It is everywhere. It's also the new drugs. If, that is, you're old.
I have to go to bed, but this:
As far back as Aristotle, observers have made the same point reiterated in 1749 in Henry Fielding's famous scene in Tom Jones: The desires for sex and for food are joined at the root. The fact that Fielding's scene would go on to inspire an equally iconic movie segment over 200 years later, in the Tom Jones film from 1963, just clinches the point.
is stupid. The movie contains a scene of Tom and Mrs. Waters eating and trying to turn each other on. There is no such scene in the book, but there is a little satirical philosophical treatise comparing lust with hunger in VI.1.:
Secondly, That what is commonly called Love, namely, the Desire of satisfying a voracious Appetite with a certain Quantity of delicate white human Flesh, is by no Means that Passion for which I here contend. This is indeed more properly Hunger; and as no Glutton is ashamed to apply the Word Love to his Appetite, and to say he LOVES such and such Dishes; so may the Lover of this Kind, with equal Propriety say, he HUNGERS after such and such Women.
a certain Quantity of delicate white human Flesh
The other other white meat.
Man, I'm being patient with the Hoover Inst. article, but it's one fucking didactic piece of writing.
No, it's an eating didactic piece of writing.
Thanks, I'll be here all week. Try the fellatio. Tip your waitress.
Lost my patience toward the end of the broccoli/pornography/Kant section. Sounds like a very Jonah Goldbergish sort of scholarship. Reminder to self: when you read "Still and all, the initial point stands," read no further.
I just got back from havingdinner with three good-looking women, so I'm pleased to find myself doing spectacularly well in this new cultural era.
Jesus christ, what a horrendous piece of prose that is. You can hear practically hear that pontificating windbag's drone through your computer screen.
I've thought for a while that food taboos serve some of the purpose of religious ritual for our secular middle class. But food and sex are different, because sex is hotter and sexier and gets you off harder. But people lose the energy for constant hot sex as they age, and a good meal and a really nice bottle of wine start looking better and better. It's sad, but true. Also, sex games that involve food are stupid and immature and a distraction.
There, I said my bit on food and sex, in one one-hundredth the space!
In other news, I paid my biannual visit to Megan McArdle's horror show of a blog. GOOD LORD, that woman is the worst economics writer on earth. It's like she's trying to suck.
Is sex, itself, sexy? A question for the ages, or perhaps for someone brusque.
7: Well, you're quite the latter-day Lothario, aren't you? havingdinner = having dinner, I'm going to presume, though at the risk of sounding presumptuous.
Food. Sex. Death. Etc., and whatever. It's news to the think-tankers at the Hoover Institute that animals (of which we are an instance and an example) have appetites?
Jesus christ, what a horrendous piece of prose that is.
When I saw the article linked to somewhere else awhile back, I couldn't make it through the first paragraph and gave up, despite the interesting conceit. This leaves me unsure of whether or not I agree with the article, since I can't make it in far enough to evaluate the argument. Food taboos are nothing new; eating has never been an innocent act (thanks, Eve!) - does the author address such things?
But food and sex are different, because sex is hotter and sexier and gets you off harder.
Especially since you don't engage in it as often as you eat.
If food be the food of love, give me conceit of it.
since I can't make it in far enough to evaluate the argument
Way toward the end, we get this:
Married, monogamous people are more likely to be happy. ... This recital touches only the periphery of the empirical record now being assembled about the costs of laissez-faire sex to American society
18: Lovely. More of the "uncontrolled sex leads to disaster" arguments! That one has to be as old as time.
At times like these I'm reminded of Anscombe's article about biological function and junk food, "You Can Have Food without Nutriment".
In the spirit of giving Eberstadt the benefit of the doubt, I'm trying to imagine how the Categorical Imperative might figure into the egg yolk scene from Tampopo. Would it be okay if everyone did that?
The final footnote gives the last word to Hitler.
Married, monogamous people are more likely to be happy.
Oh, what self-serving (and tending toward self-confirming) nonsense.
But I have it on very good authority (the NYTimes Style section) that gray is the new new black. There's a shade and tone to flatter every complexion, and that's what matters, of course.
Married, monogamous people are more likely to be happy.
Well, if they were unhappy they'd have an affair.
Unless they just decided to eat a lot instead.
Is poultry the new adultery? Is husbandry the new--oh, never mind.
So this is the fucking (sorry) conclusion?
In the end, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the rules being drawn around food receive some force from the fact that people are uncomfortable with how far the sexual revolution has gone -- and not knowing what to do about it, they turn for increasing consolation to mining morality out of what they eat.
So, so lame.
The Absolute is not a night in which all cows are food, but rather, one in which all sex is Bourbaki.
Is poultry the new adultery?
Cuckoldry is hardly new, eb.
It's news to the think-tankers at the Hoover Institute
One of the guys there -- let's call him Trevor -- was known in his discipline as "Room Temperature Trevor". Not the brightest chap, but reliably conservative.
This is the most pompous thing I have ever read, and that includes a lot of Leon Wieseltier bloviations about bioethics. Holy crap. What person born more recently than 1900 would take this seriously?
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Hey, remember that time when I was like "Huh, it looks like crossing the Sierra Nevada might be a problem with a winter road trip to California" and everyone here was like "Nah, it'll be fine"?
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So ... people get paid for 'thinking' like this, eh?
28: Funny, but don't stop there!
Far-fetched though it seems at the moment, where mindless food is today, mindless sex -- in light of the growing empirical record of its own unleashing -- may yet again be tomorrow.I've got your growing empirical record of its own unleashing right here.
33: I don't know what advice you were given, but the only road you can reasonably expect to take at this time of year is 80. I don't know what 50 does, but all the others are usually closed until May or June.
33: Good thing you still have Internet access. You can look up "Donner Party" on Wikipedia, unlike the Donner Party itself.
37: The Tehachapi route is also fairly reliable.
38: The Donner Party took crowdsourcing to a new level, though.
36: Reno. I tried 80, figuring it would be the most likely to be passable, but no luck.
'Laissez faire sex'? What does that mean, and what does it say that conservatives are misusing the term as a pejorative epithet? Are they trying to get in with the pro-regulatory spirit of the times? Not that sex wasn't regulated. Back in college a group of us joked about going to the police department and turning ourselves in for the felony crimes of digital penetration and oral sodomy.
teo where are you crossing into California, anyhow? Some of us here are in California, you know. Your pictures indicate you might be farther south than we had anticipated.
41: There's not much to do but wait, I don't think. How bad can it be, being in the biggest little city in the world?
41: Yep - big storm this week. But you should just need chains, right?
Ah. My question, she is answered.
Teo didn't 4' of snow fall in the Sierras in the last 24 hours? Give it a day or so any they'll have it cleared.
From Teo's blog:
When I left Manazanar, I headed north to the town of Independence. I stopped there and looked at the Eastern California Museum.
My college roommate used to work there every summer! It's a fun little museum. I like the large collection of rusting stuff out in the yard.
Independence is a neat town. So teo did you do the whole 395? Super rad.
Independence is neat until you live there (but better than Lone Pine). At least, that's the take away I got, at least.
Um, strike one of those "at least's." I knew something looked funny.
Just keep heading towards Goose Lake. You're bound to find a pass somewhere, and the Columbia River is gorgeous.
eb, that's one of my favorite places ever!!! Late spring, oh my god is it beautiful.
(Please excuse the fan girl excitement).
How bad can it be, being in the biggest little city in the world?
Not too bad. There's good Korean food.
But you should just need chains, right?
Probably, but I don't have chains, nor do I know the first thing about them.
Teo didn't 4' of snow fall in the Sierras in the last 24 hours?
Something like that. I'm becoming increasingly unnerved by the amount of snow the Sierras get. "Nevada" indeed.
So teo did you do the whole 395?
As much as I could. I had to detour into Nevada for a while around Mono Lake.
Just keep heading towards Goose Lake.
I'm beginning to seriously consider this.
Having done the trip, or traverse, I think teo is trying to do, but in the reverse direction, driving around helplessly backtracking to find a pass is probably not as good as just sitting it out. Reno for a day, what could go wrong?
Probably, but I don't have chains, nor do I know the first thing about them.
Take this advice for what it is, but you can purchase chains on one side of the mountain and return them on the other if you don't use them. If you don't know how to put them on, there are generally people that will help, and I've figured them out from the directions, so I bet you could do (I'm spectacularly bad at that sort of thing). Also, if you wait until morning I suspect all will be better - the storm is over, after all, no?
Not the brightest chap, but reliably conservative.
A reliable epitaph for the bulk of the movement conservative movement, I guess. Not that I mean to lump them all together like so many dessicated plums in a tin of prunes, naturally enough.
Oh wait. This "Trevor" of whom you speak?...he didn't have anything to do with the so-called "Hitler diaries," did he? Lord Dacre...Lord Black...well, lately, I just don't know who or what to believe, I'm just all in a muddle, I suppose, and not a little bit confused...
Given that aimless wandering is one of the main purposes of this trip, backtracking to find a pass isn't necessarily a problem. Reno's okay, but I'm not all that impressed with it, and I'd rather see some other stuff if possible.
Also, if you wait until morning I suspect all will be better - the storm is over, after all, no?
Is it? It seems to have been going on for at least two days now. Or maybe these are different storms, one after the other.
If you want to backtrack, you could go over 58. But that seems like a strange backtrack, as it is directly backwards. I can't imagine it gets a whole lot better to the north.
59: As long as you have a place to sleep. I did a similar trip in a vehicle I could sleep in.
Tomorrow, Truckee has only a very slight chance of snow showers (20%). As far as I can tell, the storm is done.
If you want to backtrack, you could go over 58. But that seems like a strange backtrack, as it is directly backwards.
Yeah, I'd like to avoid that particular route if at all possible.
I'm thinking I'll just check the weather in the morning and decide what to do then.
59: go see Pyramid Lake and Black Rock! Awesome hot springs.
And really, a day after the snow stops, 80 should be clear. If you have chains.
67: Yeah. Really Sifu, biscuit conditional, or is "clear" a euphemism for passable here?
It was not a biscuit conditional. It was not a euphemism, either. "Clear" is a perfectly good synonym for "passable", in this case.
68: I suspect what he means is that 80 will probably be passable with normal tires but that you are often required to take chains with you over the pass right after storms.
69, gotcha. We should ask teo how good his tires are.
See. 70; it really doesn't matter, as chains are required by California law unless you have both snow tires and AWD.
I stand by 67. Teo, you should carry chains in case of equivocation.
I dropped an extra period in there, I did.
as chains are required by California law
I did not know that. I keep them as a matter of basic safety, but yeah.
Tomorrow, Truckee has only a very slight chance of snow showers (20%).
How oddly thrilling to learn that there's actually a place that goes by the name of Truckee, when I only know the name from watching reruns of Bonanza! In the particular episode that I have in mind, Michael Landon goes a bit heavy on the Maybelline mascara. Tears are shed, but Little Joe's eye makeup rings true (manly-like, like a Sunday-night TV cowboy) and does not run, or even streak.
(But serious snow in a mountainous region is seriously no joke, so Teo: be careful!).
Seriously, guys, teo says he doesn't have chains. Teo, if you're there, you driving something with AWD and snow tires, dude?
This is not explanatory of you at all, Sifu. If teo's driving a regular car, 80 will probably not be passable? Don't be difficult.
78: Just buy chains - they're not very expensive and you can get them pretty much everywhere along 80. And like I said, if you don't use them, you can often return them.
80 will be passable if he has chains, yes. He can buy chains anywhere.
Seriously, Parenthetical has this down.
I'm driving an SUV with 4WD and regular tires. I don't have chains, but apparently they're readily obtainable in the area.
Truckee seems to be mostly a playground for rich people, and secondarily a base camp for skiers. Everything's super-expensive, which is why I went back to Reno rather than stay there tonight. There's also a shitload of snow in Truckee right now. Reno's dry as a bone.
After reading 82, I'm willing to place a small bet that Teo will be able to cross easily tomorrow.
Everything seems to be cheap in Reno.
Don't accidentally get married there in Reno
85: Including life, if Johnny Cash is to be believed.
82: Okay! I retire satisfied as to your welfare.
Ah, a Donner Pass discussion. Let me agree with Sifu et alia and provide relatively little new information. Yes, there are chains all over the place in that area. I believe we've paid $30 or so when buying them on short notice. They aren't that bad to put on, and there are even sometimes people at the start of the chain control zones who will (illegally, IIRC) charge you $20 to put the chains on for you.
Yes, it should be passable tomorrow, especially if it doesn't snow again. We even made this pass once during a snow storm in my friend's teeny Honda Insight. Just use the standard winter driving principle of doing everything slowly until you're absolutely sure the road isn't slippery.
8: It's like she's trying to suck.
The term in the UK blogosphere is "Worstallism" - the creeping sensation that you are reading someone who gets absolutely everything wrong, even more or less innocuous details that it would seem were easier to get right.
Also, I take it you know about the Caltrans website and phone number? If not, here you go. Search for 80 in the Check Current Conditions box, and get output like this:
[IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA & THE SIERRA NEVADA]
EASTBOUND TRUCKS ARE BEING SCREENED AT APPLEGATE (PLACER CO) - DRIVERS MUST HAVE MAXIMUM CHAINS IN THEIR POSSESSION IN ORDER TO PROCEED - PERMIT LOADS ARE PROHIBITED
(IOW, it's open now) The same info is at 1-800-427-7623. Know before you go!
re: 91
Yes. Our beloved current Home Secretary seems to exhibit the same trait.
As dsquared is too modest to do it, I will refer to his explanation of why Americans are acting rationally by being fat, which I believe is relevant to the original topic:
http://d-squareddigest.blogspot.com/2002/10/why-are-americans-so-fat-fairly.html
"Time, as the newspapers tell us, is a scarce resource.
But, it's a scarce resource which is in fixed supply. Although the onward rush of technology has made us unimaginably richer in material terms over the last hundred years, we are still only supplied with twenty-four hours in a day, only about eight of which we can really count as being available for use in leisure activities...
Now, let's look at the substitutes for eating... Straight off, we notice that most of them are highly demanding in time, and that the input of time is more or less invariant in order to get a unit of pleasure out of them... it takes us exactly as long to listen to a symphony as it took Emperor Franz Joseph, and there's nothing at all that technology can do to help us with that. Our acts of sexual intercourse take as long as they did for Napoleon (I have no figures on this), it takes as long to have a conversation as it took Doctor Johnson, and the last improvement in our ability to read books (Dr Bruno Furst's Speed-Reading System) was about fifty years ago.
But ... one area where things have improved mightily over the last hundred years is our ability to eat food..."
Also, Truckee is not just a town in California, but also a Baluch stronghold in Sind (also spelled Traki) captured by General Charles Napier in 1845 or so.
The whole chain thing in California really surprised me. My Canadian beau has snow tires, but almosy nobody else here does. He also prefers to wait out snowy weather. I think that a lot of people in Vermont have AWD,but I don't remember people talking about chains,whereas people going to Tahoe always have to worry about chains and whether they'll be stopped for not having them. Is this because East Coasters salt more?
s/b almost
Also this line from the article struck me as particularly stupid:
Increasing scrutiny over the decades to the quality of what goes into people's mouths has been accompanied by something almost wholly new under the sun: the rise of universalizable moral codes based on food choices.
Eventually she addresses Hinduism and the like. I suppose it's fair to say that Kosher dietary restrictions weren't universalized. They only mattered if you were a Jew.
I thought I couldn't get through the article last night just because I was stressed and tired and any writer would be on bad terms with me for mis-citing Tom Jones, but holy fuck, there isn't a good sentence in that whole thing. It reads exactly like a paper reluctantly shit out by one of my freshmen. "Food and sex. You wouldn't think they're connected, but they are. In today's society, for the first time ever, food and sex are truly the same. Throughout history, food and sex have been linked, since even a hundred years or so ago. But now it's even more like that. I saw a movie once in which there was food and sex. But people look down on people who eat too much or who have sex too much. It used to be different because there used to be not as much food and also people only had sex if they were married to each other, unlike in today's society."
I can't imagine how much it hurt to write and publish an article that bad. All kidding aside, I feel bad for her.
36: Reno. I tried 80, figuring it would be the most likely to be passable, but no luck.
If Teo get really bored, he can shoot a man and watch him die. In Reno he'll probably just get a ticket.
My disdain for California was increased one wintry day on Donner Pass when the fellow from the HP wouldn't understand that a Beetle with Michelin radials will outperform any Detroit yacht with chains. And didn't I tell you that I drive on snow every day from November to March??
Bought chains, which I took off a mile up the road.
Wimps. Authoritarian wimps.
Not impressed by the article. It seems to draw contrasts at the expense of clarity: "clean your plate in a time of plenty because food used to be scarce" is as infused with morality as "eat only the meat that was raised humanely." "The children in China would be happy to eat it" is not a claim about matters of taste.
When I read articles like this one, I want to sick LB on them. If only we could sneak LB into a job as an editor of crazy right-wing publications.
If Teo get really bored, he can shoot a man and watch him die. In Reno he'll probably just get a ticket.
That's... not exactly what happens in the song. However, it would at least ensure that Teo gets to California.
At Commentary,Wilfred McClay described the reminiscences of the conservative writers which Eberstadt published as Why I Turned Right, as "uniformly winsome." I'm picturing the likes of David Brooks, Rich Lowry, Dinesh D'Souza, and Heather MacDonald all gathering flowers in sunny Kate Greenaway gardens.
Dudes, George Will blogged this weeks ago. The nickel version wasn't much pleasanter.
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M/tch was on NPR this morning!
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Was he the guy explaining that Keynesian economics was debunked in the early 80s?
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Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque
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Hey, Teo, my nicest aunt and uncle live in Reno. If you get stuck there any longer, you should crash at their place. He's into history; she's into genealogy; they're both totally awesome.
Geez, that article is almost too dumb to even disagree with.
I forgot. Is M/tch Juan Williams or Mara?
Seriously, the writer is suggesting that social control over food is new? That Betty's diet in the 1950s was the result of a free, unfettered choice over all the possible things in the world to eat?
95
I think that a lot of people in Vermont have AWD,but I don't remember people talking about chains,whereas people going to Tahoe always have to worry about chains and whether they'll be stopped for not having them. Is this because East Coasters salt more?
No, it's because we're more stoic and self-reliant.
More seriously, I can't imagine that there are laws requiring chains, but I've seen them used, at least on dirt roads. I think my family had a set or two but only used them in the worst of the worst conditions. Like, snow tires and driving more cautiously are considered enough for a normal road in the season with snow on the ground or during light snowfall. For a rough or really steep road, or heavy snowfall, you'd use AWD too. Chains wouldn't be worth the trouble of putting them on unless it's a rough and really steep road and heavy snowfall.
Food is the new sex. Sex is the new heroin. Heroin is the new marijuana. Marijuana is the new mythology. Mythology is the new religion. Religion is the new class. Class is the new politics. Politics is the new racism. Racism is the new homophobia. Homophobia is the new feminism. Feminism is the new food.
I hope that's made things less clear for everybody.
AWD is the new chains. M/tch is the new Juan Williams.
95, 114:
I-80 is steep, and a Sierra snowstorm puts the Nor'easters I've seen to shame. We use chains because of our objec tively badass geography.
I have the vague belief that chains are illegal in NY -- don't they chew up the road surface? It might be a density issue -- on heavily trafficked roads, the damage to the roads outweighs any safety gains?
2: Thanks for that, AWB!
I just read Tom Jones.and have never seen the movie, so that really confused me. It's nice to have an expert confirm that I didn't miss anything.
107: First or second hour? I can still catch the second.
on heavily trafficked roads, the damage to the roads outweighs any safety gains?
My guess is that 117 has most of it. I drive on snow and ice all the time mostly in rear wheel drive and it isn't that bad, but it is very flat here.
That Betty's diet in the 1950s was the result of a free, unfettered choice over all the possible things in the world to eat?
I know I would be eating nothing but Jell-O molds if I didn't fear the disapproving gaze of society.
120: Unfortunately, just a local plug. He talks about growing gardens and volunteering.
HOoray! I don't have to listen to NPR!
Wrongshore, you never had to listen to NPR. The compulsion you felt was of your own creation.
He talks about growing gardens and volunteering.
And, yet, he withholds his advice from me about farmer's markets and gardens.
On California and chains: CharleyCarp is indeed correct that Californians are wusses, but Lambent Cactus is indeed correct that the Sierras are much steeper than anything you'll find on the East Coast, or even in the Rockies, most of the time. Also, they really do get an insane amount of snow. 4' in 24 is a lot.
This looks like something the Mineshaft could make an important contribution towards. Maybe even worthy of an orange post title?
Oh wait, I hadn't read any of the thread yet. Please don't let 128 distract you from what's really important.
(And sorry will, I can't find your original e-mail)
I think it's a good rule of thumb that when an author starts giving names to the hypothetical people they are discussing the piece is shit.
That thing was horrible and stupid and horrible.
I feel like the ToS misunderstood what I was trying to say.
you don't know fuck about linguistics or philosophastry.
An entire new world of baked goods beckons!
then you don't know the cordillera from yr mama's snatch
Cunnilinguistics.
or mormon prostitutes.
They only accept canned wheat.
max
['AND they're all married.']
An entire new world of baked goods beckons!
Pastry is the traditional tribute demanded around here, you know.
When Molly and I bicycled attempted to bicycle across the country, we were advised that the mountain roads in east of the Mississippi were much steeper, even though the mountains themselves are not as steep, because the roads were built back when there were laxer standards about gradient.
As it is, we pooped out in chicago
134: Were you travelling east or west?
The Sierras are 14,000 feet high and get 30 feet of snow a year. Even the passes are only accessible by roads that are extraordinarily steep. I've had plenty of experience with winter both on the east coast and in the Rockies, and while they both get lots of snow, there's nothing comparable to this.
But the CalTrans website says there are no restrictions on 80 right now, so I'm good to go!
But the CalTrans website says there are no restrictions on 80 right now, so I'm good to go!
Hmm, too bad no one took my bet. And really, I've driven over Donner many times; it's not bad unless it is actively snowing, so Teo should be great!
See you soon, Teo!
because the roads were built back when there were laxer standards about gradient
When Anand biked across the country, he noticed that east coast roads just went straight up to the top, no winding or switchbacks. He mentioned pedaling up the steep slopes, mentally begging the long-gone road builders to "yield, dammit."
Matt, we were going East. We started in Seattle, sorta. The first five days was a sort of camping/ferry trip from Seattle west across the peninsula to the Pacific and back. Rob wanted to start on an actual coast, and in retrospect it was probably a good idea to get in a few relatively flat days before we started going striaght up.
115: Religion is the new class.
Blurb on the changeably lettered sign outside the church a few blocks away from here: "Government is not your saviour. Jesus is."
Sign on other church a few blocks away in the other direction: "He said, "Repent, and you shall be free.""
I hate these church signs.
Jesus saves. Moses invests. Onan spends.
Jesus saves! Goal denied.
Satan is visibly upset, and cries, "I have nothing. I lost it all when the power went out."
God smiled all-knowingly, "Jesus saves."
140: If you were to find yourself with idle hands and a spare moment of an evening, you could change the first one to "Jesus is a riot. Give us runny snot or move."
I found Jesus. Now it's my turn to hide.
Sadly, there has been no rush of Unfogged volunteers signing up on our website yet. I've got to work on my radio technique.
140: The second one could read, "He said, flee eternal horny pubes ad." Most people would find it charmingly absurdist, I think.
The second one could read,
He said, "Runny peehole, bad eels fart."
145, 146: The alternatives for the second one aren't so great, since that church is unfortunately across the street from an elementary school.
The option for the first one, at 142, is quite appealing, and attracts me, however! I could even walk down to do the deed (sneaky).
Teo, what the fuck are you doing trying to cross the Sierras in NorCal? Only reason to be anywhere near Tahoe right now is to go skiing. Go south, cross through Death Valley, then take 190 into CA. Spectacular topography, beautiful, spring-like weather and if you're lucky the desert flowers will even be blooming. Then go to the lower foothills of Kings Canyon/Sequoia, which will be in full springtime beauty right now.
The term in the UK blogosphere is "Worstallism" - the creeping sensation that you are reading someone who gets absolutely everything wrong,
When I dropped by this time, McMegan was saying something like "one year ago, everyone in the world loved capitalism and so did I, so back then I naturally agreed with all economists that risk didn't really exist, but now we can see that risk really does exist, which is going to change things I suppose".
One year ago was about the time Bear Stearns went under. Five months ago, after Lehmann, McMegan was still telling us that lack of regulation was OK because "the unregulated hedge funds aren't having problems, but the regulated banks are all going under". (David Brooks actually picked that line up briefly). That is a statement of such mindboggling ignorance and stupidity as to disqualify anyone who utters it from ever opining on the issue again.
145, 146: The alternatives for the second one aren't so great, since that church is unfortunately across the street from an elementary school.
Even better. Change it to "He said, 'pee, fart'" and leave the rest of the letters on the ground. The kids would never forget it.
In a just world I would be the one to respond to McMegan. I know more or less as much econ as she does, I'm more likely to guess right, and I'm more willing to tell people about the hard choices they're going to have to make, for example in the area of [Sifu stop reading] impaling parasitical and destructive malefactors of great wealth.
In a just world I would be the one to respond to McMegan. I know more or less as much econ as she does, I'm more likely to guess right, and I'm more willing to tell people about the hard choices they're going to have to make, for example in the area of [Sifu stop reading] impaling parasitical and destructive malefactors of great wealth.
149: Even better. Change it to "He said, 'pee, fart'" and leave the rest of the letters on the ground. The kids would never forget it.
Can't do it. That church is some kind of multi-building complex with a daycare center around the back as well. At least their billboard messages are plain scriptural instead of this "Government won't save you" crap.
What's weird is that the first church's messages used to be generally non-offensive and dismissable, but have changed recently. Um, don't they know how cheap they look? Have some pride, people.
148: When I dropped by this time, McMegan was saying something like "one year ago, everyone in the world loved capitalism and so did I, so back then I naturally agreed with all economists that risk didn't really exist, but now we can see that risk really does exist, which is going to change things I suppose".
I realize this deep thought on her part is terribly provocative, but it won't get me to read her.
Blurb on the changeably lettered sign outside the church a few blocks away from here: "Government is not your saviour. Jesus is."
From what is Jesus saving me, anyway?
You could change this one to: "O joyous semen rivers grant us no visit".
At least their billboard messages are plain scriptural instead of this "Government won't save you" crap.
I'm trying to figure out the high school "friends" whose Facebook status messages are blaming Obama for their losing their jobs.
You personally might think that a visit by a joyous semen river is perfectly in order, but the church probably doesn't.
155 - Obama is elected, they lose their jobs. After this, therefore because of this. Didn't they learn you to logic in college, Mr. Smartypants?
a visit by a joyous semen river is perfectly in order a typical Friday afternoon at work.
154: He's not saving you from anything, Ben, he's saving you for later. You know, like a pork chop in Tupperware.
high school "friends" whose Facebook status messages
What I find interesting is that so many of them have their political views down as "libertarian conservative" or "independant [sic] conservative", but almost none of them self-identifies as "Republican".
156: I hear it leaves stains on the mountaintops.
The "Obama killed Wall Street" meme is being actively promoted on TV, in the WSJ> There's no lie too absurd for some people to tell, and for other people to believe.
155: I'd be tempted to comment that they should quit blaming the government and get off their lazy asses and go get another job. I wouldn't follow through on it, but I'd be tempted.
What I find interesting is that so many of them have their political views down as "libertarian conservative" or "independant [sic] conservative", but almost none of them self-identifies as "Republican".
On the other hand, do you know many people who self-identify as "Democrat" rather than "liberal" or "very liberal"? I mostly see the latter.
I see a lot of "libertarian", a few just "conservative" or even "Christian conservative" (this tending to be the people who fill the "religious views" field not with something simple like "Christian" but with some extended phrase like "I believe in the power of Christ Jesus" [notice how they always like to order the names that way? I wonder why.]).
"Democrat" rather than "liberal" or "very liberal"
Much more of the latter, but I do see "Democrat" and "Obama" pop up pretty regularly. I have my own political views set to "Likely to the left of yours."
Christ is a status, Jesus an individual holding that status. If He hadn't panned out, they had Christ Nimrod and Christ Gomer waiting in the wings. Cf. the Gnostic Gospel of Gomer.
119: Isn't it AMAZING? Did you totally love it?
166: I have my own political views set to "Likely to the left of yours."
I don't think I have any political views set. I haven't looked at the political orientation claims, or settings, of the people who are friends on Facebook. People obviously use that place to different ends. It still makes me uncomfortable.
can i just say that awb at 97 revived my intense jealousy of the gift of parody, in particular of bad writing: i have to work with a fair amount of it (i'm a proofing editor at a big uk arts bureaucracy) and it would help me no end if i could mimic bad style, so as to tease people out of it...
God damn you, PGD. I believe you came here knowing that you'd sucker some poor moron into going over and reading McArdle. Damn you to hell.
168: It is amazing, and I did love it, but I feel that I can't match your level of enthusiam for it.
Actually I was meaning to ask you about something you wrote in your blog -- "Tom Jones changed my life" -- I think you wrote that -- I can't go back and check -- I was very curious to hear how that happened.
When Anand biked across the country, he noticed that east coast roads just went straight up to the top, no winding or switchbacks.
This is funny to me, because when I got to SF for the first time, I discovered that its famously steep streets are steep primarily because the fuckers just laid a grid right over the topography. Sure, you get pretty little Lombard (?) Street, with its famous switches, but a simple street map of SF in no way would lead you to intuit its true contours. Whereas Pittsburgh, a much, much hillier city, sensibly modifies its grids as conditions dictate (although the maps can be tricky here as well, as they all too often don't distinguish between "paper streets," public steps, and, you know, streets).
That said, we do have the steepest street in the world, so it's not like it's all 8% grades or something.
An 8% grade is pretty steep for a street.
That is a statement of such mindboggling ignorance and stupidity as to disqualify anyone who utters it from ever opining on the issue again.
And yet, as we see in so many of these cases, there is no one to enforce the DQ.
I just met Teo! He made it safely over the mountains. He is a cutie-pie.
An 8% grade is pretty steep for a street.
Our steepest is 37%. 12% is fairly common. There's a fairly major street right near me that's somewhere north of 10% for a 1/4 mile or so - it's my personal test for what kind of cycling shape I'm in.
Wasn't teo going to come by SF? What's the story?
JRoth might be interested in this if he's such a big, steep man.
How does "feet per mile" compute as % grade? The steepest hill around here isn't very steep, but I don't know how non-steep it is.
181: Divide by 5280 for the decimal and then convert to percent, shouldn't it be?
177: Yeah, when I think about it, I should have said that 8% is steep for a highway. I can think of quite a few urban streets that would go significantly higher (at least one here, quite a few in Seattle, etc.).
6% is the listed design maximum for Interstate highway grades (Donner for instance stays under this, but interstates in a few place are steeper. Donner on the west side is most notable for how long it is and the overall elevation gain/loss). Anything above about 20% is WTF territory on a street. I've never been sure whether the denominator is distance along the road or just horizontal distance covered (I think it is the latter). But it does not really matter that much since the sine is very close to tangent for low angles . A useful rule of thumb over the range of road grades is that the angle of the slope in degrees is slightly greater than 1/2 of the grade expressed as a percent.
I suspect his delay last night meant that he'll be zooming through SF this afternoon, on his way to Santa Cruz.
No street is really steep if it has a sidewalk that does not consist of stairs.
I just met Teo! He made it safely over the mountains. He is a cutie-pie.
I judged him the best-looking male at last year's UnfoggeDCcon.
Everyone else was participating in the egg nog contest, but PGD kept saying "Teo Nog Wins! Teo Nog Wins!" It was confusing.
Who was the best-looking woman at last year's UnfoggeDCon, PGD? Who came in second?
I judged him the best-looking male at last year's UnfoggeDCcon.
*Sob.* That second-place ribbon still stings.
191. You weren't supposed to pin it there.
Who's the best looking commenter who didn't attend UnfoggeDCon II?
What con's best at looking for commenters? I need 'em alive.
The best-looking male, that is. Who lives in the Bay Area. Whose pseud is a pun based on the name of a certain, um, unifier of states. Who...I JUST WANT AN AWARD TOO, DAMMIT!
190 -- I wouldn't hazard an opinion, as I don't notice the appearance of women to whom I am not married. (That's my story and I'm sticking with it). However, I recall one of the attendees having won a contest of some sort . . .
Who's the best looking commenter who didn't attend UnfoggeDCon II?
Me.
As an interstate, 80 has a fairly easy grade over the Sierras, given that they're still pretty major mountains. 50, 88, and 120 are steeper, but not too bad. 108, on the other hand, has something like 6 miles above 20%.* That's some serious steepness.
*If I remember right.
Wikipedia helpfully links to a road sign. Unfortunately, it doesn't say how long the 26% grade lasts after the 1 mile ahead.
And if you want to test your cycling shape, you can try the death ride.
My dad did the death ride several times.
I was incredulous that Worstallism earned its own "ism", but Google confirms it. Just the other day he claimed that Iceland is a good place to smelt aluminum. And I believed him. Now I know the truth.
I wouldn't hazard an opinion, as I don't notice the appearance of women to whom I am not married.
One of my favorite memories is Jammies telling me how much he wanted to impregnant HG. "She has GREAT genes!"
The ride in 180 looks like something I could definitely do in mid-summer condition, maybe with an extra couple training rides.
I am under no illusions that I could do the ride in 200. Nor do I expect ever to be in that kind of condition. Although I really do want, someday, to do the Dirty Dozen.
PGD was also quite impressed by Labs, if I remember correctly, even if he can never remember his name, such that one must say: "That was Labs." Oh, oh right.
I think it's a good rule of thumb that when an author starts giving names to the hypothetical people they are discussing the piece is shit.
Take that, Galileo.
Just the other day he claimed that Iceland is a good place to smelt aluminum. And I believed him. Now I know the truth.
It isn't? Lots of cheap electricity... Michael Lewis reckons it is.
Michael Lewis reckons it is
Yeah, but he doesn't believe in black people.
*Sob.* That second-place ribbon still stings.
Quit your bitchin', pretty boy. My ribbon says "participant".
208: It's a scandal what counts as participating these days.
203: I'm also incredibly amused by that!
209 was me. Space were a great band, sadly defunct due to their impeccably democratic-socialist insistence on giving each member an equal chance to write songs, despite the fact that they were, as the Guardian once noted, basically "Ringo, Paul, Ringo and Ringo".
211: Amused that will can't spell "impregnate"? I guess that is kind of funny.
duh, at least I know where the i button is!
Will's horrible spelling is old news.
Teo is awfully cute, isn't he? I don't think I worked out an ordered ranking of all the men at UnfoggeDCon II, but he'd have to be somewhere high on the list. Well after Buck, of course, but that goes without saying.
212: If all four had been brothers, there would have been a story. Or if they had been sued for self-imitation. Otherwise, Creedence wins, with its John, John's brother, Ringo, Ringo lineup and autoplagiarizing lawsuit.
Teo was a whippersnapper at DCon, and probably still is. Hmph.
Teo was a whippersnapper at DCon,
Your point?
172: It was the first novel I read in which things happen not because the world is infinitely greedy and selfish, or because shit always happens to nice people, or because women always get the shaft or whatever, but just due to randomness. Good coincidences happen, and so do bad ones. Also, the whole thing about how avoiding sin is no virtue really resonated with me, as that was my interpretation of scripture since a child and found no one to back me up.
I love the little philosophical chapters, the teasing megalomaniacal lovable narrator, Tom, Sophia, the bit about Charlotte. It was the first novel I read that I really just felt more than "read."
I've never tried to type this out before, so I'm not sure if it makes sense.
219: I didn't even know they were playing games like that.
I didn't even know they were playing games like that.
Now, I am really glad that I didnt follow Apo upstairs.
221: I'm not familiar with that euphemism, please explain.
222: We're gonna need a bigger boat.
223: Are the joyous semen rivers running high this year?
224: Actually, they are all dammed up. Luckily, Obama has proposed a bunch of money for beaver management down here, though.
