestinian information minister, said: "
President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God'". "'God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan'." 'And I did. And then God would tell me, 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq... ' And I did.
"'And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, 'Go get the
Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East'. And by God I'm gonna do it'," said Shaath.
Abbas, who was also at the meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, recalled how the president told him: "'I have a moral and religious obligation'". "'So I will get you a Palestinian state.'"
The three-part series, "Elusive Peace: Israel' and the
Arabs", charts the attempts to bring peace to the Middle East, from former US president Bill Clinton's talks in 1999-2000 to Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza strip.
The series is due to begin airing Monday.

In the Knick of Time

2005-10-06T15:50:00.000-04:00

My initial reaction to the Tim Thomas/Mike Sweetney for Eddie Curry/Antonio Davis is positive, and here's why:

Getting rid of Tim Thomas is a good thing. I would have traded him for a box of animal crackers. The guy has all the talent in the world and just can't get it together. An average player, not much heart, he's the kind of guy you don't want on your team because he's content with mediocrity.
Sweetney is OK but let's not kid ourselves, this is not the Mets trading Lenny Dykstra. Knicks fans - do you think you're ever going to say, "Damn, Sweetney is a-mazing, I wish we never traded him"? Yea, I don't think so either. He'll be a nice player but never a star.
Eddie Curry is pretty dope. He's a legit threat to average 20 and 10 in the next few years and that's exactly what the Knicks need out of a big man, plus it will give Marbury a big-man to compliment his talents. Curry is big, fast and athletic - also, he's only 22 so this is still clearly Marbury's team and there won't be much ego clashing, I don't think. Of course...
There's the heart problem thing. He could just not be able to play ever. But even if that were to happen he would come off the cap. He's not insured by the league's insurance policy but who cares if Dolan has to pay that money out of pocket? I certainly don't. In case anyone forgot, I hate the Dolans.
I don't know anything about Antonio Davis anymore but he was pretty good for Indiana for years if I remember correctly. I think he averaged like 12 points and 6 rebounds last year. The Knicks may cut him so he can re-sign with Chicago, in which case he'd come off the cap or they'll keep him and he'll be a decent power forward and unlike Sweetney he's over 6'4".

Overall, good move.

Wi Beta Fi

2005-09-30T23:35:00.000-04:00

I'm on my friend Dan Goldman's wireless ready laptop in my living room, so this is my first wireless post.

I'm Luke James, Bitch!

And a Great Adventure It Was

2005-09-26T20:53:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Max and I went to Great Adventure. It was the first time I had been there in like 8 or 9 years and I have to say it was a lot of fun.
Their new ride, the Kingda Ka was off the hook. It, like, catapults you at 130 mph up a 40 story incline, where it flips you around and hurls you back down in a free fall - but it become like inverted so everyone can see the ground racing at them as you head back down. As Max has already remarked, we both screamed like two little girls.
The rest of the rides were also fun, The Great American Scream Machine is a quality roller coaster, as is the Nitro. I would definitely recommend going one day, preferably on a weekday with shorter lines.
There were also about a million hoodrats there.

A Whirlwind of Criticism

2005-09-13T12:03:00.000-04:00

I've received some negative responses to my last post in which I made a flippant remark about Hurricane Katrina from two 'anonymous' sources. So let me say, Lonnie and Noah, you're right to criticize.
This is a pretty much unprecedented disaster and the people of New Orleans aren't to blame. The role that race and poverty played is undeniable - those who could get out did and those who couldn't didn't. If you have no money and no car then what can you do? Short of building an arc and rounding up two of every animal, you were stuck.
So how did this happen and who's to blame?
As for how, by now we all know that it happened because New Orleans is like 30 feet below sea level and protected from lake Ponchetain or whatever it's called by the levees that were built to withstand a category 3 hurricane. President Bush says no one could have foreseen this but he's wrong, there were like 400 people on talk shows the last week or two that had written books about it and I remember watching a TV show about this very thing a few months ago. What else? Well, global warming is a factor - warm water in the gulfm is what fuels hurricanes and as we continue to deny that global warming is happening I think we'll see a higher frequency of these huge storms. Furthermore, the wetlands in the area are disapearing due to development and are no longer there to absorb this kind of thing.
And who's to blame? Fucking everyone. The local government seems to have majorly fucked up. The mayor of New Orleans seems like a major schmuck. He issued evacuation orders late and didn't seem to plan or executive emergency responses well. On Meet the Press on Sunday Tim Russert pulled up a picture of like 200 or so school busses sitting in 5 feet of water and was like "How come you didn't use these busses to get people out of there?" The mayor's response was something to the effect of "Well Tim, that's certainly something that will be debated" he went on to say that basically the didn't because there were no drivers. Are you kidding me? Mad people drowned, lived in squalor and got all kinds of fucked up in the Superdome and you're telling me you had no drivers?? NO DRIVERS?! It's school bus, not an F-15 fighter jet, why couldn't some of the people that died have driven? "Uhhh, drive a school bus? That wheel is bigger than my Honda's, I think I'm just going to take my chances sticking out a natural disaster of biblical proportions, Mr. Mayor." While everyone is blaming the federal government, let's not forget that this is the state of Huey Long and probably up there with everyone's favorite state, New Jersey, as one of the most corrupt in the nation.
The federal government, however, does not escape blame either. I think by now most of my loyal readers, all 5 of you, know that I think President Bush is a major fucking dickhead. He's really just an immoral revulsive person. Either that or just dumb. (Maybe I'm wrong, Iraq may have been a good idea, evolution may be bullshit and global warming may be made-up.) Anyway, the guy he had in charge of FEMA was like an Arabian horse-show coordinator. That's complete bullshit. He was a college roomate of someone in the administration. This really highlights how cronyism runs rampant in the Bush administration, they value loyalty over competence. People were starving, dying, being shot, looting and all kinds of shit and it took the federal government days to do anything about it. Unacceptable and inexcusable. President Bush, in his infinite wisdom had this insight when he first visited the region, "Ya see, we gotta get the food to tha people (smirk). They're some good folks down here. And it's very simple, ya gotta get the food to tha people. Food to tha people. (Smirk)" Thanks, George. I don't know how they federal government's response was so slow. They didn't do shit until the media was hammering them on the regular on TV about their piss-poor handling of the situation. Were they incompetent? Did they just not really care? Probably both. Bush has fucked up in many ways since he was president and does not seem to respond to emergencies very well - see 9/11 (although he kind regrouped after a day or 2). Also, let's face it - if there had been lots of white people in this situation I don't think the response would have been so lackadaisical. I really don't. Now, that doesn't mean that Dubya hates black people but a large percentage of his voting block are mad Bible-thumping white people in the middle of the country that aren't terribly concerned about black people and, therefore, neither is the administration. It may be more about class than race but it was both.
Now that things are slowly improving - emphasis on slowly, this is going to take years and years as well as billions and billions of dollars - I'd propose this: let's start playing the blame game. Not just for shits and giggles but for shit to go right and to fix problems there needs to be accountability. George offered to investigate this whole thing himself. Thanks but no thanks Georgie. Let's make it a TV game show and make everyone that gets called go on. Can't you just see the Price is Right announcer (in game show announcer voice): "Mike Brown, former FEMA director, thousands of people died on your watch, come on down! You're the next contestant on You Fucked Up!" Nobody should be excused from Bush all the way down to Mayor Nagin and everyone in between. We need to look at who did or didn't do what and why. Otherwise, we're just asking for this to happen again.

I Have Nothing to Say But it's OK (Good Morning! Good Morning!)

2005-08-30T22:36:00.000-04:00

OK, so I don't have anything in particular to say today but it's been long while, shouldn't-a-left-you without a dope blog to pro-crastinate-to.
The Mets look like they're coming together, which is pretty dope. You know why I just thought of that? Because Dave is yelling about it while he's peeing. Yep. Apparently, the toilet is broken too. Dave's pretty tossed. Jokingly, I said - "Man, you must have had three tonight" to which Dave responded, "Yep, you're right!" The man gets drunk easily, what can you say?

You know what I don't get? In Mississippi and New Orleans there are mad people on the tops of their houses crying and all freaked out and whatnot. Don't you just want to say, "Hey, asshole - they TOLD you this hurricane was coming, 90% of the people left, why didn't you just bounce like everyone else?" Well, I do at least. I mean, it's not like an earthquake or a tsunami or anything sudden like that. If I'm standing in the street and I see a car streaking down the street two blocks away, I get out of the street. Sure, it may stop or miss me but it's just so much more sensible to get out of the way.

I guess maybe if you're mad old or mad poor and have nowhere to go I could sort of understand, but you're still mad old and/or mad poor but now you're also MAD wet.

The World's Ugliest Dog

2005-08-25T00:22:00.000-04:00

MC Scatt Prince?

2005-08-23T23:42:00.000-04:00

Today at the gym, Paula Abdul's Nineteen Ninety Something hit "Opposites Attract" came on and I noticed that MC Scat Cat sounded remarkably like Will Smith.
I haven't done any googling of this or anything, though.

On "Fives"

2005-08-21T18:13:00.000-04:00

Remember when you were a teenager and you got up to do something and you wanted to save your seat? You called 'fives' and no one could take your seat for five minutes. I don't remember doing it much but I was certainly aware of the concept.
Anyway, when my friend Rick got his own place at age 20 or 21 - it instantly become the coolest abode to hang out in as it was not his parents and we could therefore engage in activities not acceptable in our parents houses. His prize possession in the house was this big 'L' shaped couch that was actually very nice. The thing about the 'L' shaped couch was that all seats were good yet slightly unequal (you could get stuck on a corner talking to someone that was boring). Rick was a proponent of the "fives" rule and used it frequently. Of course, because Rick lived there he had the ultimate advantage - he was there first and then could choose the seat of his liking (usually the seat in the middle of the 'L' shaped couch) - and he exercised it often. As an aside, Rick was always a big fan of the "it's my house" defense in our younger years.
I always thought this was a bit much so when Dave and I got our own place in Manhattan I suggested a "No Fives" policy in our living room. Dave was all for it and, thus, by a vote of 2-0 it became the law of the land - or at least our 5'x8' living room. It has been well received by the general body of folk that have come and gone through our living rooms over the last few years and for the most part has been adopted by my group of friends as the accepted way of dealing with the seating arrangement.
It is a better way handling seating in a living room for two reasons: 1. because if you are the last person at a gathering you are not religated to the worst seat in the house, and 2. (which was not really not foreseen) it really mixes up the room socially - put 8 people in a living room in the same seats and you're probably going to talk to the same 2 or 3 all night - but if everyone up-grades a seat it will shuffle who you are sitting next to, thus ensuring that more interactions will ensue.
Rick still contends that, and this is my interpretation of his argument, continuity trumps the right for a better seat. If you're watching a movie or having a conversation you shouldn't have to give that up just because you have to pee or get a beer.
I prefer the market based approach. Let's say you have the dope recliner leather chair but you want another beer. Well, is the opportunity cost too great? Should you get the beer and lose your seat or hang out and gamble on when someone else will get up and be able to get you a beer? The cost of a beer is your seat, do you want to pay?
Rick seems to believe that all seats are created equal, yet all sitters are not.
We at 209 West 108th Street, however, believe firmly that while all seats are not created equal - all sitters are.
Now, I'm not sure I'm prepared to say Rick's way is morally reprehensible but I am prepared to say our way is superior. We also make exceptions for extreme cases such Chaberski-Testa Dining Act of 2005 that declared that while eating you cannot lose your seat as long as your meal lasts for a reasonable amount of time (upheld in a 2-1 split decision with Chaberski and Testa in the majority and Strauss dissenting).

Thoughts, comments, concerns?

The Fucking Knicks Fucking Suck

2005-08-16T13:04:00.000-04:00

What a bunch of fucking idiots. I don't think at this point I'm able to intelligently and politely express my feelings about the Knicks choice to not cut Allan Houston with the one-time-only Allan Houston Rule!
Isiah, are you fucking kidding me you little smiley faced bitch? I mean, really, it's the fucking Allan Houston Rule.
Will he get better? Maybe - but even if he returned to peak form he's still way overpaid. He's a jump-shooter and that's it. Nothing more, nothing less. Well, except for the last two seasons, when he may as well have been hanging out with Frederic Weiss.
The only way this possibly makes sense is if they know he's going to retire, but that doesn't seem to be the case (from espn.com):

"He's working hard, trying to get back, and he believes one day he'll get back
to his original form," Thomas said. "This will be on Allan's timetable, and
we'll stand behind him as an organization. "When you have players that have been injured for some time, you have to find a way to move on and make the roster better. If Allan was to come back and regain his form, then it's an added bonus," Thomas said.

So, basically Isiah is saying, "Well, yea he sucks and he's hurt and he's overpaid AND we could take $40 million off the salary cap but we're not going to. Not because we expect him to get better or be able to contribute - we're proceeding as if he's not - we're just not. Just because. Try some of my popcorn."
You've got to be kidding me, Isiah. I know Dolan, who has got to be one of the worst owners in sports likes Houston, but grow a pair of nuts and tell him that it's stupid to keep this guy. Maybe Isiah isn't pussy, though, maybe he's just completely fucking stupid. I mean, it has to be one or the other. Well, maybe it isn't - maybe it's both.
The Nets can't get to Brooklyn fast enough, I don't know if I can root for these fucking dickheads anymore.

Pizza the Hut

2005-08-15T13:25:00.000-04:00

I was in upstate New York with Rick this weekend and on our way to his parent's non-lakehouse (it's on a manmade lake whose dam apparently broke and caused the lake to dry out) we stopped at a Pizza Hut for dinner. A few reflections on my first Pizza Hut experience in years:

Damn, that shit is fattening. I mean, it's just soaked in grease. Oozing grease. The first, like three slices are dope, then you just kind of feel sick - kind of like eating Popeye's fried chicken.
It's better to eat there. We got take-out and Pizza Hut always loses somethign when you put it in the cardboard box. At the restaurant it's still mad fattening and greasy and shit but the big difference is the bottom crust of the pizza stays crispy - making it infinitely better.
Americans are pigs. I can't believe we eat this shit regularly. Pizza Hut was right next to McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King and all those types of places. How much do Americans spend of fast food anyway? I bet it's in the billions. Ew.
Upstate New York reminds me of Ohio. Anywhere that is sort of rural, has formerly nice old houses that are now run-down, an abundance of movie theaters, strip malls and mad poor white people reminds me of Ohio - where I went to college.
Back to the Pizza Hut experience - we got the cheezy crust or whatever it's called. I thought it sounded like a good idea but I wasn't such a fan.
I'm pretty ambivolent with regards to pepperoni. I like sausage as a topping on pizza better and I'd never order pizza by myself with pepperoni but most people seem to like pepperoni - I used to not eat pepperoni but I've learned to live with it.
Which makes me think of all the other food I used to hate but now, unlike pepperoni (which I can live with but have yet to fully embrace) really enjoy: mushrooms, potato salad, guacamole, sushi, mustard and pesto sauce. I also used to think scrambled eggs with ketchup was a terrible idea but it's not that bad.

I suppose I've rambled off-topic.

Jump! (Jump!) You Might as Well Jump! (Jump!)

2005-08-11T09:23:00.000-04:00

Tuesday night I was watching TV with Ziad, Dave and Chris and we flipped to the Yankee game. Right about that moment, Derek Jeter laid down a bunt to the pitchers mound and was thrown out at first base but the announcer goes "and so and so fields and throws out - whoa, someone just fell out of the upper deck". What? Then the camera pans to the foul ball net where this Abercrombie & Fitch clad college aged kid is just sitting there, suspended in mid-air by the net, looking completely stunned. There was a big hole where his head must have punctured the net.
So, like a minute of him being dazed goes by and he sort of comes-to and then when it's clear he's not dead or seriously injured - the crowd gets into it. This what I love about New Yorkers, they have such a sense of humor. So everyone is like, "watch out for the hole!", "no, go back to the stands!" (when he was going toward the field). He groggily stands up and slowly starts clumsily walking - on the net - back to the stands. As he gets closer to the mezzanine, the crowd works itself up into a full-fledged roar.
There were a bunch of security guys and cops there who looked pissed-off as a motherfucker and as soon as this dude gets within arms length a cop grabs him by the back of the pants and lifts him the last few feet and holds him in midair by his pants for a few seconds - giving him what must have been an enormous wedgie and escorted him out.
Now, what sucked is that the YES network didn't show the replay of this guy falling out of his seat. Very disappointing.
Anyway, it turns out it was a bet. I read in the paper that he was saying he was going to jump to "see if the net could hold his weigh". Apparently he was standing up in the front row and his friends, soon followed by the rest of the section, started chanting "SIT OR JUMP! SIT OR JUMP! SIT OR JUMP!". Clearly he went with the latter.
I'll take dumb decisions for $500, Alex. It'll be a good story to tell when he's like 30, though.

Only in New York kids, only in New York. (Page six readers will get the reference.)

Stupid, On Many Levels

2005-08-08T13:10:00.000-04:00

From CNN.com:
GREENVILLE, South Carolina (AP) -- South Carolina
Republicans say the Democrats owe them beer money.
In April, Anheuser-Busch
Co. -- based in St. Louis, Missouri -- wrote a $5,000 check intended for the
state Republican Party.
Instead, the envelope was addressed to the state
Democratic Party, which promptly deposited the money.
Now, state GOP leaders
say the South Carolina Democratic Party needs to return the beer money they are
owed.
Democrats say the check is in the mail.
Katja Zastrow,
Anheuser-Busch's regional director of governmental affairs in Washington, said
in an e-mail statement that the check went astray "through a series of
administrative oversights."
She said the company is working with both parties
to resolve the situation.
Democrats say they have sent a refund check back to
Anheuser-Busch: "Nobody should expect us to write a check to the Republican
Party," said Lachlan McIntosh, the Democratic Party's executive director.
The
GOP said the refund was sent only after it threatened a lawsuit.

I Think Kathy's Right

2005-08-07T21:34:00.000-04:00

Kathy said...
I think it should be:"So, why have you
started?", asked Max. if you're quoting Max.Otherwise, you should just say:So,
why have I started? ...

If you didn't read another one of my earlier posts, then you don't know what I'm talking about. Maybe you should read my blog more often, punk.

I THOUGHT YOU DIDN'T CAPITALIZE?

2005-08-05T21:00:00.000-04:00

When I started my blog I set one sort of ground rule: that I don't capitalize. So why have I started, asked Max.*

That's a good question, Max - I think it's a little more aesthetically pleasing to read something that's properly punctuated.
I suppose a blog is a tad more formal than an email so I've started capitalizing.
I still don't capitalize person emails, though - but I generally do in work e-mail.

*For all you grammarians, should there be a question mark in this sentence? If so where? I mean, it's a question but the ...", asked max" no longer makes it a questions, I'm just quoting Max. I think that's right.

The Change-ling

2005-08-05T19:12:00.000-04:00

Today on my way home I stopped off at a bodega to get a six-pack. It was $8.50 and I gave the guy $9 singles. I had a bunch of singles for some reason, I guess. So he takes the money and almost as an afterthought, he's like "Do you have ID?". Keep in mind this is a big old not very comprehensible spanish dude. So I say, "yeah". We're just standing there and I'm all like, "do you want to see it?" and he's all like "uh, yyyyeah" and I'm just like all like whattteverrrr so I give it to him, you know? (Inexplicable foray into valley girl talk). So having been satisfied that I'm of age, he turns, puts the stuff in a bag and along with the bag hands me....nine dollars and fivty cents. Then he walks away. At first I was like dope! But then my conscience kicked in and I gave it back to him. I would have felt pretty guilty for doing that, but I definitely thought about it for a second. Good old Catholic guilt making me do a mitzvah.
What would you do?

What Would Jesus Do?

2005-08-05T18:48:00.000-04:00

One thing I never really understood about the Republican Party is the marriage of rich and religious. It seems that the two are kind of contradictory. Not necessarily that rich people can't be religious or even good people for that matter but policies favoring the rich - cutting the top 1%'s taxes - are not good for the poor.

Here's my ultra short version of The Bible, it's in two parts:

Part I - Don't worship other Gods

Part II - Be nice to poor people

In very broad strokes, that about sums it up. So since pretty much no one in America is polyeithistic, you'd the democrats would get religious vote because they are nicer to poor people.

Instead of WWJD, let's play HWJFATCDPCS - How Would Jesus Feel About These Current Day Political Controversial Subjects. OK, so:

Abortion: I think it's safe to say that Jesus would be pro-life.
Death Penalty: Probably safe to say anti-death-penaly.
Gay Marriage: I think Jesus would be pro-gay marriage, I don't think he even discusses homosexuality in The Bible. Jesus was more laid back and cool than religious nuts.
The War in Iraq: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....ixney on the arwey

Incidentally, The Bible skips like 10 years of Jesus' life...do you think he ever like got drunk or liked a girl (or dare I say kissed a girl)? What if you were Jesus' first kiss? I wonder if chicks liked him, I mean he was mad charismatic. Is this sacrilegious to say?

Haiku for Friday

2005-08-05T15:47:00.000-04:00

When I poop at work
I hate when someone has peed
On the toilet seat

Eliot for Governor!

2005-08-03T22:48:00.000-04:00

One thing I never get is why politicians just let it go when the MTA is clearly ripping the public off. If there is one thing New Yorkers will agree on it's that Carlos Beltran is overpaid...I mean it's that the MTA sucks.

Eliot Spitzer in today's Daily News:

"I'm very hesitant about what they're doing," Spitzer said yesterday when I asked about the transit agency's scheme to get into the real estate business. "Their track record doesn't inspire confidence. They can't build a tepee without having cost overruns."

I think he just got my vote.

D'oh!

2005-08-02T14:11:00.000-04:00

I had a meeting today with a client so I figured I'd wear a suit.

I didn't fall asleep until like 1:30 AM, so I was pretty out of it this morning when I got dressed.

On the train I realized that my jacket and pants didn't match. Oops.

It didn't really matter because I just didn't wear the jacket or tie and the office I was going to was business casual anyway, as it turns out.

Still, that was pretty dumb of me.

Diet Coke

2005-08-01T13:09:00.000-04:00

Growing up I only drank regular soda. Never diet, I hated the way it tasted. In fact, I think Jerry and I once made a pact to kill one another if they started drinking Diet Coke.
Now, however, I actually prefer it to regular coke. I worked at a bar right after college and I could have anything I wanted from the soft drink fountains and I'd drink like 12 pints of coke a day. I got kind of sick of it. Then at this place I used to work, Latiff & Associates, they only stocked the fridge with diet coke.
Now I only drink Diet Coke. Or diet anything for that matter - Pepsi, Sprite, etc. Caffeine free, though, still tastes disgusting.

I Hate the M.T.A.

2005-07-28T12:59:00.000-04:00

Excerpts from an article in today's New York Times:

"Buoyed by an unexpected surge in tax revenue, the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced yesterday that it would have
a
surplus of $833 million this year and that it would consider using the
money to
create a giant platform over its West Side railyards, which it
could then sell
to developers for office and apartment towers.

Despite the surplus, the authority indicated that it still
planned to raise fares and tolls in 2007 and 2009. ......
The windfall represents a remarkable - but probably
short-lived - reversal of fortunes for the authority, which in February had
projected a tiny surplus for the year and large deficits starting next year.
It
now predicts that a combination of soaring tax revenue and low interest
rates
will add $493 million, all of it not previously anticipated, to its
coffers by
December.
Now, instead of looking for a developer with the resources
and confidence to invest an estimated $350 million and nearly three years to
build the platform, the authority is looking to do the job itself. Doing so
would attract more bidders for the property and, presumably, a higher
price....
Neither phenomenon is expected to last, and the authority
projects that its revenue from taxes and subsidies will be largely flat
through
2009. "These transactional taxes are extremely unstable," said the
city's budget
director, Mark Page, who sits on the board. "These things
historically are
always cyclical. It is extremely hard to predict when the
cycle is going to turn
down on you."
The authority expects a deficit of
$194 million in 2007, rising
steeply to $1.5 billion in 2009 without planned
fare increases and budget
cuts......
In 2003, the authority raised the cost of a base ride to
$2 from $1.50, and this year, it raised the price of unlimited-ride fare
cards.
Asked if any part of the surplus should be used to avoid future fare
increases,
the authority's chairman, Peter S. Kalikow, was noncommittal.
'There are 25
things we're talking about, that possibly being one of them,"
he said, referring
to the proposal. "The plan is just for
information.'"

Judge-ment Day

2005-07-25T23:06:00.000-04:00

Last week, President Bush nominated John Roberts to the Supreme Court of the United States. I think he managed to dissapoint both the far right and far left and made a pretty good choice, all things considered. (Both sides seemed to be somewhat looking forward to a good brawl played out on cable news stations and I think that is part of the dissapointment).
I'm a pretty liberal person, in general, I think. I don't really want to see Roe vs. Wade overturned and generally fall on the 'left'ish side of things that come before the court but what you have to remember is that Bush was elected not once, but twice being pretty much open about his pro-life stance and although he didn't say it, it was pretty clear he wanted a pro-life judgeship. OK, maybe he was only elected once but whatever, you know I mean.
This guy is a solid upstanding citizen. Top of his class at Harvard and, by all accounts, a good person. I haven't heard a word to the contrary.
Yes, he is a 'conservative' in that he reads to the letter of the law in most cases - but he doesn't seem like an unreasonable idealogue. Many of the things liberals are going to throw at him will be stances he took when he was working for the solicitor general, so he was really voicing someone else's opinion. He also said in his confirmation hearings for his judgeship he now holds that he accepts Roe vs. Wade as the 'law of the land' or something to that effect. He doesn't really seem to blindly follow an agenda, he seems to really think about each case and take rulings seriously. Not like a Scalia, who is a 'strict constructionist' except not always.
I guess I think he seems like a conservative, thoughtful, good person and that's not really a reason to deny him a place on the court if nominated by the President who, quite frankly, probably would have gotten away with a more right wing person. Also, I hear mad people on the left complaining that they don't know enough about this guy but that also means people on the right don't either. It's a bit of a risk that Bush is taking because if he ends up voting, say, to uphold Roe vs. Wade (which, in the Casey case, by the way was upheld with a 6-3 vote anyway), Bush's right wing constituents are going to go apeshit and Bush can kiss his spot on Mount Rushmore in 2058 goodbye. I mean, if he hasn't totally made up his mind on some issues that's a good thing. There are 'activist' judges on both sides of the spectrum but he doesn't seem to be one.
Roberts should undergo some grilling and then be passed by the vast majority of Senators. To filibuster would be ludicrous. I applaud President Bush for finding an option that won't divide the country, (for once).

Estoy Sin Una Computadora in Mi Apartamento

2005-07-25T17:35:00.000-04:00

For the last year or so, Dave, Chris and I have been using a dated yet serviceable computer at our place. It was actually Jerry's computer from college - circa 1998. It was a bit slow, froze at times and was generally quirky but it served its purpose (and thanks for the computer, Jerry). About two weeks ago it froze and when i restarted it it went to the DOS program where it informed me that 'windows' did not exist (or wouldn't open or something). What a frustrating moment, there was nothing I could do. I tried to think back to my PC Junior days of elementary school, immediately remembering one command, DIR. This is roughly what followed:

DIR: (all the programs show up)
DIR WINDOWS: DID NOT UNDERSTAND COMMAND
RUN WINDOWS: DID NOT UNDERSTAND COMMAND
HELP WINDOWS: DID NOT UNDERSTAND COMMAND
DIR WINDOWS: DID NOT UNDERSTAND COMMAND
PLEASE WORK: DID NOT UNDERSTAND COMMAND
FUCK YOU: DID NOT UNDERSTAND COMMMAND
WHAT THE FUCK: DID NOT UNDERSTAND COMMAND
BITCH: DID NOT UNDERSTAND COMMAND
DIR: (all the programs again)

After a few rounds of the above, I resigned myself to the fact that the computer was finally dead. I mean, we knew it was coming, it was like when my friend Lilah's dog, Molly, was mad old and deaf and fucked up and stumbling around. We all knew it was going to die but she was still bummed when it finally happened (actually, Chris, Dave, Jerry and myself actually found the fucked up dog kind of funny, but, hey, we were like 12 or 13).
So now, we are without a computer. I could bring back my work laptop to the apartment but that's kind of a pain, especiall if I have a gym bag too.

If you have been wondering why I haven't been writing much, now you know. Hopefully, we'll get a new one soon, but you're talking about three guys who took the better part of this century to buy a new stereo.

Isiah, Please Hire Larry Brown

2005-07-21T11:25:00.000-04:00

There seems to be mixed sentiments on this, but I think the Knicks DEFINITELY need to hire Larry Brown.

I like Herb Williams, he seems like a good guy and I'm sure he's a good coach, but Larry Brown is arguably the best coach in basketball right now. Certainly the best available one.

He'll come in and teach these guy how to play defense and how to play 'the right way'. He'll give the Knicks heart and toughness, something they haven't had since the Jeff Van Gundy years.

They'll be in a much better position as a franchise when he quits in two or three years, too.

Yea, he's kind of a jerk (talking to Cleveland in the playoffs and basically telling people about it was very unprofessional) and he always bounces after a few years (although, coaches do get fired all the time so I don't think quitting before you get fired is necessarily that bad) but let's face it, the Knicks are awful and desperate. They can't afford not to jump at an all-time coaching great if he's available.

What a Nice Day

2005-07-20T09:31:00.000-04:00

It makes me think of the 'Hello Song' from Ms. Clatworthy's music class in grades 4 & 5. It's a call and response song and at he beginning of music class, she'd pick one person to sing the call and the rest of the class would respond. This was one of the more terrifying things about 4th and 5th grade for me. I had to sing the solo part in fourth grade, although in fifth grade I dodged the bullet. Anyway, without further ado - here's the song (with solo on the left, chorus on the right and the parts where everyone sings to gether in the middle):

Hello

Hello

How d'you do?

How are you?

I'm fine

Me too

I'm happy

Seeing you

Been a long time

What's new?

It's a beatiful day

A beautiful day

To take a walk

A beautiful day

To sit and talk

Hello

How are you?

I like you!

I-like-you!

It's a beautiful day

To take a walk

To sit and talk

And say

Hello

Heeeeellllllllllllllloooooooooooooooo!

Surround Sound

2005-07-18T11:07:00.000-04:00

As many of you who have spent time at my two apartments over the last few years (as well as Chris and Dave's Gold Street aparment) know, the stereo we had - given to me by my parents circa 2001 - had seen better days. It skipped, the display didn't work, the CD player tray was broken (you had to use the CD-R drive), and didn't always even turn on (although it turned on by itself every night at like 11:02). It was a major source of frustration.

In about 2003, Dave and I vowed to purchase a new stereo. Two years and three apartments later, the ol' gray bandit has been retired.

Dave and I set out yesterday afternoon to buy a new rug for our living room and, instead, returned with a Phillips 750 megawatt surround sound stereo (with a CD/DVD player as well as radio) complete with four wall mounted speakers, a center speaker and a woofer.

We are planning on office-spacing the stereo on our rooftop. Those of you who have seen the movie know what I mean.

An Historic Post

2005-07-16T12:35:00.000-04:00

In an unprecedented move, untried by any in my friends' blogging community I am going to turn over the e-pen to Mr. Richard Thompson McKay to make history's first known guest-blog-post. So all my loyal readers - strap on your e-seatbelts....Ricky, it's all yours:

This morning at 7:30, I awoke to my alarm and to find myself the guy on the couch. Evan was asleep on the lazy boy after a night with Jack and Johnny. He did not seem very excited that my alarm went off. I was excited because the New Harry Potter Book is being released today.

After a coffee and a short ride to Lincoln Center, i arrived at the Barnes and Nobles.
Walking up subway stairs to the street I was greeted by the usual fanfare. I counted 7 Harry Potter's, 5 Dumboldore's, an assortment of Hermoine and Weasley Children, and 2 Hagrid's. There was one middle aged Professor Snape who looked he was rather surly in his day to day life. Needless to say most of these people were families with children dressed up as characters and twenty to thirty something folks who looked like they were hard up for a date or to move out of their parents basement.
After reminding myself as i did at the premiere of Stars Wars a few months ago, I can make fun of these folks but only up to a certain point; it was the midnight opening night for Star Wars and I have been saving my seat for the last two and a half hours.
So into the Barnes and Nobles, 8:47am, I walked up to the display of Harry Potter Books arranged beautifully and majestically, as I reached for on near the top I was informed by a security guard that my Harry Potter book was behind the counter in one of those neat boring piles.
I paid for my book and was very excited. As I was on line, appartenly, something was happening outside. I walked out into the commotion, there was a group of Star Wars Fans that had come up to ridicule the Harry Potter Diehards, they had signs about how Jedi's could kick wizards asses, light sabers being played with threateningly by a couple of balding jedi, 3 darth vaders were insulting the hagrid's costumes, and I saw a bobofett grin and give a group of Harry Potters the finger.
Needless to say I was torn between two loves, Hogwart's and the power of the force. I decided that I would think about this a lot more clearly after reading the new Harry Potter book. I ran for the subway nervous that i would see friends from the respective conventions and be forced to choose sides.
I bought an atlas and pretended I was a tourist. After borrowing some scissors I cut two eye holes so I could see when I avoided everyone outside.
It was only after getting on the 9 train did I realize I had a map of Alaska.
The first 92 pages of the new book are good so far. I have to go read now.
Ho yes, Rick

Marbury is a Two-Guard

2005-07-16T12:22:00.000-04:00

I really think the Knicks should try Stephon Marbury, their current starting point guard, to the off-guard spot.

They guy is a top-notch talent with mad skills. He doesn't seem to be able to 'make his teammates better', though. He's never been past the first round of the playoffs and it must drive him crazy that he's been traded for two other point guards in his career and each time his former team was lightyears more successful than when he was there.

He's about 6'2, 180 or 190 and because of his height he's always played the one-spot - which is fine but....

With the Knicks he is their only hope. You're not trading him - or at least I hope not - because you're not getting equal value at this point (people think he's a talented guy but not a winner). They need to totally build around his talents and his number one talent is scoring baskets. I say move him to the two, let Jamal Crawford play point, who can guard the other team's two on defense if you think Marbury's shortness is an issue. Even though he's not that tall, he is 6'2 (which is two inches, at least, taller than Iverson who pulled off the same thing) but he's pretty built - he won't get pushed around. He averages like 20 points a night now, I think if he's an off-guard - you can bump that up to at least 25 average a night.

Red Rover, Red Rover

2005-07-13T13:07:00.000-04:00

I have to admit that I really enjoy watching this new Karl Rove thing play out.

This is a brief synopsis, as I understand it (you can skip this paragraph if you know the story):

The CIA was investating a claim that Iraq was trying to buy 'yellow cake' from Niger so Valery Plame, who is married to Joseph Wilson, suggested to her boss that they send her husband to check it out. The boss apparently agreed and sent him. He went and apparently says he found no evidence (Fox and the right seem to be calling him a liar, I'm not sure why - in any case the initial claims seem to be based on a forged document). Bush gave his State of the Union address and cites the bullshit claim about Niger/'yellow cake'/Iraq and uses as evidence that we need to go to war. Then Wilson wrote an op-ed in the NY Times calling him out. The Bushies were mad pissed off and Karl Rove (and apparently others) made a bunch of calls to reporters saying the only reason he was sent is b/c his wife is in the CIA and suggested him for the trip (which I'm not sure why this is a huge deal). Trouble is she was a covert operative and they revealed her identity, so the CIA asked for an investigation. A special prosecutor was named and has been investigating for a year or two at this point and has been going after Judith Miller, who never even wrote a story and Matt Cooper, who wrote a story after Robert Novak broke the story. According to Cooper's emails, Rove was the source which causes problems b/c of the legality issues and politically b/c Bush said he'd fire whoever it was and Rove and Scott McClelland (Press Secretary) emphatically denied that the source was him.

So, my thoughts:

Robert Novak is a bitch: He, first of all, knew he was outing this lady b/c he refers to her as an operative in this article he wrote. He also clearly cut a deal with the prosecutor to reveal the source and won't talk about it now.
Judith Miller is a badass: She didn't write anything about this story and her only 'crime' is knowing who did it. Now, you can argue about where the lines of freedom of the press should be drawn but say what you will about the tenets of protecting your sources no matter what, but at least it's an ethos.
Karl Rove is also a bitch: I really hate Karl Rove, he's just a mean vindictive person who will win at all costs - including spreading lies about people (see McCain, John). He is also a political genius. He definitely shouted Plame out on purpose to get back at Wilson for embarrassing the administration. I don't believe the 'oh, he didn't know she was a covert operative' argument. If he did, he wouldn't have called mad people on the DL like he did. Also many of them didn't print the story because the knew it was fucked up. Certainly, it wouldn't have been in 'double super secret background' - do these reporters and politicians really use terms like this? What a bunch of nerds. However...
I don't know that he broke a law. The 1982 law against this type of thing is apparently very limited so it's not clear that he did anything criminal.
Politically, Rove and Bush are in a tough spot b/c Rover denied and Bush pretty much said he'd fire whoever this was.
Don't give me the liberal media is on a witch-hunt shit. Please. The 'liberal media' person, Miller from the NY Times, is the only one who didn't sell Rove out. Novak, the 'conservative media' guy involved, sold out quicker than the Care-Bear section of Toys-R-Us on Christmas Eve in 1985.
They have got to be bringing a case against Rove if they're going after the press (especially people who didn't even write anything) so aggressively. If not the Prosecutor (Fitzgerald?) is a major beeitch. Also, let's not forget that depending on what Rove said to the prosecutor's office, he may have perjured himself in the course of the investigation.
Finally, it's too bad that everyone runs to their respective partisan sides and follows their party lines. If the parties involved were switched, many would do a complete 180 here. Everyone on the news seems to be arguing about whether or not Plame had Wilson sent and whether or not that was fucked up, what he did or didn't find and whether or not Rove was being vindictive or just trying to put the story in perspective: all of that doesn't matter. Someone outed this lady, it was shady, the CIA asked for it to be investigated, Rove pulled a Shaggy ('it wasn't me!'), Bush said he'd fire whoever it was and now it turns out Rove did it.

So, there may be no crime here but the administration is definitely put in a tough situation no matter what - fire the dude that's responsible for its existence? Go back on your previous position? Both bad choices. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

bahama mamma

2005-07-07T11:22:00.000-04:00

i'm in the bahamas right now and it is beautiful.

i put suntan lotion on my face and around my neck yesterday but then i went snorkeling and my back is redder than a mississippi born again christian.

i've lost $100 in the casinos already.

blog names

2005-07-04T11:00:00.000-04:00

ziad and i were talking about him starting a blog and i think i have the absolute best name for it: letmetellyousomething.blogspot.com.

can anyone do any better than that?

maybe a-mazing.blogspot.com, duma.blogspot.com, letsgorightnow.blogspot.com

goldie should be studentsforasensibleblog.blogspot.com or GIVEMETHREEEXAMPLES!!!!!THREEEXAMPLES!!!!AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.blogspot.com

happy fourth of july

and let me tell you something, pendejo!

2005-07-04T10:58:00.000-04:00

i went bowling on saturday night at bowlmor lanes on university place and i bowled a 156 in one game which, i believe, is my highest score ever.

and the results are in...

2005-07-01T19:28:00.000-04:00

so this was rick's dinner order on this, the first night in july:

1. one large orange juice (freshly squeezed - he turned down tropicana)
2. green tea
3. chicken caesar salad on pita bread
4. grilled cheese with bacon
5. one small tortellini salad
6. one slice of cheese cake

quite an ecletic order - i wasn't that far off

win it ricky!

2005-07-01T19:21:00.000-04:00

rick is the most indecisive person ever. he is sitting on my couch right now studying a menu from strokos (a restaurant near my apartment) for going on ten minutes now (i'm having the chicken kabab).
here's my predictions on his order, i'll post what he actually did order later:

1 . a litre of orange juice
2. a side of bacon
3. a grilled cheese
4. a mr. goodbar
5. some kind of soft drink or fruit shake
6. corned beef sandwich on rye

to be continued...

mike and the mad dog marathon

2005-07-01T16:45:00.000-04:00

mike and the mad dog (who is chris russo), for any of you who don't know, are the hosts of a popular sports talk show on wfan in new york city. i actually think it's nationally syndicated. anyway, they're on the air from about 2 until 6pm usually. i really don't listen much because i'm usually at work.
mike francessa is this fat dude that knows a lot about sports. he's a smart guy and all that i suppose but he is extremely pompous. he thinks he has like sports phd and everyone else is like the equivalent of high school level student.
chris russo, i'm not sure how i would could explain him to someone that didn't know who he was. he's this skinny little high-ish pitched voice dude that is an ENORMOUS sports fan. i actually don't mind him that much. i love when he starts the show and after that retarded theme song goes "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH GOOD AFTERNOON EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW ARE YOU TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
he gets worked up over everthing. he has a distinctive laugh that i won't even try to appropriately represent in text.
anyway, i went to bed last night at like 11:30 and they were on, which was kind of weird. but then i woke up at like 5:30 am and they were still on, then i fell asleep again and woke up at like 7:45 and they were still on. that was kind of weird, did anyone else notice that?

this post was kind of anticlimactic, i suppose.

what am i missing here?

2005-06-29T22:44:00.000-04:00

one thing i don't understand is this judith miller and that other guy getting held in contempt of court and thrown in jail for witholding the names of the administration officials who who shouted at that CIA officer. well, i guess i do get that. what i don't understand is how robert novak is just chillin, why is no one trying to throw him in jail or do anything to him? he broke the story, he obviously knows too.
are they in trouble because they refused to name names and he was never asked to? it would seem pretty stupid to me if you're a prosecutor and you know three people know who committed a crime but only ask two - especially when the two you have asked don't tell you.
can somebody explain this?

the nba draft

2005-06-29T22:11:00.000-04:00

i can honestly say this year i had no idea who any of the draft picks were before about a week ago when i heard of bogut.
the knicks drafted some frye guy out of arizona i think. at this point, i won't really give isiah and the knicks the benefit of the doubt on pretty much anything. this guy apparently has got skills but he's a little soft. only time will tell, let's hope he turns out to be a player. i don't know that he can post up big men very well and that's really what the knicks need ("well, yea, that and a pair of testicles"). they aren't exactly a dime a dozen, though. i don't know what's going on with trading their only low post presence for - surprise, surprise - another swingman. if isiah thomas ever played nintendo hockey from the eighties he must have chosen all medium guys.

maxothetically speaking, if i was stuck on a desert island my top five...

2005-06-27T21:34:00.000-04:00

albums:

1. highway 61 revisited
2. abbey road
3. kind of blue
4. a wolf in sheep's clothing
5. graceland

movies:

1. pulp fiction
2. the big lebowski
3. goodfellas
4. the godfather (complete edition just so i could have both - i'm not into the
as much as others but it is dope)
5. monty python and the holy grail

complete tv show series on dvd:

1. seinfeld
2. the sopranos
3. the simpsons
4. the family guy
5. that '70s show

(honorable mentions: any beatles album, blonde on blonde, doggy style, the first pharcyde album, de la soul is dead, patton, the princess bride, the cosby show, roseanne and the wonder years)

the employee discount isn't going to be enough on this one, george

2005-06-27T20:33:00.000-04:00

tomorrow george w. bush is going to go on television to defend his war. (i think it's going to be tough for him to do. i'm sure wednesday, well i think we all know what the fox news guys will say. it's amazing how they all stay on message.)
anyway, regardless of whether you like or dislike the war, you'd have to admit it's not looking good and the word that that will be coming up more and more is vietnam.
i think the bush administration's problem is that they really kind of sold the war under false pretenses.
truth is, they really wanted to do this and they sort of allowed that to guide their interpretation of the facts. they told americans and the world he had weapons of mass destruction, that we would be greeted as liberators, that it would be easy and it would be over relatively quickly. false, false, false and....false.
despite my dislike of george dubya and the fact that i was against the war, we really can't leave now. but the army isn't getting anyone to join (would you?) and this presents a major logistical problem, what are we going to do? i don't think bringing back the draft is really an option, at least not at this point. no politician is going to touch that one.
so what is the answer?
the only answer i see is to eat some crow and make some major concessions to 'old europe' or maybe russia or china and try to get them involved on the ground - or at least monetarily at first. (by concessions, i mean real say in how things are done.) i'm not exactly sure how well that will work but i just don't see how we're leaving there in the next year or two, i would think more like ten -at least. but i also don't see how we can continue fighting a war spending however-many-billions a month against an enemy that we can't even totally identify and with no one joining our army. remember, bin-laden & co. defeated the soviet union - not exactly the los angeles clippers of the cold-war world.
i mean, i suppose the elections could go well, they could elect a government and build an army and things will be all good but that seems like a little bit of a rosy prediction, doesn't it?

hi, welcome to scarborough country...i'm your host, pat buchanan

2005-06-27T20:31:00.000-04:00

has anyone else noticed that pat buchanan hosts scarborough country as much as scarborough? shouldn't it be buchanan and scarborough country? maybe bucharough country or scarcanan country?

as talking heads go, i kind of like scarborough. i don't mind pat buchanan so much all the time either. i mean he's kind of a xenophobe and a religious nut but at least he thinks his own thoughts. chris matthews is my favorite of the evening news guys, i think he lets both sides get their points in and seems to enjoy what he's doing. tim russert is the best but that's a different level of political discussion than cable news. hannity is just absurd. he just follows the administration line like 99% of the time. colmes is even worse, what a bitch. how does this guy look at himself in the mirror every day. i mean, he's got to realize what a stooge he is. he's really fucking ugly too. i watch o'reilly fairly often. he's kind of a dick but he's entertaining. brit hume is an asshole but i watch him too if i'm home.

with the exception of meet the press, which isn't really the same thing, i don't make a point to watch any of these people but when i flip the channels i definitely spend more time on the cable news than anything else on average. this is roughly my surfing order, i think:

1. msnbc
2. fox news
3. national geographic
4. history channel
5. vh1
6. cnbc
7. mtv
8. espn

maybe then i'll hit a network or two but i really never watch them.

by the way, if anyone can tell me why in the world donny deutsche has a talk show i will give you five dollars.

here's lookin' at you, kid

2005-06-27T20:26:00.000-04:00

i read in the new york times yesterday that humphrey bogart grew up around the corner from where i live - 103rd and west end ave (i'm on 108th and amsterdam). babe ruth, edgar allan poe and duke ellington also lived in this area.
i bet you didn't know that.

i could be a guiney

2005-06-25T10:11:00.000-04:00

i work for the man, i like beer, i have a worried irish-catholic mom and a blog that i haven't posted on for a month...all i need is a therapist fiancee' and i'm in.

officially old

2005-06-25T09:54:00.000-04:00

i know i'm getting old because when i see kids on the streets of manhattan i can't help but thinking how stupid they are. if i was ten or fifteen years younger, they would probably be the epitome of cool and i probably would emulate them. i hope not, but i can't deny that it is a major possibility.
but what's up with those enormous white shirts? who said, 'you know what would be hot, if i just got a mad big white t-shirt that came down to my knees and wore it. i bet i'd get all the mamis, yo!'
and where did 'what's good?' or maybe i should say 'wuz good?' come from? does anyone else find that to be a dumb greeting?
that reminds me, you know what else is a stupid greeting? 'what's the good word?' what the fuck does that mean and, more importantly, what is the appropriate response? what is the good word? please? thank you? sesame? the first time someone said that to me i was mad frozen:

randome person: hey luke, what's the good word?
me: uhhhhhhhh, hi?

where do i live?

2005-05-28T11:20:00.000-04:00

i live on west 108th street and amsterdam, what part of the city is this?

i mean, to say this is the upper west side is stretching it a bit, although where does the upper west side end? 96th? 100th? 103rd? i think i'd say 100th.

it's definitely not harlem and i wouldn't call it morningside heights either.

technically, i think it is manhattan valley. but certainly many a conversation like this will ensue if i start reference the m.v.:

random person: where do you live?
me: manhattan valley
random person: where's that?

am i forever (or at least until my lease runs out) banished to living in a unnamed neighborhood?

i have to say, though, i do like my neighborhood. the rest of the city is pretty accessible from here and there are restaurants, stores, bars, etc. it's quite a mix of people in a close area, too. if you start on 108th and broadway on my block and walk a block east you'd see a thai restaurant, an indian restaurant, some hair salon, then a doorman building, then two schools (one on either side of the street) then a bunch of guys playing handball, a few baby-mommies and maybe a crack dealer or two.

every once in a while someone gets robbed and/or shot. the guy across the hall with me got robbed at gunpoint. down the block on 108th and central park west, this guy robbed some girl in her apt. and her fiance came home and he robbed him too, then he was just standing there and the fiancee goes, "what are you gonna do? shoot me?" and the robber is like, "oh, you're real smart, huh? well, yea" and then he shot him - eeeeeeee.

ron artest really is crazy

2005-05-24T22:41:00.000-04:00

ron artest is dope, he plays mad hard and is a great defender as well as a very good offensive player, but man is he crazy. this is from espn.com (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/pete_mcentegart/05/23/ten.spot/):

"Though Ron Artest wasn't on the floor in the Pacers-Pistons series, Detroit players still saw more of the suspended Artest than they likely had hoped. According to the Detroit News, the Pistons' team bus was about to leave the parking lot at Indianapolis's Conseco Fieldhouse at around midnight last Thursday after the Pistons won Game 6 and the series. Then a dark Escalade screamed into the loading dock, nearly hitting several people. Out jumped Artest, who according to several Pistons was wearing a quite short pair of shorts and no shoes. Upon getting out, Artest tore off his T-shirt. But he never made a motion toward the Pistons' bus, where team security officials likely had their hearts beating out of their chests, and instead strolled into the building wearing just the short-shorts. Of course, this might not even count as strange behavior on the Artest scale."

say it ain't so, bill frist

2005-05-24T22:28:00.000-04:00

it was definitely a good thing that the senate found a compromise and didn't 'go nuclear'.
the senate is supposed to be a moderating force, and the filibuster encourages that by having to build more of a majority.
this whole judge fight and pretty much the fissure in american politics really just goes back to the whole abortion fight. the democratics really need to stress that they are not pro-obortion, rather pro-not -forcing women to have a baby if they don't want to.

uno, dos, tres, NUEVE! (to be said in a bono voice to the tune of the i-pod commercial song)

2005-05-18T23:34:00.000-04:00

it's been a tough few months as a regular rider on the IRT. mad delays. when the A train broke and the MTA wasn't trying to fix it (which was one of the most absurd things ever - five years!), it got really bad. two and three 1/9s would pass and you couldn't even get on.
this afternoon, however, was almost poetic.
i take the 2/3 from wall up to 96th and transfer the to the 1/9 up to 110th street - usually that's where things get all fucked up. (in case you are not familiar with the new york city subway system, here's a map: http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/nyct/maps/submap.htm.)* today, however, the 3 train came pretty quick and then at 96th the 1 was just pulling up. it was dope. i was home in thirty-five minutes, a-mazing.
it brings me a fleeting but nonetheless real moment of joy when i catch the transfer train right away. conversely, there is a real but not quite as fleeting moment of despair when you're pulling up and your connecting train is just pulling away. sometimes, if i'm late, it's like a slow motion scene - "noooo" (to be said in deep slow-motion voice).
by the way, if they would put digital clock or something telling you how long until the next rain came it would make the wait much less taxing. how much could that cost? certainly less than the $200 million dollars that MTA felt they could afford when they sold the rights to the railyards to woody johnson for half price.

*in this sentence should the period go inside or outside of the parentheses? or is it just so grammatically wrong to have an entire sentence in parentheses that it doesn't matter?

W.M.Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzznnnuuuuuttttttssssssssss

2005-05-17T21:40:00.000-04:00

as matt mentioned on his blog earlier today, how are more people not pointing out the irony of dubya & co. bitching about newseek?....what did newsweek do again? oh yea, they compromised american lives unnecessarily because they jumped to a wrong conclusion based on poor evidence. how could anyone be so irresponsible?

i'm luke james, bitch!

2005-05-16T20:29:00.000-04:00

it was good to hear that dave chappelle isn't crazy and smoking crack, he's just stressed out. it is, i suppose, a bit unprofessional to sign a contract and then disappear on a mental health vacation but then again most people don't dress up like rick james at work either.
so newsweek took back the quran flushing incident story. it's kind of corny to run something like that and then just pull a roseanne rosanadana and say neverrrrminddddd (anyone, anyone, bueller?, bueller?) but does anyone find it that hard to believe? i mean, i wouldn't be shocked if they were wiping their asses with it first.
what's kind of fucked up, though, is that i was watching fox news (a guilty pleasure) and they were coming pretty close to saying if a story is bad for the u.s. you shouldn't run it. they were putting it more like saying you shouldn't use unnamed sources (or at least more than one and, admittedly, i don't know what the protocol on that is) - especially - when it's bad for the u.s.
i think the 'right' media just would as soon never print anything bad about the war in iraq. i mean, fox is just absurdly biased to the point where it's not even really journalism, and they're constantly railing about the 'left wing press' or the 'elite' media's bias to the left. cbs, npr, pbs those are wildly unreliable and biased but fox news is fair and ballanced - especially that HANNITY & colmes.

The McPaper

2005-05-11T16:50:00.000-04:00

i was in a hotel in lebanon , nj (off all places) and i got a complimentary 'usa today'.
who actually reads this? they should leave the pictures as just outlines of the people and give out crayons so you can color them in.
i was reading a front page story about tom ridge and the color alert system and i finished the column and was ready to continue the story. i was like where's the little line that tells you what page to turn to, then i realized it wasn't there b/c that was it. what? you'd think a national newspaper would have a bit more to say about a former adminisitration official who was in charge of homeland security that was saying the administration was overusing the terror warning. nope, two paragraphs, that about sums it up.
and the ridge, thing, i guess no one's really shocked about bush overusing the terror warning - it did seem to go up and convenient times for dubya during the election and all. i'm interested to learn more b/c i don't know shit b/c i read about it in the sesame street times.

bob dylan is the man

2005-05-10T21:14:00.000-04:00

about 7 or 8 months ago i got on what proved to be a prolonged bob dylan kick along with my roomate, chris.
i had always, of course, knew who the guy was and liked the songs i knew but since i've started listening to him frequently i'm astounded by just how great his music is. there are a ton of songs i just know from a mix cd that chris has made or random compilations (did i spell that wrong?) like 'if not for you', 'quinn the eskimo', 'don't think twice it's alright' and many more.
blonde on blonde is a masterpiece, there isn't a bad song on the album and 'visions of johanna is beautiful'.
highway 61 revisited, though, is possibly my favorite album of all time. at the very least it's up there with abbey road or any other beatle album and kind of blue (miles davis). the first verse of 'highway 61 revisited' is hilarious with the conversation between God and abraham. by the way, for any dylan fans, i was reading this interview with the drummer on that album - whatever his name is - and he was saying that the party-whistle thing in 'highway 61 revisited' (those of you that know the song/album know what i'm talking about) was something he wore on his neck and blew everytime he saw someone doing drugs in the studio during the recording of the album (which, by the way, took a grand total of two days). i never get tired of 'just like tom thumbs blues'.
i think my current top three artists (group or individual) would read like this:

1. the beatles
2. bob dylan
3. led zeppelin

the beatles are still safely in the number one spot, but dylan is not counted out yet.

man, people from outside of ny get pissed off

2005-05-10T00:03:00.000-04:00

i was out tonight with people from outside of ny and i said livng out of nyc would be terrible and all these people got mad pissed...i'm sure other parts of the country could be very cool, but people from outside of manhattan/nyc seem to get very defensive if you hate on non-manattanhites...whatsup with that? i mean, isn't manhattan the best place in the world to live? am i wrong?

congratulations to the newly betroathed

2005-05-08T21:45:00.000-04:00

congratulations to the brian patrick and his new fiancee, meghan.
their kids will be taller than mine and probably get better grades.
meghan and brian have been dating for about 15 years now, which is about half the time that his older brother and his fiancee dated before officially committing to take the plunge sometime in the unspecified future. incidentally matt's kids will also get better grades than mine and be 5'10" and diesel.

why are we still fighting the drug war?

2005-05-07T21:35:00.000-04:00

i was just reading an article about the state of the drug war (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/colombia_us_drug_war_woes) and, putting it mildly, it is not going well. soldiers are being caught smuggling cocaine back to the u.s. and selling arms to rebels. also, despite "massive aerial fumigation" coca crops actually increased this past year.
when are we going to get it? people like to get high and will pay good money to do so. because of that it is incredibly profitable to sell drugs, so people will take risks because the payoff is so, well, high. i mean, even if you were able to cut the heroin market in half by arrests and fumigation and whatever, that would just make the price double and certainly someone will risk going to jail in order to become a multimillionaire.
meanwhile, we're locking people up for like fucking marijuana possession. who gives a shit if someone smokes weed? if someone is stoned they are probably less of a threat to society - what are they going to do, terrorize the world with their cheeto-breath? drive really really slow?
with all the monetary problems are country has it mind boggling to me that we spend BILLIONS of dollars on something most reasonable people know has about a zero percent chance of working.

capitalizing sucks

2005-05-07T16:17:00.000-04:00

one thing you'll notice is that i hate capitalizing in emails, i dont know why - i mean its just moving your pinkie like two centimeters down but i find it to be an annoyance. even in business emails i dont do it sometimes if i sort of know the person.....is this uncommon?
punctuation is optional. sometime's i'll use that apostrophe, sometimes i won't. commas, however, are dope. i think i overuse them, maybe, not?
i generally don't fuck with the semicolons, what do they do anyway?

shit

2005-05-07T10:49:00.000-04:00

i just started a blog and i have writer's block.