JawsBlog

An interesting article from today’s New York times, profiling the job of the man who retrieves the coins from the Met’s fountains.

NYC to require permits for public photography
Sounds more like an idea for increased revenue by Citty Hall than an idea serving any practical purpose.

As if his push for the now dead “Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill” wasn’t a demonstration of his political yone-deafness…President Bush has unveiled his latest silly goal:

“Bush seeks revived friendship with Putin”

Yeah—that’s really going to happen….

‘Could’ve easily stopped by the 5th Avenue Apple Store this evening after work, but decided not to.  Took the subway past the Fifth avenue stop instead.

One can only imagine what the pandemonium must’ve been like there all day…

Tony Blair named new Mid-East envoy….

It’s highly doubtful that Blair will actually achieve anything of any sort of significance when it comes to the Israelis-Palestinians.  So much so, that his new role is an exercise in futility.

Perhaps his time as a Mid-East envoy would be better spent working on shaking some sense into the Palestinians themselves.

No matter what the outcome–there’s one thing that’s almost guaranteed–he’ll do a better job of handling     things in the ME than Jimmy Carter has ever done.

Russia is now laying claim to all of the North Pole and anything contained therein….
Santa Claus and his elves were unreachable for comment…

Cigarette Taxes do reduce smoking but increase bootlegging
Looks like Public Health researchers are basically validating what some economists have said for years.

The positive of all this is a reduction in smoking.  he bad part is having to listen to politicians carp about decreased revenues, and wasting police resources on these “bootleggers”.  [Who happen to be quite easy to find in certain 'hoods]

My apartment lost power this afternoon in the UES/Bronx outage.

Fortunately, I work across town and was in the air conditioned office (well, the a/c was fixed there today-another story) rather than home.

There was much commotion at the office because of the blackout.  At one point, if the outage continued, I would’ve just gone home, packed a bag and spent the night at the Office building.

Fortunately, it didn’t come to that.

Nonetheless, this is yet another oppertunity to point out how much Con-Ed sucks!

(Via Mog)
Frankly, I’ve got no interest in the iPhone.  Not my type of device to begin with. Nor am I an early adopter (wait at least till version 2 or at least 1.5 comes out)
Were I actually in the market for a combo MP3 player/phone/video player gadget…I’d be much more inclined to go with the jPhone
The schnapps feature just sealed the deal.  You never know when a bottle of schnapps could come in handy!

Crowding is so bad that on the 4, 5, 6 and L lines, trains during the morning rush exceed the transit agency’s loading guidelines, which posit that every rider should have at least a three-square-foot space to stand in (that translates to a square patch of car floor 20 inches on each side).–NYT

3 Square Feet?!?! That sounds like a luxury!  Wow!

Does that amount of free space even exist on a rush-hour 4,5 or 6 train?

(Via Gothamist)

Between the various competitive cooking shows on TV (Hell’s Kitchen, Top Chef etc.), the contestants are (understandably) cooking rather upscale/fancy dishes.

Perhaps that’s part of the novelty of the show.

Then again, what about cooking for the common-folk?  Cooking food that many of the viewers at home are more likely to be familiar with?

Looks like the NYT is gunning for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

News Corp is the owner/publisher of another NY daily paper, the NY Post.

Could we soon be seeing some hit pieces against the Times in the Post?

Been working out on an almost daily basis at the gym…

However, there are still some muscles which I apparently haven’t exercised in a while–and they decided to strike their revenge on me today.

Nonetheless, being the semi-stubborn individual that I am–it’s going to be a semi-painful, but no pain no gain as they say

California bill would require all dogs and cats to be spayed
or neutered...

What was the first thing that came to your mind?

Back when I went to school, the cheese sandwiches were usually better than the normal “hot lunch en tree” that was being served on the dairy days.

So I’m not sure why this is such a bad thing:

Punishment on the cheezy side 

Missing out on Pizza day would be a big thing (even at Day School they managed to get pizza right).

Nope, not for the Children this time around.

Rather, the latest “victims” in the “War on Piracy” are the corn growers? 

Aren’t the Farm Subsidies enough for the corn growers??  They shouldn’t be complaining anyway.

Barry “‘roids” Bonds vs. Alex “Mystery blond stripper girl”
Rodriguez

A much more interesting way to describe the Giants vs. Yankees series this weekend

Marc Fisher on his Washington Post blog
asks the question: Do we need libraries anymore?

Fisher argues against the need for libraries.

I disagree.  There’s still a need and desire amonst the population for libraries.  Granted, I’m an admitted bibliophile, who grew up frequenting the library.

When students have to do research for school, they can’t get everything they need off the Internet (at least not yet).  Some of that information is still in good old fashion books, or even on microfilm (*gasp*)

Also for the reading desires of the population as a whole the library serves as a public resource.

[I've previously posted on this topic as well]

Two U.S. networks pass on Paris Hilton interview

Good for ABC and NBC. Now all that’s left is for Fox and CBS to decline anything.

Poland’s Nazi taunt inflames EU summit