the lib scene

Posted on Sunday, 2003 November 02 by Anton

I am, to no-one’s surprise, slightly acquainted with Michael Denny, libertarian candidate for mayor of San Francisco (and somewhat better acquainted with his campaign manager Chris Maden).

Posted in California, politics | Leave a comment

timeless lessons

Posted on Sunday, 2003 November 02 by Anton

Commenting on Alas, a blog, one DonBoy writes:

Damon Runyon, original version:

One of these days in your travels, a guy is going to come up to you and show you a nice brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken, and this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the Jack of Spades jump out of the deck and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not bet this man, for as sure as you are standing there, you are going to end up with an earful of cider.

Year 2003 Version:

Never, never, never, agree to be on a reality show.

(I observe in passing that Blogger‘s BlogThis bookmarklet takes care of demoting nested quotation marks, a custom that is lately in deplorable decline. You don’t see it because I replaced the inverted commas, as they say in the Former Empire, with indentation.)

2004 Sep 01: Last week I saw the film version of Guys and Dolls, in which the phrase “do not bet this man” becomes “do not accept this bet.” Non c’è più religione.

Posted in arts | Leave a comment

the stats

Posted on Sunday, 2003 November 02 by Anton

October saw a big jump in this site’s traffic, by every measure. I wonder why.

Posted in me!me!me! | Leave a comment

today’s youth!

Posted on Friday, 2003 October 31 by Anton

I went to a party as a Tall Blond Man In Black With One Brown Shoe but apparently nobody there had seen the movie.

Posted in cinema, me!me!me! | Leave a comment

pseudolanguage

Posted on Friday, 2003 October 31 by Anton

Sometimes I complain that no one ever gave me a nickname; now a couple of spammers have seemingly remedied the omission:

To: “Malik Riley” <bpotter@pobox.com>
Cc: “Bradly Fisher” <broker@pobox.com>, “Jaymie Tucker” <bronto@pobox.com>, “Kathlene Gardner” <bruce.metelerkamp@pobox.com>, “Sarai Little” <bugs@pobox.com>

To: “Meritriona a’Hettinel” <bronto@pobox.com>, “Cylin aup’Gaveryou” <eric.loew@pobox.com>, “Jaiwenna aup’Qunnewur” <m-wild@pobox.com>

How do you suppose these handles were generated? (And by the way how do you efficiently write a hanging indent in HTML?)

Posted in language, me!me!me! | Leave a comment

coloured spaghetti

Posted on Friday, 2003 October 31 by Anton

A collection of London Underground maps including some silly ones. (Link from Andrew Bulhak.)

It is often said that Harry Beck‘s famous diagram “abandons geographical relations” — even though it shows the Thames! More precisely, the Beck chart reduces geography to its topological essentials.

Posted in arts, technology | 1 Comment

gaffe

Posted on Thursday, 2003 October 30 by Anton

Embarrassed myself this morning by not recognizing Jeremy Bornstein on the street, having attended his housewarming last winter.

I’m a bit slow in the morning. I’m very slow at learning faces.

Posted in me!me!me! | Leave a comment