Category: In the News

It’s news from two Saturdays ago, but still relevant: Kraft Bonuses: $10M Amid Layoffs.

I am mindful of the fact that a lot of things aren’t possible without

corporations. From the development of the railways that opened up the

continent, to the global communications infrastructure and computers

from which I make my livelihood, to life-saving drugs, corporations

make the things and provide the services that we need. It’s just that

like any other powerful entity with influence over our lives —

governments come to mind — we need to watch them like hawks.

From Shrine of the Holy Whapping comes this report of a fashion crime in progress:

To quote actor Rainer Wolfcastle playing Radioactive Man from The Simpsons: “Aaaagh! My eyes! The goggles do nothing!”

The news report says:

Italian fashion label Etro unveiled its own little and large show in Milan yesterday as two hirsute models hit the catwalk to show off its latest collection.

Sporting checked suits, the models looked more like they had stepped off the set of a Lord of the Rings film than the glamour fashion houses of Milan.

Not quite right — the hair, sideburns and beard are straight out of the Shire, but the jackets and ugly 1970’s-ish clashing plaids are all wrong. The look isn’t from the hobbits from Lord of the Rings; it’s more from Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, the creepy-geek assassins from Diamonds are Forever:

Take a look at the hobbits chilling out in Rivendell:

The vest-and-regular/banded collar shirt-look is a traditional yet snappy look that I’ve been trying to cultivate lately. I think the hobbits are pretty sharp dressers for the most part (at least when they’re not slogging through forests or swamps). If you were to lengthen their the-Shire-experiences-lots-of-flooding capri pants and give them some footwear, they wouldn’t look out of place in many offices, cafes, lounges, bars or even giving an Apple Computer keynote presentation, like the similarly-dressed gentleman pictured below:

And hey, Steve Jobs’ beard is worthy of a rider of Rohan.

My Longing and Shorting post from December was adapted for the Saturday edition of The Globe and Mail.

It’s the first time that anything I’ve written has been published in a “real” newspaper (that is, a paper that isn’t a student publication).

I’d like to thank Carol Toller, editor of the Our Town section, for making it possible.

David Chess writes this great quip:

My housemate Paul, an unapologetic fan of Ms. Spears (he’s even been to a concert!), can have my fifteen minutes.

On the left, we have Thomas Walkom in the Toronto Star, who takes the “Bush = Hitler” equation and rejiggers it into “Bush < Hitler”

(for those of you who aren’t math-literate — and shame on you, by the

way — that means “Bush is less than Hitler”). I’m not a fan of the

President myself, but this is just ridiculous.

On the right, we have this Fox and Corkum cartoon commemorating the Little Green Footballs’ “Idiotarian of the Year” award for 2003, which was given to Rachel Corrie [ pro-reference / anti-reference / Wikipedia entry

], accompanied with the usual high-fiving by commenters. I don’t agree

with Corrie or her ilk, but neither do I agree with dancing on her

grave.