little links and product placements (UPDATED)
Read/Post Comments (2)
UPDATE: Howard Waldrop has a blog. Howard Waldrop has a blog. Howard Waldrop has a blog. I repeat: Howard Waldrop has a blog. (Via BoingBoing.)
A few little links and then I'm gonna shill for some products 'n' things. Because I am a total sucker for good packaging and new-fangledness.
The WP has a fascinating article on a private beef company who is being prevented by USDA from testing every cow it slaughters for mad cow.
Robin Givhan WP style maven praises Janet Reno's no muss-no truss ensemble for her 9/11 commission testimony. I have nothing but admiration for Reno, personally; perfect? Of course not. But she's a damn inspirational person and more down-to-earth than 99.9 percent of the political beasts I've met in my time. And I might add the only one I ever got my picture taken with (purposely).
I suggest you go immediately and read Elizabeth Spires' poem "The Sims: A Game, A popular computer game explained by a child."
And while you're going places, go sign up at Save Our Short Story to receive two lovely short stories via email every so often.
And now, product placement.
Perhaps I am a sucker, but I'm sucker who's happy with my household products. A few things I recommend you check out:
Band-Aid of the Future, better known as Band-Aid brand Liquid Bandage. Not only does this work, it's all futuristic! Warning: When you look down and your ankle seems to have turned slightly blackish, it's not atrophy, it's Band-Aid of the Future keeping all that dirt out of your wound.
Just like extreme sports there's EXTREME CLEAN Aquafresh toothpaste, which tastes disconcertingly strong until you realize this is what extreme cleanliness tastes like.
Screw top wines. There, I said it (again). Here are some reasons why and more reasons why. I like Two Tone Farms chardonnay, which you can find for about 10 bucks.
Box wines. Okay, this one I still feel more turbulent on, but we're early adopters, right? Seriously, as with all things wine, Europe is way ahead of us here. It's a better sealing process that allows you to keep the equivalent of four bottles of wine open, fresh and drinkable over the course of a month or so. And did I mention bottles are expensive so boxes are cheaper? I'm not talking about your really cheap stuff here, because it gives me a grimace while I'm drinking it and a headache the next day. I'm talking about Black Box wines, which are really just fine for drinking wines, more convenient and cheaper if you're having a glass or so with dinner very often. Another take. Get past the stigma. This will save you money (Black Box runs about $22) and the wine is _fine_. Better than some of that stuff you're buying in the bottle because it's cheap. This gives us more money to drink nice, nice wines when we want. Plus, both box and bag are recyclable. The Delicato wines are quite good too and a few bucks cheaper.
Back to teeth, the best electric toothbrush I've ever had is the Crest Spin Brush Pro. It costs about 7 bucks and has fancy styling and seriously cleaning power (especially when paired with EXTREME (!) Clean.)
We now return you to your regular programming. Any of these sponsors may feel free to contact me about paying off my student loans in exchange for these endorsements.
I just hope you all still respect me. (Let's hear those box wine confessions...)
worm: "Army of Me," Bjork
thingy/s to check out: Think of the film reviews that appear in your newspaper of choice. You read them every week, big releases covered in depth, minor releases given a paragraph each. Now imagine that movies deemed to be thrillers or crime films are not covered, but that instead, once a month, a separate column rounds them all up for those who are interested. Imagine, The Usual Suspects, The Godfather, Silence of the Lambs, L.A. Confidential, Get Shorty, Pulp Fiction, all dismissed lightly as genre films, not given review space, not given serious consideration for prizes and awards. It would be ludicrous, so why should it be any different for books?
Sure, there are a lot of crime books published that are formulaic and uninspiring, but the same can be said for any category you care to choose. What we all know is that there are also crime books being published today that will be still around in a hundred years, still moving people, still keeping them on the edge of their seats - that might not be literary fiction but it is literature, and maybe it's about time the literary editors of the newspapers started reflecting that, allotting coverage to books on the grounds of overall quality rather than on the artistic pretensions of the author. - Writer Kevin Wignall filling in at Idiosyncratic Mind and doing it up right
namecheck: Richard "Band-Aid of the Future" Butner
A few little links and then I'm gonna shill for some products 'n' things. Because I am a total sucker for good packaging and new-fangledness.
The WP has a fascinating article on a private beef company who is being prevented by USDA from testing every cow it slaughters for mad cow.
Robin Givhan WP style maven praises Janet Reno's no muss-no truss ensemble for her 9/11 commission testimony. I have nothing but admiration for Reno, personally; perfect? Of course not. But she's a damn inspirational person and more down-to-earth than 99.9 percent of the political beasts I've met in my time. And I might add the only one I ever got my picture taken with (purposely).
I suggest you go immediately and read Elizabeth Spires' poem "The Sims: A Game, A popular computer game explained by a child."
And while you're going places, go sign up at Save Our Short Story to receive two lovely short stories via email every so often.
And now, product placement.
Perhaps I am a sucker, but I'm sucker who's happy with my household products. A few things I recommend you check out:
Band-Aid of the Future, better known as Band-Aid brand Liquid Bandage. Not only does this work, it's all futuristic! Warning: When you look down and your ankle seems to have turned slightly blackish, it's not atrophy, it's Band-Aid of the Future keeping all that dirt out of your wound.
Just like extreme sports there's EXTREME CLEAN Aquafresh toothpaste, which tastes disconcertingly strong until you realize this is what extreme cleanliness tastes like.
Screw top wines. There, I said it (again). Here are some reasons why and more reasons why. I like Two Tone Farms chardonnay, which you can find for about 10 bucks.
Box wines. Okay, this one I still feel more turbulent on, but we're early adopters, right? Seriously, as with all things wine, Europe is way ahead of us here. It's a better sealing process that allows you to keep the equivalent of four bottles of wine open, fresh and drinkable over the course of a month or so. And did I mention bottles are expensive so boxes are cheaper? I'm not talking about your really cheap stuff here, because it gives me a grimace while I'm drinking it and a headache the next day. I'm talking about Black Box wines, which are really just fine for drinking wines, more convenient and cheaper if you're having a glass or so with dinner very often. Another take. Get past the stigma. This will save you money (Black Box runs about $22) and the wine is _fine_. Better than some of that stuff you're buying in the bottle because it's cheap. This gives us more money to drink nice, nice wines when we want. Plus, both box and bag are recyclable. The Delicato wines are quite good too and a few bucks cheaper.
Back to teeth, the best electric toothbrush I've ever had is the Crest Spin Brush Pro. It costs about 7 bucks and has fancy styling and seriously cleaning power (especially when paired with EXTREME (!) Clean.)
We now return you to your regular programming. Any of these sponsors may feel free to contact me about paying off my student loans in exchange for these endorsements.
I just hope you all still respect me. (Let's hear those box wine confessions...)
worm: "Army of Me," Bjork
thingy/s to check out: Think of the film reviews that appear in your newspaper of choice. You read them every week, big releases covered in depth, minor releases given a paragraph each. Now imagine that movies deemed to be thrillers or crime films are not covered, but that instead, once a month, a separate column rounds them all up for those who are interested. Imagine, The Usual Suspects, The Godfather, Silence of the Lambs, L.A. Confidential, Get Shorty, Pulp Fiction, all dismissed lightly as genre films, not given review space, not given serious consideration for prizes and awards. It would be ludicrous, so why should it be any different for books?
Sure, there are a lot of crime books published that are formulaic and uninspiring, but the same can be said for any category you care to choose. What we all know is that there are also crime books being published today that will be still around in a hundred years, still moving people, still keeping them on the edge of their seats - that might not be literary fiction but it is literature, and maybe it's about time the literary editors of the newspapers started reflecting that, allotting coverage to books on the grounds of overall quality rather than on the artistic pretensions of the author. - Writer Kevin Wignall filling in at Idiosyncratic Mind and doing it up right
namecheck: Richard "Band-Aid of the Future" Butner
Read/Post Comments (2)
Previous Entry :: Next Entry
Back to Top
