 |
Weblog
|
Travelogues
|
Photo Essays
|
TheAngryPen
|
Thursday, September 28, 2000
My friend Alex's advice on travel to Vietnam..."If it shits, floats, or flies... rent it!"
posted by LT2 8:35 PM ET | discuss | link
Just saw a piece on Fox News that made me suspicious. It was about Patrick Henry University which was described as a small, conservative Christian university aimed solely at home-schooled students. The Conservative Christian thing made me think of Bob Jones U. and that put me on guard, but the worrisome stuff didn't end there. They interviewed one of the kids' mother about why she chose home-schooling and she listed a few things about public schools that she didn't like. And what do you think was the FIRST item on her list? No, not weapons in school, or drugs, or low standards, or crowded classrooms, or low teacher wages... her main complaint was... "busing." Hmm, I thought, that seems like and odd thing to cite. Things got worse when they interviewed the President of the University about why kids were turning down large prestigious Universities to go to Patrick Henry University. The President said that his school is filling a niche, that not every kid has to go to a big anonymous school where they will "get dumped into the melting pot."Hmmmmmm.......... Anyone else getting any funny ideas about what the real agenda of the folks over at PHU might be?
posted by LT2 8:29 PM ET | discuss | link
Thank God!!! They should put RU-482, and more importantly, "the morning-after pill", in gumball machines!!!
posted by LT2 2:58 PM ET | discuss | link
My TiVo just arrived. Schwing!!!
posted by LT2 2:24 PM ET | discuss | link
Wednesday, September 27, 2000
Lars' post about Tom Leykis reminds me of an interesting article from MSNBC. Here's another one that talks about "intentional grounding," but this is more when a flight is cancelled because not enough people showed up. Still annoying, but not the same thing that Leykis is talking about.
posted by MES 11:37 PM ET | discuss | link
Mike's post on pilot speak reminds me of an interesting bit Tom Leykis did today on his radio show. He was saying that he always flies on one particular airline when traveling the North-West, and that he is very familiar with their service and schedules. But of the last 8 flights he's taken with them, 7 have been inexplicably canceled, or have been late beyond the point which he would consider a "reasonable delay". His, pretty radical, theory is that in order to keep the idea of "lot's of convienent flights to all sorts of connections" in place as a marketing tool, the airlines schedule flights, then intentionally cancel some and seriously delay others so that they can just squeeze smaller groups of passengers from less well-sold flights onto one, big, jam-packed, cattle-car flight. He suggested, convincingly I thought, that many of the flights this airline claimed were on the schedule, they actually never had any intention of flying in the first place. Oh, what a scandal that would be. Where's the airline company version of Russell Crowe's Insider?
posted by LT2 9:28 PM ET | discuss | link
George Carlin would appreciate the article on the front page of today's USA Today, which I saw in the waiting room at Kaiser tonight. It's all about the way pilots are trained to speak, to avoid anything that might upset the passengers. Accompanying the story was a little chart that said that, among other things, instead of saying "final destination" they're supposed to say "destination," and instead of "terminal," they're supposed to say "gate."
posted by MES 9:01 PM ET | discuss | link
Hey everybody,A big thanks from Laaz to Baat, first of all, for starting the DC101 thread, and second to all who participated. I found that discussion fascinating and, for one shining moment, the Blog was everything I'd always imagined it could be!!!
posted by LT2 8:37 PM ET | discuss | link
Ooh, another thing, Lars. The TiVo rules say "Contest open to amateur writers only. Professional writers (persons who have been paid for their writing ability and/or performance in the past one year) are not eligible." Hmm, weren't you paid for that magazine piece? Naughty, naughty!
posted by MES 1:42 PM ET | discuss | link
Jason from Queso thinks there's something suspicious about this TiVo contest. Check the links he provides, especially the last one, and it seems like they're giving away more than ten a day. Odd.
posted by MES 1:39 PM ET | discuss | link
Tuesday, September 26, 2000
Although I cannot find any such quote, Howard Stern said this morning that, regarding the effects of the media on children, Dubya was heard to exclaim something to the effect of "if you think Hollywood is screwing up your kids, well then maybe you ought to spend a little more time with them." If true, this would be fantastic. Something to really differentiate Bush from those censorshipniks over on the left.
posted by LT2 11:45 AM ET | discuss | link
Monday, September 25, 2000
Fans of the Angry Pen's columns might be interested to know that the Pen originally earned his moniker by writing angry letters to corporations and leaders of certain first-world superpowers. Here's an interesting article talking about why those kinds of letters don't carry the same weight they used to, and, more interestingly, offers a really devious idea on how to get your letter taken seriously. Check it out.
posted by MES 10:00 PM ET | discuss | link
Well, guess what... I won the freaking TiVo!!! The winning essay is re-printed in the blog below. As for TiVo's response, they said:"Congratulations! You've won a Personal Video Recorder from TiVo! A team of discriminating judges read the essay you submitted to "The Great TiVo Giveaway Contest" and decided you were most definitely in need of our help! Indeed, be very, very proud: You ARE TiVo-worthy!"
posted by LT2 8:32 PM ET | discuss | link
I entered the great TiVo giveaway essay contest today. Here is my essay:As a megalomaniacal evil genius, I have to wear many hats during my busy days. Between raising up and/or crushing the various international cabals that either please me or disagree with me (like that insolent Gary Hart), the cranial demands of a busy week of money/stock market meddlings which further enrich my already extensive evil empire, and my tamperings with Evolutional Determinism (I’ll create that Platy-pooch if it kills me!), there is very little time left in the day for choosing which television programmes are appropriate for the young evil genius on the go.
And that is why I must have TiVo. My evil kingdom for a TiVo!!! Tivo can learn about me in ways that the doctors at St. Lucius’ Home for the Criminally Insane… and my mother… never could! TiVo can learn to anticipate what I will want, what I will need in my TV viewing evenings before even I can know. Finally, something will know the real me, the man behind the hideously scarred visage and metal-bracketed neck brace.
And when at long last, The Simpsons and MTV’s new reality show FEAR can be recorded without my ever having to lift a commanding finger in anger, the world shall at last be mine.
Now, please serve my evening meal pre-chewed as I am too tired to muster more effort than it would take to slurp down anything more constitutionally fortified than pre-digested muck.
posted by LT2 3:53 PM ET | discuss | link
Interesting piece on the politics of rock music. The Pen has been saying simliar things for a while now. Nice to finally have a respected supporter. Note in particular the bit about most rock fans chuckling at over-the-top lyrics. Adam and I used to do the same with AC/DC and Motley Crue back in college (there is nothing funnier than the lyrics to "Without You", except, perhaps, the video), and Damare' has said similar things to me about Eminem.
posted by LT2 3:19 PM ET | discuss | link
