DC Rich & Famous Slumming it at Bulk Warehouse

The Washington famous (i.e. not really famous at all, a completely un-recognizable group of people with their noses in the air) apparently shop at my Costco. Sadly, the NY Times started doing this "Urban Eye" thing a while ago, and ditched their style e-mails, so I didn't catch this article until this morning.

The real question is do they go themselves all the time, or do they send their lackeys? I'd love to send someone to Costco for me. 1) I would not be distracted and browse and buy a lot of unnecessary crap* 2) Have you seen that place? It's absolute madness, so crowded! And I have a gift for picking the slowest line anywhere.

Anyway, better Costco than one of the others, considering they treat their employees very well (see here).

About those Washington elite, though. I wouldn't recognize them because I have the fortune to not work on the hill, and with the horrendous policy decisions going on right now, I don't think I'd WANT to recognize them. Heh. :)

*The wool socks I bought recently were totally not unnecessary, but I wouldn't have seen them if I hadn't be dawdling in the aisles of Costco.

"Be realistic, demand the impossible."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/05/world/americas/05chile.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Read this article about students in Chile, then think about what you could be doing!

Imagine if students in the US staged a walk-out because they didn't agree with NCLB--And schools would have to deal with lower attendance rates (Sensationalism in the News to all the Edu...Bloggers for their recent posts about lice and recess and all that nonsense) which would undermine the NCLB deal on attendance.


In protests that began in mid-May, more than 700,000 teenagers have walked out of classes at public high schools, demanding the overhaul of an education system they say is inferior and discriminatory. They have occupied several hundred schools, sleeping there overnight with sympathetic parents bringing them meals, and last week thousands marched in the streets of the capital here and in other cities in this nation of 16 million. ... Since the return of democracy, financing for public education has tripled and poverty has been reduced by half. But inequalities persist, both among regions and between public and private schools. On average, according to one recent study, private schools spend at least five times more per pupil than the poorest public schools do.Since the return of democracy, financing for public education has tripled and poverty has been reduced by half. But inequalities persist, both among regions and between public and private schools. On average, according to one recent study, private schools spend at least five times more per pupil than the poorest public schools do.

haha

About the Gym.

Wow, this is ridiculous.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/us/nationalspecial3/01traveler.html?th&emc=th

OK, yes, I'm a girl, I'm white, I don't look like a terrorist.
But I think this profiling is WRONG. When I carried Arab text books on the plane I didn't get even a double take like I thought I might. Did anyone watch season 2 of 24? We all could be "terrorists" "jihadists" whatever.
See below though:
"It is an apt comparison, Mr. Ahmed feels, noting that after the 1995 Oklahoma City terrorist bombing by a white former soldier, Timothy J. McVeigh, not every blond with a buzz cut was pulled over."

And we didn't really profile white men for the unabomber thing.

I was recently marked for special screening at the airport because I had a 1 way ticket to upstate NY. I had to go through the air blast machine. A blonde girl in heels 2 people before me set it off (it picks up gun powder/explosive residue) and it took over 5 minutes for them to clean off & reset the machine. Apparantly we can't all get the special treatment because it would be a waste of time... Or would it catch explosives? How sensitive is this machine................................

The Internship

More backing for why I never did one:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/30/opinion/30kamenetz.html?th&emc=th

dead babies, condoms, and fishy economics

Low Newborn Survival Rate

Honestly, I think this ties into the whole NYT contraception article (read it here)
And if you've read that chapter of Freakonomics (which this link says may not be so rigorous evidence) your brain might start making some connections. (I think... I could just be being nuts.)

you're not funny.

ok, nyt gets on lindsay lohan AND snl in the same sentence
the article isn't really worth reading but here's a link to it anyhow.

"The partying is overshadowing your talent; you don't need to be out every night getting in fights with the Tooth Fairy," she scolded the Easter Bunny in their role-reversal routine on "SNL." The routine wasn't very funny, not because it came so close to the truth but because, like so much of "SNL" lately, it just wasn't funny. A sketch about four people voraciously devouring a chocolate dessert did hit a nerve, if accidentally: it was obvious she was just pretending to eat.

U street baby

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/04/14/travel/escapes/14washi.html?ex=1302667200&en=b4906f5986b4f7b8&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

In NYT travel, no kidding.

Hey, you, don't get that tattoo...

http://www.hanzismatter.com/

(subject of an nyt article from sunday)

(anyone notice how nyt changed their website)

Don't tell anyone, Bush's education secretary('s writers) read "The World is Flat"

And that book's totally written by a NY Times op-ed columnist.

Found on education wonk's site http://educationwonk.blogspot.com/2006/03/spellings-report-congressional-fun-and.html

"While we're sleeping every night, accountants in India do our taxes. Radiologists in Australia read our CAT scans. And technicians in China build our computers."

In the beginning...

I think I might agree with this one Teaching the Bible in Georgia's Public Schools even though I'm a blue state liberal. No, I'm not going soft. I see nothing wrong with teaching the bible as literature. I read it in an English class in high school. It can be taught in religion class in college, so if it's an elective, why not use the bible as a textbook. I disagree with preaching the bible in a (non-parochial) classroom. But my recent visit to a Catholic school classroom affirmed that there's a mighty big difference between that and public school. Whooo, rambling.

Start domestic spying on me now.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/arts/television/26manl.html?th&emc=th Al Jazeera network goes English language. Mumtaz! My Arabic wasn't good enough to watch.
I think this is a good idea--but those who watch Fox nonstop might get their skivvies in a twist.

"Girls in emo songs today do not have names," she wrote, adding, "We leave bruises on boy-hearts but make no other mark." N Y Times makes fun (?) of Emo: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/16/arts/music/16sann.html?th&emc=th
And Andrew Mathas really does: http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid6038.aspx

Nice.

garden state

Ahh kudos to Boston Globe and not NYT for seeing Elizabethtown for what it really is: Garden State written by Cameron Crowe, and apparantly not nearly as good. Before I had finished maybe the 2nd paragraph of the review I could see the similarities. haha, sucks to be compared to zach braff cameron, doesnt it?

NYT: And like that most faith-based character of all, Charlie Brown, many of them still seem to believe that, one of these days, their friend in the White House, like a penitent Lucy, really will let them kick that political football named Roe.

The CL friendster express

My life has little meaning without the burning desire to search craigslist for an apartment anymore... This is serious stuff, when work is boring and I read everything in NYT, Globe, and WP that I wanted. Oh what a world.

And also: I heard that people on friendster can now know who is stalking them? Say what? The whole point of friendster is stalking, not making friends. Time to love facebook a little more.

OK, last one, I started driving to work so that I will have time to go to the gym and hopefully not be as tired from having a long worthless commute, but now I can't pick up the Express on my way in! That means I can't play with Sudoku, or read all the silly news they think is fit to print, or play with sudoku. ::sigh:: At least I can download the entire thing (adds included) in pdf!

The Express

Ugh, why are the comics in the Express the least funny things possible? I know it's free and I can read (in color) all of the comics online, but what point is it to waste a page of the express with "Pooch Cafe" and "The Duplex"? I've come to realize comics are a sign of LACK of sophistication in a newspaper. Notice how Washington Post has nearly 3 pages of comics ever day (really crappy comics too, it's so sad)? The Boston Globe, my hometown newspaper, has a page and a half, and mostly funny comics too. None of this Mary Worth crap. I admit, there's no sudoku but when you have chess and bridge who needs it? (joke!) And the revered New York Times... Has none. No comics in the New York Times because it's not playboy. (New Yorkers don't have time for fun anyway.)

Back to my original point being that the comics in the Express suck suck suck. Who is in charge of that? There have got to be other people out there in DC who feel the same way. We can't all be rich & dumb enough to read 3 pages of WP comics every day, right?

(I secretly admit that I love the comics and I wish that I could read 3 pages of comics every day, while I drink my coffee.)

But also, don't the comics ADMIT that they are not for children? So what is the point. Doesn't Zippy agree with it too (can you see this cartoon on the blog)? I mean, they have a kids page, so doesn't that say Hey, the comics is not for kids? And why does the WP put Doonesbury on a separate non-comics page? It's not an editorial cartoon. Well, it is, but it's more importantly a comic. Are they trying to shield people from Doonesbury's ideas by hiding it in the editorial page?

Who knew comics could make someone so angry. Damn this post rambles on and makes no sense. Congratulations if you read it all.

On the positive side of all things DC, the weather has been beautiful this week and hopefully it will continue! :)