May 4, 2009
Anna Quindlen Steps Aside
AnnaQ is a month and four days older than I am, another water dragon. The 18 May 2009 issue of Newsweek Magazine contains her resignation from her gig writing LAST WORD, which she’s had for the last nine years.
THE LAST WORD – Anna Quindlen (18 May 2009 issue of Newsweek)
This page, this place, is an invaluable opportunity to shed some light. But if I had any lingering doubts about giving it up after almost nine years, they were quelled by those binders on my desk, full of exemplary work by reporters young enough to be my children. Flipping through their pages, reading such essential and beautifully rendered accounts of life in America and around the world, I felt certain of the future of the news business in some form or another. But between the lines I read another message, delivered without rancor or contempt, the same one I once heard from my own son: It’s our turn. Step aside. And now I will.
Boy, am I feeling like a dinosaur.
May 2, 2009
A visit from Carnival Splendor
[Blogger wasn't FTPing nicely this afternoon so this post was delayed. ...]
Carl Nolte writes, Flu outbreak diverts Mexico’s cruises to S.F.
The Mariner of the Seas (>1K’ long — displaces 137,276 tons) berthed early this morning at Pier 35.
<PALIN> We can see it from our bedroom window! </PALIN>
(yeah, yeah, yeah. I know that was SNL and not Palin.)
Just now, [well, sometime after lunch] the Carnival Splendor (952′) came into Pier 29 and I took a mess of photographs. Together the two ships have ~ 6800 passengers aboard.
I feel kind of :-((( for the passengers because the weather was grey and drippy today. Rainy a bit and then not a bit and then rainy again. MUCH chillier than the folks on the cruise (who had signed up for Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco, &c.) were dressed for. We thought, boy, those folks down by the wharf are probably upping the prices on their fleece jackets and umbrellas.
Seems we’ll have more of the same (cruise ships, that is) for a while now. …
I imagine Butterfly restaurant down at Pier 33 is not the place to go for lunch. Not that we had any plans to do so. We have [had] a Cinco party down at Mercedes – Hair of the Dog Cantina starting at 6p.
[The Cinco was terrific. We walked down (con paraguas), stopping off at the bank to drop off a rent check. Got to the cantina a bit early. No prob. Met some new folks, old friends. Mariachis out front. Folks who weren’t invited to the par-tay were sitting on the benches in the alley enjoying. Music (after the mariachis were done) by Carlos Godinez and his sidemen. We were seated RIGHT THERE. (Literally. We chatted across to them between songs.) Godinez played some Jobim, which made me happy.(Jobim? Cinco music? No, not really, but made me happy.) The spread was terrif. (Munchies followed by buffet. All you can drink vino blanco o rojo, margaritas o Dos Equis o whatever you wish.) I heartily endorse Mercedes – Hair of the Dog Cantina. Owner/staff were swell. We had a good time.]
(and then hoofed it home — sin paraguas … ~2mi total RT)
We got home to find the cruise ship nestled, all snug in its berth …
The Mariner of the Seas leaves in a half hour or so, but I think the Carnival ship won’t leave until morning. …
April 30, 2009
[URL] Dickensurl.com
Convert your URL to a Dickensian quote.
Mine?
Under an accumulation of staggerers, no man can be considered a free agent. No man knocks himself down; if his destiny knocks him down, his destiny must pick him up again.
From The Old Curiosity Shop
Above quote has been attributed to
http://www.towse.com/blogger/blog.htm
[via Bella Stander’s twitterfeed]
April 29, 2009
"Outrage" Documentary: Outing Gay Conservatives
“Outrage,” a new documentary from filmmaker Kirby Dick, takes issue with the secret lives of closeted gay politicians — especially conservative Republicans who outwardly oppose gay rights.
The film, which premiered last week at the Tribeca Film Festival, features tell-alls from men who say they’ve had relationships with various Republicans, including Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Bush strategist Ken Mehlman and former Senator Larry Craig.
Whoo. Boy.
What do you think of “outing” closeted gays?
Justified if they’re publicly bashing gays and gay rights?
When is privacy a right and a given? When not?
[found through a mention on Huffington Post]
April 26, 2009
Bruce Sterling brings his ray of sunshine to the subject of swine flu.
Practical Tips for Combatting Swine Flu In Your Home | Beyond the Beyond from Wired.com
There is always some flu around and flu is always killing some people. Even when a raw mutant flu manages to kill off more people than a shooting-war, flu has never ravaged whole cities as cholera or the Black Death can do. As awful pandemics go, flu is like the snotty-nosed little sister of awful pandemics.
I’ve been tracking Twitter and checking what people are twittering about porcine influenza.
We now have multiple Twitter accounts aggregating swine flu news with names like stoptheswine, SwineFlu, SwineFluTweets and more. Someone’s even picked up the domain name swinefluoutbreaknews.com.
There’s hype hype HYPE! and folks madly re-tweeting such things as How swine flu could be a bigger threat to humanity than nuclear war http://bit.ly/4CKca (something from UK’s Daily Mail Online)
Chill, people. Really.
For up-to-date information go to the CDC site
Job announcement for the times
Ad running in the righthand sidebar of SFGATE.COM.
United States Courts-Ninth Circuit
Bankruptcy Judgeships
$160,080/year
Recruiting for 4 vacancies on the Bankruptcy Court.
(We need more judges because we’re having more bankruptcies?)