Surprise Ending
It you ever wanted a commercial featuring a Japanese Red Riding Hood, dancing forest animals, and, well, let's say a surprise ending, this is your lucky day.
Weblogs And Gender: A Roundup
Richard at Peking Duck has some thoughts on the reaction to some female Asian bloggers: “There are so few young Asian bloggers writing in English about political and social issues, and I want to encourage them, not intimidate them. Even if they are wrong, maybe we should try to let them know in a way that won't injure their pride. A double standard? Yes. But we all know that communicating with a native Chinese person is not the same as communicating with a native New Yorker.
The Indifferent Cadences of Speech
Emily Eaken on University of California linugistics professor John McWhorter: “As a linguist, he says, he knows that grammatical rules are arbitrary and that in casual conversation people have never abided by them. Rather, he argues, the fault lies with the collapse of the distinction between the written and the oral.
"The Gay Conspiracy" and Individual Rights
Colby Cosh tries to explain why Canadian Alliance MP Larry Spencer said that legalizing gay sex in Canada and the gay rights movement was a "conspiracy":
Ostentatiously Conspicuous
Frank Rich: “Money remains the last guilty pleasure in America. The obscenely rich engaging in conspicuous consumption or conspicuously idiotic behavior is the only excess that hasn't lost its power to amuse, titillate and shock.”
Can't Not Do It
John Rockwell: “In our day, artists — writers especially — have found new outlets in the magical world of Web sites and Internet blogs, or e-mail messages to their friends detailing their travels and thoughts.
Filtering and Freedom
Jay: “perfect filtering is too perfect a form of censorship. It is potentially transparent to the would-be viewer and inflicts no burden, and because of this is virtually untraceable. This like Papa Stalin replacing every book with a Stalinist friendly book, rather than blacking out all the anti-Stalin parts of other books. The ability to know when we are wronged is essential to our freedom.”
Using Power Wisely
Dave Winer: “No one likes being talked-down-to by others, but it's especially humilating when a member of the opposite sex does it. Women have so much more power today than they did in the past, but do they use it wisely?”
Harmonic Aggregator
Some people subscribe to their own RSS feeds, just to make sure it looks good for other people (or to read one's own writing in a different medium than web browser, I suppose). Me? I don't subscribe to my own RSS feed, and here's why.
Truly Important Information
sillygwailo: http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/11/27/way-out http://idly.org/2003/09/02/story-time-in-the-west-wing
sillygwailo: you blogged a West Wing quote before Mark Pilgrim did
sillygwailo: kudos
idlyadam: nice!
sillygwailo: you win!
Snow Albums
Two photo albums are online (again). There's one of my alma mater and one of a snow day. Both feature snowy scenes. The photos were taken in January 2002, so although there's snow up on campus now, there isn't snow for us plebeians. Yet.
Significant Handicap
Kelefa Sanneh: “Compared with hip-hop heroes like these, Jay-Z has a significant handicap: he's alive and well. He is also one of the shrewdest rappers of all time and one of the most creative, so he found a clever way to overcome this liability: he decided to stage his own death, or at least disappearance.”
Our Brothers and Sisters to the South
From a letter by the founder of the Annexation Party of British Columbia, R. Gordon Brosseuk [PDF]:
It is imminent that one day we the people of Canada will in one form or another become joined together with our brothers and sisters to the south, the United States of America.
It is my belief that the time has come for British Columbians to seek acquisition of this Province by the United States.
Happens All The Time
Hank Stuever: “The Foo Fighters, fronted by the ever-ironic Dave Grohl (a former member of Nirvana), seem to have known that "Darling Nikki" could hardly cause a blush amid the latest fare from Limp Bizkit, Jay-Z, Korn and Missy Elliott. (Self-pleasuring girls-gone-wild who hang out in hotel lobbies? Yawn. Happens all the time.)”
Dim The Lights
More from the comedy team of Richard & Adam (note who's first on the marquee!):
Teflon Nonchalance
Elizabeth Mendez Berry: “Jay-Z's recording persona is so compelling because though he's still a caricature—certain features are disproportionately emphasized—he's an elegantly rendered one.