Folks I'm sick and in the midst of a Theraflu-induced haze. Forgive my shortage of posts. I can barely think straight. Talk among yourselves, and keep it clean.
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"Brock Lesnar is a tool."
A big, strong, physically overwhelming tool.....
I think it's probably time the UFC considered redoing their weight classes. 205-265 may just be too broad a stretch for one weight class. Make the heavyweight 205-235 and super-heavyweight 235-265. If you need more, create a new "Dreadnought" class at 266+.
But I don't know, are we going to see more Lesnars in the future? Let's face it, most of the really big, heavy guys just haven't been all that good, either as fighters or physical specimens. Lesnar is a freak of nature, and a gym freak besides. I've never been a fan of his, probably unfairly due to his WWE background, but I have to give him credit for hanging in there and learning to be a MMA fighter.
Carwin is just as or almost as athletic as Lesnar, and weighs in at 265 also, even though Brock probably walks around heavier. All of his fights he has KO'd in the first round. The Cain vs Carwin match will probably decide who faces Brock next.
I'm not a fan of Brock's because he is an arrogant prick. I understand his problems with Mir, who is much more eloquent and ran circles around him in the trash talk dept, but flipping off the fans and dissing the sponsor of the fight for not paying him? Grade-A tool. I have my doubts he can handle being really rocked either, but that's mostly just my gut speaking after watching him.
They do need to split up the heavyweight division, a 60-pound spread is just insane, even though some big people can cut a lot of weight to make 205. Griffin walks around at 240, I've heard. I really think they need to have weigh ins on fight day like in boxing, cutting all that weight is not healthy.
Amazon's just price-dropped the Kindle to $299. Will more people bite now? Half of me is tempted. The other half is thinking, "hell, in this economy they'll probably go lower."
My friend has a Kindle. When we were packing to fly back from from Pittsburgh, the Kindle was heavy and bulky in her tote-bag. She shoved it in her carry-on, then decided to check the carry-on once we got to the airport (small jet; it would have been gate-checked anyway) -- completely forgetting the Kindle was in it.
We got through security. She suddenly realized she had no reading material, and headed to the concourse bookstore to buy a paperback of the book...she was reading on Kindle.
Me, I just pulled my soft-cover novel out of *my* tote-bag, which cost me $0.00, not $299. Library books are like that.
I always take cheap paperbacks when I'm travelling so I don't have to apologize to anyone if I lose it. Which is probably what I'll continue to do, oh, forever. Really, it's more for in the car/sheer laziness.
I have a Kindle. It now has twenty books on it. I went to Istanbul for over two weeks and read eight books. The Kindle cost $359. Most of the books on my Kindle cost .99 cents, some cost $9.99. By my calculation the books cost about $112. If I bought them from Barnes and Noble they would have cost about $560. The cost of the Kindle has been covered by the savings of purchasing books in both hard and soft cover. Plus, I didn't have to bring a suitcase with 20 books in it.
Accept it or not, the hardcover/soft cover book is going the way of the electric typewriter.
Sure people forget or lose Kindles. People also lose their wallet or keys. There is no logic to your argument. Finally, a hardcover book is far more bulky and heavy than a Kindle; and unless you read pamphlets, a Kindle is less bulky than a softcover.
I don't have a kindle but I am fascinated by the idea.
I love books. They are easier to carry, cheap, and the best thing I like is that when I finish a good one, I can give it to a friend, who can give it to a friend...
But alas, I agree with adin that the day of the printed book may be nearing an end. Not so much because one is better then the other but more so that the materials and effort in printing books will be cost prohibitive.
Books will be relegated to the safe vaults of the libraries. Or you will have to pay a great price for them.
I'm surprised people are ignoring the vast amount of free public access content out there. All of the books on mobileread.com, gutenberg.org, and dozens of other sites are free, easily accessed, and work on your Kindle natively. I hate to sound like a salesman, but it's allowed me to freely Swift, Joyce, Homer, Machiavelli, Tolstoy and dozens of others.
I'm a big fan of printed material. I like turning pages, writing in the margin, and inscriptions on the insides of covers. But the Kindle is winning me over with sheer convenience, and with the prodigious archives out there on the internet, we have no reason not to be well read.
I must say that I have so much love of books that I will sit down between rows in a book store just to look at them on the shelves. So much love that I outed myself as a complete and largely unrepentant neo-Luddite in print (in, ironically enough, a newspaper that has now gone all-internet! Oh, sweet irony!). Smell, feel, font -- every piece of the book is magical to me.
But what you say is just facts, and they are true ones. In aggregate, we will all be better off when the (ahem) dead-tree versions of literature are no long produced. I know this to be true. But I'll still be really, really sad.
Hey, though, here's a thought: I'm 44! Maybe I'll be dead by then! A girl can always hope.
Again, you're talking about the idea that purchasing a Kindle is better than purchasing books.
Libraries serve the same purpose they always have: to provide those without monetary resources free access to literature, topical periodicals, and information.
Libraries have also been much better in recent years about getting the paperback or softcover versions of books. To what CitizenE said below: As long as libaries provide FREE access to books, which can be returned so you don't have that heavy pile of Great Novels to schlep every time you move house....Kindle is like selling water next to a river.
Libraries serve everyone. Kindle serves the middle/upper middle class consumer who can afford to purchase it, and the broadband service to download books to it (which of course means they can also afford to have a computer; I highly doubt there are folks out there who have a Kindle and internet access but no laptop).
In short: the pros and cons of the Kindle aren't something the working poor go about debating, y'know?
Those books would have been much cheaper if you have bought them at a used book store (Full disclosure: My husband owns a used book store in Pittsburgh), and they would have been free from the library. Also you could have bought the same books in paperback, and even with a very generous price of $15.00 each, they still would have cost less than the Kindle itself.
it's ok if you like your Kindle, but justify it by saying that, not with lame arguments like the above.
I went to Istanbul for over two weeks and read eight books.
any other city...just maybe
istanbul...impossible
i call your bluff (o.k., i guess two transatlantic flights are included)
anyway, what a wonderful city it is. have fun CJB, i'm sure you'll have a ball
next to the many awe inspiring mosques, it's worth checking out The Chora Church (beautiful byzantine mosaics & frescoes). saturday nights, the side streets off Istiklal Caddesi for mediterranean nightlife.
A friend was raving about his kindle, says it's increased his book intake. One of his best arguments in favor is that he can really get a sharp focus on what he wants to read, loading up the Kindle with the free opening excerpts Amazon provides, and various freetexts, and reading them in his spare moments to get a sense of those things he wants to actually finish. I think he's got a less-than-common talent for decision-making, but it really works for him in that he doesn't end up carrying one or two books that he might like, and finishing them cos he has them. Instead, he carries a queue of 100. This is one technique that goes beyond bookstore or library.
I'm an old guy, slow to new technology. I love reading two newspapers in the morning--my wake up meditation--and there's no way I find reading newspapers on line the same experience. I read mystery novels as an entertainment escape from reading and grading poorly written essays by remedial English college students. I spend a great deal of time on line, and must say the screen gets to my eyes after a while, so I don't quite get Kindle, except as a storage device and a tree saver. I don't really see how it's a money saver, and I imagine that reading off the screen--the media--infinitely less pleasurable than text on paper.
Economically, it makes very little sense to me. I can imagine them selling the sucker with a free 20 book combo at $299, but to me it seems right now like selling water by a river.
Well, the Kindle screen's supposed to be a selling point over reading on a laptop or netbook. It's not LCD, it's a different technology that puts out less glare, and has better font smoothing. If you get a chance, read one for a little bit and see if your eyes feel differently...
Persia: I feel you on hesitating for the price drop. It just seems so lame to pay $300 for a hand-held screen attached to what is practically a USB, in an Apple-inspired plastic case, loaded with DRM. It's like, really?
Personally I'm still waiting for that perfect, magical tablet netbook pc that is capable of handling everything I want it to.
I hope you feel better TNC. I dunno how deep your haze is, but I always end up GONE on Theraflu no matter what kind it is. Just gotta ride it out.
I actually use my iPod touch to read books. Not as big as a kindle, but the screen is good enough to read comfortably. The battery size maybe not be as good (actually, I have no idea about that), but I'm pretty happy with it.
Me too. I especially like that you can use the free Kindle app, or an app like Bookshelf that will allow you to download ebooks in non-Kindle formats. If you like SF/Fantasy, Baen's Free Library is the best thing ever--no Kindle needed.
I will say that when the President said the words "Martin Luther King" in Ghana the other day, I thought of you, and wondered if you (and the angry say-the-name people) noticed it, too. "He said his whole name!" I thought. "Phew!" All in all, that whole speech was, in the parlance of our times, full of win.
hey history and sports fans is it true that Jackie Robinson was a conservative Republican Nixon/Vietnam War supporter who wrote to MLK telling him that waging peace was wrongheaded? if so that should throw some serious kinks in the what would a famous historical figure feel about any particular issue based on previous life experience guessing game: http://www.bobedwardsradio.com/blog/2009/7/11/dan-gediman-jackie-robinson-and-this-i-believe.html
ps tylenol+codeine is a wonder drug for achey bodies not recommending this just an observation.
It is in fact true that Jackie Robinson was a Republican and supported Richard Nixon. Bear in mind though, that a conservative Republican in the 1950s and 1960s doesn't bear that much resemblance to the lunatic right of today. Off the top of my head, I can't confirm or deny the thing about Jackie sending a letter to Dr. King regarding Vietnam, but lots of seemingly sane people supported Richard Nixon. Remember, it wasn't until late in his first term that we finally learned the true depths of his pathologies, even despite his participation in the McCarthy witch hunts.
DinT, thanks for the fact check, not sure that being "sane" or not gets to the heart of the matter tho. As for not resembling the right of today who do you imagine helped to create this hydra of paranoia and self-interest/pity? Think that maybe Nixon alums Cheney and Rumsfeld had something to do with the extension of this mind-set/rhetoric into our current poisoned well?
on Nixon and the southern strat:
"The Dems won a lock on African-American support when Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act into law, enfranchising blacks almost a century after the 15th Amendment had supposedly guaranteed them the right to vote. The legislation did more than inaugurate a new level of black political participation. As black registration surged, so did white registration. And millions of whites, particularly Southerners, eventually switched their allegiance to the GOP.
Nixon helped nurture this white backlash. As Vice-President, he had been progressive on civil rights--in fact, he had been a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. But after the 1960 loss to Kennedy, Nixon political adviser Thruston Morton bitterly resolved that the new approach to blacks would be "to hell with them." When Nixon ran for the Presidency again in 1968, he began to steal the thunder of segregationist and third-party candidate George Wallace. Nixon promised white voters he would appoint conservatives to the federal judiciary and stall school integration. A surge in Southern white support allowed Nixon to eke out a victory. Thereafter, GOP Presidential campaigns would regularly play the race card"
There is a direct line from Richard Nixon to Sarah Palin. But Nixon was a lot better at it. Richard Nixon teamed up with Roger Ailes, now head of Fox News to create a new media approach to campaigning. Richard Nixon first tapped the culture wars running on things that it didn't even seem like they were political issues before him.
All this stuff is in Nixonland which I highly recommend.
Not that I think that Jackie Robinson was a nutcase, mind you.
dint, thanks for the fact check not sure that sanity is the issue as much as a puzzling sense of self-interest, as for the 60's Reps not resembling the current crew they are often literally the same people, see the outgoing VP and Rumsfeld and the sitting senior congressmen.
for a quicky summary of Trick Dick on the southern strat:
"The Dems won a lock on African-American support when Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act into law, enfranchising blacks almost a century after the 15th Amendment had supposedly guaranteed them the right to vote. The legislation did more than inaugurate a new level of black political participation. As black registration surged, so did white registration. And millions of whites, particularly Southerners, eventually switched their allegiance to the GOP.
Nixon helped nurture this white backlash. As Vice-President, he had been progressive on civil rights--in fact, he had been a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. But after the 1960 loss to Kennedy, Nixon political adviser Thruston Morton bitterly resolved that the new approach to blacks would be "to hell with them." When Nixon ran for the Presidency again in 1968, he began to steal the thunder of segregationist and third-party candidate George Wallace. Nixon promised white voters he would appoint conservatives to the federal judiciary and stall school integration. A surge in Southern white support allowed Nixon to eke out a victory. Thereafter, GOP Presidential campaigns would regularly play the race card"
Good points all regarding the Southern Strategy and Nixon's use of it to stoke a backlash to the passage of the Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts. Not to mention that we knew, or should have known, about Nixon's proclivities as early as his first Senate campaign, when he tarred Helen Gahagan Douglas as the "Pink Lady."
Yet he was elected and re-elected. It's somewhat like the way that lots of us (especially those of us from Texas) knew all along that George W. Bush was a total lightweight who was in completely over his head, but it took Katrina to prove to it to the nation at large. It took Watergate to show Nixon as he truly was, rather than how Americans wished he was.
Ah. I feel the cool breath of electric energy coursing through my brain as maple syrup flows at absolute zero. Freedom to pick my very own topic! I have waited for this moment since I was conceived.
Here it is, a challenge to my esteemed colleagues:
What will the final vote for the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor be for Justice of the Supreme Court? Winner receives the unrestrained and public huzzahs of the intelligent and very cool posters, right here, at TNC's Joint.
My perspicacious prediction is thus: Yea~80; Nay~19.
Any thoughts on the untimely death of Arturo Gatti (my take on it here: Arturo "Thunder" Gatti, RIP). Looks like Gatti's 23 year old wife killed him. Sad story. Anyone remember watching the first Gatti-Ward fight live? I'd say that and the first Castillo-Corrales fight rank as the two best fights of the last ten years, easily.
My thoughts are still way too jumbled up to get anything coherent out, so this will probably come out sounding something like a Theraflu-induced rant itself. The most amazing thing about Gatti was that, no matter how many times you saw him come back after being sure he was done, you never ceased to be surprised when he came back. The Angel Manfredy fight is the one I'll always remember, even more than the Ward trilogy. The Ward triology exposed an interesting fact about boxing that I don't think HBO and Showtime have ever fully appreciated: it's much more important to make exciting fights than it is to have belts on the line. 90% of Floyd Mayweather's fights end with the crowd booing and the people at home flipping channels, but HBO would much rather have him defending against a sacrificial lamb than a surefire exciting fight between two mediocre fighters (which is what Gatti and Ward were, at least talent wise). Yet the fans remember that triology much more than they do, say, Mayweather - Baldomir. The Mayweather - Gatti fight was a rare exception to the usual bland Mayweather fight only because (1) Gatti couldn't hurt Floyd and (2) Gatti couldn't defend himself.
Anyway, this is all straying pretty far from the topic, which is Gatti's death. If any of you are Maxboxing subscribers, there was a video up there a year or two ago which is really haunting me now. Gatti is ranting about all the guys who screwed him over in his career (Buddy McGirt gets the brunt of it). Then he goes off into an ugly rant about the mother of his kid. The one thing that seems to get him to brighten up is talking about his fiancee, this 21 year old girl who didn't even know who he was until someone else told her. What a sad sad ending that had.
"HBO would much rather have him defending against a sacrificial lamb than a surefire exciting fight between two mediocre fighters (which is what Gatti and Ward were, at least talent wise)."
I don't think that's entirely true -- that HBO broadcast the first Ward-Gatti fight is an obvious counter-example. Ward was a club fighter who had fought in a fight-of-the-year on ESPN2 (if memory serves) with Emmanuel Burton (who I think later converted to Islam and changed his name).
Regarding Mayweather, it's similar to what the situation used to be with Roy Jones, Jr.: a fighter who's so fast, so good, and so conservative, that if he's not challenged, he'll do enough to win and then coast. That's not exciting to watch, but the excitement is that you never know when a Tarver is going to knock a Jones off of his pedestal. In the case of Mayweather, his Tarver might turn out to be Pacquiao. Mayweather-Gatti was one of the most one-sided professional fights I've ever seen, but I'm sure it was a big payday for Gatti. And he had such hardcore fans, that some of them didn't even realize how one-sided and pointless it was from the beginning: I heard a Gatti fan once blame Gatti's loss in that fight on low blows. Please.
"Gatti is ranting about all the guys who screwed him over in his career (Buddy McGirt gets the brunt of it). Then he goes off into an ugly rant about the mother of his kid."
What was his issue with McGirt? My issue with McGirt, who's a savvy trainer, is why he agreed to train Gatti for the Mayweather fight in the first place. Re the mother of his kid: Gatti had another kid besides the one with the Brazilian wife?
(1) I think we agree. Arturo was unique in that HBO found a way to air his fights even though he was never a legitimate frontline fighter. But as a general rule, they'd rather put together a boring fight between two established names instead of airing fights with exciting but imperfect fighters and letting them make their own names. I don't have a major beef with that, you have to air Oscar when you have the chance, but we don't need to say things like Tarver-Dawson II and the like, do we?
(2) Roy accomplished a lot more than PBF ever has. He beat Toney and B.Hop, he went up and won a heavyweight title, and he showed a real killer instinct when he was mad (see Montell Griffin II). My point wasn't to knock Floyd though. He needs to do whatever he needs to do to stay undefeated and pay off the IRS. My point was that HBO doesn't need to blow a ton of money on his fight with Carlos Baldomir or Chop Chop Corley when it could give us an action packed fight with guys who don't do AT&T commercials. I'm actually looking forward to his fight with Marquez.
(3) The only problem with your Pacquiao being Mayweather's Tarver argument is that I think Pac will come in favored, or damn near. I actually still don't buy Pac the way some do. Don't get me wrong, he's a top guy, but I'm not so excited he by the fact tha the beat a dead man walking in De La Hoya and an always overrated Hatton. I think Cotto has been done since the Margarito fight too. I'd need to see Pac beat a top fighter in his prime and that's something he hasn't really done, unless you count Marquez, and those fights were close. That said, while I'd pick Floyd, I'd give Pac a live shot since Zab Judah was able to rough Floyd up early and Pac does everything better than Zab.
(4) I think the beef with McGirt was financial but he kept saying that Buddy tried to take all the credit for his success. I'll say this: with the exception of Tarver catching Jones on the right night, McGirt's fighters have underperformed in big fights.
(5) Yeah, Arturo had another kid with some woman who he despised. I don't know if the video is still up on Maxboxing but he went off on her and her whole family. It's nasty.
from this morning's paper the teaser is:
Being black, gay and a member of a traditional black church is a tangle of theology, hypocrisy and secrecy. "It's not so much that the black church doesn't want gay men, they don't want openly gay men," said Devon Berry, who is black and gay
Healing recipe: Cut an apple in fours, and boil it with Anise Seeds. Then pour the water through a sifter into your favorite tea cup.
I also recommend adding honey and a squeeze of lime.
"Atlantic Monthly writer Ta-Nehisi Coates (ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com) is absolutely one of the most insightful African-American voices in the public arena."
yep, she did. I would rather Lacewell-Harris said that TNC is one of the most insightful voices in the public arena ('cause he is) and then add, if she wants this kind of context: "who regularly writes about politics, racism, American history, sports and American pop culture.
Frankly, IMHO, Lacewell Harris could use an endorsement from TNC. She was predicting in '07 that Obama couldn't win the Presidency and that she'd like to see him as "Vice President." So much for the genius political scientist. I didn't go to college, but I was dead certain Obama having gotten involved in his campaign and paying real attention to him that he had a serious chance of winning the primaries and the Presidency back in '07. Lacewell-Harris annoys me...over-rated academic intellectual. Most of them are...
2) Keep your sinuses clear. Nearly every time I was sick, having the sinuses clogged up really messed with my head, when I was able to keep the sinuses open I was functioning and a happy shiny person thinking of rainbows and gumdrop smiles.
3) I don't own a Kindle but I'm looking into getting a book uploaded onto it. Just have to find a final draft in .doc format or else go back through the first draft and re-edit everything (augh).
dmf wrote something earlier referring to an article with this quote: "It's not so much that the black church doesn't want gay men, they don't want openly gay men," said Devon Berry, who is black and gay."
It brought a different question to mind for me, so I decided not to post a direct reply, as that seemed a little disrespectful to dmf! But here's what I have long wondered about, regarding the historic role of the church in the African-American community:
What if you're an atheist?
Is it hard to "come out" as an atheist in the Black community? It's hard enough -- I've discovered, thanks to my atheist husband -- to do so in white circles, but I've begun to wonder if it might not be even harder among Blacks. Just a thought I've been having, and if anyone wants to address it, or can direct me to a good book, I'd be very grateful.
(SORRY. I MISTAKENLY POSTED THE FOLLOWING AS A REPLY TO A MAYO QUESTION AND, WELL, I'M A MORON).
dmf wrote something earlier referring to an article with this quote: "It's not so much that the black church doesn't want gay men, they don't want openly gay men," said Devon Berry, who is black and gay."
It brought a different question to mind for me, so I decided not to post a direct reply, as that seemed a little disrespectful to dmf! But here's what I have long wondered about, regarding the historic role of the church in the African-American community:
What if you're an atheist?
Is it hard to "come out" as an atheist in the Black community? It's hard enough -- I've discovered, thanks to my atheist husband -- to do so in white circles, but I've begun to wonder if it might not be even harder among Blacks. Just a thought I've been having, and if anyone wants to address it, or can direct me to a good book, I'd be very grateful.
To ellaesther: a few months ago Racialicious posted this excellent piece about black people and atheism/agnosticism. It really intrigued me because I'm one of the few (admitted anyway) agnostics among my family and friends. My parents aren't particularly religious even though they both grew up in churches--Mom Baptist, Dad Pentecostal---but they still do believe in God. Most of my family and friends go to church and tell me to pray on things...and most times I smile and say thanks because I know if I say "I'm not sure I believe any of that" I'll either get the "Curs-ed heathen child" look or they get eager to convert me, you know, hoping I'll have a Saul on the road to Damascus kind of experience. It's a bit difficult to navigate being black and atheist or agnostic but at the same time, I have enough friends who accept me to balance out the kind of friends and family members I mentioned before.
To TNC: Feel better soon! And try some warm brandy mixed with lemon and honey. It works as well as Theraflu and is ever so slightly less disgusting.
I've had well-meaning people tell me about my husband (an Israeli Jew) "oh, he'll come around," and I just want to go: Do you think he's simple? The man knows his own mind! And does not need your stinking God to be a good person! And I, mind you, am a person of faith, who keeps strictly kosher and won't work on Shabbat and so on -- but come on, people!
So since this is an open thread, and because I grew up poor and don't know much about the benefits of alternative medicines like Theraflu. Why use that over robitussin?
Chris Rock's bit on this was hilarious because I could relate. It seems that robitussin, O.J. and sleep was all we had.
Theraflu has a lighter feel than your average tussin (no robi-) I think. Now granted, these days I only drink syrup for recreational purposes. Lol.
Some old folks will tell you to get some tussin for anything though. Catch a chill? Tussin. Headache? Tussin. Scrape your knee? Get some of that tussin on there...
Ok. So the NY Times reports that Obama has tentatively accepted an invitation to attend the opening ceremony of the 2010 World Cup here next June. Tentatively?
Obama is the first human on the planet to have more view counts on YouTube than say Ronaldhino. It is still actually more in US and Obama's interest for him to be there than the other way around. After all the World Cup is the biggest event in human history. No other event reminds the average human on the planet that the world is one to such an extend.
PS: Iran, Saudi Arabia and the US are the only countries in the world where girls are asked to play football and not boys. I call it football, by the way, because I am referring to a sport that is played with the foot and not hands (like handball, Rugby or American Football). You say American Express and not Express. You say America Online and not Online. Just call it what it is American "Foot"ball. Or at least instead of referring to soccer - call it World Football. Why not use a term that those who actually play and watch it can understand?
We call it soccer because that's what we call it. Why don't you call cookies cookies instead of biscuits? Is it somehow painful for you to use the word cookie?
By the way, the ball _is_ kicked in football- quite often, in fact.
But there already are so many different names: futbol, Fußball, football, etc. This is not all serious but my brain synapses definitely take long to associate "soccer". World football would make more sense to me and those who actually play the sport. As you can see - I am not against "more" words per se.
I sure hope you are feeling better soo, TNC!. Summer colds are the worst...
I suggest you get out of air conditioning and find you and K a beach, Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate and sweat the thing out in the sun. Oh, wait, I forget you are in NYC--probably raining....LOL!
In that case, hot toddies on the balcony, but don't fall over! Put Sam Cooke's 'Summertime' on the Ipod.
Hope you feel better, fam. And congrats on the propers. In the meantime, here's something to boost those spirits: Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson are done.
I was reading it over the last 5 weeks, taking breaks for other easier or more pressing reads. I very big read, slow like faulkner sometimes because I had to sort out what he was doing from what I thought he was doing. The quebec terrorist plot line I started to skip but the tennis and halfway house plotlines were amazing. are you in to it or done or about to read it?
Sorry, late to get back to this. I am reading it, 150 pages in. I guess since it's such a long book I'm not quite through the first act, and so not much has happened, just some involved descriptions of tennis academy politics and how get stoned at private school.
I am trying to reply to the Kindle posters, but I think I am replying to myself.
1. I promise that this post will my last as an unpaid Amazon
man for Amazon and its demon seed "The Kindle."
2. To muzz and CJB: I said over two weeks, probably about
20 days, plus the flight from JFK to Amsterdam [plus
layover], and then on to Istanbul. The Muezzin across the
street woke me up at sunrise. By sunset all I could do was
relax back at the Tashkonak Hotel. The Tashkonak is a
little hotel about 400 meters from the Blue Mosque and
The Hippodrome, and walking distance to The Grand
Bazaar, and hundreds of great restaurants. The
Archeological Museum near Topkapi is incredible. Get to
know the Turkish people and try to learn to say "thank you
very much," in Turkish. If you can learn it in less than a
week consider yourself a linguist. A ferry up the
Bosphorous and its stops, a ferry to the islands in the Sea
of Marmara, and a trip to Beyoğlu are a must. There is an
incredible amount of neat things to do, see, taste, and
experience. It would be great to get an apartment there
and spend the summer.
I am also resigning my unpaid gig as an employee for the
Turkish Tourist Bureau.
3. To zacksback: you are right, but only if you have access to
library, and stay in the library to read the periodicals
and newspapers. The price of Kindle like devices will
continue to drop basically making your argument moot.
4. To everyone else who has some visceral dislike for the
Kindle, it sounds to me like you have never had one for
a few days. The smell of paper, the tactile yak-yak, is like
a CFO I once worked with who didn't "trust" computers,
"needed" to run the numbers through his adding machine,
wanted that long white tape to hold on to, and to feel that
white tape as "proof."
I don't care, really. Do what you want. I quit that dweeb Bezos
and his billionare ilk and am going to get some Turkish Delight.
Oh, yeah, TNC. One word: Zinc. You'll be healthy, wealthy, and wise within daze. Sorta like me...
1. the library & used book suggestions only work if you're in a town with a library and used bookstores that have what you're looking for. I'm not. (I also can't unload the stuff I know I'm not going to read again, because they know they can't sell it. My tastes are esoteric - not all of them, but a lot of them.)
2. I've got so many double-stacked bookcases that I now regard most of my book collection as an unwelcome anchor. I would move if it weren't for the books. (Most will eventually be donated to the local library, I suppose, but they'll probably sell them for scrap, because, again, my tastes don't match the town.)
However, once again because a lot of my tastes are esoteric and involve current events, they're not available in a kindle edition, so I end up with more books anyway, even though I'm reading blogs, etc., instead (lately a lot re Iran).
On another subject:
I loved Infinite Jest when it first came out - but it is one of those sorts of books I actually wouldn't want to read on the kindle, because sometimes it can be hard to know how much more there is . . . . When you've been reading and reading and you're at 7% or something, it can be a little daunting.
I've been reading Nixonland for weeks now (fits and starts). It's good, but I'm only about 36% through, and I'm hoping that a big chunk of what's left is footnotes and the index and such - but probably not, because I'm currently still reading about the summer of 1968. (This book, unlike some others, doesn't seem to include chapter markers so you at least know whether or not you are closing on the end of a chapter.) I have to say, it explains a lot about why the people I disagree with came to the views they hold, though. So: useful.
I was thinking along my walk today,
scanning the white sand for objects that stood out from all the detail,
that man is like a ship anchored in the harbour.
There is some point,
I felt,
where something happens to cut him loose,
perhaps something he himself does to loose himself,
and at last he drifts away from the side into deeper water,
where the wind and the currents take him away from the land,
out of site.
I felt the moorings slip,
and beneath my hull the ocean drift,
free from the earth,
the sand,
the beach beneath my feet,
a drifting of planets as much as a drifting of currents.
I was thinking about things being sure,
about things being stable,
anchored,
rooted.
In what?
Soil?
Rock?
Earth?
But these are all moveable things,
not fixed at all,
and the only thing that is forever is the universe.
If you want to say your love is as permanent as something,
say it is as permanent as the universe,
then she will believe you.
I have come unstuck.
I am loosened from my moorings.
I feel myself floating off,
away from the land,
and the world that I know.
I am heading off for greener pastures,
for deeper blue,
for the horizon line that knows nothing but infinity.
There is beach sand on my feet.
There is dust on my floor.
I walk mud into my house from the shower.
There are cobwebs at my door.
There are cobwebs at my window.
There are cobwebs spanning the distance between my computer to the wall.
In the bathroom there is a plastic bucket.
It has yesterday’s shirt inside,
with yesterday’s socks.
I wash my feet in the bucket after rinsing the beach sand off.
I wash the clothes at the same time.
They wait there for me,
to pick them out of the bucket and hang them next to today’s shirt,
hanging on the line from yesterday.
Before I put on today’s shirt I must hang up tomorrows to dry.
I walk home from work past many people.
The further I walk the less people.
By the time I am in the bush I have left the city,
and the beach is all around me.
In the fridge I have a container of beans.
I make a pot once a week.
When I come home I take some out and put them on the stove.
I take the guitar and play soft music to the four walls until the beans have warmed
and the smell has filled the house.
I eat them hot with bread and cold beer to cool my tongue.
It passes through into my blood in a pleasant way
that makes me feel I am ready now to go to sleep.
I leave the pot for tomorrow.
I leave the dust for the weekend.
I clean what I have to clean to live a clean life.
I do not let my work suffer the discipline of housekeeping.
I pray my friends will pray,
let him not go blind,
let him not lose the power of his hands,
let him live long enough to write everything he has to write.
I love my wife.
I love my children.
Their love for me,
and my love for them,
keeps me alive.
It is a feeling inside that explodes sometimes like a star out in space.
I look to that star when I am lost,
alone,
in the dark.
I look,
and in my heart,
the star guides me.
Here's a piece no one cared about. Meh, whatever, probably the most enjoyable article I did during my stint at TIME. Premiered a month before I got laid-off. The nail in the coffin? Ya think?
Here's me going after Al. I didn't so much have a problem with him, as I had a problem with media acting like this dude was the go-to guy for everything black.
This was my first real story at time. I was writing for the Business section, a real change of direction for me. At any rate, it's about Wal-Mart's attempts to colonize the inner-city. As much as I enjoyed this piece, I mostly enjoyed going out to Chicago, which is a beautiful, beautiful city.
This a piece I did about the cops just outside our nation capitol, in Prince George's County, a few years back. I wanted to offer a counter to the dumb, conventional wisdom that if you paint your police force black, you could eradicate police brutality. In fact, Prince George's--one of the richest, blackest counties in the country--also had one of the most brutal police force's in the country.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Brock Lesnar is a tool. Who will be the first to shut him up? Carwin?
Honestly I think Brock could beat Fedor due to his sheer size (30+ pounds heavier). Ditto for Cain.
"Brock Lesnar is a tool."
A big, strong, physically overwhelming tool.....
I think it's probably time the UFC considered redoing their weight classes. 205-265 may just be too broad a stretch for one weight class. Make the heavyweight 205-235 and super-heavyweight 235-265. If you need more, create a new "Dreadnought" class at 266+.
But I don't know, are we going to see more Lesnars in the future? Let's face it, most of the really big, heavy guys just haven't been all that good, either as fighters or physical specimens. Lesnar is a freak of nature, and a gym freak besides. I've never been a fan of his, probably unfairly due to his WWE background, but I have to give him credit for hanging in there and learning to be a MMA fighter.
Carwin is just as or almost as athletic as Lesnar, and weighs in at 265 also, even though Brock probably walks around heavier. All of his fights he has KO'd in the first round. The Cain vs Carwin match will probably decide who faces Brock next.
I'm not a fan of Brock's because he is an arrogant prick. I understand his problems with Mir, who is much more eloquent and ran circles around him in the trash talk dept, but flipping off the fans and dissing the sponsor of the fight for not paying him? Grade-A tool. I have my doubts he can handle being really rocked either, but that's mostly just my gut speaking after watching him.
They do need to split up the heavyweight division, a 60-pound spread is just insane, even though some big people can cut a lot of weight to make 205. Griffin walks around at 240, I've heard. I really think they need to have weigh ins on fight day like in boxing, cutting all that weight is not healthy.
Amazon's just price-dropped the Kindle to $299. Will more people bite now? Half of me is tempted. The other half is thinking, "hell, in this economy they'll probably go lower."
My friend has a Kindle. When we were packing to fly back from from Pittsburgh, the Kindle was heavy and bulky in her tote-bag. She shoved it in her carry-on, then decided to check the carry-on once we got to the airport (small jet; it would have been gate-checked anyway) -- completely forgetting the Kindle was in it.
We got through security. She suddenly realized she had no reading material, and headed to the concourse bookstore to buy a paperback of the book...she was reading on Kindle.
Me, I just pulled my soft-cover novel out of *my* tote-bag, which cost me $0.00, not $299. Library books are like that.
I always take cheap paperbacks when I'm travelling so I don't have to apologize to anyone if I lose it. Which is probably what I'll continue to do, oh, forever. Really, it's more for in the car/sheer laziness.
I have a Kindle. It now has twenty books on it. I went to Istanbul for over two weeks and read eight books. The Kindle cost $359. Most of the books on my Kindle cost .99 cents, some cost $9.99. By my calculation the books cost about $112. If I bought them from Barnes and Noble they would have cost about $560. The cost of the Kindle has been covered by the savings of purchasing books in both hard and soft cover. Plus, I didn't have to bring a suitcase with 20 books in it.
Accept it or not, the hardcover/soft cover book is going the way of the electric typewriter.
Sure people forget or lose Kindles. People also lose their wallet or keys. There is no logic to your argument. Finally, a hardcover book is far more bulky and heavy than a Kindle; and unless you read pamphlets, a Kindle is less bulky than a softcover.
I don't have a kindle but I am fascinated by the idea.
I love books. They are easier to carry, cheap, and the best thing I like is that when I finish a good one, I can give it to a friend, who can give it to a friend...
But alas, I agree with adin that the day of the printed book may be nearing an end. Not so much because one is better then the other but more so that the materials and effort in printing books will be cost prohibitive.
Books will be relegated to the safe vaults of the libraries. Or you will have to pay a great price for them.
Adin,
My wife and I are going to Istanbul in August. Any specific recomendations?
I'm surprised people are ignoring the vast amount of free public access content out there. All of the books on mobileread.com, gutenberg.org, and dozens of other sites are free, easily accessed, and work on your Kindle natively. I hate to sound like a salesman, but it's allowed me to freely Swift, Joyce, Homer, Machiavelli, Tolstoy and dozens of others.
I'm a big fan of printed material. I like turning pages, writing in the margin, and inscriptions on the insides of covers. But the Kindle is winning me over with sheer convenience, and with the prodigious archives out there on the internet, we have no reason not to be well read.
I must say that I have so much love of books that I will sit down between rows in a book store just to look at them on the shelves. So much love that I outed myself as a complete and largely unrepentant neo-Luddite in print (in, ironically enough, a newspaper that has now gone all-internet! Oh, sweet irony!). Smell, feel, font -- every piece of the book is magical to me.
But what you say is just facts, and they are true ones. In aggregate, we will all be better off when the (ahem) dead-tree versions of literature are no long produced. I know this to be true. But I'll still be really, really sad.
Hey, though, here's a thought: I'm 44! Maybe I'll be dead by then! A girl can always hope.
Again, you're talking about the idea that purchasing a Kindle is better than purchasing books.
Libraries serve the same purpose they always have: to provide those without monetary resources free access to literature, topical periodicals, and information.
Libraries have also been much better in recent years about getting the paperback or softcover versions of books. To what CitizenE said below: As long as libaries provide FREE access to books, which can be returned so you don't have that heavy pile of Great Novels to schlep every time you move house....Kindle is like selling water next to a river.
Libraries serve everyone. Kindle serves the middle/upper middle class consumer who can afford to purchase it, and the broadband service to download books to it (which of course means they can also afford to have a computer; I highly doubt there are folks out there who have a Kindle and internet access but no laptop).
In short: the pros and cons of the Kindle aren't something the working poor go about debating, y'know?
Those books would have been much cheaper if you have bought them at a used book store (Full disclosure: My husband owns a used book store in Pittsburgh), and they would have been free from the library. Also you could have bought the same books in paperback, and even with a very generous price of $15.00 each, they still would have cost less than the Kindle itself.
it's ok if you like your Kindle, but justify it by saying that, not with lame arguments like the above.
any other city...just maybe
istanbul...impossible
i call your bluff (o.k., i guess two transatlantic flights are included)
anyway, what a wonderful city it is. have fun CJB, i'm sure you'll have a ball
next to the many awe inspiring mosques, it's worth checking out The Chora Church (beautiful byzantine mosaics & frescoes). saturday nights, the side streets off Istiklal Caddesi for mediterranean nightlife.
A friend was raving about his kindle, says it's increased his book intake. One of his best arguments in favor is that he can really get a sharp focus on what he wants to read, loading up the Kindle with the free opening excerpts Amazon provides, and various freetexts, and reading them in his spare moments to get a sense of those things he wants to actually finish. I think he's got a less-than-common talent for decision-making, but it really works for him in that he doesn't end up carrying one or two books that he might like, and finishing them cos he has them. Instead, he carries a queue of 100. This is one technique that goes beyond bookstore or library.
I'm an old guy, slow to new technology. I love reading two newspapers in the morning--my wake up meditation--and there's no way I find reading newspapers on line the same experience. I read mystery novels as an entertainment escape from reading and grading poorly written essays by remedial English college students. I spend a great deal of time on line, and must say the screen gets to my eyes after a while, so I don't quite get Kindle, except as a storage device and a tree saver. I don't really see how it's a money saver, and I imagine that reading off the screen--the media--infinitely less pleasurable than text on paper.
Economically, it makes very little sense to me. I can imagine them selling the sucker with a free 20 book combo at $299, but to me it seems right now like selling water by a river.
Well, the Kindle screen's supposed to be a selling point over reading on a laptop or netbook. It's not LCD, it's a different technology that puts out less glare, and has better font smoothing. If you get a chance, read one for a little bit and see if your eyes feel differently...
Persia: I feel you on hesitating for the price drop. It just seems so lame to pay $300 for a hand-held screen attached to what is practically a USB, in an Apple-inspired plastic case, loaded with DRM. It's like, really?
Personally I'm still waiting for that perfect, magical tablet netbook pc that is capable of handling everything I want it to.
I hope you feel better TNC. I dunno how deep your haze is, but I always end up GONE on Theraflu no matter what kind it is. Just gotta ride it out.
I actually use my iPod touch to read books. Not as big as a kindle, but the screen is good enough to read comfortably. The battery size maybe not be as good (actually, I have no idea about that), but I'm pretty happy with it.
Me too. I especially like that you can use the free Kindle app, or an app like Bookshelf that will allow you to download ebooks in non-Kindle formats. If you like SF/Fantasy, Baen's Free Library is the best thing ever--no Kindle needed.
Hope you're feeling better soon. Lots of rest and fluids....
I want TNC to post long rambling drug/fever induced posts about snack foods; who's with me?
Gonzo blogging. Someone's gotta carry Thompson into 21 century media
I thought that was what Krauthammer was for.
Aw man, that stinks. I'm sorry. Feel better!
I will say that when the President said the words "Martin Luther King" in Ghana the other day, I thought of you, and wondered if you (and the angry say-the-name people) noticed it, too. "He said his whole name!" I thought. "Phew!" All in all, that whole speech was, in the parlance of our times, full of win.
hey history and sports fans is it true that Jackie Robinson was a conservative Republican Nixon/Vietnam War supporter who wrote to MLK telling him that waging peace was wrongheaded? if so that should throw some serious kinks in the what would a famous historical figure feel about any particular issue based on previous life experience guessing game:
http://www.bobedwardsradio.com/blog/2009/7/11/dan-gediman-jackie-robinson-and-this-i-believe.html
ps tylenol+codeine is a wonder drug for achey bodies not recommending this just an observation.
It is in fact true that Jackie Robinson was a Republican and supported Richard Nixon. Bear in mind though, that a conservative Republican in the 1950s and 1960s doesn't bear that much resemblance to the lunatic right of today. Off the top of my head, I can't confirm or deny the thing about Jackie sending a letter to Dr. King regarding Vietnam, but lots of seemingly sane people supported Richard Nixon. Remember, it wasn't until late in his first term that we finally learned the true depths of his pathologies, even despite his participation in the McCarthy witch hunts.
DinT, thanks for the fact check, not sure that being "sane" or not gets to the heart of the matter tho. As for not resembling the right of today who do you imagine helped to create this hydra of paranoia and self-interest/pity? Think that maybe Nixon alums Cheney and Rumsfeld had something to do with the extension of this mind-set/rhetoric into our current poisoned well?
on Nixon and the southern strat:
"The Dems won a lock on African-American support when Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act into law, enfranchising blacks almost a century after the 15th Amendment had supposedly guaranteed them the right to vote. The legislation did more than inaugurate a new level of black political participation. As black registration surged, so did white registration. And millions of whites, particularly Southerners, eventually switched their allegiance to the GOP.
Nixon helped nurture this white backlash. As Vice-President, he had been progressive on civil rights--in fact, he had been a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. But after the 1960 loss to Kennedy, Nixon political adviser Thruston Morton bitterly resolved that the new approach to blacks would be "to hell with them." When Nixon ran for the Presidency again in 1968, he began to steal the thunder of segregationist and third-party candidate George Wallace. Nixon promised white voters he would appoint conservatives to the federal judiciary and stall school integration. A surge in Southern white support allowed Nixon to eke out a victory. Thereafter, GOP Presidential campaigns would regularly play the race card"
There is a direct line from Richard Nixon to Sarah Palin. But Nixon was a lot better at it. Richard Nixon teamed up with Roger Ailes, now head of Fox News to create a new media approach to campaigning. Richard Nixon first tapped the culture wars running on things that it didn't even seem like they were political issues before him.
All this stuff is in Nixonland which I highly recommend.
Not that I think that Jackie Robinson was a nutcase, mind you.
dint, thanks for the fact check not sure that sanity is the issue as much as a puzzling sense of self-interest, as for the 60's Reps not resembling the current crew they are often literally the same people, see the outgoing VP and Rumsfeld and the sitting senior congressmen.
for a quicky summary of Trick Dick on the southern strat:
"The Dems won a lock on African-American support when Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act into law, enfranchising blacks almost a century after the 15th Amendment had supposedly guaranteed them the right to vote. The legislation did more than inaugurate a new level of black political participation. As black registration surged, so did white registration. And millions of whites, particularly Southerners, eventually switched their allegiance to the GOP.
Nixon helped nurture this white backlash. As Vice-President, he had been progressive on civil rights--in fact, he had been a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. But after the 1960 loss to Kennedy, Nixon political adviser Thruston Morton bitterly resolved that the new approach to blacks would be "to hell with them." When Nixon ran for the Presidency again in 1968, he began to steal the thunder of segregationist and third-party candidate George Wallace. Nixon promised white voters he would appoint conservatives to the federal judiciary and stall school integration. A surge in Southern white support allowed Nixon to eke out a victory. Thereafter, GOP Presidential campaigns would regularly play the race card"
sorry all didn't mean to double post here i'm in some kind of e-loop that tells me that things aren't going through when they are
Good points all regarding the Southern Strategy and Nixon's use of it to stoke a backlash to the passage of the Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts. Not to mention that we knew, or should have known, about Nixon's proclivities as early as his first Senate campaign, when he tarred Helen Gahagan Douglas as the "Pink Lady."
Yet he was elected and re-elected. It's somewhat like the way that lots of us (especially those of us from Texas) knew all along that George W. Bush was a total lightweight who was in completely over his head, but it took Katrina to prove to it to the nation at large. It took Watergate to show Nixon as he truly was, rather than how Americans wished he was.
Wasnt James Brown also a Republican?
Ive heard an apocryphal tale that his great relationship with Reagan got ol' Ronnie to reconsider MLK Day Holiday at JB's urging.
Ah. I feel the cool breath of electric energy coursing through my brain as maple syrup flows at absolute zero. Freedom to pick my very own topic! I have waited for this moment since I was conceived.
Here it is, a challenge to my esteemed colleagues:
What will the final vote for the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor be for Justice of the Supreme Court? Winner receives the unrestrained and public huzzahs of the intelligent and very cool posters, right here, at TNC's Joint.
My perspicacious prediction is thus: Yea~80; Nay~19.
Thus sprake One of The Immortals, Adin.
Feel better, Ta-Nehisi.
Any thoughts on the untimely death of Arturo Gatti (my take on it here: Arturo "Thunder" Gatti, RIP). Looks like Gatti's 23 year old wife killed him. Sad story. Anyone remember watching the first Gatti-Ward fight live? I'd say that and the first Castillo-Corrales fight rank as the two best fights of the last ten years, easily.
yeah man, this is crazy......i think i'll start sleeping alone....
My thoughts are still way too jumbled up to get anything coherent out, so this will probably come out sounding something like a Theraflu-induced rant itself. The most amazing thing about Gatti was that, no matter how many times you saw him come back after being sure he was done, you never ceased to be surprised when he came back. The Angel Manfredy fight is the one I'll always remember, even more than the Ward trilogy. The Ward triology exposed an interesting fact about boxing that I don't think HBO and Showtime have ever fully appreciated: it's much more important to make exciting fights than it is to have belts on the line. 90% of Floyd Mayweather's fights end with the crowd booing and the people at home flipping channels, but HBO would much rather have him defending against a sacrificial lamb than a surefire exciting fight between two mediocre fighters (which is what Gatti and Ward were, at least talent wise). Yet the fans remember that triology much more than they do, say, Mayweather - Baldomir. The Mayweather - Gatti fight was a rare exception to the usual bland Mayweather fight only because (1) Gatti couldn't hurt Floyd and (2) Gatti couldn't defend himself.
Anyway, this is all straying pretty far from the topic, which is Gatti's death. If any of you are Maxboxing subscribers, there was a video up there a year or two ago which is really haunting me now. Gatti is ranting about all the guys who screwed him over in his career (Buddy McGirt gets the brunt of it). Then he goes off into an ugly rant about the mother of his kid. The one thing that seems to get him to brighten up is talking about his fiancee, this 21 year old girl who didn't even know who he was until someone else told her. What a sad sad ending that had.
See, I told you that would be incoherent.
"HBO would much rather have him defending against a sacrificial lamb than a surefire exciting fight between two mediocre fighters (which is what Gatti and Ward were, at least talent wise)."
I don't think that's entirely true -- that HBO broadcast the first Ward-Gatti fight is an obvious counter-example. Ward was a club fighter who had fought in a fight-of-the-year on ESPN2 (if memory serves) with Emmanuel Burton (who I think later converted to Islam and changed his name).
Regarding Mayweather, it's similar to what the situation used to be with Roy Jones, Jr.: a fighter who's so fast, so good, and so conservative, that if he's not challenged, he'll do enough to win and then coast. That's not exciting to watch, but the excitement is that you never know when a Tarver is going to knock a Jones off of his pedestal. In the case of Mayweather, his Tarver might turn out to be Pacquiao. Mayweather-Gatti was one of the most one-sided professional fights I've ever seen, but I'm sure it was a big payday for Gatti. And he had such hardcore fans, that some of them didn't even realize how one-sided and pointless it was from the beginning: I heard a Gatti fan once blame Gatti's loss in that fight on low blows. Please.
"Gatti is ranting about all the guys who screwed him over in his career (Buddy McGirt gets the brunt of it). Then he goes off into an ugly rant about the mother of his kid."
What was his issue with McGirt? My issue with McGirt, who's a savvy trainer, is why he agreed to train Gatti for the Mayweather fight in the first place. Re the mother of his kid: Gatti had another kid besides the one with the Brazilian wife?
(1) I think we agree. Arturo was unique in that HBO found a way to air his fights even though he was never a legitimate frontline fighter. But as a general rule, they'd rather put together a boring fight between two established names instead of airing fights with exciting but imperfect fighters and letting them make their own names. I don't have a major beef with that, you have to air Oscar when you have the chance, but we don't need to say things like Tarver-Dawson II and the like, do we?
(2) Roy accomplished a lot more than PBF ever has. He beat Toney and B.Hop, he went up and won a heavyweight title, and he showed a real killer instinct when he was mad (see Montell Griffin II). My point wasn't to knock Floyd though. He needs to do whatever he needs to do to stay undefeated and pay off the IRS. My point was that HBO doesn't need to blow a ton of money on his fight with Carlos Baldomir or Chop Chop Corley when it could give us an action packed fight with guys who don't do AT&T commercials. I'm actually looking forward to his fight with Marquez.
(3) The only problem with your Pacquiao being Mayweather's Tarver argument is that I think Pac will come in favored, or damn near. I actually still don't buy Pac the way some do. Don't get me wrong, he's a top guy, but I'm not so excited he by the fact tha the beat a dead man walking in De La Hoya and an always overrated Hatton. I think Cotto has been done since the Margarito fight too. I'd need to see Pac beat a top fighter in his prime and that's something he hasn't really done, unless you count Marquez, and those fights were close. That said, while I'd pick Floyd, I'd give Pac a live shot since Zab Judah was able to rough Floyd up early and Pac does everything better than Zab.
(4) I think the beef with McGirt was financial but he kept saying that Buddy tried to take all the credit for his success. I'll say this: with the exception of Tarver catching Jones on the right night, McGirt's fighters have underperformed in big fights.
(5) Yeah, Arturo had another kid with some woman who he despised. I don't know if the video is still up on Maxboxing but he went off on her and her whole family. It's nasty.
from this morning's paper the teaser is:
Being black, gay and a member of a traditional black church is a tangle of theology, hypocrisy and secrecy. "It's not so much that the black church doesn't want gay men, they don't want openly gay men," said Devon Berry, who is black and gay
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/jul/12/the-straight-and-narrow/
Without the participation of gay men, albeit closeted mostly, the Black Church would be crippled, from the choir to the pews.
TNC:
Healing recipe: Cut an apple in fours, and boil it with Anise Seeds. Then pour the water through a sifter into your favorite tea cup.
I also recommend adding honey and a squeeze of lime.
Let me know if you try this and how you like it.
Feel better and God Bless.
yeah, this sounds good...but I have a faster one.
Brandy. or bourbon. Burn it out. Good luck.
I like the idea of compromise: add brandy or bourbon to the above apple-anise mixture. Best of all worlds!
I got a great recipe for a hot toddy on this site, in the comments section... last time I was sick it really came in handy. And it was fuuuuuunnnn!
If I recall correctly, one of the spin-off essays from Orwell's book, "Down and Out in Paris and London" was "How the Poor Die."
I am sure the resonance is intentional... I hope the resonance is limited as well.
Get well soon, TNC.
not down and out in Beverly Hills?
my guess is the reference is to Down and Out in New York City....by James Brown....perhaps....
in any event, have a speedy recovery.
Will there still be an Open Thread At Noon?
A yo! Wake up! You major dunny!
"Atlantic Monthly writer Ta-Nehisi Coates (ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com) is absolutely one of the most insightful African-American voices in the public arena."
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24581.html
Coming from Lacewell-Harris, that's huge. Looks like we might just see TNC on TV before he owns one haha.
Although is it fair to say that Lacewill-Harris just ShelbySteele'd TNC? ;)
yep, she did. I would rather Lacewell-Harris said that TNC is one of the most insightful voices in the public arena ('cause he is) and then add, if she wants this kind of context: "who regularly writes about politics, racism, American history, sports and American pop culture.
Frankly, IMHO, Lacewell Harris could use an endorsement from TNC. She was predicting in '07 that Obama couldn't win the Presidency and that she'd like to see him as "Vice President." So much for the genius political scientist. I didn't go to college, but I was dead certain Obama having gotten involved in his campaign and paying real attention to him that he had a serious chance of winning the primaries and the Presidency back in '07. Lacewell-Harris annoys me...over-rated academic intellectual. Most of them are...
Hope you feel better soon. On a side note getting sick as an adult never seems to be any fun.
Take care and I hope you feel decent soon.
Get better and don't spread your germs..LOL
You're sick too...This is very sad. It must be going around. Feel better and get strong!
37 comments on this post, a good plurality of them versions of "get well soon." TNC, your readers do love you...
Indeed we do, even though I was busy nattering on about the Kindle.
Three things:
1) For your flu, tea and lots of it.
2) Keep your sinuses clear. Nearly every time I was sick, having the sinuses clogged up really messed with my head, when I was able to keep the sinuses open I was functioning and a happy shiny person thinking of rainbows and gumdrop smiles.
3) I don't own a Kindle but I'm looking into getting a book uploaded onto it. Just have to find a final draft in .doc format or else go back through the first draft and re-edit everything (augh).
You could maybe copy-paste the text from the final PDF?
I'd just checked my files. I don't have a final pdf. Might have to email Xlibris and see if they can forward the final draft back to me...
Mayonaisse or Miracle Whip ? Anyone have any thoughts on this ?
We have a winner.
dmf wrote something earlier referring to an article with this quote: "It's not so much that the black church doesn't want gay men, they don't want openly gay men," said Devon Berry, who is black and gay."
It brought a different question to mind for me, so I decided not to post a direct reply, as that seemed a little disrespectful to dmf! But here's what I have long wondered about, regarding the historic role of the church in the African-American community:
What if you're an atheist?
Is it hard to "come out" as an atheist in the Black community? It's hard enough -- I've discovered, thanks to my atheist husband -- to do so in white circles, but I've begun to wonder if it might not be even harder among Blacks. Just a thought I've been having, and if anyone wants to address it, or can direct me to a good book, I'd be very grateful.
I take it that as an atheist your husband doesn't believe in Miracle Whip....
No, I think you can just presume that I am a commenting idiot. God damn I hate when I do that!
I actually think he doesn't really care on the Mayo/MW divide -- he really is a godless heathen, in all possible respects.
(Sigh. I'm actually going to repost that, despite feeling like an idiot -- but who will see it there?)
(SORRY. I MISTAKENLY POSTED THE FOLLOWING AS A REPLY TO A MAYO QUESTION AND, WELL, I'M A MORON).
dmf wrote something earlier referring to an article with this quote: "It's not so much that the black church doesn't want gay men, they don't want openly gay men," said Devon Berry, who is black and gay."
It brought a different question to mind for me, so I decided not to post a direct reply, as that seemed a little disrespectful to dmf! But here's what I have long wondered about, regarding the historic role of the church in the African-American community:
What if you're an atheist?
Is it hard to "come out" as an atheist in the Black community? It's hard enough -- I've discovered, thanks to my atheist husband -- to do so in white circles, but I've begun to wonder if it might not be even harder among Blacks. Just a thought I've been having, and if anyone wants to address it, or can direct me to a good book, I'd be very grateful.
To ellaesther: a few months ago Racialicious posted this excellent piece about black people and atheism/agnosticism. It really intrigued me because I'm one of the few (admitted anyway) agnostics among my family and friends. My parents aren't particularly religious even though they both grew up in churches--Mom Baptist, Dad Pentecostal---but they still do believe in God. Most of my family and friends go to church and tell me to pray on things...and most times I smile and say thanks because I know if I say "I'm not sure I believe any of that" I'll either get the "Curs-ed heathen child" look or they get eager to convert me, you know, hoping I'll have a Saul on the road to Damascus kind of experience. It's a bit difficult to navigate being black and atheist or agnostic but at the same time, I have enough friends who accept me to balance out the kind of friends and family members I mentioned before.
To TNC: Feel better soon! And try some warm brandy mixed with lemon and honey. It works as well as Theraflu and is ever so slightly less disgusting.
Thank you so much! I'll go to that piece.
I've had well-meaning people tell me about my husband (an Israeli Jew) "oh, he'll come around," and I just want to go: Do you think he's simple? The man knows his own mind! And does not need your stinking God to be a good person! And I, mind you, am a person of faith, who keeps strictly kosher and won't work on Shabbat and so on -- but come on, people!
Cool story ellaesther and Dani. Cool link too.
So since this is an open thread, and because I grew up poor and don't know much about the benefits of alternative medicines like Theraflu. Why use that over robitussin?
Chris Rock's bit on this was hilarious because I could relate. It seems that robitussin, O.J. and sleep was all we had.
Theraflu has a lighter feel than your average tussin (no robi-) I think. Now granted, these days I only drink syrup for recreational purposes. Lol.
Some old folks will tell you to get some tussin for anything though. Catch a chill? Tussin. Headache? Tussin. Scrape your knee? Get some of that tussin on there...
From "My Big, Fat Greek Wedding"....
"Put some Windex on it"......
Ok. So the NY Times reports that Obama has tentatively accepted an invitation to attend the opening ceremony of the 2010 World Cup here next June. Tentatively?
Obama is the first human on the planet to have more view counts on YouTube than say Ronaldhino. It is still actually more in US and Obama's interest for him to be there than the other way around. After all the World Cup is the biggest event in human history. No other event reminds the average human on the planet that the world is one to such an extend.
PS: Iran, Saudi Arabia and the US are the only countries in the world where girls are asked to play football and not boys. I call it football, by the way, because I am referring to a sport that is played with the foot and not hands (like handball, Rugby or American Football). You say American Express and not Express. You say America Online and not Online. Just call it what it is American "Foot"ball. Or at least instead of referring to soccer - call it World Football. Why not use a term that those who actually play and watch it can understand?
We call it soccer because that's what we call it. Why don't you call cookies cookies instead of biscuits? Is it somehow painful for you to use the word cookie?
By the way, the ball _is_ kicked in football- quite often, in fact.
You don't understand what people mean when they say "soccer?" Sometimes there can be more than one word for the same thing. Why is that bad?
But there already are so many different names: futbol, Fußball, football, etc. This is not all serious but my brain synapses definitely take long to associate "soccer". World football would make more sense to me and those who actually play the sport. As you can see - I am not against "more" words per se.
PS: Interesting post over at the Atlantic's food department: A Cotton Farm an Abolitionist Could Love
I sure hope you are feeling better soo, TNC!. Summer colds are the worst...
I suggest you get out of air conditioning and find you and K a beach, Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate and sweat the thing out in the sun. Oh, wait, I forget you are in NYC--probably raining....LOL!
In that case, hot toddies on the balcony, but don't fall over! Put Sam Cooke's 'Summertime' on the Ipod.
Hope you feel better, fam. And congrats on the propers. In the meantime, here's something to boost those spirits: Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson are done.
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20290944,00.html
That's good news for your Cowboys, I think.
Anybody here reading Infinite Jest this summer?
Probably not -- there's nothing in it about the Civil War, right?
I was reading it over the last 5 weeks, taking breaks for other easier or more pressing reads. I very big read, slow like faulkner sometimes because I had to sort out what he was doing from what I thought he was doing. The quebec terrorist plot line I started to skip but the tennis and halfway house plotlines were amazing. are you in to it or done or about to read it?
Sorry, late to get back to this. I am reading it, 150 pages in. I guess since it's such a long book I'm not quite through the first act, and so not much has happened, just some involved descriptions of tennis academy politics and how get stoned at private school.
I am trying to reply to the Kindle posters, but I think I am replying to myself.
1. I promise that this post will my last as an unpaid Amazon
man for Amazon and its demon seed "The Kindle."
2. To muzz and CJB: I said over two weeks, probably about
20 days, plus the flight from JFK to Amsterdam [plus
layover], and then on to Istanbul. The Muezzin across the
street woke me up at sunrise. By sunset all I could do was
relax back at the Tashkonak Hotel. The Tashkonak is a
little hotel about 400 meters from the Blue Mosque and
The Hippodrome, and walking distance to The Grand
Bazaar, and hundreds of great restaurants. The
Archeological Museum near Topkapi is incredible. Get to
know the Turkish people and try to learn to say "thank you
very much," in Turkish. If you can learn it in less than a
week consider yourself a linguist. A ferry up the
Bosphorous and its stops, a ferry to the islands in the Sea
of Marmara, and a trip to Beyoğlu are a must. There is an
incredible amount of neat things to do, see, taste, and
experience. It would be great to get an apartment there
and spend the summer.
I am also resigning my unpaid gig as an employee for the
Turkish Tourist Bureau.
3. To zacksback: you are right, but only if you have access to
library, and stay in the library to read the periodicals
and newspapers. The price of Kindle like devices will
continue to drop basically making your argument moot.
4. To everyone else who has some visceral dislike for the
Kindle, it sounds to me like you have never had one for
a few days. The smell of paper, the tactile yak-yak, is like
a CFO I once worked with who didn't "trust" computers,
"needed" to run the numbers through his adding machine,
wanted that long white tape to hold on to, and to feel that
white tape as "proof."
I don't care, really. Do what you want. I quit that dweeb Bezos
and his billionare ilk and am going to get some Turkish Delight.
Oh, yeah, TNC. One word: Zinc. You'll be healthy, wealthy, and wise within daze. Sorta like me...
kindle advocacy:
1. the library & used book suggestions only work if you're in a town with a library and used bookstores that have what you're looking for. I'm not. (I also can't unload the stuff I know I'm not going to read again, because they know they can't sell it. My tastes are esoteric - not all of them, but a lot of them.)
2. I've got so many double-stacked bookcases that I now regard most of my book collection as an unwelcome anchor. I would move if it weren't for the books. (Most will eventually be donated to the local library, I suppose, but they'll probably sell them for scrap, because, again, my tastes don't match the town.)
However, once again because a lot of my tastes are esoteric and involve current events, they're not available in a kindle edition, so I end up with more books anyway, even though I'm reading blogs, etc., instead (lately a lot re Iran).
On another subject:
I loved Infinite Jest when it first came out - but it is one of those sorts of books I actually wouldn't want to read on the kindle, because sometimes it can be hard to know how much more there is . . . . When you've been reading and reading and you're at 7% or something, it can be a little daunting.
I've been reading Nixonland for weeks now (fits and starts). It's good, but I'm only about 36% through, and I'm hoping that a big chunk of what's left is footnotes and the index and such - but probably not, because I'm currently still reading about the summer of 1968. (This book, unlike some others, doesn't seem to include chapter markers so you at least know whether or not you are closing on the end of a chapter.) I have to say, it explains a lot about why the people I disagree with came to the views they hold, though. So: useful.
CHANGES
I was thinking along my walk today,
scanning the white sand for objects that stood out from all the detail,
that man is like a ship anchored in the harbour.
There is some point,
I felt,
where something happens to cut him loose,
perhaps something he himself does to loose himself,
and at last he drifts away from the side into deeper water,
where the wind and the currents take him away from the land,
out of site.
I felt the moorings slip,
and beneath my hull the ocean drift,
free from the earth,
the sand,
the beach beneath my feet,
a drifting of planets as much as a drifting of currents.
I was thinking about things being sure,
about things being stable,
anchored,
rooted.
In what?
Soil?
Rock?
Earth?
But these are all moveable things,
not fixed at all,
and the only thing that is forever is the universe.
If you want to say your love is as permanent as something,
say it is as permanent as the universe,
then she will believe you.
I have come unstuck.
I am loosened from my moorings.
I feel myself floating off,
away from the land,
and the world that I know.
I am heading off for greener pastures,
for deeper blue,
for the horizon line that knows nothing but infinity.
There is beach sand on my feet.
There is dust on my floor.
I walk mud into my house from the shower.
There are cobwebs at my door.
There are cobwebs at my window.
There are cobwebs spanning the distance between my computer to the wall.
In the bathroom there is a plastic bucket.
It has yesterday’s shirt inside,
with yesterday’s socks.
I wash my feet in the bucket after rinsing the beach sand off.
I wash the clothes at the same time.
They wait there for me,
to pick them out of the bucket and hang them next to today’s shirt,
hanging on the line from yesterday.
Before I put on today’s shirt I must hang up tomorrows to dry.
I walk home from work past many people.
The further I walk the less people.
By the time I am in the bush I have left the city,
and the beach is all around me.
In the fridge I have a container of beans.
I make a pot once a week.
When I come home I take some out and put them on the stove.
I take the guitar and play soft music to the four walls until the beans have warmed
and the smell has filled the house.
I eat them hot with bread and cold beer to cool my tongue.
It passes through into my blood in a pleasant way
that makes me feel I am ready now to go to sleep.
I leave the pot for tomorrow.
I leave the dust for the weekend.
I clean what I have to clean to live a clean life.
I do not let my work suffer the discipline of housekeeping.
I pray my friends will pray,
let him not go blind,
let him not lose the power of his hands,
let him live long enough to write everything he has to write.
I love my wife.
I love my children.
Their love for me,
and my love for them,
keeps me alive.
It is a feeling inside that explodes sometimes like a star out in space.
I look to that star when I am lost,
alone,
in the dark.
I look,
and in my heart,
the star guides me.