Archive for June, 2009
30
Jun
Posted by Josh in Culture, Religion. Tagged: Agnosticism, atheism, Bertrand Russell, intellectual cowardice, invisible faries in drag, Religion, Thomas Huxley. 5 Comments
Agnosticism has a certain appeal as a more moderate form of atheism. Agnosticism, for our purposes, refers to the belief that the existence (or lack thereof) of god is unknowable. I’ve generally found that theists tend to have more respect for agnostics due to their holding of a more “reasonable” position. However, this is misguided: [...]
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30
Jun
Posted by Tim in Sports. Tagged: a string of fairly macabre videos for certain fan bases to watch, and the gin blossoms sing "hey jealousy", can you believe a mets fan wrote this, dennis eckersley, enter sandman, exhaustive use of Baseball Reference, greatest closers ever, mariano rivera, new york yankees. 3 Comments
In the bottom of the eighth at Citi Field on Sunday night, with runners on first and second and two outs, the game promptly ended. The gleefully wide eyes and pumped fist of the 10-year-old in front of me was all I needed to see: Mariano Rivera was walking through that door. That moment of [...]
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29
Jun
Posted by NPI in Monday Medley. Tagged: authority and american usage, consider the lobster, david foster wallace, David Ortiz, esquire, Michael Ian Black, Michael Jackson, Michael Showalter, Slate, steroids, the falling man, The Real World, tom junod. 2 Comments
What we read on the clandestine flight to South America:
This probably isn’t Tom Junod’s best work–the paragraph-to-paragraph logic is a bit lacking at times–but it is the best thing we’ve read about who, and more importantly what, Michael Jackson was. It’s also another reminder of a simple rule we have: If [...]
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28
Jun
Posted by John S in "We Take, Among Other Things, Umbrage", Culture, Education, Film, On the Long Side. Tagged: Anton Chigurh, Carla Jean Moss, coin flips, filmic analysis, Harvey Dent, Heath Ledger, Javier Bardem, large extrapolations from small and almost coincidental cinematic trends, Morality, Nihilism, No Country for Old Men, Sheriff Bell, the Coen brothers, The Dark Knight, the Joker. 4 Comments
“The only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased. Unprejudiced. Fair.”
—Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight
Carla Jean: The coin don’t have no say. It’s just you.
Anton Chigurh: Well, I got here the same way the coin did.
—No Country For Old Men
There has been a rash of coin-flipping killers in the movies recently—well, only two, but [...]
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27
Jun
Posted by NPI in Culture, Music, Rankings. Tagged: Billie Jean, Michael Jackson, Ranking Game, Rhythm Section, The Jackson 5, The Moonwalk, Top Ten Lists, Tribute, Untimely Deaths. 1 Comment
So in light of his unfortunate passing, NPI got together and decided to rank our favorite Jacko songs. It was a dead heat for the #1 spot, with the top three all falling within one point of each other. In our collective opinion, this is what the list looks like:
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27
Jun
Posted by Tim in The Top 173 Things in World History. Tagged: charles xii, d2: the mighty ducks, france, great northern war, knuckle puck, peter the great, poland, russia, somewhat specious (and at the very least unenlightening) comparisons to baseball, sweden, war of spanish succession. Leave a Comment
Contrary to popular belief, the Great Northern War was not the dramatic final meeting between the United States and Iceland at the end of D2: The Mighty Ducks. Rather, it was a 21-year war between Sweden and a group of northern nations, headlined by Russia under Peter the Great. I know what you’re thinking already: [...]
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26
Jun
Posted by John S in TV. Tagged: Cancun, Lester Freamon, MTV, reality television, stereotypes, The Hills, The Real World, The Wire, unlikely cultural touchstones. 1 Comment
MTV’s The Real World is the godfather of the reality TV genre: It’s been around the longest (since 1992), has spawned the most spin-offs and derivatives and has one of the most loyal followings.
Now, it may seem like this is not a distinction to be proud of. This is probably the point where I need [...]
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25
Jun
Posted by Josh in Food. Tagged: consider the lobster, david foster wallace, penne alla vodka, small appetizers, Spain, tapas, the demise of the entree. 5 Comments
I love the concept of tapas. Since dinner is served so late in Spain, tapas, a variety of small appetizers, serve to keep Spaniards from suffering from hunger bouts between work and dinner. What I love about tapas is that it allows people to eat a diversity of foods in one meal. One can reasonably [...]
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25
Jun
Posted by Pierre Menard in The Sports Revolution. Tagged: baseball conspiracy theories, chipper jones, henry chadwick, ingrained unfairness, jim marshall, left-handed cheaters, pedro feliciano, ryan howard, ryan klesko, shane victorino, The Sports Revolution, tony larussa. 1 Comment
Let me set the scene for you: a prominent base stealer is on first. A left-handed pitcher is on the mound. The baserunner doesn’t try to steal second—as he would if a right-hander were on the mound—because the lefty has an intrinsic advantage in picking him off.
Let me reset the scene for you: a prominent [...]
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