Catch-Up Blog

Following up on the last post, yes, my hard drive crashed, so I have a backlog on both articles as well as hundreds of photographs of beautiful Reykjavik. (These will not all be uploaded by the time I post this blog.)  My fantastic professor/boss lent me his old laptop, giving me the opportunity to catch up on my internet life, so this will be a very long blog.

First, on vacation, I almost always catch up on New York Times Magazines.  They’re the perfect travel companion: light, full of reading material, and even when you’re done you can spend hours on the crossword puzzle.  Plus, you can toss the magazine when you’re done, lightening your load on your way home.  (Washington Post Magazines are also great travel reading and now always have Merl Reagle crosswords in the back.)  The following is from the April 26 NYTMag:

William Safire: Wide World of Words (ah, Safire.)

Virginia Heffernan: Comment is King (idiots on the internet)

Christopher Buckley: Mum and Pup and Me (excellent piece; mentions
Reykjavik and I actually read the article while sitting in a cafe in
said city!)

How to make an iPhone stand from a business card. (via Consumerist)

Twenty second songs to sing while washing your hands. (NPR)

Maybe you shouldn’t buy that… (via Consumerist)

Don’t Gimme Five! (NPR)

Data Blogs You Should Know About

8 Disastrous Product Names (Thanks, Arielle.)

Recruiting Happiness in a Himalayan Kingdom

The Curious Friendship of a Politician and an Actor 

Separation of Press and State

It’s Baaaaaack!  And either John McCain (Marlena) or in a salad (Jenna).

An app to identify fonts by taking a pic with your camera!  (I definitely could have used this when Lauren and I were trying to figure out what font I used on my resume.)

Sunday Funday

Low-Tech Fixes for High-Tech Problems (this is extremely helpful)

Poor Shea Stadium.  (Who else thinks they should call the new one Shea instead of CitiField as a punishment for mismanaging stimulus funds?)

This ad ran in the Times on Wednesday, and I think it’s incredibly depressing.  Come on MetLife Foundation, don’t we have enough crap to deal with?

Because my photography skills are lacking at best, and you may not be able to read it, the caption reads: “Imagine not being able to recognize your best friend.”

I’ll get the tissues.

In happier news: regular people not treated like dirt on Madison Avenue anymore!

Without this man, we wouldn’t have floating boxes over anchors’ right shoulders.

Three-Year-Old Rides Subway Alone (I know this made the NYC news, but I thought the out-of-towners would like it, too.)

Bad theater review!!  (Courtesy of Carey)

“Attending this professional production in the country’s theatrical capital, you might be forgiven for imagining you were in a stuffy high school gym in an anonymous suburb, hostage to the delusional ambitions of an overweening drama teacher who really needs to go back on his medications.”

It gets better…

Earlier, I had the most depressing use of animals in an advertisement.  Here is the best use of animals in an advertisement, courtesy of CuteOverload:

I love the creative use of LOLSpeak and the bunny falling asleep at his bunny computer.  It’s all fantastic really.

This guy created a lot of fonts we use everyday; and he’s not even dead yet! (Courtesy of Mom)

The WaPo tells me where to eat in NYC.  Yay!  (Courtesy of Dad)

Kevin Garnett gives (correct) fashion advice.  (Courtesy of Scott)

Remember those office lip syncs?  There are more now, and while I only watch them doing songs in English, it’s still pretty sweet.  (Some French are better at lip syncing English than others.)

Sorry, It’s Been Awhile

Great story about losing a ring in New York City.

Fab Metropolitan Diary.

My tweet cloud!

Make your handwriting into a font.

New Jersey smells delicious.

EVERYONE is writing about the damn “25 Things.”

Obama’s MTV reality show on Newsweek. (Kind of lame, yes.)

Governor Iceman?

The guy who invited these fantastic people died this week.

Democracy is great, but we should spread more of this across the world.

Tracking forest creatures by GPS!

WooHoo!

Famous politicians’ yearbook photos (Thanks, Lauren!)

Erin said it better than I could have.  We’ll all miss you K-Jo.  More than you can imagine.

Some Good News Today

Coolest inauguration photo.

In related news, I obviously love this article for many reasons, but ABC News’ story was virtually identical.

Both WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show and the Times covered this new Pew Social & Demographic Trends Poll.

Who has Nationals season tickets?

A typography blog.

@coloradosumi and I both ate mac & cheese for dinner last night and the Times ran an article about it too!

What you’ll get if you tag me in a “25 Random Things About Me” facebook thing.  Thanks Katy!

While we’re on the subject of facebook, obviously the Times wrote an article about the social repercussions (or free hamburgers) that result from defriending.

Happy Repeal Day!

Happy Repeal Day! (NPR)

Red Sex, Blue Sex (New Yorker)

How Helvetica Took Over the Subway (New York Times)

Ralph Nader on Sesame Street (Thanks, Phylan)

Michelle Obama’s inaugural gown designs (JCrewaholic)

ʇxǝʇ ɹnoʎ dılɟ

My high school is awesome, even though I hate these ranking things (US News and World Report)

Adorable Animal Videos

I’ve been busy this week: friends visited (wohoo MelBou!), Broadway called (and I sat in front of Whoopi Goldberg!), epic happy hours occurred, and Yankees games attended.  Oh, also I’ve been cat sitting for Ferris, which means I walk to work and don’t have an hour-long commute to read the paper.  Sweet.  Regardless of my lack of hard news, my friends have been sending me quality stuff all week, including cute animal videos…

From Tanno and adorable: Christian the Lion

From Dad and adorable: Singing Puppies to Sleep

From Alex MD and totally cool (but not so adorable, even though she is): If You Have a Problem, Ask Everyone

From Scott and Matt Brown: Font Conference

Even though I’m not good at reading the news this week, I am writing the news and blogging for LMNOP.

Championing the Cause For Grammar Geeks

I have lots of things to post today, but I just had two ridiculous experiences that I would like to share:

- I went to my campus bookstore because I needed a new planner, and I saw a sign that read “Athletic Jersey’s.” This being a university and all, I asked to speak to a manager, because it was just egregious. The manager came, took the sign down and said “Yeah, I was an English major; that was bothering me too.” If it bothered you so much, why didn’t you take it down?! Ugh.

- From there I went to a shoe store down the street. I found the most ridiculous item in shoe wear existence, the NASCAR dress shoe:

I bet some NASCAR person saw someone wearing Tory Burch flats and thought, “Hmm those T things look like a steering wheel.” This is horrible.

In other news:

Slate’s political ring tones

From Valerie and Gawker: AP Stylebook No Longer “Mentally Retarded” (And no more milquetoast, sad.)

From today’s Times: How to design your very own fonts on the internet! (The article is called “Down With Helvetica”)

More from the Times: Rich kids in California hack into the school computer to change their grades.

From the WaPo: Fancy Toilets in Japan

I’m off to the mall, here’s hoping I make scenes in some other stores, if only for your entertainment.

Just Another Manic Monday

A MUST see from Phylan: Where the Hell is Matt? (seriously, everyone will enjoy this, unless you’re heartless)

Speaking of Matt, Matt Brown has a good nod to George Carlin today, with my Dad’s favorite comedy bit.

And also about baseball (and still continuing this now two-week theme), an 89 year old organist is still hitting those keys in Omaha. Definitely listen to him play “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” It’s impossible not to sing along.

My twitter was one that beat NBC News to announcing Tim Russert’s too-early death. Still, I noticed that day that Wikipedia had it far before anyone else, and this story explains why.

One of my favorite professors AND one of my good friends in graduate school made today’s Times because they did a study together on the imbalance of op-ed pages! Read what they discovered. (And John, I saved the real paper for you too.)

Moving on to The WaPo, finding grammatical (and other) errors on restaurant menus.

More grammar from the WaPo: I always love Gene Weingarten, but this Sunday was particularly awesome.

Why the fonts in the Indiana Jones movies are incorrect (ooh this is so nerdy, I love it!).

Last, but not least, please vote for Pancake in this Animal Planet poll. And no, it’s not necessary to watch the other videos; I just did and the others are boring and stupid. Pancake is far superior. Plus, who the eff cares that a cat can fetch, all dogs can do that. (Not to mention that said cat is apparently male, yet wearing a dress. Excuse me while I cough up this hairball.)

All Sorts of Fun From Today’s Times

Bob Herbert on education in America

Yet another reason why I love where I’m from (Montgomery County Aims to Make Green Homes Mandatory)

Joel is reading the Times!  Holy moly!  Another good one on McCain’s font (Optimum).

This article almost made me cry (and it’s short)! High School Project on Genocide Was a Portent of Real-Life Events

In Haiti, they play dominoes.  And it’s serious. (If you don’t believe me, at least click the link and look at the picture.)

What do you do with the wedding ring after the divorce?  Now theres ExBoyfriendJewelry.com! (FYI, that’s a link to the article, not the website…)

They are going to publish parts of the German Wikipedia in a book.

After the fold, a list of the most popular articles on German Wikipedia from The Times…

On The Media: Fonts and Presidential Candidates

I’m pretty sure this story was written especially for me.

“The fonts that presidential candidates select for their campaign logos reflect an important act of political branding. Sam Berlow of The Font Bureau Inc. says the logos all speak volumes about the candidates they represent.” –On The Media.

Character Matters

Also the title is a pun, and that thrills me even more.