Definitions

A few = 3-7
A couple = 2-4
A handful = 3-10
Several = 5-10
One = 1
A lot = more than 5
Almost = > 75% of the way there
Not bad = better than the median
Always = undefined
Never = undefined
Forever = undefined
Sometimes = more than once, less than 100% of the time

Random Thoughts on Moth Balls

I was just checking out my closet. Wanted to clean off my glasses so I went in there to get this cloth I use to clean them, it's some special micro fiber thing. Anyway. I got a whiff of mustiness. Didn't really smell bad and I thought about how I don't really clean the closet, at most I just throw shit out of it. Then I remembered moth balls. I remember running into them sometimes poking around when I was real young, but I never used them as an adult. Never occurred to me. I wonder if this is because I live in Colorado and not Massachusetts. Maybe moths aren't so much of a problem here, because of the climate perhaps. Maybe they aren't so much of a problem now. Have they eradicated this nuisance with pesticides? (I do remember seeing a lot of them on occasion, not that they bothered me. I recall being in New Haven and they would kind of hover around. They might have come out at twilight. Recall going through one neighborhood and people had posted some sort of anti-moth trap on trees. I think it might have had pheromones or something to attract them and kill them.) Maybe moths have been proven not to eat people's clothes. Maybe mothballs have been proven not to work. Maybe they do and everyone still uses them but me. If that's the case I can't say I've been bothered by the lack of them. Of course I don't use irons either, maybe I'm just slovenly.

Timothy Egan VS Joe the Plumber - "I don’t want you writing books."

Wow, Timothy Egan's op-ed/attack on Joe the Plumber was the dumbest thing I've read in a long time.

From the first few paragraphs, "The unlicensed pipe fitter known as Joe the Plumber is out with a book this month, just as the last seconds on his 15 minutes are slipping away. I have a question for Joe: Do you want me to fix your leaky toilet?

I didn’t think so. And I don’t want you writing books. Not when too many good novelists remain unpublished. Not when too many extraordinary histories remain unread.
...
Joe, a k a Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, was no good as a citizen, having failed to pay his full share of taxes, no good as a plumber, not being fully credentialed, and not even any good as a faux American icon. Who could forget poor John McCain at his most befuddled, calling out for his working-class surrogate on a day when Joe stiffed him.

With a résumé [sic] full of failure, he now thinks he can join the profession of Mark Twain, George Orwell and Joan Didion."

I don't see the logic in any of this. Apparently Joe the plumber is planning to write a book and it could potentially sell a lot of copies. Why should this bother Egan?

Because some other authors are unpublished and unread? Would they be more likely to be published or read if Joe doesn't write his book? I doubt it sincerely.

Because if Joe gets published, and gets paid for it, he will be in the same profession, at least for a time, as Twain, Orwell, etc? What's the problem here, if you can't write as well as Twain you're not supposed to write?

Because Joe is a plumber? Is he supposed to know his place, which is apparently the toilet? (I like how Egan uses fixing a leaky toilet as his example of what plumbers do, as opposed, for example, to fixing the kitchen sink. People shit in toilets. In some cultures it's the work of the lower castes (i.e. people not fit to associate with) to clean and repair them. Would it defile the New York Times best seller list to have Joe's book on there?)

With op-eds like this, it's easy to see why the NY Times stock is junk.

Existentialism

"I like “Milk,” which has a strong, showy, often moving performance from Sean Penn as Milk and one gorgeously directed and choreographed sequence — shot by the great cinematographer Harris Savides — in which Josh Brolin, oiled in flop sweat and hair grease as Milk’s killer, Dan White, walks alone through a series of grim institutional corridors that put the killer’s existential isolation and desperate journey into bold visual terms." - Manohla Dargis, In the Big Picture, Big-Screen Hopes, December 18, 2008.

What does 'existential' mean in that sentence?

New Senator Kennedy

Fuck No. Biggest thing Caroline Kennedy ever did was have a father who was a president. No more Bush's, Clinton's, Kennedy's or the rest. At least Hillary and G.W. had to go through an election, CK just wants to get appointed.

Whither Local News?

Tough times in the Denver area for the news crowd. The Rocky Mountain News is going on the auction block and Ernie Bjorkman is getting laid off. Bummer.

I don't generally read the Rocky Mountain News. Well, I read it sporadically, but I never subscribed and haven't bought it in the stands in some time. They used to have copies at Duffy's and when I'd go in for Happy Hour I'd read it there. I read it on the internet sporadically. The web site probably isn't getting enough ad revenue to justify it's expenses.

Here's an interesting point from the article, "The Rocky and its rival, The Denver Post, have struggled with sagging income - including the loss of an estimated $100 million in classified advertisement revenues."

Lotta $. Big chunk of that is probably craigslist. I'm surprised classified ads were such big business. I remember back in Fort Collins, there was only one paper, the Coloradoan, and it straight up sucked, but you would have to get it if you wanted to check out the classifieds.

Too bad for Ernie Bjorkman. I watch the local news less than I read the local paper but I thought he was cool. The article said he had been studying veterinary technician stuff. That's pretty cool. Guy's up for some change. Impressive adaptability on his part.

A while back the local 'alternative' paper, WestWord gave up on having local movie reviews and started carrying the ones from other papers. To that extent, they aren't even a local newspaper.

The thing about WestWord, while I am on the subject, is that it generally has just one main article and that one is way too long to bother with. Unless you are involved in whatever the issue is. I don't know why they do it that way. Authorial vanity I suppose.

Denver Open Media

Mostly I think it's lame. Tonight I caught a bit of a show that seemed be about health insurance and people in Colorado. Interesting. Just had interviews with people who had health issues and were dealing with how to pay them. One woman had cancer and was out of work and was spending a big chunk, if not most, of her money on treatment.

I liked the fact that it was just these people talking. No Michael Moore trying to make jokes. No perky news reporter.

Good work DOM. From a guy who mostly doesn't appreciate what you do.

Note - I was watching around 6/7 pm Tuesday. Didnt' see any notice on the Comcast listing, and the DOM website, afaict didn't have listings period. I have no idea what the show was, who did it, etc.