Month: October 2007

Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Remind me to tell you folks my one and only Hooters waitress story sometime.

These redone Monopoly squares came from my friend Miss Fipi Lele, and they made me chuckle. Especially the “Community chest” one — I think I often cracked a boob joke when I played the game as a teenager…

You’ve probably heard of Radiohead’s latest album, In Rainbows. They’re bypassing the record industry, and you can buy it directly from them, either as an audio CD or as downloaded MP3s. For those of you who have downloaded or ripped the album, here’s the album art for your enhanced listening enjoyment!*

Image courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

* May not be the actual album art.

Ann Coulter just isn’t trying anymore, which probably explains why many conservative pundits — even Michelle “What was so bad about Japanese internment camps?” Malkin — have distanced themselves from her. There’s a very revealing clip at Media Matters of a recent interview on CNBC’s The Big Idea that’s worth checking out.

Here she is on mixed-race couples, a subject on which I happen to be an expert:

COULTER: No, it’s true. I give all of these speeches at megachurches across America, and the one thing that’s really striking about it is how utterly, completely diverse they are, and completely unself-consciously. You walk past a mixed-race couple in New York, and it’s like they have a chip on their shoulder. They’re just waiting for somebody to say something, as if anybody would. And —

[DONNY, host of The Big Idea] DEUTSCH: I don’t agree with that. I don’t agree with that at all. Maybe you have the chip looking at them. I see a lot of interracial couples, and I don’t see any more or less chips there either way. That’s erroneous.

COULTER: No. In fact, there was an entire Seinfeld episode about Elaine and her boyfriend dating because they wanted to be a mixed-race couple, so you’re lying.

A Seinfeld plot point as the basis for a sociological argument. Interesting…

Here she is on Jews, who she says really should upgrade to Christianity. Earlier in the interview, she talked about her dream world, which she described as “New York City during the Republican National Convention…

COULTER: Well, OK, take the Republican National Convention. People were happy. They’re Christian. They’re tolerant. They defend America, they —

DEUTSCH: Christian — so we should be Christian? It would be better if we were all Christian?

COULTER: Yes.

DEUTSCH: We should all be Christian?

COULTER: Yes. Would you like to come to church with me, Donny?

DEUTSCH: So I should not be a Jew, I should be a Christian, and this would be a better place?

COULTER: Well, you could be a practicing Jew, but you’re not.

It gets “better”…

DEUTSCH: That isn’t what I said, but you said I should not — we should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians, then, or —

COULTER: Yeah.

DEUTSCH: Really?

COULTER: Well, it’s a lot easier. It’s kind of a fast track.

DEUTSCH: Really?

COULTER: Yeah. You have to obey.

DEUTSCH: You can’t possibly believe that.

COULTER: Yes.

DEUTSCH: You can’t possibly — you’re too educated, you can’t — you’re like my friend in —

COULTER: Do you know what Christianity is? We believe your religion, but you have to obey.

DEUTSCH: No, no, no, but I mean —

COULTER: We have the fast-track program.

DEUTSCH: Why don’t I put you with the head of Iran? I mean, come on. You can’t believe that.

COULTER: The head of Iran is not a Christian.

DEUTSCH: No, but in fact, “Let’s wipe Israel” —

COULTER: I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention.

DEUTSCH: “Let’s wipe Israel off the earth.” I mean, what, no Jews?

COULTER: No, we think — we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say.

DEUTSCH: Wow, you didn’t really say that, did you?

COULTER: Yes. That is what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws. We know we’re all sinners —

DEUTSCH: In my old days, I would have argued — when you say something absurd like that, there’s no —

COULTER: What’s absurd?

DEUTSCH: Jews are going to be perfected. I’m going to go off and try to perfect myself —

COULTER: Well, that’s what the New Testament says.

They cut to a commerical, and then Deutsch gave her an opportunity to clarify her remarks. After all, sometimes in the heat of debate, one can put things the wrong way…

DEUTSCH: Welcome back to The Big Idea. During the break, Ann said she wanted to explain her last comment. So I’m going to give her a chance. So you don’t think that was offensive?

COULTER: No. I’m sorry. It is not intended to be. I don’t think you should take it that way, but that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews. We believe the Old Testament. As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to, you know, live up to all the laws. What Christians believe — this is just a statement of what the New Testament is — is that that’s why Christ came and died for our sins. Christians believe the Old Testament. You don’t believe our testament.

DEUTSCH: You said — your exact words were, “Jews need to be perfected.” Those are the words out of your mouth.

COULTER: No, I’m saying that’s what a Christian is.

DEUTSCH: But that’s what you said — don’t you see how hateful, how anti-Semitic —

COULTER: No!

DEUTSCH: How do you not see? You’re an educated woman. How do you not see that?

COULTER: That isn’t hateful at all.

DEUTSCH: But that’s even a scarier thought. OK —

COULTER: No, no, no, no, no. I don’t want you being offended by this. This is what Christians consider themselves, because our testament is the continuation of your testament. You know that. So we think Jews go to heaven. I mean, [Rev. Jerry] Falwell himself said that, but you have to follow laws. Ours is “Christ died for our sins.” We consider ourselves perfected Christians. For me to say that for you to become a Christian is to become a perfected Christian is not offensive at all.

Click the photo to see it on its original page at full size.

It’s supposed to be the longest place name in the world — Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu . It’s in New Zealand, called “Taumata” for short, and the long name means “The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his flute to his loved one.”

(“Played his flute to his loved one.” Heh heh heh.)

Cracked.com’s article, The 6 Most Terrifying Foods in the World, lists the Filipino dish balut (pronounced “bah-LUHT”) in the number one spot. They even came up with an ad to promote it:

Truth be told, while the concept is off-putting to a lot of people, I can speak from experience that it doesn’t taste too bad. If it did, there wouldn’t be so many street vendors in the Philippines calling out “baluuuuuut!” in a manner similar to “craaaaaawfish!” at the beginning of the Elvis film King Creole. I’ll admit that I eat it only in the Philippines, usually as a dare by an American or Australian tourist or expat, when money and/or beer is riding on it.

For more about balut, see this article: Balut. Egg of Darkness., from the blog Deep End Dining.

Was it really necessary to explain the implications in the sign shown below?

Found via Reddit.

(Anyone heard the similar rule about girlfriends? “Smart. Sexy. Sane. Pick two.”)