The New Yorker: Fact

Carnal Knowledge: How I became a Tuscan Butcher by Bill Buford:

"One woman stood in front of me with her arms across her chest in open disapproval. I was tempted to prop our pig against the organic wheatgrass stand. (“Mind if we leave this here while we get a cup of coffee?”)"

I love his sense of humor.

ABC News: The Great Microsoft Blunder

ABC News: The Great Microsoft Blunder:

"I think it can now be safely said, in hindsight, that Microsoft's entry into the browser business and its subsequent linking of the browser into the Windows operating system looks to be the worst decision—and perhaps the biggest, most costly gaffe—the company ever made. I call it the Great Microsoft Blunder."

foooood.

• Spinach salad, ginger dressing, broiled tofu
• potato-chorizo soup (patatas a la riojana); ciabatta
• whole-wheat pasta with chorizo and fontina; mixed greens
• Lentil soup with prairie grass farm lamb sausageli>

Hooked on a Feeling - New York Times

Hooked on a Feeling - New York Times

Yes, thursday styles is in fact utterly pathetic.

Are we next? heh

Brand U. - New York Times: "As the program's Web site explains (complete with footnotes, bibliography and quotes from the urban theorist Jane Jacobs): 'In the bustling personal-but-impersonal rhythms of campus activity, as in the streets of a big city, proprietors of public establishments occupy a special position... The SAGES cafe staff are patently not interested in providing grades or passing judgment.' And, not only that, but 'there are no compromises that would undermine the quality of our drinks.... Our chai latte is made not from a bottled concentrate, but from a fresh-brewed base made from scratch every day on site.'"

MTV's 'Super Sweet 16' Gives a Sour Pleasure - New York Times

MTV's 'Super Sweet 16' Gives a Sour Pleasure - New York Times: "Over the years, the sisters' ostentatiousness has earned them enemies. 'Some people give us dirty looks and mock us,' Divya said. 'They're just jealous.' " (Jessica pointed me to this article yesterday – it is, as promised, totally absurd. I set two episodes to record this afternoon.)

The Wallaby That Roared Across the Wine Industry - New York Times

The Wallaby That Roared Across the Wine Industry - New York Times:

"The Yellow Tail phenomenon took everyone in the wine business by surprise. In retrospect, however, it was probably inevitable. Interest in wine had been growing steadily in the United States for two decades, but the domestic industry had never had much success in meeting the need for a good, inexpensive wine to attract all these newcomers. 'There were good wines at $15 and up, but nothing between those wines and the jug wines at the bottom of the scale,' said Rich Cartiere, editor of The Wine Market Report. 'Yellow Tail, at $6, was and remains better than most American wines at $8.99 and $10.99.
'When I think of Australian wines, I think of a big, juicy, red apple,' he added, 'and that's what the American wine consumer looks for, too, even if he can't say why. Couple that with a label that's friendly — not a joke, like so many now — and excellent distribution, and you have an unbeatable package.'"

And You Thought Abercrombie & Fitch Was Pushing It? - New York Times

And You Thought Abercrombie & Fitch Was Pushing It? - New York Times:

"Dov Charney proudly refers to himself as a 'Jewish hustler.' But he is quite possibly the most unorthodox Jew in the history of the shmatte business. A complicated, charismatic and occasionally controversial figure — he is currently facing a sexual harassment suit — Charney is so acutely in tune with the cultural moment that he is somehow able to use the plain blank T-shirts that he sells to convey potent messages concerning contemporary sex and politics."

new coolest thing ever (thanks scott!)

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com
to school
café from home
café from school, my usual route

our place

I finally managed to take pictures of the condo we're working on buying in chicago. (link fixed now.)

Win a date with E.J. Dionne. By Michael Kinsley

Win a date with E.J. Dionne. By Michael Kinsley: "Or maybe I should wait and Win a Trip With Maureen Dowd. Maureen writes: 'Are you girl enough to come shopping with me and my best friend, Jill? Can you dis the defense department and find the shoe department at the same time?'"

QMV, the answer to everything!

This is the only way to fix Congress. By Juliet Eilperin: "Under Hirsch's plan, the tie-breaking chairman would be almost a redistricting dictator. He would have more votes than all the other members combined, which would block the kind of bipartisan gerrymander that happened in New Jersey. At the same time it would keep politicians involved in the process, allowing them to provide expertise about campaigning and the electoral nature of individual districts."

Listen to this. Now.

NPR : Out of Hiding, Into the World: Thembi's AIDS Diary: "Ngubane introduces listeners to her boyfriend, Melikhaya -- and recalls when she told him she was HIV-positive: 'I thought, 'What if I've also infected him? Now I've ruined my life, and I've ruined everybody's life.''"

whew

I finished a draft of my paper that was due for Andrew's MLE class. There are lots of loose ends and unfinished business – like the whole fixing the formal model – but it's not horrible, I don't think.

The gist is that strikes are a form of collective action that individuals coördinate on when they believe that their action will be pivotal to bringing about change; and that they observe and interpret imperfect signals about that probability. The empirical part is a count model looking at the number of strikes and strike-days in a given month, with covariates of who's participating and demonstrating. I find that the presence of radicals depresses striking and the presence of students is associated with an increase.

ah delightful bitchy food writing...

Why sauvignon blanc is overrated. By Mike Steinberger: "Simply put, the grape is a dud, producing chirpy little wines wholly devoid of complexity and depth, the very qualities that make wine interesting and worth savoring. For years, this offensively inoffensive grape has escaped criticism while chardonnay and merlot have been scorned. The free ride ends here."

WashU Poster Boy (eeeek!)

My Conflict class with Sunita on Wednesday afternoon, where I ate my pen contemplatively, seems to have been captured by some PR photographer.

Potato Leek Soup, salad, and anarchist pumpernickel

The Soup

Ingredients

• 4 medium potatoes
• ¼ pound bacon
• 2–4 leeks
• 4 shallots
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 quarts chicken stock
• Rosemary
• Parsley
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1½ cups whole milk
• ½ cup heavy cream

Method

Chop the bacon and place in a cold heavy pot. Turn on heat to medium; remove bacon when it's done and has rendered most of its fat. Slice the leeks, shallots, and garlic. Place in the pan and cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and sweat for 20 minutes. You don't want them too brown, but a little caremalization never hurt anyone. Cut the potatoes into about 1-inch cubes.

When everything is soft and smells yummy, add potatoes, bacon, and chicken stock. Cook, uncovered, until potatoes are soft (45 minutes?). Purée in food mill or using a handy immersion blender. Add milk and cream, and heat through without boiling.

About anarchist pumpernickel

Here's the story from the riverfront times back in 2001 about the marvelous breads made by the Black Bear Bakery Collective, including the Lickhalter Pumpernickel pictured above.

Their bread label may show a smiling bruin astride a bicycle, but the bakery's mission statement defines itself as an "anti-authoritarian, anti-ideological collective" that "challenges division-of-labor and capital-based hierarchical business." Aside from producing healthy, affordable food, one of the bakery's primary objectives is "to organize and embrace anarchic grassroots agitation, information and action."

Slashdot | Why Is Data Mining Still A Frontier?

Slashdot | Why Is Data Mining Still A Frontier?: "Scientific (and other) data is still housed in unrelated collections, waiting for some enterprising Relational Database Programmer to unlock the keys to understanding. Is RDBMS still a Brave New Frontier, or will Google make the art obsolete once they finish indexing everything?"

This is what occasioned my finally re-finding the metafilter question below – I work with social scientists who, because of their statistical training and general worldview, call rectangular tables "databases" all the time (god that irks me..) and to whom I've had to (try to) explain why relational data structures are good both theoretically (shifting of unit of analysis, forces explicit decisions at query-writing time) and practically (allows collection of data that you'd like to be able to use in the future but collection cost is high).

Christians Sue for Right Not to Tolerate Policies - Los Angeles Times

Christians Sue for Right Not to Tolerate Policies - Los Angeles Times:

"Critics dismiss such talk as a right-wing fundraising ploy. 'They're trying to develop a persecution complex,' said Jeremy Gunn, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief."

They really do thrive on and try to cultivate this absurd idea that christians don't control congress, the white house, and the courts... that they are in any way not a majority and that America is not the most religious developed country.

The Long-Distance Journey of a Fast-Food Order - New York Times

The Long-Distance Journey of a Fast-Food Order - New York Times:

"While the call-center idea has received some attention since a scattered sampling of McDonald's franchises began testing it 18 months ago, most customers are still in the dark. For Meredith Mejia, a regular at a McDonald's in Pleasant Hill, Calif., near San Francisco, it meant that her lunch came with a small helping of the surreal. When told that she had just ordered her double cheeseburger and small fries from a call center 250 miles away, she said the concept was 'bizarre.'"