You’re (probably) familiar with the story about how General George Patton slapped a soldier for claiming to be suffering from shell shock. But it gets worse. According to war correspondent George Seldes, in his autobiography Witness to a Century, in his anger, Patton 1) slapped the wrong guy and 2) exclaimed “There is no shell…
Elio Villafranca Trio—“Let’s Cool One”
With Marcus Mc Laurine on bass and Chuck Mcpherson on drums. Recorded at the Bassline, NYC. Posted by ElioVillafranca
Pseudo-New Yorker
Legal humor here. “We can fly. We just don’t like to.” “I just want to make sure that you guys really migrate.” “You guys know where you’re going, right?” “I’m not really flying, per se. It’s more like advanced gliding.” “Yeah? Well, maybe you shouldn’t have gotten in my pond.” “Oh, I can hold formation….
Ryan Lizza, way too easy on Paul Ryan
Andrew Sullivan, or one of his minions, collects a number of reactions to Ryan Lizza’s profile of Rep. Paul Ryan for the New Yorker. Lizza makes a point of “nailing” Ryan on spending projects for his own district, as quoted in Sullivan’s post: When I pointed out to Ryan that government spending programs were at…
Ryan Crocker: the silence of a wise man
Ryan Crocker, retiring U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and former ambassador to Iraq, where he presided over President Bush’s “surge,” might have a few interesting things to say about U.S. foreign policy in the post 9/11 decade. And, in a recent interview in the New York Times, he does, if “vague and cautious” means the same…
Put down thy Slurpee, Pick up thy Tit
I really don’t know the details of NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s war against what we liberals like to call “Big Soda,” but I do know I’m agin it. If you want to chug down a half gallon of corn syrup-sweetened soda water in one sitting, well, it’s your ass, not mine. But Mayor B’s soda…
Gore the Bore
Yes, that’s harsh, but this is the blogosphere, after all—snark city, the town without pity. In fact, I felt a lot of pity for Gore Vidal. He hit it big while quite young, publishing the 1948 gay shocker The City and the Pillar at age 23. For the next twenty years Vidal had a lot…
Felix Salmon: Freaking Fag Revolutionary or Wall Street Water Boy?
Okay, Felix is not really a freaking fag revolutionary. I’m just fonder of alliteration than truth. But still I wonder about Felix. Recently he was bitching about the malicious tricks that business folk pull on us: “And so merchants will always find ways to charge us more now, if we’re not going to really feel…
Newt Gingrich hath no bottom
It’s difficult to be funny about Newt Gingrich’s latest excess—his shameful exercise in unsourced innuendo in defense of Michele Bachmann and the “National Security Five” that headlined recently in Politico, whose owners are apparently desperate to score free tickets to the upcoming Newt n’ Callista blockbuster, “We Hate Muslims!” Anyone who followed the blow-out presidential…
Chick Corea— “Rhythm-A-Ning”
More “Rhythm-A-Ning.” Chick Corea, piano, Roy Haynes, drums, Miroslav Vitous, bass. Posted by MuzzaJazz