This is specific to more upscale suburbs, no?
I really don't see the problem. If you must make a strip mall, why not try to put a pretty front on it?
Ditto 2. The newer style is ersatz but pleasing to the eye.
1:No, it's not, from one who lives in the very middlin' heart of strip mall America. Fricking dollar stores get fancied up.
a) My very first thought was "Our Miss Brooks" in a joke about David, but it might construed as sexist, even though it isn't. It is a neat observation.
b) My second thought was about an excess of construction supply
c) my third thought was about a more competitive environment for retail, from Walmart and because discretionary income has decreased from 50 years ago
d) my 4th thought was a question about whether I preferred top to bottom. Top's kinda kitschy and phony, but there was a green thing there. I live in a relentlessly prettifying suburb with massive amounts of that going down. Medians in highways are getting grass and trees between the NAPA across from the Burger King.
e) Speaking of which, somebody link to a "McDonalds Thru the Ages" photoset. I haven't the heart.
bob has lots of thoughts.
But, around here I'm just happy when I see anything remodeled nicely. Aside from the giant non-profits, you'd think nobody even heard of paint.
Pleasing to the eye?! Pleasing to the eye?!
There are very few everyday structures more depressing than the canonical strip mall. Any change, no matter how kitsch, is an improvement. At least it shows effort.
Ambitious facades can be nice:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackpscott/4137336983/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/71015858@N00/4757225943/
The thing that bugs me about strip mall facades is my sense of being on a poorly-thought out stage set. Still, nonzero aesthetic investment in buildings is better than concrete nothingness. Much of Californa is recently built temporary structures, and it's pleasant there.
btw, the first link in 8 is a betting parlor.
re: 9
I suppose. We have shitty suburban shop architecture here, too. I do hate that style, though.
We have mostly poorly maintained early 20th century shop architecture.
My nth thought is a speculation about new zoning laws to have store fronts with surfaces that break up and disperse street sound.
That would be really smart of new zoning laws. I had no idea anything thought at that level of detail.
Nampa, Idaho! The worst I've seen. But I'm off to Phoenix in a couple of weeks and may see even worse there.
Both are ugly, I'll say that up front. I kinda like the top, though, because 1. it reminds me of my childhood, although now that I can choose, I moved away from that architectural style; and 2. those strip malls, with the jumbled signs and not much way for you to see into the store driving past can be complete treasure hunts. There can be fantastic pho places right next to the cheap sari place next to the musical instrument store next to the comic book store. You kinda have to turn into the lot to know what you'll find, and what you find could be very neato. I don't get that feeling from the bottom strip mall, which I expect to have way more bland stores.
I made that same point, about the treasure hunt, to an urban planning snob, who told me that neato diverse retail depends on cheap buildings. It is great if you have old lovely cheap buildings, because the costs of building them are paid. But if you don't have that, cheapo ugly strip malls are another way to get buildings to be cheap enough to support diverse retail.
My knowledge of commercial architecture is rudimentary, but the second picture is out of the 70s (ish), isn't it? The first picture will likely will look just as sad a couple of decades hence.
16: Aren't you supposed to be looking at the big signpost out front with all the store logos stacked up like a totem pole? IME, nondescript concrete block strips are as likely to have surprisingly good pho as ersatz Thomas Kinkade villages.
Its cute how the parking lot is empty in the picture of the first strip mall, and packed in the picture of the second.
Ooops, no, I remembered the order of the pictures backward as I wrote my comment 16. The low jumbly ones are the ones that I like better. The taller newer ones are the ones where I don't think I'll find anything interesting.
That would be really smart of new zoning laws. I had no idea anything thought at that level of detail.
Nobody does (except bob, apparently). That would indeed be a much better thing for zoning laws to address than the sorts of things they usually address.
I think the idea behind the newer, higher facades is to try to mimic the feel of a traditional downtown. They do generally evoke that feel better than the traditional drab strip malls, but that's not saying much.
1. I couldn't find pictures that illustrated the saloon style very well
2. the old strip mall picture is particularly ugly.
3. The town I grew up in used to have a lot of strip malls with low, flat roofs and pebbled walls, and/or brickwork. I found them much less ugly.
I, for one, find the bottom style of strip mall--ubiquitous around here--horridly depressing. The top style's no great shakes either, but at least it indicates things aren't just sitting around decaying in the absence of money for any kind of refurbishment.
The top style's no great shakes either, but at least it indicates things aren't just sitting around decaying in the absence of money for any kind of refurbishment.
I suspect this is mostly because it's newer.
The old strip mall picture says to me "Small locally-owned businesses". The new strip mall picture says "Branches of nationwide chains".
Both are horribly ugly. Strip malls, in all their guises, are horribly ugly. And assuming more and more expensive gas, they'll turn out to be horrible planning, too. (I mean more horrible than they already are.) But upon previewing, I see that Teo is here, so I'll shut up.
23: And then there is the beyond strip mall malls (generally more upscale) which go even a little further in the nostalgic downtown direction. The Greene outside of Dayton (it's in Greene County, so they get to use the 'e'). Legacy Village outside of Cleveland.
27 is true, and indicates another reason for the change. Also, in Britain I'd say the older one looked 70s and the newer one 80s/90s. What's been happening in the field for the last 15-20 years?
23 is correct, though if the buildings themselves are newer, the facades that will be higher for more than cosmetic reasons, as retailers demand far greater ceiling heights than they used to.
27 is also correct. While many of us probably find mom 'n' pop tenants more interesting and appealing, national tenants draw more traffic and make financing substantially easier, and attracting a national retailer requires modern facades.
Actually, instead of participating in this thread or continuing to write and edit what needs to be written and edited, I think I'll walk to our compact and relatively vibrant downtown and sample one of the many ethnic restaurants there.
21: I think you're as likely to find something interesting in either place. This may be highly geographically specific.
29: Yeah, those are part of the same trend (and go much further in emulating the downtown style). They replace traditional enclosed malls rather than strip malls, though.
26: Maybe, but in some places--cough, see my handle--newer buildings just don't go up very much. This whole city is filled with areas never repaired or redeveloped since the big 1970 tornado.
I think you're as likely to find something interesting in either place. This may be highly geographically specific.
Yeah, as Megan noted in 17 what sort of tenants actually occupy a given shopping center depends hugely on local economic conditions and the available options/rents.
Is this what you mean by the saloon style? Gower Gulch at least has some claim to it. There used to be a movie studio there where they shot westerns -- real cowboys used to hang out in the lot looking for work.
29: Legacy Village is right near my parents' house. It is a true horror -- albeit, when speaking of retail on the east side of Cleveland, just one among many horrors -- that is best avoided. Sadly, that's where the Apple store is, so I'll probably have to visit again. After which, perhaps I shall slake my thirst at the "authentic" Irish pubbe (bring your own Irish people, please) or perhaps have a meal at the outstanding Fauxtalian eatery (which is 10x as expensive as Olive Garden but no better).
Maybe, but in some places--cough, see my handle--newer buildings just don't go up very much. This whole city is filled with areas never repaired or redeveloped since the big 1970 tornado.
Interesting. When I was there last spring I noticed quite a bit of newish development along the lines of heebie's upper picture right across from the Tech campus. I didn't see much of the rest of town, of course.
37: Heh, no, not quite that explicit.
There's this ubiquitous white limestone rock that everyone uses to signal Flashy! Wealth! around here, and it's saloon style in this limestone rock that I'm picturing.
Although in strictly middle class areas - not flashy upscale areas.
22:I went googling but couldn't find anything in detail, but I suspect you are wrong, at least in that city planners aren't thinking about noise abatement and mitigation.
They widened the highway at the end of my residential street from 4 to 6 lanes not long ago. When they did, they added high walls, with stippled surfaces and protrusions and crenellations. In the two foot of grass in front of each wall they planted alternating trees and bushes.
Another even larger highway is being built, with very high earthen berms on either side.
I suspect you are wrong, at least in that city planners aren't thinking about noise abatement and mitigation.
Oh, they definitely do, especially along highways and major streets as you note (although a lot of the things they do don't actually work). As far as I know there's been little to no effort to incorporate noise concerns into stuff like facade regulations, though.
38: albeit, when speaking of retail on the east side of Cleveland, just one among many horrors
The Randall Park Mall will be tough to top.
I see that Teo is here, so I'll shut up.
Heh. I appreciate the deference, but Blandings knows much more about this stuff than I do. Defer to him instead.
There is also the "wind tunnel" (Bernoulli ? I'm old) factor to be countered by broken facades if you look at the links in 29.
Whoa, I bore you with it, but I know I'm no smarter than those people, so if I think of it...
39: There's no question there's some new development. Campus and the expansion/mall on the southwest side of the city are good examples. I'm no Lubbock expert myself, but intuitively it sure feels like there isn't a whole lot of replacement of older construction with new. The new stuff, as far as I can tell, largely goes up in previously untouched areas. (On that point, the campus development you saw may well be an exception, but I'd bet that the university has vastly more money for that sort of thing than the rest of the city does.)
73 degrees, 24% humidity, 6 mph west wind, sunshine
Dogs demanded some empirical studies of suburban greenery and architecture
Is there any good reason why you couldn't just build actual, functional 2nd stories instead? This is a serious question. Is it expensive to build a 2nd floor such that if land is cheap it's not worth it?
The new stuff, as far as I can tell, largely goes up in previously untouched areas.
This drives me crazy. Old, abandoned buildings are left to sit around, and let's develop this new patch of field over here!
49: How much do elevators cost? That's probably the big part of it.
Legacy Village is right near my parents' house.
Hey, mine too. Well, 15 minutes away, anyway. I haven't spent any real time there, going only when someone I was meeting specifically designated one of those particular restaurants. As a place to park a car and then walk to a restaurant I found it mostly inoffensive.
50: Yes, yes, yes. I had a feeling you could relate, given some of your previous descriptions of the general area where you live.
Once upon a time I associated this sort of alienating atrocity with America (weird foreign suburban variant). But over the past twenty years the French have adopted it with a vengeance, and they're if anything even worse than the American versions.
Is there any good reason why you couldn't just build actual, functional 2nd stories instead? This is a serious question. Is it expensive to build a 2nd floor such that if land is cheap it's not worth it?
There's not much demand for second-story retail, and rents for other uses are often much lower (when they're allowed at all). It's not the cost so much as the lack of upside.
34: They replace traditional enclosed malls rather than strip malls, though.
Yes. It has been fascinating/horrifying to watch the rise and fall of enclosed malls versus strip malls* through my lifetime. The first big enclosed mall opened near my house in ~1965 and among the promotional materials we received was a little flexible 33⅓ record of a family touring the place and expressing wonderment. And in fact, compared to other things in small-city mid-60s Ohio it was pretty freaking impressive**--even for just being a big air-conditioned place you could walk around in.
*Not commonly called that until the second wave, however.
**Well, other than the blimp hangar.
50, 53: Ah, Texas. This is what you get with cheap land and few development regulations.
57 is why even though I agree with Yglesias about a lot of land-use stuff I'm pretty dubious about the way he touts Texas specifically as a model.
34, 56: There are outdoor malls that have buildings that look like that new strip mall, but they also have other features (i.e. a multi-story department store, a car-free walking area in the middle, a movie threater, or something). I don't think you can say a building is replacing an enclosed mall unless there is something other than single-story retail where no store entrance is more than 5 feet from the parking lot.
The mall on top is boring. The mall on the bottom fills me with despair.
I don't think you can say a building is replacing an enclosed mall unless there is something other than single-story retail where no store entrance is more than 5 feet from the parking lot.
You're entitled to that opinion, of course, but the outdoor malls we're talking about here both fill the same function in the retail ecosystem that enclosed malls do and, in some cases, literally replace specific enclosed malls located near them that have closed.
There are outdoor malls that have buildings that look like that new strip mall, but they also have other features (i.e. a multi-story department store, a car-free walking area in the middle, a movie threater, or something).
You mean "lifestyle centers".
61: That happened here with one mall in the suburbs. They replaced an enclosed mall with a WalMart, a couple of detatched chain resturants, and a strip mall. I think that is a different niche. The mall-y functions of the old mall were taken over by other enclosed malls. The new strip mall deplaced other, shittier strip malls. The WalMart got its business from whatever bottomless gaping maw it usually gets its business from.
62: I've never heard that used, but I may not be paying attention. There is one very close to me. Everybody calls it by proper name.
63: That sounds like a different situation from what we've been talking about here.
The Columbia Heights metro stop area in DC - not actually a strip mall - seems to have combined some of the high-facade strip mall architecture with multi-story (some commercial, some residential) development. It could use wider sidewalks in a few spots.
The biggest mall out here is multi-story and enclosed. It's deceptively huge. I haven't been to that many malls in this area, but they've pretty much all been enclosed. There are of course many shopping strips with parking lots, but I have a hard time calling those "malls", even if that's the technical term.
Is there any good reason why you couldn't just build actual, functional 2nd stories instead?
Of course there is a long tradition in the US of built-to-impress facades for Main Street businesses--often with added stories/height.
Oh, I guess on the way to/from the border I see developments like what heebie's first picture shows. I haven't spent much time in the non-urbanized suburbs.
Here in the heart of the heart of it all we have Easton Town Center which has a smallish enclosed mall surrounded on all sides by a faux old-fashioned downtown.
I always meant to go to that, but I was so close to Tutle and worked by the City Centre, so I never got around to it.
How are Bexley and Grandview doing? Both genuine walkable city neighborhoods. Grandview even had a theater that showed nice movies, Bexley too. There's a huge development in Albuquerque that looks like 29.
Across the street from that is a bar that looks like a US hispanic reimagining of Hooters with "No Colors" warning signs and a heavy police presence, a little incongruous for the relentlessly cheerful decor. A novel ambiance for me.
70: What a horrible regret to have to live with!
Tuttle survives, but the City Center Mall is now only a memory.
I'm far too lazy to drive 3.5 hours to see a mall.
Grandview is still a nice walkable neighborhood, but I think it's becoming a lot more upscale than it used to be. New fancy condos and $9 cocktail outlets, etc.
You mean "lifestyle centers".
That's just obscene.
74: I almost bought a townhouse right off Northwest (in Columbus, but near Grandview) for like $80,000. I kept renting because I couldn't imagine it could possibily increase in value by enough to pay resale expenses.
a smallish enclosed mall surrounded on all sides by a faux old-fashioned downtown
which is in turn surrounded by every big box store you can think of, arranged of clusters of 3 or 4 with a sea of parking spaces apiece, such that it takes 10-12 minutes to drive from one to the other even though they're about half a mile apart.
OT:
So I see on Facebook that Newt's ex-wife is saying that he proposed that they have an open marriage, so that he could have a mistress? Talk about the world's worst advertisement for polyamory. I suppose I should think slightly better of him for attempting to be honest with his wife, but somehow I still don't.
Gingrich, of course, Gingrich. I may have to start calling my son Eft.
That doesn't seem fair to open marriages. He was asking her to tolerate a mistress, no? That isn't quite the same as opening a marriage, which both partners might potentially enjoy after carefully and lovingly negotiating mutually respectful rules. Was he proposing to look the other way as she brought home her new friends? Schedule which nights the primaries got to use their apartment with their lovers?
I don't actually know -- just saw a mention on FB. Possibly he was sensitive and loving about the whole thing. Not how I'd bet, but you never can tell.
In the Bob Metropolitan Area there is a strip mall that serves as Chinatown. The name of the strip mall is, in fact, "China Town."
OT: is the word "disseminate" totally deprecated at this point? I know that "seminal" as a way of describing a "germinal" article or book is well and truly dead, but I don't know about "disseminate". For example, would you trip over the word "disseminate" in this sentence?
But once again, the conflict emerged less from differing perspectives on the tribes' traditional cultural practices than from a struggle over who would control history: its production and dissemination.
Please put on your humorless feminist hat before answering.
To be clear, the affair had already been going on for six years.
There's a huge development in Albuquerque that looks like 29.
If that's the one I'm thinking of it's a classic example of the type. It could be another, more recent one, of course; that restaurant doesn't sound familiar, but it too could be new.
For example, would you trip over the word "disseminate" in this sentence?
I might snigger like a nine year-old humorless feminist, but the word is still okay to use.
83: Not an academic, but I would have read past disseminate without ever noticing the root.
86: thanks.
87: if you're not an academic, I'm not sure why you bothered to answer.
I may not be an academic, but I am a humorless feminist.
On another tangent:
Mitt Romney has been running for president for, like, six years. What was he thinking to have significant assets in the Cayman Islands? Was it only his current campaign advisers in fiscal year 2010 who were all "hey maybe that would look bad"?!
I would have stumbled over the use of the colon in that sentence, however.
91: Dissemination is a perfectly acceptable use of a colon.
91: yeah, the colon will probably go away. Especially if I change the sentence to read,
But once again, the conflict emerged less from differing perspectives on the tribes' traditional cultural practices than from a struggle over who would spew hot, creamy history all over the bosoms of eager visitors to the national memorial.
There's nothing sexist about "disseminate". Female plants grow from seeds, too.
83: Don't use disseminate. Instead of seminar, use ovanar.
94: by that logic, there's nothing sexist about calling an important text "seminal", is there? And yet, I would be buying trouble by the pound were I to do that.
I decline to contemplate the Brechto-Lovecraftian magical-horror-drama spectacle of Newt Gingrich declaring that he has too much love for any one woman, baby, but there's plenty of Newt to go 'round.
97: Are you implying feminists are heavy?
Or, alternatively, that he's a rambling man -- a rolling stone -- who's got to be moving on down the road to find the queen of all his dreams [guitar solo; supersmooth move for the bra clasp].
94: by that logic, there's nothing sexist about calling an important text "seminal", is there? And yet, I would be buying trouble by the pound were I to do that.
What?
From who? Since when?
Is this fear of humorless feminists, or immature undergraduates?
I know that "seminal" as a way of describing a "germinal" article or book is well and truly dead
Really, it is? Reading this caused me to worry that I had used it in a syllabus and thereby committed some horrible sin. (I didn't: it was "foundational").
Well, other than the blimp hangar.
Blimp! hangar. Hmph.
That photo doesn't do justice to the scale of the dirigible and the airdock.
102: so I'm told. And yes, "foundational" is the preferred alternative. Again, so I'm told.
104: "Foundational" like ... al-Qaeda? Why do you hate America?
Foundational as in comes from the counter at Macy's where the scary white-coated ladies dwell.
A lot of those women are quite nice and will gladly tell you what's in the powders and lipsticks and what Bobbi Brown and the la Mer people are really like if you are there with a woman who clearly means business.
Problem solved: I'm going to use "distribution" instead of "dissemination". Please return to your regularly scheduled OT discussion, sponsored by Dan Savage, of how Newt Gingrich's wife forced him to cheat because she wouldn't embrace his kinky fantasies.
re: 107
In the UK, at least, they also give out a lot of free shit. If they sniff a regular customer, you'll easily get freebies to the value of the stuff you are buying. High profit margins let that happen, but still, you can get more stuff for less money from the scary mask-ladies than over-the-counter places, often.
Wait, what? People don't say "seminal" any more? Are we allowed to attend a weekly seminar? And oh, those poor seminary students....
I admit to have a little internal "hee, you just said 'seminal'" reaction every time I hear the word, but I thought that was just me.
In an odd inversion of a phenomenon much discussed here in the past, I just encountered a bewheelchaired man on a street corner shouting at everyone who went past "DON'T SMILE! Don't you do it! Don't smile! Don't you fucking smile! Don't do it!", which seemed to elicit a grin from almost everyone.
Somehow "seminal" sounds dirty to me in a way that "seminar" or "seminary" just doesn't.
114:
Three little maids who, all unwary,
Come from a ladies' seminary,
Freed from its genius tutelary....
I didn't know "seminal" was at all deprecated, but there may be something to what VW says.
Remember when that guy lost his job for using a synonym for "parsimonious" or "miserly" that starts with "n" and includes "gg"?
The other thought I had on the two strip malls was that 1970 America was not exactly a poorer nation than today's. However that means that cheap construction labor might nor have been as available.
Don't know, part of the change might in prefab modular technology.
We were an exporting manufacturing nation then as opposed to the importing service consumerist economy of today.
It was also toward the tail end of the modernist esthetic.
I know a professor at the UC Davis who likes to tell people that they should invest in real estate by buying up strip malls.
MH, the place you're thinking of is actually a pretty early example of "lifestyle center"; when it was in the planning stages was when I first heard that term.
It's not just low demand/rents that make second floor office usage rare/nonexistent. These buildings use loooong span, lightweight framing to make the roofs, and it's way, way more expensive to build strong enough to actually support occupancy above (unless you put in columns, which no one accepts anymore).
Elevators aren't required, even in new construction, but office users want them, so what you see is that, at one end of a lifestyle development, they'll build dedicated 3-4 story office buildings that can price-justify elevators and marble lobbies and such.
116: that's all the answer I need, really. Thanks!
"distribution" is kind of bland and econ
Promulgate, disperse, diffuse (as a verb...neat!), propagate, disject
Strew!
116: A perfectly flat curve except for one data point at the end? Wouldn't ordinarily convince me of much.
"Strew" is hotter than a firecracker.
Could be a bubble
Oh, and:
The newer style reflects some respectable trends in architectural theory, ones relating to placemaking and streetfaces and human scale. Applied to this use, however, it all rings pretty hollow.
And yes, the fancified materials and detailing reflect both a wealthier society and one that puts more of its wealth into consumer living. Galleria Concord (?) can afford fancier digs than their mom and pop forebears (in the 50s and 70s, strip malls rarely held national chain retailers - they'd be local businesses/regional chains, with a supermarket anchor or a movie theater).
Stylistic preferences aside, new strip malls like #1 really do reflect much higher quality construction and materials than #2 (or even strip malls built in the 90s with lots of Dryvit).
disject had a 1300% spike in 1960, and could be period-appropriate
116: that's all the answer I need, really. Thanks!
Hmm. Perhaps n-grams aren't the most reliable ethical guides after all.
You'll have to pry my seminal from my cold damp hands.
Use of the word "fuck" has declined dramatically recently, if you believe n-grams.
Basically, I think you should ignore the last few years.
123, 127: You may both be right, but I'm not using the word. It's not a question of ethics so much as efficacy. I don't want readers, even a small subset of readers, to trip over the construction. I mean, sometimes I do want readers to do that -- if I have a point, for instance, over which I want them to linger -- but that's not the case here. Insofar as I want them to linger, it's at the long pause that the colon suggests -- "Oh, he means the production and distribution of history." -- not at the image of park rangers spooging history all over visitors to the memorial. It's a small point, really, but this is what happens when I'm almost ready to submit a manuscript: rather than contemplating the sub-standard nature of my work, I obsess over small points.
I don't want readers, even a small subset of readers, to trip over the construction.
Philology Philosophy is the something of something slowly.
120.1: I wasn't here then, but I suppose with all the apartments it makes sense. I always forget about those because who wants to live by the mall.
It's not just low demand/rents that make second floor office usage rare/nonexistent. These buildings use loooong span, lightweight framing to make the roofs, and it's way, way more expensive to build strong enough to actually support occupancy above (unless you put in columns, which no one accepts anymore).
Huh, I hadn't thought about that but it makes sense. This is why it's good to have architects around.
Also, in Britain I'd say the older one looked 70s and the newer one 80s/90s.
It was also toward the tail end of the modernist esthetic.
The newer style reflects some respectable trends in architectural theory, ones relating to placemaking and streetfaces and human scale. Applied to this use, however, it all rings pretty hollow.
Yes, I read the second picture as modern and the first as post-modern.
Nobody accepts columns because everybody is a columnist.
This is why it's good to have architects around.
Even better to have engineers around to rein in the architects.
So are elevators really expensive compared to building a sturdier building? I was just guessing because they seem like expensive things.
Even better to have engineers around to rein in the architects.
True.
137: I wish historians had natural professional enemies/antagonists so that we could have jokes like this. Anthropologists? Not really. Political scientists? Not any more. Economists? There might be some potential there, but I don't think they care about us enough to respond if we start making fun of them. Oh well.
The role of planners is to take the political heat for the architects and engineers who do all the real work.
140: Why not an intra-disciplinary fight over quantitative versus qualitative methods?
142: the quants are all gone. They became political scientists or economists.
141 is actually the way one of my grad school instructors (who, unlike most of them, was actually a practicing planner) described the function of the profession. He phrased it as the way planning had come to exist as a separate profession, which is not quite accurate as I understand the history, but as a synchronic account of how the various professions relate to each other it's pretty good.
143: They are the people who pushed me into medical research?
140: Literary historicists?
As an ag engineer, I hadn't known about the antagonism. When I started hanging out with seismic engineers, I found out that they regard architects as a dangerous menace to society.
140: This is a fun game:
Even better to have engineers historians around to rein in the architects Whiggish myth-mongers.
Even better to have engineers mathematicians around to rein in the architects physicists.
Etc.
Dissemination hasn't gotten the same flack for two reasons, I think: 1) the extra prefix disguises the root, 2) Derrida.
Jesus Christ, Newt's suit jacket is creasing over his belly, making him look even more vast.
The only upside of the Citidel Cadet Choir's performing the anthem is harmony. When the hell did all this military patriotic swill become standard?
Awesome. Newt blames the vicious, destructive media for the question about his second wife's interview--and gets a second ovation.
I wish, again, that the blessed Knut, may he rest in peace, had chewed the bejesus out of Newt when he had the chance.
Holy shit. Newt just went nuclear on Jon King.
Don't do this to yourself, Jm. We've all seen The Parallax View. Well, I have, anyway.
Actually, I rather like Republican primary debates.
Oh, Christ. The calls are coming from inside the blog.
157 is literally insane. Is there anything on TV less entertaining or more pointless than these Republican primary debates? I'd rather watch old Everybody Loves Raymond episodes.
OT: I stubbed my toe this morning and bled all the hell over Stately Flippanter Manor. I fear it says something bad about me that I find the sight of my blood draining into a plastic bag for the benefit of others very taxing but don't mind mopping up the claret from the wounds that clumsiness entails.
160: Somebody Loves Newt really lost the thread when he fired the second showrunner.
Santorum says he's sure that psychological damage to returning veterans is a big part of our unemployment rate.
Wait, what? Was he blindly grasping towards being sympathetic? Misspeaking some stupid tough-guy talking point?
One grim upside about all this pandering to the military is that my neighbor the social worker specializing in traumatic brain damage might be able to get that sweet gig at the VA.
Was he blindly grasping towards being sympathetic?
This. With an added ironic dollop: apparently Obama has suggested some cut to the VA?
Mm, I read this morning in Harper's Index that 18 US military veterans commit suicide per day. Huh.
Anyway. Not that that has anything to do with the debate.
Not bad, Newt:
The reason Obama extended parents' insurance to their kids until 26 is that they can't get work to buy their own insurance. Listen to us, parents of America: elect one of us, and your kids will move out and go to work!
Now Santorum is attacking both Romney and Gingrinch on their health care pasts. Santorum is trying to position himself as the John Edwards of the right wing.
Is there anything on TV less entertaining or more pointless than these Republican primary debates?
I like pure displays of rhetoric, and these are almost totally untethered by reality or morals. This is the same reason I sometimes enjoyed Ari Fletcher.
They're a mess. Forget any positioning to be chosen as VP.
If there's anything interesting, it's the war within the Republican party for its meme, if you will: it's not just the establishment versus the Tea Partiers, it's whether the party thinks there's any traction at all in allying itself with hard-core capitalism. They're desperately trying to find a way to rewrite capitalism so it doesn't look so bad. Some think Romney is a losing narrative; others are trying to rehabilitate his narrative. This is interesting in its own right.
Can anybody explain why there are so many debates this year? I don't remember this many ever before, though I suppose before the internet I may have missed some.
Fleischer, I mean. That man was a virtuoso.
Now Mitt and Newt are getting into it hardcore.
Ron Paul has "no intention of releasing" his tax returns.
Now Mitt and Newt are getting into it hardcore.
Mitt swings too?
Both Newt and Santorum are backing away from demanding Mitt to release his returns.
Romney's answer to Jon King's invocation of George Romney's release of 12 years of tax returns was amazingly smarmy.
Judging from the liveblog at the Guardian, it's pretty nasty. Almost as bad as an online flamewar. So bewildering! Were primary debates always this nasty? Were there always this many primary debates?
What's everybody all so het up about??
177.2: On taxes he starts stammering and losing direction mid sentence, and when King asked that question for an instant he looked terrified.
I will say this: the Republican candidates are getting better at these debates. Even Santorum is learning to answer with more aplomb.
Okay, Gingrinch knocks it out of the park (sneering, yet idealistic) about SOPA.
I'd like aplomb, but what I'd really like are some sour cherries.
I'm busying trying to decide if I should run a 1/2 marathon or not.
A half-marathon dishonors the memory of valorous Pheidippides.
The "It killed me but you'll probably be fine" training program?
116: 129.2 is correct; my experience has been that the last year or two of n-grams very frequently have significant swings. Have not figured out why, but don't trust them. That said, here are the first two results for "seminal" from 2003-2008:
Seminal: the anthology of Canada's gay male poets
and
Sexual sites, seminal attitudes: sexualities, masculinities, and culture in South Asia.
I assume the titles were chosen with complete self-awareness.
188: Look, did we beat the Persians or not?
The internet says there aren't more debates than usual. Huh.
Fred Thomas shot in the audience: gruesome goatee.
188: Look, did we beat the Persians or not?
We?
Newt Gingrinch wants to outsource the verification of guest workers to Visa?
Who the heck is Fred Thomas. And I first read that as: a man was shot. Name: Fred Thomas.
We?
Do you see any Lurs around here? I'd say the persian invasion has been well repulsed.
Apparently. His goatee is horrible, disappearing into folds of discontent.
199: I saw him on a TV commercial of some sort recently, maybe for life insurance or something, so yes. Very recognizable face, you know. He was on Law and Order, which is, I suspect, all that most people register about him.
OT: Gina Carano is a very attractive woman, even to those of us who do not fantasize about expiating the sin of privilege through regular beatings by a pretty lady, but the differences between the athletic female thigh and the standard Hollywood female thigh are, from the commercials for Haywire, pronounced.
To the connoisseur.
Ladies.
Oh good: Romney is now taking Gingrinch's cue, responding to policy and issue attacks with offended umbrage that his character has been impugned.
Fred Thompson, aka, Dipshit Magoo. One of my favorite nicknames ever.
203: hah. I saw a preview for that film before, um, MI:27? Anyway, I had roughly the same thought. Who is this beautiful woman that I've never seen before? What is she doing in this high-budget film? Wow, she looks like a real person -- albeit, a million times more attractive -- not a Hollywood star. I bet, if this film succeeds, she loses twenty pounds of muscle for her next role. Wait, Steven Soderbergh is directing? How weird.
103: Blimp! hangar. Hmph.
Yes, sloppy of me I thought it was one of the WWII era blimps--but it is the USS Akron, a rigid airship, although it used helium not hydrogen. Despite that, its loss off the New Jersey coast was deadlier (73 of 76 onboard died) than the Hindenburg fire (35 of 97). I can assure you that by 1960 it was pretty universally called the blimp hangar by the natives.
That photo doesn't do justice to the scale of the dirigible and the airdock.
Well those little things are people and cars. I did play for a year on a rugby team that practiced and played games on a field that was on the other side of the airfield from the airdock/hangar. I thought it added a certain something*.
*Coupled with the very close proximity of the Rubber Bowl and Soapbox Derby Downs, it was a location that enforced a bit of not taking life too seriously.
Also, if there were any way for Romney not to be the nominee, any way at all, I would put money on that happening. As it is, he's going to be the nominee, and the question we're left with is, Will GOP coalesce around him before the election? Prior to this past week, that seemed like a forgone conclusion to me. But now I really do wonder.
Rick Perry drops out? On the day that Newt's polyamorism will become public? And Perry endorses Newt anyway? How much do you have to hate someone if your calculation is, "Well, that Mormon fella's gonna be our nominee. But I figure I'll endorse the guy with the dead-end candidacy, the anger-management problems, and the habit of leaving his wives in their hour of need. I mean, I hate that Mormon sumbitch. He went to Harvard, worships space aliens, and gave healthcare to some poor Nigras up there in Massachusetts. That other guy, though, the fat one, he's my kinda people. He's a real Christian."
I staring to think it's possible that lots and lots of Republicans feel the way Rick Perry does. And tonight's debate didn't help. Also, yes, I do think of Rick Perry is being very similar to Big Daddy Drew's Jerry Jones character.
the last year or two of n-grams very frequently have significant swings
I would hazard a guess that the corpus of books changed when Google started doing deals directly with publishers, instead of just scanning libraries, and that's roughly the right timeframe.
203: I just find it hysterical that Steven Soderbergh has apparently said, "Screw it, I'm making DTV action movies from here out!" Also, based on the trailer, that Gina Carano, who could kick the ass of anyone I know, looks so implausible fighting thanks to Soderbergh's badass action cinematography skillz.
And 206 tells us that the Dutch Cookie did not watch enough American Gladiators.
On the day that Newt's polyamorism will become public? And Perry endorses Newt anyway?
You're just jealous because he's the only historian who is both rich and able to wrangle a three way that doesn't involve chili.
208: Yes, and I know it's just South Carolina, but can Romney actually snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. At a minimum he's going to make the big money dicks and their spin merchants work a little harder and longer. And at this point they probably hate him even more than the old white evangelicals do but don't have a good plan B. I mean it's not everyone who can lose to a philandering Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Newt goes home every night he stays in the race and updates his Future Book Earnings spreadsheet*.
212: As if the latter option is even feasible where you are! (Mara has been looking at chili billboards and asking for some. Her foster family ate there and I took her siblings to a non-chain chili restaurant last weekend. Lee, like many transplants, won't eat the stuff, so I guess that too will fall on me. I'd never eaten any by the time my seventh-grade teacher mentioned always finding chunks of artery in her chili of choice, so I stuck to bean burritos or Greek salads 'til my 20s.)
No, I can't get Ohio chili. I always got four ways (with bean) and I miss it.
212: And I'm sure Newt would feel comfortable using "seminal" in a book.
His literary agent.
Naturally, I assumed this would take me to Old Scratch's website. The reality isn't far off, I suppose.
216: Here ya' go. American Exceptionalism:
According to The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith's seminal work on free enterprise, such a division of labor is the foundation of modern prosperity.See that's how the pros do it, Dutch Cookie.
I'll thank you to say no more about Newt's literary discharge, Stormcrow.
215: That is in fact what I had this weekend. I love hearing from my friends who were raised here in chili-eating families when and how they recognized the sexual terminology overlap and how they responded to it. I have a friend who hates hot dogs but ate coneys through adolescence to save face rather than have to order anything scandalous.
Again, seminal is fine. Unless you use it as a noun.
220: I just assumed everybody from Cincinnati was too shy to make a joke about it.
221: "This is seminal work," Tom spurted out.
I don't want to give up "seminal."
219: You're not the professor of me! Real Change: The Fight for America's Future:
This seminal work proved conclusively that welfare increased dependency, drove down education and life skills, and trapped generations of children in poverty.
I'm delighted to see Carano's name brought up here by someone other than the approximately three resident MMA fans. And no matter how implausible the action, she can't fail to be better than, say, Angelina Jolie in Salt.
220: That's hysterical, given that "coney" used to rhyme with "honey".
I remain enraged at Bill Clinton for having embraced* welfare reform, but I am glad that I no longer have to listen to endless discussions of the sort quoted in 225. Oh, those poor children trapped in poverty across the generations because of welfare!
* More complicated than that, you say? Yes, I know.
Which of Newt's marriages was seminal?
229: Probably south. They talk different there.
226: we recently watched Warrior. It was considerably less bad than I feared and nowhere near as good as the reviews promised. The one brother, the younger one, was a terrifying specimen. I don't know if he's affiliated in any way with MMA, but he was one of the scariest human beings* I've ever seen. And I've seen both Callista Gingrich and Cindy McCain.
* One assumes.
Sorry, I'm just a bit agog that not only is some writing expected to be "disseminated", but even disdisseminatedated.
Wasn't that Tom Hardy of Bronson, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and the forthcoming Batman movie? After we saw TTSS I was telling rfts about Bronson, in which Hardy plays the hardest man in England, and she said that he was the hardest man with the softest lips.
232: And I've seen both Callista Gingrich and Cindy McCain.
Sure, who's the sexist now?
Bronson, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Batman
IMDB tells me that he was also in Band of Brothers, some Guy Ritchie stuff, and the ITV Wuthering Heights. I hope this is exactly how he played the Heathcliff.
Bronson, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Batman, and Hutch
227: It is entirely possible the friend in question reads here, so I have no comment at all. But to Moby's point, there's a standard local tshirt where "3-way LA-style" is two women and a man in a hot tub, while the alternative is of course chili, cheese, and spaghetti. I'm not really sure why this is supposed to enhance local pride, but I suppose it could be self-hating rather than prudish or gluttonous.
Bronson, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Batman, Hitler, Heathcliff
Bronson, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Batman, Hitler, Heathcliff, Huxtable
The Law Offices of Bronson, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Batman, and Hutch
234: so it was. His traps were, no lie, not of this world. Lats too, as I think about it. But it was the traps that really seemed inhuman.
[T]hose of us who ... fantasize about expiating the sin of privilege through regular beatings by a pretty lady have moved on to Ronda Rousey. So I've heard.
The Coffee Shop In The Lobby Of The Building Containing The Law Offices of Bronson, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Batman, and Hutch 2: Payback Time
"3-way LA-style" is two women and a man in a hot tub
A "4-way LA-style" is two women, a man, and onions in a hot tub.
246: AS WAS THE STYLE AT THE TIME
Beyond The Coffee Shop In The Lobby Of The Building Containing The Law Offices of Bronson, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Batman, Heffalump and Hutch 3: Inhuman Traps
I'm in a hotel room where the TV turns itself on at precisely 11:41 PM each night. I can't figure out how to make it stop.
246: Or beans, which at least have souls, but you've shown us how kinky you are, Mr. Hick!
TMI and OT, but how on earth do the kids know to wake up from a bad dream the moment I decide to use the toilet? Is this a sign that there really is a god?
250: If it was at 11:41, you should compare notes with essear.
I am glad that I no longer have to listen to endless discussions of the sort quoted in 225.
My wife's New York cousins, let me introduce you to them. They are so very enamored of their talking points from 1994.
My wife's New York cousins, let me introduce you to them. They are so very enamored of their talking points from 1994.
They must be thrilled about all this Gingrich stuff lately.
in which direction???
I have to admit that I don't understand the question.
I have to admit that I don't understand the question.
I believe he is asking which word is posited to have had the same pronunciation it has now back when they rhymed.
(The answer seems obvious, but I believe that to be the question.)
I too found the answer obvious, but I wanted to ask anyway, to exploit the ambiguity that is, technically, there, if you are being deliberately obtuse (which I usually am).
The Valley Of I Too Found The Answer Obvious, But I Wanted To Ask Anyway, To Exploit The Ambiguity That Is, Technically, There, If You Are Being Deliberately Obtuse (Which I Usually Am) 4: WMYBSALB
It was the use of "direction" that threw me off.
||
When you've written a letter of recommendation for someone, did you typically let that person read it?
What about recommendations written for you? How many did you get to read, if any?
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When you've written a letter of recommendation for someone, did you typically let that person read it?
No.
What about recommendations written for you? How many did you get to read, if any?
One. I didn't ask to see it and felt weird and awkward about receiving a copy. I read it really really fast and then got rid of it.
I had to run Adobe's ocr, which isn't perfect, but no instances of "seminal" or "dissemination" showed up in a search of Gingrich's dissertation. For trade books and the popular press only.
And I've seen both Callista Gingrich and Cindy McCain.
What a rarefied air you must breathe, Monsignor Von Wafer! (I take it you're not regularly attending Sunday mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, though what do I know, really?)
Callista and Newt: a couple of creeps, imo, and I'm afraid I really do want to get all judge-y about this pair of moral degenerates. The internet should be working overtime to link Newtie with "polyamory," so far as I am concerned. Not that there's anything wrong with that, if that's what you're into, maybe, but as a "conservative" "values voter" exemplar, Newt has more nerve than a canal horse: a string of mistresses and ex-wives to his discredit, and a chequered marital career to rival that of Henry VIII of England.
I hadn't realized that the mistress at the time of the "open marriage" suggestion was Callista, but that seems to be the case.
264: to clarify, both Callista Gingrich and Cindy McCain seem utterly inhuman to me. They look like they've just walked out of Madame Tussauds annex (conveniently located on the main drag above the falls on the Canadian side, just around the corner from a Tim Hortons featuring, yes, maple donuts) rather than middle-aged women. I've never taken note of either of their traps, though. I will next time I see them.
Dear me, that's some low-hanging fruit, isn't it? Traps as in trapezius muscles, not whatever horrible thing Teo is thinking.
whatever horrible thing Teo is thinking
????
If you're interested, you can see what I mean here at :30, 1:42, and 2:04. It's just weird. And with that, goodnight.
268: you can pretend you're pure of heart and mind, Teo. But we know better.
Can it be that no one else on the internet thought of "The Witch King of Bangor"? It seems so obvious.
270: Just for that, you have to go to the Aleutians. On a turbo-prop.
265: For real, that was Callista, who was more than willing to sacrifice wifey no. 2 at the altar of her own ambitions. Beware the helmet hair: it hides a multitude of sins.
(Yes, I psychologize, and speculate wildly, but all's fair in love and electoral primaries...).
The GOP: party of latter-day polygamists and present-day polyamorists. They not only love, they Big-Love their country, like true patriots.
OT: School is delayed by one hour for every inch of snow, apparently. In my day, they would have ordered crews to take snow from yards to make deeper piles in the street and then told the kids to get there 15 minutes early.
TPM points out this is old news -- Marianne Gingrich said back in 2010 that Newt had asked her to tolerate the affair with Callista. I suppose the news is using the term 'open marriage' rather than tolerating an affair, which makes it sound much trendier.
I suppose the news is using the term 'open marriage' rather than tolerating an affair, which makes it sound much trendier.
I wonder how many couples in open marriages actually consist of one person with an external partner and one person who is tolerating a "affair" but putting a brave face on it.
What I actually wonder is what is the matter with all these women who want to get up close and personal with Newt Gingrich.
I listen to the Dan Savage podcast as part of my diet of commuting amusement: that, and Unfogged comments, are all I know about modern sexual mores. But I do get the impression that that's not all that uncommon: either couples where they have some sort of relationship where there are explicit power dynamics making the 'one partner gets to cat around, the other partner remains faithful' thing affirmatively desirable, or couples where one partner wants to, and wouldn't mind if the other partner did, but the other partner either isn't interested in outside partners or can't find someone who wants them.
276: I had a friend who in his misspent youth was a Republican party activist. His description of the women who went into Republican party politics sounded exactly like evo psych description of women. He was in a particular activist group that was 10% women, and he said that all 10% were only interested in the group's leader. He also told me about how he asked a woman out on a date. She seemed very enthusiastic when she asked, but then spent the whole date talking about the Congressman she was sleeping with.
It's like that Bush admnistration staffer who came out with the tell-all book last year full of anecdotes like how she blew Ari Fleischer in a hotel room. I would be less embarrassed to tell people I blew hobos for money on elementary school parking lots.
Sure, but the line is so much longer.
278: The tyranny of Erotic Capitalism.
The best fictional law firm names are J.P. Donleavy's Bother, Writson, Horn, Pleader and Hoot and William Hjortsberg's Winesap, McIntosh and Spy. We've been over this, people.
My heart belongs to Dewey, Cheathem, and Howe.
At these billing rates I'm not surprised.
Tip your associates!
@281
I was always partial to Sloe & Bideawhile.
I think I'm just partial to Donleavy's Bother, Writson, Horn, Pleader & Hoot because their name comes up when the protagonist of The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B goes to ask the lady's father for her hand in marriage and the father's magnificently harrumphy comment is "Very good. I know Horn. I served with Hoot."
I must remain loyal to the actually-existing (in the 1920s) Sligo firm of Argue & Phibbs.
OT: I appreciate the iTunes/iPod combination as much as the next man, but I wish Steve Jobs had specified something like "Don't wake up Flippanter with Glenn Danzig's live version of 'Mother,' because that makes him feel like a guest at Beavis & Butt-Head's Early '90s Bed & Breakfast."
Also OT: I've been watching the LOTR movies the last couple of nights and wondered: Is it just me, or does all of that
"Now I shall go do something where my life is surely forfeit"
"And I shall accompany you"
"Nay, for there are some roads a man must walk alone"
"But we are friends, and honor demands that I accompany you"
"Nay, for the way is most dangerous"
"Danger matters not, for it is a quest that we are on"
[Et cetera, et cetera]
And then they ride off together.
It is particularly annoying when the argument that seals the deal is Orlando Bloom making his inscrutable elven face.
What about recommendations written for you? How many did you get to read, if any?
One. I didn't ask to see it and felt weird and awkward about receiving a copy. I read it really really fast and then got rid of it.
Being told 'write the letter yourself, I'll sign it' was really unpleasant. I finally begged his assistant to write it. She did, but I still had to help out.
286: Belfast had "Lawless & Lynch".
Whenever Flip mentions his Donleavy law firm, I am contractually obligated to mention Bottomless, Diddle, Blameworthy, and Dawn from The Onion Eaters.
288: Why do you hate truth and love and youth and beauty?
291: Ironically, Donleavy won the hell out of his lawsuit against Maurice Girodias and Olympia Press. You'd think he'd have kind feelings for his own representatives, at least.
When you've written a letter of recommendation for someone, did you typically let that person read it?
Yep. Although this is probably because if I can't honestly recommend someone, I don't write the letter.
I have wondered a few times whether the person who asked for the letter was able to tell what I was omitting, but I figure that since I'd tell the same information to their face if they asked, it doesn't really matter.
I did once have to draft a letter for someone else that was an attempt to signal as strongly as possible to the hiring committee that the person was woefully unqualified. The person got hired anyway and created havoc in the year before he got fired. I still can't believe he looked at the letter we wrote him and thought it was worth submitting to the hiring committee.
What about recommendations written for you? How many did you get to read, if any?
I'm pretty sure I've never had a recommendation written for me. Certainly I can't think of a situation where I would have needed one.
Being told 'write the letter yourself, I'll sign it' was really unpleasant.
Yeah, that's awkward. I often tell my interns, "Send me a list of 4-5 bullet points of tasks you did here" so I can remember to mention the skills they used/developed. But that's a memory jog for me, to make sure I don't forget some big project they worked on.
168
Santorum is trying to position himself as the John Edwards of the right wing.
At first I read that as referring to Romney rather than Santorum and thought that would actually help him - humanize him a bit, and give him a pecadillo that doesn't feed into the Gordon Gekko narrative he's otherwise stuck with.
208
Rick Perry drops out? On the day that Newt's polyamorism will become public? And Perry endorses Newt anyway?
I assume the decision to endorse Gingrich was made before Gingrich's ex-wife's interview, and the endorsement speech was just edited slightly to account for current events. Characteristically dumb of Perry, but not an active endorsement of Gingrich's baggage. I'm a bit sad to see him gone. It was entertaining. He was like a real-life version of what Bush pretended to be.
Newt Gingrich, when he was a little girl, hawking grape juice.
296 is me. Switched browsers on work computer.
But over the past twenty years the French have adopted it with a vengeance, and they're if anything even worse than the American versions.
This is true. French Americanisation is very real and ugly as fuck, and deeply denied. Obviously, the centre of somewhere like Paris or Montpellier is preserved with fanatical and astronomically expensive care, but every little burg has its Zone Industrielle/Artisanale/Commercielle (pick one) just off the highway on the edge of town (and there is always an enormous highway, as this is France and civil engineers are secular gods) or by the TGV park-and-ride stop that always seems to contain a gang of super-huge chain hypermarkets and motels and eating places that officially aren't evil fast food because the parent company is Sodexho or Accor, sucking the blood out of the town.
Someone should write a book, a sort of anti-Red Guide, on Eating Badly in France. General McChrystal, ISTR, could write the introduction as he managed to do so in central Paris, on expenses, which is a project for advanced players.
Meanwhile, 116 is funny.
I'm a bit sad to see him gone. It was entertaining. He was like a real-life version of what Bush pretended to be.
I'm glad to see him crash and burn out, but I'll be sad to see Newt and Santorum concede the nomination.
Someone should write a book, a sort of anti-Red Guide, on Eating Badly in France. General McChrystal, ISTR, could write the introduction as he managed to do so in central Paris, on expenses, which is a project for advanced players.
I don't understand all the chili innuendo at all. Or maybe I do now, but it was awfully confusing.
274: I was a bit surprised myself (although we did get 3" here), but I suspect that the 6° temps had a bit to do with it.
What about recommendations written for you? How many did you get to read, if any?
One, accidentally, and it was shocking because it was a total pack of lies about my amazing and selfless community service. I assume the same material was recycled for all of this instructor's recommendations.
156: actually I rather love the parallax view.
289: One of my current bosses did that when I was applying to a grad program. He said that he'd sign whatever I wrote.
Of course to me this was not a promise, but a challenge.
I did manage to include some praise so superlative and excessive that he insisted on slightly toning down one sentence. I WON!
