Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one. - A.J. Liebling
{ Daily Archives }
Things to do when you retire: pass the sommelier SATs:
Which of the following wine label descriptions would likely indicate the presence of grenache? 1) Chateauneuf-du-Pape; 2) Pomerol; 3) Gevrey-Chambertin; 4) Mosel-Saar-Ruwer; 5) Somontano.
Seems like a pleasant way to work on self-improvement: “High school is a pretty apt description, except that here the teachers pour you booze instead of confiscating it.”
The Bulwer-Lytton fiction awards challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels. The 2002 winner:
On reflection, Angela perceived that her relationship with Tom had always been rocky, not
quite a roller-coaster ride but more like when the toilet-paper roll gets a little squashed so it
hangs crooked and every time you pull some off you can hear the rest going
bumpity-bumpity in its holder until you go nuts and push it back into shape, a degree of
annoyance that Angela had now almost attained.
And the sentence that started it all:
It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.” — Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)
And you thought my blog was annoying….
The WSJ blogs this under Dogs of War:
“A pair of hot doggers taking their Wienermobile to the National Capital Barbecue Battle in Washington were pulled over by the Virginia State Police this week for driving too close to the Pentagon. . . . ‘Obviously this was a mistake,’ Virginia State Police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. ‘This hot dog posed no threat to us.’ “–United Press International, June 21
“A pilot busted for July 4th air antics that frightened beachgoers and authorities on heightened terror alert told investigators he and his friend were ‘hot dogging’ when they flew close to boaters and bathers, prosecutors said yesterday.”–New York Post, July 18
In other words, more hot dogs, less hot doggers.
WSJ reports:
Is Tehran’s lunatic theocracy on the verge of collapse? Columnist David Warren thinks so. “Iran has come to the boil,” he writes. “Against the background of huge public demonstrations, the reformist party that controls the largest block of seats in the elected but largely powerless Iranian Parliament [Wednesday] threatened to walk out, if the ayatollahs continued to stall measures for social and political change.”
Bush has even given an impressive (and completely unreported) speech on the subject:
The people of Iran want the same freedoms, human rights, and opportunities as people around the world. Their government should listen to their hopes.
In the last two Iranian presidential elections and in nearly a dozen parliamentary and local elections, the vast majority of the Iranian people voted for political and economic reform. Yet their voices are not being listened to by the unelected people who are the real rulers of Iran. Uncompromising, destructive policies have persisted, and far too little has changed in the daily lives of the Iranian people. . . .
There is a long history of friendship between the American people and the people of Iran. As Iran’s people move towards a future defined by greater freedom, greater tolerance, they will have no better friend than the United States of America.
I think you’ll see the democratization of Iran before that of Cuba, but I expect both to be soon.
The Independent of London reports: “A tourist gored by a bison in America’s Yellowstone National Park was facing criminal charges yesterday for harassment of protected wildlife. No action, however, was expected against the bison, which punctured the man’s thigh and tossed him several feet into the air when he approached to take a photograph.” Let this serve as a friendly reminder that Yellowstone is not Disneyland.