Archive for January, 2006
Friday Food and Fun
Posted by: | CommentsMy second Blogarithms story for Metro appears today. This week I interviewed Nosher and Hungryman from the New York food blog NYCnosh. I set the authors (real names Andrew and Dan) a test to find a good meal for three including wine, tax and tip for $20 total. Today’s paper is available as a PDF download or you can read the story here. It’s all in there except the fact that Andrew and Dan were both extremely nice guys who I hope to see again soon. Perhaps next time over a more expensive meal.
I chose to review NYCnosh because I had followed one of their restaurant recomendations a few weeks ago (for the Market Cafe) and had a really nice meal. Since then I’ve tried out a few other suggestions like Shopsins in the West Village and Financier Patisserie in the Financial District and not been disappointed.
If you live in New York, or are visiting, and you want to find somewhere new or interesting or different to eat or drink I can’t recommend NYCnosh highly enough.
Links for today:
As Rabsteen says this panda shoot ‘em up is highly addictive.
Got a blog? Try Diamond Geezer’s blog Performance Management Appraisal 2006 (via Orwell).
Galloway: Enigmatic Puss?
Posted by: | CommentsBeing marooned thousands of miles from Britain doesn’t mean I miss every twist and turn in the George Galloway/Big Brother saga thanks to regular updates from British blogs (most notably the irrepressible Harry’s Place).
Courtesy of Harry, we kick off today with an excerpt from Radio 4 in which Ian McMillan reads a poem inspired by George’s feline antics. The audio is here. Text is below:
George Galloway’s a Mystery cat; an enigmatic puss
Who slinks around the BB house and kicks up quite a fuss.
When his fellow housemates diss his thesis based on Alienation
Of the lumpenproletariat George fears for his reputation
As Galloway, George Galloway, there’s no-one quite like Galloway
He sees the world in black and white and scorns the very thought of grey
But in the BB house he’s just another famous face
And we’re watching and we’re waiting for each famous fall from grace;
George Galloway’s a smooth old cat; his voice is pure shot silk
And his tache is dripping sexily where Rula spilt her milk
And folks like George go in the house to show the watching youth
That politicians aren’t just crooks who like to bend the truth…
But Galloway, George Galloway, be careful you don’t throwaway
Any respect you might have gained; rejection’s just a text away
Cos in the BB house you’re just another Z-list mug
To be laughed at then ignored and then discarded with a shrug;
George Galloway’s an MP, but the voters stand in line
At his vacant MP’s surgery, while he sits quaffing wine
With a basketball sensation with the manners of a bear
And when constituents bring their complaints, Well Galloway ‘s not there!
Oh Galloway, George Galloway, you thought that you were well away,
Until an ancient DJ wandered in the house the other day
And Rula Lenska flicked her tail at Jimmy Savile’s hair
Cos when it comes to true star quality
Well…
Galloway ‘s not there…
Meanwhile, Marcus at Harry’s Place says that despite being cut off from the world George “has twigged that his prolonged stay in the Big Brother House might be attracting some attention from his colleagues in the other House.” And it isn’t the kind of attention he wants. You can read more here.
And finally Clive Davis has an interesting quote from Johann Hari in the Independent:
For years, I have had a protracted row with people who believe George Galloway is truly, madly, deeply opposed to Saddam Hussein and to dictatorships across the world. No, no, he wasn’t saluting Saddam, they’d say – he was saluting the Iraqi people he had just being massacring in their tens of thousands…
But now when know for sure. On “Celebrity Big Brother”, the most revealing moment has not been the MP’s purring puss impression, nor his car-crash Elvis impersonation. It is when he was asked by Rula Lenska, “Was he [Saddam] hated by the ordinary [Iraqi] people?” He replied: “Not at all; not at all…as is obvious now; now they admit that. He was hated by political opponents as he suppressed all opposition political forces, but he wasn’t hated by the ordinary Iraqi – no, not at all”.
To anybody but the wilfully blind, it is now undeniable Galloway is minimising Saddam’s crimes. He could not keep up the act while being filmed for three weeks…Look at the opinon polls – the same ones Galloway quotes when they say they want the American troops out: they find that 97 percent – 97 percent – of Iraqis hate Saddam.
… I hope all sane people – from whom I exclude his groupies in the Respect ‘Coalition’ – will now acknowledge that George Galloway is an apologist for Ba’athism, and apologise for disputing what was clearly, blatantly staring them in the face all along..
How Large is Geraldo?
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Continuing the advertising theme, what on earth were the bods at Fox thinking when they approved this ad for Geraldo at Large? Note the open-necked shirt, the loose tie and the jacket thrown nonchalantly over the shoulder. Is it me or does he look like an extra from Boogie Nights?
This man has had a tough day. Gosh, it’s exciting being a newsman. Check out the website for more inadvertent entertainment.
(Does anyone have a photograph of Melvyn Myers? I think I spy a “separated at birth.”)
What were they thinking?
Posted by: | CommentsTake a look at this fine advertisement that graced the back of this month’s Wired magazine. Any idea what it’s advertising? Shoes perhaps? Or perfume?
Smooth sensual technology with power that never quits.
What on earth could it be? When you get tired of guessing and if your eyesight is not good enough to read the text at the bottom you’ll find the answer here.
Links for today:
Fancy yourself at ping pong? Take a look at these guys (via Apollo Pony).
Remember Opinionistas? The anonymous lawyer-blogger I wrote about for the Times in November? Well, she found an agent, quit her job, has revealed her identity and is writing a book. Stay tuned via her new website that starts tomorrow at opinionistas.com.
George’s Fantasy
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day today but I’m still very busy with work. I leave you with these words of wisdom from David Aaronovitch:
Watching him, you realise that Mr Galloway is what the American playwright Heathcote Williams called a “psychic imperialistâ€Â. He wants to be inside our heads, to colonise our minds. “A billion and a half Muslims,†he told Rula, “know who I am.†So, fishermen in the remote south of the Philippines speak about Mr George? It’s a fantasy, but a revealing one. He was the one who advised Saddam Hussein to give up WMD  “Look, I told him . . .â€Â
