John Hawkins has a post about the Greatest Americans of all time. Allow me to mention a forgotten great American, who didn't make anybody's list, without whom life would be very different all over the world.

The man is Willis Haviland Carrier, the father of air conditioning.

In 1902, fresh out of Cornell University and working as an engineer at Buffalo Forge Co., Carrier developed the world's first modern air conditioner, combining temperature and humidity control in one system, for a Brooklyn, NY, printing plant. He earned a patent for this system design in 1906. His air conditioner used a centrifugal system, under low pressure, to gather air through a filter and pass that air over coolant-filled coils. That cooled and dehumidified air was directed at its target location while warmer air around the motor was vented out of the location. The technology behind Carrier's air conditioner was patented in 1911 and is the basis for air conditioner technology available today.

Look back for a moment to the world before the widespread use of refrigeration and air conditioning—a world that was still very much present well into the first decades of the 20th century. Only fresh foods that could be grown locally were available, and they had to be purchased and used on a daily basis. Meat was bought during the daily trip to the butcher's; the milkman made his rounds every morning. If you could afford weekly deliveries of ice blocks—harvested in the winter from frozen northern lakes—you could keep some perishable foods around for 2 or 3 days in an icebox. As for the nonexistence of air conditioning, it made summers in southern cities—and many northern ones—insufferable. The nation's capital was a virtual ghost town in the summer months. As late as the 1940s, the 60-story Woolworth Building and other skyscrapers in New York City were equipped with window awnings on every floor to keep direct sunlight from raising temperatures even higher than they already were. Inside the skyscrapers, ceiling and table fans kept the humid air from open windows at least moving around. Throughout the country, homes were built with natural cooling in mind. Ceilings were high, porches were deep and shaded, and windows were placed to take every possible advantage of cross-ventilation.

By the end of the century all that had changed. Fresh foods of all kinds were available just about anywhere in the country all year round—and what wasn't available fresh could be had in convenient frozen form, ready to pop into the microwave. The milkman was all but gone and forgotten, and the butcher now did his work behind a counter at the supermarket. Indeed, many families concentrated the entire week's food shopping into one trip to the market, stocking the refrigerator with perishables that would last a week or more. And on the air-conditioning side of the equation, just about every form of indoor space—office buildings, factories, hospitals, and homes—was climate-controlled and comfortable throughout the year, come heat wave or humidity. New homes looked quite different, with lower rooflines and ceilings, porches that were more for ornament than practicality, and architectural features such as large plate glass picture windows and sliding glass doors. Office buildings got a new look as well, with literally acres of glass stretching from street level to the skyscraping upper floors. Perhaps most significant of all, as a result of air conditioning, people started moving south, reversing a northward demographic trend that had continued through the first half of the century. Since 1940 the nation's fastest-growing states have been in the Southeast and the Southwest, regions that could not have supported large metropolitan communities before air conditioning made the summers tolerable.

More: Jeff Harrell names another forgotten great American, Norman Borlaug. After reading Jeff's post, i'd have to agree.

Posted by: annika at 10:50 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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Sheila posted about The Big Sleep last month, and raved about it. i was always put off by the movie, although i love Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Raymond Chandler. It was the fact that i couldn't follow the plot that bugged me. But even the writers, including William Faulkner and Chandler himself, couldn't figure out what was going on.

So when it came on TCM yesterday afternoon, i gave myself permission to watch it without trying to understand the story and just enjoy the great film noir dialogue. Like this:

MARS
(threateningly)
Just a minute. The girl can go. I'd like to talk to you...

MARLOWE (Bogart)
Suppose I don't wanna talk to you.

MARS
I've got two boys outside in the car.

MARLOWE
Oh. It's like that, eh. Mm-hum. Run along, angel.

MARS
Your story didn't sound quite right.

MARLOWE
Oh, that's too bad. You've got a better one?

MARS
Maybe I can find one.
(looks under the rug.)
Blood. Quite a lot of blood.

MARLOWE
Is that so?

MARS
(pulls out a gun.)
You mind?

MARLOWE
No. I'm used to it.

. . .

MARS
Convenient. The door being open when you didn't have a key.

MARLOWE
Yeah. Wasn't it? By the way, how did you happen to have one?

MARS
Is that any of your business?

MARLOWE
I could make it my business.

MARS
And I could make your business mine.

MARLOWE
You wouldn't like it. The pay's too small.

MARS
I think you'd better get out here.

MARLOWE
Oh, by the way, how's Mrs. Mars these days?

MARS
You take chances, Marlowe.

MARLOWE
I get paid to.

MARLOWE
You alone, Joe?

BRODY
(pulls out a gun.)
Yeah. Except for this.

MARLOWE
My, my, my. Such a lot of guns around town, and so few brains. You know, you're the second guy I've met today who seems to think a gat in the hand means the world by the tail. Put it down, Joe.

When Bogey and Bacall were on screen together, in The Big Sleep, Key Largo, To Have and Have Not and Dark Passage they were doubly riveting. Everybody knows the "you know how to whistle" scene from To Have and Have Not (one of the greatest scenes in movie history), but this dialogue from The Big Sleep is just as electric:

VIVIAN (Bacall)
I'm very grateful to you, Mr. Marlowe. I'm very glad it's all over. Tell me, uh, what do you usually do when you're not working?

MARLOWE
Mm. Play the horses, fool around.

VIVIAN
No women?

MARLOWE
Well, I'm generally working on something most of the time.

VIVIAN
Would that be stressed to include me?

MARLOWE
I like you. I told you that before.

VIVIAN
I liked hearing you say it.

MARLOWE
Mm.

VIVIAN
But you didn't do much about it.

MARLOWE
Neither did you.

VIVIAN
Well, speaking of horses, I like to play them myself. But I'd like to see them work out a little first to see if they are front runners or come from behind, find out what the whole card is, what makes them run.

MARLOWE
Find out mine?

VIVIAN
I think so.

MARLOWE
Go ahead.

VIVIAN
I'd say you don't like to be rated. You'd like to get out in front, open up a lead, take a little breather in the backstretch and, and come home free.

MARLOWE
You don't like to be rated yourself.

VIVIAN
I haven't met anyone yet who could do it. Any suggestions?

MARLOWE
Well, I can't tell 'til I've seen you over distance of ground. You got a touch of class but... I don't know, how far you can go?

VIVIAN
That depends on who's on the saddle, Marlowe. I like the way you work. In case you don't know, you're doing all right.

MARLOWE
There's one thing I can't figure out.

VIVIAN
What makes me run?

MARLOWE
Uh huh.

VIVIAN
I'll give you a little hint. Sugar won't work. It's been tried.

Posted by: annika at 08:24 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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• Three spiders were summarily executed yesterday.


• Meanwhile, somewhere, Victor felt a great disturbance in the force.


• If Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer were each given orders to kill each other, who would win?


• Last night i ate an excellent meal.


• i am already tired of my Baywatch banner.


• Nothing in this world moves slower than a convenience store clerk.


• The word "fuck" is gratuitously hidden somewhere within this post. Can you find it?


• The trick to painting is fat over lean, always.


• Get this, someone has designated June 14th "International Weblogger's Day." Isn't that hilarious?


• Last night, i passed out too early and missed She Spies. i hate missing She Spies.


• Sacramento local nescasters all suck.


• The people who live across the street from me have like ten SUVs. What's up with that?


• They also have a pet chihuahua that got mauled by a pit bull.


• This morning's coffee is Italian Roast, in honor of our allies, the Italians.


• i got nothing else.

Posted by: annika at 07:26 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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1 Try the Mayor-elect settling the hotel owners/employee's strike with an all-nighter, while the erstwhile almost ex-Mayor slept in San Pedro. Or, are you no longer an L.A. girl?

Posted by: shelly at June 12, 2005 10:43 AM (pO1tP)

2 "The word "fuck" is gratuitously hidden somewhere within this post. Can you find it?" Fuck no.

Posted by: Casca at June 12, 2005 03:16 PM (qBTBH)

3 "i got nothing else." That was plenty.

Posted by: Casca at June 12, 2005 03:18 PM (qBTBH)

4 The word "fuck" is gratuitously hidden somewhere within this post. Right there, in plain sight, between the quotation marks.

Posted by: Vcitor at June 12, 2005 04:10 PM (YjY77)

5 "© MMIV, MMV This shit is all mine, so don't fuck with it."

Posted by: Mark at June 12, 2005 07:20 PM (C/k/z)

6 Victor is the victor.

Posted by: annika at June 12, 2005 09:42 PM (GcTxN)

7 Cool! As a prize, I'd like an answer to one question: What color is your hair these days?

Posted by: Victor at June 13, 2005 04:39 AM (L3qPK)

8 "If Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer were each given orders to kill each other, who would win?" jack would win. Bourne is a mindless machine, Jack would outsmart him and would not get close enough for Bourne to go hand to hand after the frist battle.

Posted by: cube at June 13, 2005 06:53 AM (nyNr0)

9 The Bourne from the movie: it's a toss up. Ludlum's Bourne: Bauer is dead as Dillinger. She spies: Natasha Henstridge forces me to stop and look when I see her image on TV and in print. She is literally arresting.

Posted by: Jason O. at June 13, 2005 07:00 AM (2CAKL)

10 Hmph. The eff word was not hidden in Annika's post. It was hidden near the copyright notice. Technically, I am the winner. (Imitating Daffy Duck: "Mine! Mine! Mine!)

Posted by: Mark at June 13, 2005 08:49 AM (Hk4wN)

11 interesting thoughts on jack vs. jason. i think i'll do a poll on it. V., my hair is as you see it up there.

Posted by: annika at June 13, 2005 10:43 AM (SkWYb)

12 Mousey brown?

Posted by: Victor at June 13, 2005 05:38 PM (YjY77)

13 Jason Bourne, no doubt. Jack would overthink it... by the time he is ready to make a move, Jason --the machine that he is -- would have him dead.

Posted by: ginger at June 13, 2005 06:41 PM (jK/kA)

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The media is on the side of the enemy.

Check out this LGF story.

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i've worked in and around the legal profession in the Bay Area, in Los Angeles and now in Sacramento. i'm not yet a lawyer, but i've dealt with them enough to form some rudimentary judgments.

And in my opinion, the Sacramento plaintiff's bar contains a vastly higher percentage of treacherous sons-a-bitches than either of the aforementioned major metropolitan legal communities.

Those fuckin' a-holes better hope i don't end up practicing here when i pass the bar, because i will hold grudges. And i will enjoy kicking their ass.

More:

What i was thinking: "Don't yell at me, muh-fuh. i can count, and i know the Code, do you? Ass-wipe."

What i said: "i'll pass that along to the attorney."

Posted by: annika at 08:21 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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Russell Crowe blamed his phone throwing incident on jetlag, loneliness and adrenaline.

Billy Bob Thornhill wished "Angie" the best and hoped her premiere goes really well.

Emily has some advice for Tom and Katie.

Posted by: annika at 07:26 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Lodi is just south of Sacramento. The Jawa Report and California Mafia has the latest on the terrorist cell broken up at a Lodi mosque.

Update: Here's a little information about Lodi, to put the strangeness of a sleeper cell in that town within some context.

Lodi was incorporated in 1906. Its current population is about 59,000. From 1992 to 1994, population remained steady at 53,000, but it began to grow slowly after 1995. The city sits on 12.2 square miles in San Joaquin County, and U.S. Highway 99 runs through the town, connecting it with Stockton, six miles to the south, and Sacramento, 35 miles to the north.

San Joaquin County voted for Bush in 2004, by 54% to 46%, although i would guess that the margin was much wider in Lodi than in the more urban and union friendly Stockton.

Crime in Lodi was higher than the U.S. average in 2002. Still, there were only 4 murders, 6 rapes, 75 robberies, 203 assaults, 436 burglaries and 486 auto thefts that year. By contrast, my hometown of Oakland had 108 murders, 249 rapes, 2,452 robberies, 2,852 assaults, 4,252 burglaries and 6,259 auto thefts in 2002.

Lodi's unemployment rate in 2000 was 6.5%, somewhat higher than California's average, which was 4.9% that year. The biggest employer in Lodi by far is the school district, followed by Blue Shield, the one hospital in town, General Mills Foods and a cannery. The local Wal-Mart and Target employ about 200 each.

Median household income in 2000 was $35,391. The median housing price today is $148,500.

Lodi's racial breakdown includes 63.5% White Non-Hispanic, 27.1% Hispanic, 1.3% Indian (from India), and 0.6% African-American. i would guess that Pakistanis would fall under the category of Other Asian, which comes in at 1.2%. Of the 18.8% foreign born citizens of Lodi, 12.7% are from Latin America and 3.9% are from Asia.

And of course, according to Lodi historian John Fogerty, those persons intending to pass through Lodi end up staying an average of seven months or more. And they'll be walking out, if they go.

Update: The late local news on at least two of the tv stations here in Sacramento was very irritating. They seem much more concerned about the possibility of anti-muslim "hate-crimes" than they are about the possibility that some terrorists might have been PLANNING TO BLOW UP HOSPITALS AND SUPERMARKETS!

The media are on the side of the enemy. (That means you KCRA and News 10.)

Update 2: Some excellent commentary is at Varifrank.

Posted by: annika at 08:11 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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As i did last year, in honor of Cole Porter's birthday on June 9th, today's poem is a song lyric.

Paris Hilton's sexy new commercial for Carl's Jr. restaurants features the heiress washing a car to the music of Cole Porter's famous "I Love Paris."

Everyone knows the words to that song, written in 1952, for the musical Can-Can, which ran at Broadway's Schubert theater for 892 performances.

That song always reminds me of one night in Paris a few years back, stumbling back to my hotel in the Latin Quarter after a great drunk, smoking a Gitanes and mumbling the words in order to keep awake and upright.

"God... Oh God... do i love Paris... Because my room is near..."

But the same man who wrote I Love Paris, also wrote the following lyric, which i quote for you all as you try to decide where to spend your summer vacation this year.

See America First

Of European lands effete,
A most inveterate foe,
My feelings when my camp I greet
Are such as patriots know.
Condemning trips across the blue
As dollars badly dispersed,
I hold that loyal men and true,
Including in the category all of you,
Should see America first,
Should see America first.

All hail salubrious sky,
All hail salubrious sky.
Observe when I invoke the sky
It echoes reassuringly
That one should try to see America first,
To see America first.

Of course it's really not the sky,
But just a repetition of his battle cry,
To see America first,
To see America first,

So ev'ry true American,
Whether right or red or black or tan,
Should push this patriotic plan
To see America first.

Posted by: annika at 07:22 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Is Bewitched with Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman going to be worth seeing? Or will it follow in the long tradition of sucky movies based on tv shows that were cool. (e.g. Dragnet, Wild Wild West, The Addams Family, Lost In Space, The Flintstones.) Please don't let there be a drug ring or terrorist conspiracy that needs to be foiled by Samantha and Darrin.

What should the new Bewitched have going for it, logically?

1. Nicole Kidman. Always wonderful, any movie she is in is worth a look.
2. The understated comic talent of Will Ferrell. (i wonder if they'll replace him halfway through the movie with Will Smith, and nobody notices.)
3. A Nora Ephron screenplay.
4. Michael Caine. Everything i said about Nicole is doubly true for this man.
5. Shirley MacLaine as Endora.

However, i don't have high hopes for the remake. i watched the disappointing trailers. The screenplay is apparently a movie-within-a-movie plot, with Ferrell and Kidman playing playing actors in a Bewitched remake. But Kidman's character is a witch in real life too. That augurs ill for a fan of the original like myself.

Also, it looks like they're going to fuck with the original theme song melody. If you're going to go old school by doing a remake in the first place, go old school all the way. i don't know why moviemakers insist on going after an audience of people nostalgic for an old series, then refuse to give them what they want.

In other unrelated entertainment news, tonight's lie of the day from E.T. Tonight is the following:

Brad Pitt says he thinks his seven year marriage to Jennifer Aniston was a total success.

Posted by: annika at 07:02 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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A Western Heart links to an article in Popular Science that debunks a number of ridiculous 911 myths, some of which i hadn't even heard of. Like the one where someone claims one of the New York planes didn't have windows, which proves it was a military tanker and therefore Bush did it. There's some wacko people in this world, but we already knew that.

Another crazy theory is that the planes should have been intercepted almost immediately and since they weren't, therefore Bush did it.

CLAIM: 'It has been standard operating procedures for decades to immediately intercept off-course planes that do not respond to communications from air traffic controllers,' says the Web site oilempire.us. 'When the Air Force "scrambles" a fighter plane to intercept, they usually reach the plane in question in minutes.'

FACT: In the decade before 9/11, NORAD intercepted only one civilian plane over North America: golfer Payne Stewart's Learjet, in October 1999. With passengers and crew unconscious from cabin decompression, the plane lost radio contact but remained in transponder contact until it crashed. Even so, it took an F-16 1 hour and 22 minutes to reach the stricken jet. Rules in effect back then, and on 9/11, prohibited supersonic flight on intercepts. Prior to 9/11, all other NORAD interceptions were limited to offshore Air Defense Identification Zones (ADIZ). 'Until 9/11 there was no domestic ADIZ,' FAA spokesman Bill Schumann tells PM. After 9/11, NORAD and the FAA increased cooperation, setting up hotlines between ATCs and NORAD command centers, according to officials from both agencies. NORAD has also increased its fighter coverage and has installed radar to monitor airspace over the continent.

Posted by: annika at 11:20 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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E.T. Tonight should be subtitled "The Celebrity Liars Show." It pains me to watch E.T. Tonight, but i consider it a duty to my own "Celebrity Watch" rubric. In tonight's episode, the obvious, bold-faced celebrity lies included the following:

Angelina Jolie said she would never be attracted to a man who cheats on his wife.

Russell Crowe's spokesperson said Crowe actually threw the phone at a wall after the concierge gave him "attitude." Yah right. You don't get to be concierge at a world class five-star hotel by being anything but obsequious to the rich and famous.

Katie Holmes said "engagement" is something she and Tom haven't talked about. Someone please stop the hype about this boring couple.

and perhaps the most laughable,

Lindsay Lohan said her shocking weight loss is merely the result of "growing up."

Posted by: annika at 07:42 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Over at The Sheila Variations, there's a very interesting excerpt from the book Dot.Con: How America Lost Its Mind and Money in the Internet Era, by John Cassidy. Here's an excerpt from the excerpt:

On the morning of March 30, 10 million shares of Priceline.com opened on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol PCLN. They were issued at $16 each, but the price immediately jumped to $85. At the close of trading, the stock stood at $68; it had risen 425 percent on the day. Priceline.com was valued at almost $10 billion -- more than United Airlines, Continental Airlines, and Northwest Airlines combined.

. . .

Priceline.com started operating on April 5, 1998. By the end of the year it had sold slightly more than $35 million worth of airline tickets, which cost it $36.5 million. That sentence bears rereading. Here was a firm looking for investors that was selling goods for less than it had paid for them -- and as a result had made a trading loss of more than a million dollars. This loss did not include any of the money Priceline.com had spent developing its Web site and marketing itself to consumers. When these expenditures were accounted for, it had lost more than $54 million. Even that figure wasn't what accountaints consider the bottom line. In order to persuade the airlines to supply it with tickets., Priceline.com had given them stock options worth almost $60 million. Putting all these costs together, the company had lost more than $114 million in 1998.

How could a start-up retailer that was losing three dollars for every dollar it earned come to be valued, on its first day as a public company, at more than United Airlines, Continental Airlines, and Northwest Airlines put together?

Posted by: annika at 11:11 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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1 I remember those days well. Seemed like everyone threw caution (and their money) to the wind.

Posted by: Mark at June 06, 2005 11:26 AM (Hk4wN)

2 It ranks up their with the Tulip bubble 1593 as one on the great follies of mankind. At one point, a single tulip bulb was selling for more than the cost of a mansion. The end of the dot.com bubble started when an analyst in the Fall of 2000 stated that 200 dot.coms would run out of cash within a year and fail. He was somewhat wrong as 206 companies failed in 2001.

Posted by: Jake at June 06, 2005 11:58 AM (r/5D/)

3 Thanks for the link, Annika!

Posted by: red at June 06, 2005 12:00 PM (qxKkx)

4 Annika - Why do unproven (in professional competition) draft picks in major team sports get paid big bucks? Same reason - potential. Actually, the IPO seemed fairly well priced at $16 in hindsight - the stock now makes accounting profits and I don't think that 114M loss was accurate (given the way the author notes the 60M option as a direct 60M loss). Of course, the business model didn't pan out to support the post-IPO market price..but then again, I bought Microsoft in summer 1987 after an already large price gain and saw its net income fall for two consecutive qtrs (but the stock price did okay - fell 25% on that Oct 1987 day) because "the model" made long-term sense even given the price. The difference, a decade plus later, is more people and more money chasing promising results drives the price up faster, ahead of the company delivering, or showing greater promise to deliver. Remember, in the same draft, both Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf got a 11M + signing bonuses!

Posted by: Col Steve at June 06, 2005 01:59 PM (DmFF+)

5 This sounds like piling on, but the airline business is not exactly a money maker either. There are plenty of 3rd world countries that can't even feed their people that run national airlines at a loss. In this country, until one major carrier goes bust, don't look for a lot of profit from the others either.

Posted by: Mark at June 06, 2005 03:34 PM (nQAo8)

6 The Fed mucked with the economy by lowering interest rates back in the 90's to help create an expansion of credit in order to fuel an economic boom. What this did was to create an environment of easy money where business which didn't look profitable before now became attractive (at the marginal level) and drew resources away from firms that were very likely better suited to have them. One may say "well if the market worked like it was supposed to that money would've gone to the right people" and you would be right, but with the aforementioned expansion of credit provided by the Fed, lenders have easier terms so to speak (witness the boom of Venture Capitalists, the number of failed startups -- hmm, where did this extra money come from to invest in BuildYourOwnCar.com and advertise on the Superbowl for it?) Credit expansion does not create real wealth so the boom that resulted in the 90's lacked a solid base. Again witness stock prices as an indicator, as the anectdote with Priceline shows. There was too much cash on the market. Eventually interest rates will rise to reflect the scarcity of real resources. What we have been seeing lately is deflation marked with contrasting incredibly low interest rates, but this is still failing (somewhat) to stimulate the economy. What the gov't needs to do is let the bad capital wash away, figuratively speaking, so that a solid base can re-establish itself. Also regulate in an intelligent manner (i.e. do more like Sen. McCain's words and less like Eliot Spitzer's actions).

Posted by: Scof at June 06, 2005 04:40 PM (7z8ua)

7 Pretty good Scof.

Posted by: Casca at June 06, 2005 07:22 PM (qBTBH)

8 good comments, all. And glad to see you back Col. Steve.

Posted by: annika at June 06, 2005 07:28 PM (wSNSb)

9 The credit boom really did not come from lowering interest rates. Whether a bank borrows at 2.00% or 2.01%, it still loans the money out at interest rates which today routinely exceed 30%. (And it makes fully 25% of its money from fees and penalties.) The dot-con days were a bubble, just like the tulips, and they created the same problem: a massive amount of "cash" in people's hands which really has no basis in fact. A massive amount of lending which will produce loans that can never be repaid. And today, a massive effort on the part of banks to cover-up the true extent of those loans. Loans that should never have been made. Loans that were made using Federally insured money.

Posted by: Mike at August 02, 2005 04:20 PM (K2Nfr)

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i'm trying to clean out some stuff this afternoon and i found these in my closet. An old beau left them with me years ago. i hate throwing shit like this away. i could sell them on eBay, but that seems like a lot of trouble. So if anyone wants these six sucky CDs, i'll give them to you for free.

They are Chris Isaak's Heart Shaped World; The Lightning Seeds' Cloudcuckooland; k.d. lang's Ingénue; Sweet's The Best of Sweet; Roy Orbison's Mystery Girl; and Springsteen's Lucky Town. An eclectic mix.

Let me know if you want them by clicking here. Too late. We have a winner!

Posted by: annika at 11:56 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1 You went out with a guy who liked Sweet so much that he purchased their greatest hits? Wow, I'm speechless. What an extraordinary lapse!

Posted by: Pursuit at June 05, 2005 03:10 PM (VqIuy)

2 Fuck, how can you give away Roy Orbison and Chris Isaak?

Posted by: Casca at June 05, 2005 03:19 PM (qBTBH)

3 Casca, How can you give away "Sweet"? Their album cover is blown up 10x and posted above my bed. Annika, Not that it's my business, but did you break up with this ex-beau over music taste? If you did, I clap my hands in your direction.

Posted by: Mark at June 05, 2005 03:43 PM (Vg0tt)

4 Hey, I really dig that Lightning Seeds album. "Pure" is a terrific pop tune. Maybe it's just my eighth grade nostalgia, but they are truly an underrated "group" (it's just one dude, actually - Ian Broudie). I even bought a couple of the band's other discs off ebay ("Perfect" is another great tune). Also, giving away Chris Isaak? For shame. This is a good idea. I've got TONS of crap CDs stockpiled from my college radio days.

Posted by: Micah at June 05, 2005 07:17 PM (v/oTo)

5 Their album cover is blown up 10x and posted above my bed. i'd rather be on somebody's bed and blown 10x. sorry, toooooo many shiner bocks.

Posted by: louielouie at June 05, 2005 07:34 PM (i7mWl)

6 oh yes, pure is the only good song on that cd, tho. and i have some bad memories connected to the chris isaak album so i never listen to it anymore.

Posted by: annika at June 05, 2005 07:43 PM (rC1od)

7 "i'd rather be on somebody's bed and blown 10x." You are absolutely correct LouieLouie, exept you're not ShrimpLouie. As for the rest of you cretins, you're cretins. Poor Roy, anyone want a bootleg of "Black & White Nights"?

Posted by: Casca at June 05, 2005 08:33 PM (qBTBH)

8 Very poetic of you louie.

Posted by: Mark at June 06, 2005 07:52 AM (Hk4wN)

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Today's exciting French Open final between two absolute hotties, Argentina's Mariano Puerta and Spain's Rafael Nadal, is a great match. But i had to break away between sets to comment about their awful fashion choices.

Puerta chose an orange shirt to wear on a clay court. Not good. Really bad, actually. Maybe that was part of his strategy, to distract Nadal with some sort of ill-conceived camouflage idea.

But Rafael Nadal's outfit takes le cake. A chartreuse sleeveless top with white capris? Qu'est-ce que c'est? Il est terrible! i want to match them with some cute lace-up espadrilles, dude. No guy can pull off that look, not even one as gorgeous as Rafael. Tennis player thighs are the best looking thighs in the world; why cover them up?

And the panty-lines! Guys, white pants are why they invented thongs. Any girl will tell you. That's embarrassing. They should try some lycra boxers or something.

Okay, time for me to get back to the sweaty grunting latins. They're tied, one set all, in the third set.

[Welcome, Slate readers! Why not bookmark annika's journal?]

Posted by: annika at 08:14 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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Howard Dean, on Thursday:

Speaking to the Campaign for America's Future, Mr. Dean called for easier rules for voting, saying it is difficult for working parents to make it to the polls on time and wait to vote.

'Well, Republicans, I guess, can do that, because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives,' Mr. Dean said.

Two words: pot. kettle.

Posted by: annika at 04:26 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
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This is one of the jumping spiders that i saw attack and kill a daddy longlegs thingie outside. They're very quick. i found victim number three on the wall next to my computer. Poor thing had to go because i don't want to find it crawling on my feet at some unsuspecting moment. If it had stayed outside, it might have lived, but rules are rules. And a death sentence is a death sentence.

In my room there shall be no pardon from the death sentence. i am the governor, the judge, the jury and the executioner.

Posted by: annika at 11:48 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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A pithy and/or lame movie review.

Okay, somebody wanna explain that shit to me?

So he went back in time? i don't get it. How did he go back in time?

This movie is a bizarre cross between The Shining, Ordinary People and Harvey. Plus, it's a comedy.

Set in the eighties, it features a really cool soundtrack. Tears for Fears, INXS, Duran Duran, Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen, who are especially appropriate, since the key figure in this movie is a guy in a grotesque bunny suit.

i think i have identified a new movie genre, the "nostalgic suburban period movie." Add this film to the list that includes The Virgin Suicides and Dazed and Confused.

i can't watch the mom without thinking "kickinggggg bird."

Set design was very good. All the details were there. My family had the same antique Sony Trinitron.

If you were to take a poll of bloggers, i imagine this movie would be most popular with self absorbed LiveJournal types. You know, the type of kids who dress in black and think they're artistic and unique because they write free verse poems about death that sound exactly the same as all the other free verse poems about death written by all the other kids who dress in black and think they're artistic and unique.

In other words, i would have loved this movie when i was in high school.

Stylish enough to earn three Netflix stars from me, but ultimately frustrating. i know i might understand it better if i watched it again, but i just didn't like it enough to go through the extra effort.

Posted by: annika at 09:04 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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White thongs voted "sexiest piece of clothing."

Germans take sides on the thong issue.*

And British soldiers, sailors and airmen told to behave.*

That last story gives new meaning to the term "airmen," doesn't it?

*Via WastedBlog.

Posted by: annika at 09:01 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Important news item posted over at Publicola's.

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Big time Munuvian Rusty has an excellent post that examines three questions:

What exactly is a gulag and how widespread was the gulag system? What were the Soviet gulags like? And how do the worst and yet unproven allegations of abuse at Guantanomo Bay compare to what happened in Soviet gulags?

Posted by: annika at 11:05 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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