sundries

[rm]

The New York Times continues to think that the trend towards dressing up is their hot new over the last couple of years. The New York Times is increasingly the last to know about anything, but I'll take what I can get. This one is very much an outgrowth of the Mad Men phenomenon, but it pretty high on my "mmmm, yes, but no" list.

Laredo, TX has 250,000 people but no bookstores. via popfiend

You've got to love a photo essay on an amazing New York City home that includes the caption, "the bedroom, with even more items marked for sale." I am so there.

Get ready for the sound of me screaming. I haven't read it yet, but nothing titled, "Can Anybody Make a Movie for Women?" is gong to result in anything but my fury.

The sultry earth.

The Wall Street Journal weighs in on how much "heavage" men should show. This may be my favorite article all week. I'm not sure why, but it is.

Today is the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. via shinysayyadina

I feel like a bit of an asshole linking this one as it's unavoidably full of "look at those wacky Japanese" and "geeks are losers" tropes, but Tokyo man weds video game character.

Jude Law 'in love' with 'Sherlock Holmes' co-star Robert Downey Jr. That's the headline exactly as CNN gives it to you, and I'm interested in it both as marketing strategy in terms of sound-bites on Sherlock Holmes and also because of the whole implied giggly/awkwardness of the headline in the rest of the article. I find this shit amusing on the surface and then quaint and irritating when I think about it, to be frank. Because CNN would _never_ use that headline in reference to men who were, you know, actually romantically/sexually in love with each other. That's the problem.

Speaking of Holmes: originally the two bits of Holmes hilarity coming out in the next couple of months (the one mentioned above and the sucktacular thing GDL is in) were just going to be odd campy amusements to me. But now I'm having to read all the Holmes stuff for my Bristol paper, so hey... I might be informed on the OMGWTFBBQ factor of these projects.

This is what abstinence-only education has wrought.

An origami crane folded by Sadako Sasaki is part of 9/11 memorial. My fellow children of the 80s, were you traumatized by 1,001 Cranes along with me? I can't believe that there used to be a whole genre of children's books, both fiction and non-, about nuclear war. Ah, the Regan years.

Patty has been keeping me up to date on the epically weird demise of the Washington Times, DC's bizarreo-land Moonie-run paper. If you haven't been following it, you can catch up here.

NCIS proving to be cool and useful.

The odds of my book being in-stock again from a major e-tailer before the deadline for Christmas shipping delivery is pretty low. I'm making a post office run on Saturday. If you want one $14 to me via paypal and I'll get it out then. Books will be in stock again soon, just not in time for Christmas delivery.

I forgot to mention how much I've loved how much you all love the name Martin.

Comments

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

Re your link to abstinance only education FAIL.

Not only did it give us more unwanted pregnancies, but the notion that a girl who decides to be sexually active and is responsible enough to use birth control is categorized by her peers as a tramp; whereas if she is an idiot, says she wasn't planning on having sex and then does so without the benefit of birth control, gets pregnant and keeps the baby she is categorized as a saint.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Indeed. But the underlying message seems to be that girls/women should suffer for having sex. The "tramp" is cheating that script; the 'saint' is 'martyred' by it.

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

You mean they shouldn't? That sex should be seen as a natural part of life? That it should be consensual and pleasurable for all participants? I'm shocked, I'm shocked, I tell you , by such an obviously un-American, Socialistic, LIBERAL notion. Next, you'll be wanting sick people to be able to afford decent health care. No wonder this country is going to hell in a hand basket, LOL.