Here are the five things to think about before hitting send:
1. Love is temporary, text messages last forever
2. How will I feel if this message is printed on the cover of a newspaper?
3. What will happen if this message gets forwarded to 100 people?
4. There is no such thing as a confidential communication (every body tells at least one person)
5. Will the naked photo of myself I’m about to send hurt my ability to get a job?
With 17 more innings, he’ll tie Cy Young for second most innings pitched in Red Sox history and could pass Roger Clemens (whom he trails by 64 2/3) by the All-Star break.
He’s the oldest player in the American League, and second only to the Phillies’ Jamie Moyer, Wakefield turns 44 in August.
If Wakefield is still playing in May of next year (he is signed though 2011), he will become the oldest Red Sox player ever, a distinction currently held by something of an interloper. Deacon McGuire was 85 days shy of his 45th birthday when he played his final of seven games in a Boston uniform in 1908.
Just how long has Wakefield been around? He actually played on the last winning Pirates team, a franchise that has posted 17 straight losing seasons, a record for all four major sports.
Poor Disneyland Resort Paris. It’s been the red-headed step child of the Disney family for close to two decades now, ever since it was known as “Euro Disney.”
While that’s tragic, I hardly think the working conditions could be “brutal”.
But then again, it’s all perspective. I’m sure there are cultural hiccups at play – what’s a fair practice to American workers might not fly in other places.
At least the article didn’t mention how the park didn’t allow wine when it opened in 1992. Criminy, they always seem to mention that. It’s like the go-to line for how culturally insensitive Disney was back in the day. But they never mention how the current Chairman and CEO is French. Never. Mais non!
The president of the Maine Insurance Agents Association, Chris Condon, says, “It’s a real proud culture.” In most disputes, Mainers tend to seek fair treatment rather than big money.
“People are less likely to sue than they might be elsewhere,” Condon says, “I think that impacts those rates over time.”
The Freakonomics blog over at the New York Times had a good post yesterday about money in the United States – specifically what to do with the dollar bill and one cent piece. It’ll never happen, but it’s still a good thought: “Cutting the Currency Gordian Knot.”
Five years ago this week I took an overnight trip to NYC for work (see New York City).
Here are a few of the photos from that trip:
Times Square at 4:35 am looks pretty much like it would at midnight, sans a few hundred people.
The highlight (or lowlight, as it may be) of the trip was my having to move a 15 foot Ryder truck in the middle of Times Square at 8:45 am due to an error on the part of one of my co-workers.
As you can imagine, parking is tough to come by at that time of day.
Parallel parking a beast like that is also not an easy task.
That was decidedly not fun.
Shortly after I almost hit a rollerblader.
Unfortunately I don’t have any more of the photos, they were on a work computer and who knows what happened to them. But that Times Square shot has always been one of my favorite pictures, it brings back so many odd memories …
I could care less about Sex in the City 2, I really could.
But last summer I mentioned how they wanted to shoot the flick in Dubai, and Dubai naturally balked at the questionable content (see Sex And A Different City).
So now I guess the movie takes place … in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi.
Weird.
See Abu Dhabi is less concerned about image than Dubai. More conservative, even. If they were brothers Dubai would be the flashy one with a fancy car – like a stupid-expensive Lamborghini. Abu Dhabi would have a more stoic Bentley.
Thus it seemed really odd to me that they’d let them film in Abu Dhabi. So I did a little research.
The Freakonomics blog over at the New York Times is always an interesting read.
The other day they had a good post about the speed limit, and how, according to a recent scholarly paper “the lifting of the federal 55 mph speed limit in 1995 was responsible for 12,545 deaths between 1995 and 2005.”
Last week the show Fringe had a plot that took place in an alternate reality 1985.
Of course, the guys who write and produce the show are genius, so they threw in a little time travel joke that only a geek could love:
Back to the Future, as we all know, was released in 1985, but many non-geeks out there might not realize that Eric Stoltz was Marty McFly for the first month of filming, until he was replaced by Family Ties’ Michael J. Fox.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a photo of Stoltz as McFly:
I wonder if these people are just plain stupid … or nefarious?
Here’s a direct quote from Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN):
“FDR applied just the opposite formula [than cutting taxes]: the Hoot-Smalley act, which was a tremendous burden on tariff restrictions. And of course trade barriers and the regulatory burden and of course tax barriers.”
Nowadays anyone with wikipedia can verify facts in about four seconds – unless you purposefully change the words. It’s tough to find anything on the internet about “Hoot-Smalley” if the real name was Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act.
And yes, that was passed by President Coolidge, a Republican. Shit, Smoot and Hawley? Also Republicans.
At least Bachmann knew that the act was a disaster. She just blamed the wrong side.
I’ve been tweaking the Commenting feature on the blog – they should be open now. The reason I closed them for a little bit was the huge amount of spam that I was getting on each post. Not cool.
I think I have it taken care of now, but if it’s goofy for the next week or so, I’m probably just fiddling with it.
Bonus points to the author for capitalizing the LEGO brand name. Sadly, his usage isn’t perfect as the LEGO brand name must never appear on its own; it should always be accompanied by a noun, i.e. “LEGO set” or “LEGO bricks.”
Forget April Fools’ Day, it’s Census Day in my world today. I think I’ve told you my affection for the decennial census (which is Constitutionally mandated – Article I, Section 2, you Tea Bagging-haters). Anyway the census is a snapshot of every household today, April 1, 2010.
We filled out ours last night and we had a revelation – see, for 36 days of the year Liz and I are the same age. April 1 is one of those days.
Josh finally lives in Maine again after four years at Boston University, a stint in Southern California with
Walt Disney Feature Animation,
and two years in Dubai, UAE,
where he created and wrote Newlywed in Dubai.
The Freakonomics blog over at the New York Times is always an interesting read.
Wow, I guess I’m glad that I don’t have an iPhone: “
As you probably have heard, the 44th and current President of the United States Barack Obama is going to be in Portland, Maine tomorrow.
