I found it fairly short, or are there more than the quoted three paragraphs?
I'm guessing this is about The Iron Sheik. Who could have guessed the two elderly celebrities who would most effectively brand themselves using social media would be George Takei and The Iron Sheik?
Whoops. Link added. Let me know if the link disappears.
"blog" is also a noun, but it's still not the right noun for the individual posts.
My first reaction was "No fucking way" which was partly prejudice. Then I thought it thru, and I wouldn't get between brothers battling for a kingdom, billionaires with diplomatic immunity, if it was Asian, African, South American...maybe paranoia, but it just didn't seem worth it. Fitzgerald taught me that the rich are different, as in evil. Hell, I wouldn't get in the middle of a fight between NBA players or tv actors.
Then I followed some links and the RAK is a struggling commercial venture in hell, so couldn't afford bad publicity. All just business, and if the checks were big enough...nah, I still remember Dogs of War. Fuck it. Easy money can bite ya, and stay away from the rich fucks.
This cat is gonna eat some polonium for his indiscretion.
Terrible, self-obsessed article, far too brief - why on earth not name the guy? As Sifu no doubt found, "UAE royal who was ousted by his half-brother" isn't a description that could fit a whole lot of people. (Reminds me of talking to a defence contractor a few years ago: "We've got one national government interested. We can't say who it is, but it's a predominantly Jewish country in the Middle East".)
This is actually very similar to the plot of Syriana.
The blog/post distinction is an important one. I hope you can educate the public.
Didn't HuffPo render that distinction indefensible? i mean, we all know it, but it's circling the drain.
We will die on the barricades to defend subtleties of usage with our beloved shitty neologisms!
Anyhow I like that he uses "blog" instead of "blog post" because it makes him sound like a fucking nimrod.
defend subtleties of usage with our beloved shitty neologisms!
I heard that some people actually use "shart" to mean farting while shitting instead of shitting while farting!
What no it's neither don't make me sacrifice myself.
15: One theory on how "nimrod" became an insult: Sense 2, probably from the phrase "poor little Nimrod," used by the cartoon character Bugs Bunny to mock the hapless hunter Elmer Fudd.
18: yes, I read that wikipedia page recently, because I love to call people "nimrod" and it's confusing, if you think about it.
19: It does sound more toolish than awesome in English (nitwit, nimrod, numbnuts).
I'm a little surprised how grating I found the blog/post confusion.
20: I've come to grips with it as essentially ironic.
This is one of those stories annoying to non-kid people, but Mara has gone from arbitrarily yelling "Stingray!" pretty quickly to "Muskrat!" over the summer, which we didn't complain about at all because no one would, but then she's swapped that for showing up in our bedroom every morning to yell "Nutcrack!" and that seems inappropriate in ways I'm not sure I can define for her. Maybe I can make it part of the story about why she really needs to stat in her bed all night? Or maybe I can just teach her "nimrod" and see if that runs its course.
Why do people assume that those with children don't get annoyed as much?
Text, I do get that you write something passive-aggresive in response to me whenever you get the chance, presumably because I thought your book sucked. If I finally acknowledge that, will you leave me the fuck alone? I think you were offering those kind of terms last time.
I never pay that much attention to you, to be honest, but I'm sorry you didn't like my book. I'm not often accused of being passive aggressive.
OT: I don't know if the Lasdun book has come up yet here, but -- I had no idea there were so few legal remedies available. This may not be the best time to bring it up and maximize discussion, but.
Is anyone watching the All Star game? I can't be bothered as I have no interest in soft basketball with no defense.
The only terms I was offering with regard to my book was that I'd reimburse anyone's dollar in exchange for an amazon review. That offer still stands.
I don't understand how anyone could be annoyed by a story that involves someone yelling "nutcrack" in your bedroom first thing in the morning.
You might be able to dissuade Mara from yelling "nutcrack," but I'm going to start yelling it, so the total amount of nutcrack in the world will at worst remain constant.
"Doctor Living Stones, I presume."
25: He writes mysterious passive-aggressive things in response to everyone now and then. Don't take it seriously.
33: That would have been more appropriate from Stanley.
I just it point out when people write stupid things, sorry. I mean no personal offense. It's like a facial tick, but in blog form. I think Crypnic ned is a wonderful human being.
I totally didn't write "it point." Someone's pulling a funny on me.
The guy's a prostitute with no knowledge of his subject or awareness that ignorance is a problem.
Wait, ignorance is a problem? I'll bet knowledge is the solution!
Why are you being mean to me today, ned?
Every time Mara says "Nutcrack!" someone else should yell "Er!"
Yelling "Stingray!" every morning seems like a very useful service for parents of small children, because it serves as a valuable reminder that anything can happen in the next half hour.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E06cNv55jTs
The guy's a prostitute with no knowledge of his subject or awareness that ignorance is a problem.
this is at least way less sad than the...christ, I was about to say chestnut, but fuck that, "evergreen stingray" of a story that cosmopolitan publishes every 3.5 years about an LA high-end, natural blonde prostitute who signs up for a tour of duty in some windswept, asslick of nowhere harem in saudi, maybe 30K--not nothing, but, where's the assurance you won't end up as a lampshade? the agency has him as a repeat customer blah whatever, anyway they can just purchase small children from afghanistan for lampshades never pull that kind of shit anyway, that's some bullshit from a book you read, seriously, let's put that aside so we can go on with life. so, 60 or 90 days, 95% of the time either packing on the pounds or getting in killer shape at the princeling's lavishly appointed tables or gym, respectively, and 5% of the time giving up the anal for aforesaid princeling and his guests, who are all about the natural blondes, and the anal. hand over heart, every 3.5 years. maybe they get 50K now but I sort of don't even think so.
50: Doesn't Nicola Six tell Keith Talent a tale like that in London Fields?
Man, I could not get through that fucking book. My brother gave it to me IIRC and I really, really tried since I appreciated the gesture.
I don't know if it's still the case, but for quite a while US Cosmopolitan was much raunchier than the UK version and the Aussie version was even more so.
that is why for quite a long time prostitution was legal here in narnia, while cosmopolitan magazine was not. they let it in now, but with a big, satisfying sticker that says "UNSUITABLE FOR THE YOUNG."
Excellent idea. All magazines should have such stickers. Nature? UNSUITABLE FOR THE STUPID. Just Seventeen? UNSUITABLE FOR THE ADULT. Fortune? UNSUITABLE FOR THE POOR. GQ? UNSUITABLE FOR THE STRAIGHT.
al leaves unspecified what sort of big, satisfying stickers are attached to the Narnian hookers.
56: GQ? UNSUITABLE FOR THE STRAIGHT.
UNSUITABLE FOR THE UNSUITABLE.
To the OP: The story reminded me of the episode of A Visit of the Goon Squad where the woman becomes an image consultant to an African(?) dictator.
The guy's a prostitute with no knowledge of his subject or awareness that ignorance is a problem.
Sure. The circumstances were a bit odd, but in essence he was functioning no differently than any PR/marketing flack anywhere ever.
59. But he's written about the fascinating gig as if he were a journalist-- he used to be one. He fantasizes about influencing events in a place he's never seen, under his real name. He apparently does not undestand that there could be a distinction between paid hype and responsible reporting.
London Fields is a fucking stupid book, and the fact that it made Martin Amis a celebrated author proves that the human race doesn't deserve to survive. Many people were surprised after 9/11 that Amis turned out to be an idiot. What did you expect? He was the author of London Fields.
Many people were surprised after 9/11 that Amis turned out to be an idiot.
I blame the parents, myself.
re: 61
Yes! I gave up on London Fields even though an ex g/friend was a big fan, and always thought Amis was a prick.
59, 60: And he's a lousy prostitute. I would think that a large part of what you're taking the money for in a gig like that is preserving the illusion that the ostensible writer actually wrote whatever it is. As soon as the money stops coming in, he renegs? I wouldn't hire him for anything where I had to trust him at all.
Oh, and the one piece of the story which is most interesting for an American audience, which is the identity and institutional affiliation of the US handlers who are apparently hoping to install another puppet on the shore of the Persian gulf, this piece he very carefully protects.
This crap gets circulated, while writing about Bahrain doesn't. A quashed democracy movement and the US naval base don't get mentioned together, why would anyone care about that. Grr.
65
Oh, and the one piece of the story which is most interesting for an American audience, which is the identity and institutional affiliation of the US handlers who are apparently hoping to install another puppet on the shore of the Persian gulf, this piece he very carefully protects.
Well according to wikipedia:
Separate media reports attribute his removal from office to other factors, mainly that Sheikh Khalid was considered to be at odds with the political leadership of the UAE. Khalid's vocal hostility to the US intervention to depose Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath regime became a liability for the UAE. In 2003, he led a protest march of several hundred people through Ras-Al Khaimah that culminated with Khalid himself burning the American flag and allowed the local radio station to broadcast a consistently anti-US line.[13] This occurred at a time when the federal government guided by Sheikh Zayed in Abu Dhabi was strengthening cooperation with the US
so I am not sure why the US would want him back.
58 is great.
Oh, and if you'd rather have a full-length memoir than a mere Cosmo article about the "I was a UMC white girl in a harem!" thing, here you go. (Southeast Asia rather than the middle-east, though.)
