Selfish Crab

In which I failed.

• littoral – adj. pertaining to the shore area [source]
• The following directors have never won a Oscar for Best Director: Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Sidney Lumet, Quentin Tarantino, Stanley Kubrick, Spike Lee. [source]
• chundering – n. UK slang for vomiting [source]
• The Green Bay Packers are a non-profit, community owner organization– the only one in American pro sports. [source] [more info]
• Wikipedia article of the month: Toilet paper orientation.  Complete with 127 footnotes.
• President Lincoln suffered from clinical depression for most of his adult life, and it was widely known to his contemporaries.  Sad Abe day? [source]

# 2011 Feb 28 • From the 'things I learned' dept • #

New diversion:  Steak of the Month Club.

# 2011 Feb 15 • From the 'Life' dept • blog food• #

NY Times:  The Dirty Little Secrets of Search

Mr. Stevens agreed to meet in mid-January for a dinner paid for by The Times. Asked to pick a “fine restaurant” in his neighborhood, he rather cheekily selected a modern French bistro in Palo Alto offering an eight-course prix fixe meal for $118. Liquid nitrogen and “fairy tale pumpkin” were two of the featured ingredients.

God, what snippy reporting.

# 2011 Feb 13 • From the 'Life' dept • journalism• #

I still think GroupOn sounds like a web-based swingers club. “Want to get your group on?” Oh yeah….

And LivingSocial sounds like a vegan commune. Not sure why i am viewing all web startups through the shades of a 1970s counter-culturalist.

# 2011 Feb 8 • From the 'nerd' dept • web2.0• #

New York Times: After Ban, Groups Say Earmarks Aren’t So Bad:

Many citizens, even those who sympathize with cuts in spending, insist that not all pork is cured with the same untoward salt. “I do agree we have to cut from somewhere,” said Steve Tribble, the county judge executive of Christian County in Kentucky, where a planned road project is now imperiled. “I am against some earmarks,” he said. “Not the good ones. I can promise you this is not a road to nowhere.” (emphasis added)

Doozy of a sentence.  Someone’s got pent-up writing energies…

# 2011 Feb 7 • From the 'Links' dept • writing• #

My thoughts after skipping almost the entirety of the game, and watching all the commercials afterwards on Hulu.

Sell-out of the year?  Tie between Eminem for Lipton Ice Tea. or Black Eyed Peas for SalesForce.com.  You could argue that Eminem’s commercial was at least self-referential with regards to his endorsement, while there is now a site called thebabypeas.com.

Every PepsiMax commercial was awful.

Best commercial, hands-down, was Chrysler’s “Imported from Detroit“.   Statement piece. Shifts the conversation about their company.  Takes their disadvantage (decrepit Detroit) and turns it to their strength.  Some is serious Don Draper Wheel of Life shit.  Even the Eminem (active day for him, eh?) cameo was dead-on because does anyone else represent Detroit and rebirth better than him?

Imported from Detroit

Apparently, cut-throat coupon competitors GroupOn and LivingSocial both had commercials. GroupOn wins. LivingSocial’s makes me scratch my head as to what I just watched or what the take-away was supposed to be.

GroupOn.

LivingSocial.

The beer commercials keep getting weaker and weaker.   At least nothing was overtly sexist or degrading this year.  Stella Artois’ “Crying Jean” is the only one that stirred anything in me.

Creepiest commercial: there are a number of incredibly creepy commercials this year. Which makes you shudder more: “Doritos the Best Part” or this Android commercial?

The Best Part

Sony Ericcson’s PLAY android commercial

Which commercials stuck out with you?

# 2011 Feb 7 • From the 'Life', 'Links' dept • advertising commercial video• 1

200 hours this month, or bust.  And by bust, I mean, bust.

# 2011 Feb 5 • From the 'work' dept • #

People define success by many means. I will know I have made it when I have one of these in my place.

# 2011 Feb 4 • From the 'Life' dept • #

• The kiwifruit used to be known as the Chinese gooseberry, until an international importer got their mitts on it. [via]
• roustabout – n. a labourer typically performing temporary, unskilled work. The term has traditionally been used to refer to traveling-circus workers or oil rig workers. [via]
• Aztec priests used to choose a man to represent one of their gods, Tezcatlipoca. The man would be worshiped as a god for a year, wearing expensive jewellery and having eight attendants. He would marry four young women, and spent his last week singing, feasting and dancing.  But at a preordained date during on a festival, he climbed the stairs to the top of the temple on his own where the priests seized him and sacrificed him, his body being eaten later.  Immediately after he died a new victim for the next year’s ceremony was chosen. [via]
• Possums are formally known as opossums.  Oh, and they involuntarily excrete a foul-smelling liquid from their anal glands when they play dead.  Convincing bastards.  [via]
• Patent of the month: Garment Device Convertible to One or More Facemasks [via]

# 2011 Feb 3 • From the 'things I learned' dept • #