Choire

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:08:11 -0500

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:19:49 -0500

Even the brief bits of the interview of George and Laura Bush conducted by his sister that the White House made public are terrible—he was forced to tout the great success of No Child Left Behind. That's neat! If the future is super-kind, the children of the future will regard him as maybe a fool. (Instead of a monster.)

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:44:54 -0500

"Then, because everything is really about me, and The Lord and I still have congress, we were walking home with a little doggie bag for malcolm and i started babbling about coming off meds. i am in total shock how ridiculously hard it's been. Not only has the physical ramp-down been awful, time consuming and violent, but the simultaneous re-acquaintance with the full, rich and really stunning canvas of all emotions all the time, coupled with (plus! bonus) this incredible almost comically kaleidoscope reemergence of my 'life-force', overlayed (le sigh) with a kind of uneasy and toddler like confusion and utter personality ego-globalizing of 'who am i? what is real about me? what is pervasive? who is i? blah blah blah' i mean, really, it would be hilarious if it weren't so fascinating and scary, i learned a lot on the medication and i wouldn't describe my feelings about it as negative or alienating, it's just been a little difficult. it's like being on a dive in open water and looking up and not seeing the boat for a second. pure panic. and S. said, 'oh it's like the broken bowl. all is gone. gone, gone, gone beyond.' WHAT."

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:40:19 -0500

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:24:16 -0500

Josh Schwartz, creator of "Gossip Girl" et al.

Why Is Anderson Cooper Doing This To Himself?

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:13:19 -0500

And why is Anderson Cooper letting his show be produced in this horrible way? CNN moved him to 10 p.m. a while ago. I've been watching it again quite a bit, for the last month of the election in particular—I'd taken some time off after saturating in the earlier incarnation of the show for a profile way back in spring of 2004. He did a nice job in a lot of the earlier evening broadcasts during the election, particularly the debates. But that's over now, and his show is this terrible shell that he's now left with. In his first hour, he's up against Keith Olbermann on MSNBC and Greta van Susteren (ugh) on Fox. In his second hour, he's up against repeats. CNN put out for their October numbers that "At 11p, the second hour of Anderson Cooper 360 ranked first with 770k versus FNC's O'Reilly Factor repeat 597k and MSBNC's repeat of Rachael [sic] Maddow trailed with 351k." Hmm. Well. Give me a webcam and I bet I could beat some reruns too! Right now, his show is pretty much everything it shouldn't be, and I suspect he knows it. The relentless story-teasing of things that are coming "after the break" and "in the next hour" is awful—it's like a 4:45 p.m. promo for a small-town affiliate's local news program. The constant use of the phrase "breaking news" applied to items of dubious news value that were perhaps "breaking" between five and eight hours ago is insulting and actually enraging. Apparently there is also a live in-studio webcam, which I will never turn to, and there is a young woman with very smart glasses who comes and delivers little "breaking news" updates that I have already read on the internet in the afternoon elsewhere. Recently she brought in her dog. This show is 1. nothing like what Anderson Cooper wanted to do with T.V. news and 2. incredibly uninformative, though it is soothing to pass out to. Except that I find myself falling asleep to the rerun of Rachel Maddow more frequently. The saddest problem is that this show advances none of his goals for journalism. His contract is up next year or the year after, I think, and he should quit the network before it's up and get off the T.V. and found a web channel of his own. He doesn't need the network and its bullshit strictures and formats: he should bail out himself during the recession and build his own business.

New York City Now: It's John Lindsay Time!

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:32:43 -0500

It really is happening! Last night on First Avenue and St. Mark's Place, I saw a cab driver and a passenger slug it out over her nonpayment of a fare. He tried to take her purse and clean her clock. She pretty much gave as good as she got. It was gnarly. This morning? There is BLOOD all over the sidewalk at Coyote Ugly on First Avenue between 9th and 10th Streets. Seriously. Blood! So let's check the stats from the NYPD. Oh, here we go! Last week in New York City, robberies were up 12% over the same period last year. Rapes were up 15%. Murders were up 40%! (Okay, tiny sample size on that—7 murders last week versus 5 last year.) There were 427 burglaries last week, up 4%. Anecdotally, there is graffiti where there was none before (including on, I'm noticing, USPS mailboxes). And friends are saying that they're hearing more and more about muggings. AND there are stalled construction projects all over, which are about to become dormitories for the homeless. I'm kind of excited! Also I may get a permit for a small Beretta. I appreciate a downturn but I'm not going to be a victim. And anyway, the New Old New York will need a New Bernie Goetz sooner or later. Since the last one has become a vegan kook.

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:55:39 -0500

This really is the greatest story ever. (And greatest headline!) "Of course by this time, all we knew was that President-elect Obama probably—probably!—was considering Ms. Clinton for the job. Had anyone denied it? Not really! We were told to “respect Mr. Obama’s process.” O.K.! But what are we supposed to think is true? The Huffington Post story? It could be right! Or not. Anyway, if it’s the gist that counts...."

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:22:24 -0500

From the "First up against the wall when the revolution comes" department: "Margaret Russell, Elle Décor’s editor-in-chief, is so over the $22,000 picnic basket. Several months ago, she said, her magazine ran an item about just such a high-end weave. 'I would never dream about doing that now,' Ms. Russell said. 'It just seems vulgar, and vulgar is not a word I want to associate with our magazine. Everyone’s staying home and feeling very pro-American now.'" I hope I meet this Margaret Russell face to face sometime soon! (Preferably after she gets fired and her magazine gets shuttered.)

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:08:45 -0500

I'm a fan of the Journalist Bailout Program, in which Six Apart is giving print and TV people free blogs with some advertising revenue—for free! It's the nicest thing anyone's done in ages. Not sure what set off Paul Boutin over at Valleywag (ha, well, he just got laid off too!) to trash it vehemently, but tempers are high these days. After all, I cursed out this heinous person who stole a cab from me the other day, using language I normally reserve for my part-time work doing interrogations at CIA black sites outside Brno. IN ANY EVENT. I meet journalists all the time who are up a creek financially and/or professionally, and then I ask: Well, where's your blog? "Oh, yeah, I've been meaning to do that...." So? Get on it.

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:20:40 -0500

The Times political editor Dick Stevenson and its standards editor Craig Whitney should come crawling out of the 1950s someday. Today's absurd public editor column, which allows them to castigate a reporter for using Facebook to find students and parents of students who might attend school with Cindy McCain's daughter, gives the poor disgraced former McCain staff exactly what they want. These Times people seriously think reporters shouldn't carefully and appropriately Facebook with minors? That's ridiculous. What a waste of space.

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:07:30 -0500

And what economically would be the impact of 9,998 failed journalism startups? Honestly, hippies!

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:53:50 -0500

I can't help it, I still want to have a fancy wedding, even though I know it's WRONG.

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 13:13:34 -0500

50 Cent interview. The bracketed explanation was added by the copy desk!

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:52:16 -0500

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:32:43 -0500

Final press gaggle with McCain strategist Steve Schmidt: "QUESTION: And the pick of Palin for you guys? Are you happy with that? A: You know, we’ll uh, I’m not going to do, there’ll be time for all the post mortems in the race."

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:14:03 -0500

Yes, that is a man dancing on top of a city bus at 1 a.m. on election night at the intersection of St. Mark's and First Avenue.

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:06:14 -0500

I'm an unemployed tradesman, working in a dying urban industry, who will spend the day trying to get through on the unemployment phone lines, which are currently so busy that they actually hang up on you when you try to file a claim. I have no health care, no union to speak of, unlike the fairly strong unions my grandparents belonged to. I have not much in the way of savings: just another middle-aged, big-city renter with no 401(k) and a lingering, deadening tax debt. I'm your real Joe the Plumber—or, as John McCain put it in Florida the other day, "Pepe el Plumero." And I voted for Barack Obama this morning.

The cracker over there/He try to keep it yesteryear

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:54:38 -0500

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:05:55 -0500

Oooh, Ben Smith is finally snapping!