Archive for October, 2008

David Sedaris on Undecided Voters in the New Yorker

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?” To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked. I mean, really, what’s to be confused about? David Sedaris in the New Yorker

Warm Worlds and Otherwise

“In the crowd over there, that one gaping at her gods. One rotten girl in the city of the future (That’s what i said.) Watch. She’s jammed among bodies, craning and peering with her soul yearning out of her eyeballs. Love! Ooooh, love them! Her gods are coming out of a store called Body East. Three youngbloods, larking along loverly. Dressed like simple street-people but… smashing. See their great eyes swivel above their nose-filters, their hands lift shyly, their inhumanly tender lips melt? The crowd moans. Love! This whole boiling megacity, this whole fun future world loves its gods.” James Tiptree, Jr. at Amazon.com

XKCD in the New Yorker

Ways I know the world isn’t as bad as I usually think it is:

  1. Little Debbie Snack Cakes
  2. Student explaining qualia in a paper with the example of tongue piercing
  3. XKCD in the New Yorker:

    Randall Munroe: Well, I draw XKCD, a webcomic about stick figures who do math, play with staple guns, mess around on the Internet, and have lots of sex. It’s about three-fourths autobiographical.