My old friend Peter Kranzler, known to readers as the One-Eyed Man, tipped me off to an article in the WSJ about Bob Clearmountain, who is in my opinion the most gifted mixer ever to raise a fader. I was lucky enough to be Clearmountain’s regular assistant for a couple of years, back when I […]
March 25, 2011 – 10:06 pm
OK, time to take a break from Mideast news. Here’s a beautiful fractal animation.
March 22, 2011 – 10:24 pm
OK, readers: let’s all stop bickering for just a moment to wish the great William Shatner a very happy 80th (yes, 80th!!) birthday.
March 16, 2011 – 10:27 pm
It’s hard to know what to say on a day like today; the world just seems to be falling apart everywhere you look. Japan is barely breathing after a Trifecta of staggering catastrophes. The Mideast is in flames. Western civilization is slowly throttling itself. The once-great American nation, its citizens having learned that they can […]
Well, we’ve spent far too much time lately dwelling on trivialities. Time for some serious news: Snake Dies of Silicone Poisoning After Biting Model’s Fake Breast With video! Here. (Have to file this one under “Shameless Filler”, I think…)
A reader has emailed me to take me to task for the title of my previous post. The note began: To me, G_d is synonymous with the Explanation for Everything; for you, He is an angry, immature old man. I responded: Just to set the record straight, to me God is not “an angry, immature […]
March 13, 2011 – 10:24 pm
I’ve wanted to post something about the horror in Japan, but everything I’ve begun to write has seemed so trivial, so trite, next to the awful reality. Nothing I can say, or even imagine, from the safety and comfort of my home here in New York can gain any traction on what that reality must […]
With a tip of the hat to David Duff — nay, for this one a low, sweeping bow, with a scrape and a fawning obeisance — I introduce you to Private Frazer, whose acquaintance I had not made myself until just the other day. Here. High point: the auld empty barn.
Just discovered in the National Archives: a forgotten collection of photos of Eva Braun. Here.
Well, here’s an odd little story: it seems that in the little town of Ilulissat, Greenland (69° 13′ N) the Sun, which rises exactly once a year, did so two days early this time around. This sort of thing isn’t supposed to happen; if there’s one thing you are supposed to be able to count […]
With a tip of the hat to Norman Geras, here are some amazing photographs of an expedition to the lava lake in Africa’s Nyiragongo Crater.
I’ve been reading Here, There, and Everywhere, a memoir by the Beatles’ recording engineer Geoff Emerick, and enjoying it no end. Though Mr. Emerick’s name may not be familiar to the public at large, it’s a very different matter for those of us in the recording studio’s hermetic brotherhood; in our little pantheon, he is […]
February 28, 2011 – 10:52 pm
Back in Gotham, but too pooped to post. Will resume shortly.
February 24, 2011 – 10:53 pm
The lovely Nina and I will be on the road for a couple of days — off to southern CA to pay my dear old Dad a visit on his 85th birthday. Might be quiet here till we get back, early next week.
February 22, 2011 – 10:40 pm
Well, it’s hard to feel cheery tonight, I have to say. Muammar Qaddafi, pausing on his way to martyrdom, is strafing his people, and blowing up oil pipelines. It is becoming clearer every day that the wave of “freedom” sweeping the Arab world is a disaster in the making. Europe watches aghast, bracing itself for […]
February 20, 2011 – 11:51 pm
We’re back from our little retreat. Over the transom while we were en route: First, a tireless and Argus-eyed reader has noticed an item at Iran’s Press TV website reporting that Muammar Qaddafi (or however we’re supposed to spell that moniker of his; I never seem to see it the same way twice) has left […]
February 6, 2011 – 4:46 pm
While I was in our local upscale grocery-market today, an amazing little vegetable caught my eye. It was something called “Romanesco” broccoli (Brassica romanesco, as it turns out), and it is one of the most beautiful natural fractals I’ve ever seen. Smitten, I bought one, and when I got it home I snapped a couple […]
February 4, 2011 – 9:58 pm
What’s your favorite color? Mine are the darker blues and greens; best of all are the deep and aqueous tones in between. The blues and greens are horizontal, and patient, and extended in time, like the sea and the sky and forest; the reds and yellows and oranges are vertical, and call us to the […]
February 2, 2011 – 9:45 pm
Oh my. Here’s the Tera Patrick of fiscal conservatism, steaming up the lens again. Republicans concerned about the Presidential field will want to watch this in private.
January 28, 2011 – 9:48 pm
For some reason I had comments disabled on today’s Egypt post. They’re on again now, if anyone has anything to add.
January 28, 2011 – 1:37 pm
Good stuff at Spaceweather.com today: video of gigantic eruptions on opposite sides of the Sun, and a startling photo of a rare atmospheric phenomenon. Go have a look.
January 25, 2011 – 11:51 am
By now you probably know that the high-flying New York Jets, en route to Dallas, were brought down Sunday night by a severe patch of turbulence over Pittsburgh — the result, perhaps, of an expanding pocket of hot air that had lingered in the team’s vicinity for several weeks. In case you missed the game, […]
January 23, 2011 – 10:33 pm
We note with sadness the passing of TV fitness coach Jack LaLanne, who has died at his California home at the age of 96. It’s a bit of a jolt to realize the man was mortal. Mr. LaLanne taught generations of Americans the value of exercise; my mother and I used to follow along with […]
January 20, 2011 – 11:33 pm
It appears that today we published our 2000th post. If I had any sense of decency or proportion that would surely suffice; needless to say, however, I’ll keep on shoveling.
January 18, 2011 – 12:15 pm
Today’s lead item: it appears that Candy Dynamics, of Indianapolis, IN, acting out of “an abundance of caution”, has decided to issue a voluntary recall of an acidulous confection called Toxic Waste Nuclear Sludge Chew Bars, which they import from Pakistan. Apparently the stuff isn’t good for you. More here.
January 16, 2011 – 11:37 pm
It’s getting late, and having spent the day cleaning out a spare room, editing MIDI drum parts on Pro Tools, and watching the stupendous upset of Tom Brady and the Patriots by our hometown team, I have to dig into the old grab-bag for tonight’s post. Here are a few diverting links: First, a bug […]
January 13, 2011 – 10:08 pm
OK, time to change the subject. It’s been a terrible few days, and everybody’s frazzled and cranky. (Why, if I’m not careful, I might even lose my cool.) We’ve had quite enough politics around here to last us for at least a day or two, I think. So, lets see here… (rummaging around on desk) […]
January 10, 2011 – 10:47 am
The Arizona shootings have brought about a secondary crisis: massive overuse of the word “vitriol”. (The word appeared in nearly every letter published on the subject in today’s Times.) As a public service, then, and in a heartfelt spirit of bipartisanship, here are some substitutes that writers on the Left can use when describing the […]
January 8, 2011 – 6:47 pm
As mentioned in the post just below, the person in custody in the Tucson shootings is a young white male named Jared Lee Loughner. Although the Left has already begun spitting venom at conservatives in general and the Tea Party in particular (they are going to regret it, I think; I am reminded of when […]
January 7, 2011 – 4:52 pm
Well, whatever it was that hit me yesterday, I hope I never get it again. I left my Midtown office just after publishing yesterday’s post, shuffled the third of a mile to the F train at a pace roughly equal to that of an advancing glacier, made a supreme effort to get back up to […]
January 6, 2011 – 3:36 pm
I am not at all well today; a sudden onset of some stupefying chest-and-fever affliction has me slumped over my desk and wondering if I’ll make it home from the office. Back in harness tomorrow, I hope.
January 5, 2011 – 10:29 am
You may have been puzzled, as was I, to see the story the other day of the murder of John P. Wheeler, lawyer and former military officer, whose mortal remains were discarded in a garbage dump in Wilmington, Delaware. Now, various sources are alleging a link between the murder of Mr. Wheeler, an “inside” expert […]
December 31, 2010 – 7:09 pm
So long, 2010. Usually I’m cheery and optimistic on New Year’s Eve, but this time around as the old year wanes I find myself in the grip of a tenacious bout of melancholy. I have a feeling 2011 is going to be, as they say, an “interesting” time. But never mind that! For tonight, let’s […]
December 26, 2010 – 6:24 pm
Today is balm for the weary spirit: the pre-Christmas frenzy is over, a powerful snowstorm raging outside has brought city life to a standstill, and after an exhausting spell of long hours at the office over the past couple of months, I have before me eight days of jealously hoarded time off. The pace may […]
December 25, 2010 – 1:03 am
To you all. Thanks as always for reading and commenting.
December 22, 2010 – 12:10 pm
There’s good news today from the frontiers of medical research, and just in time for Christmas. Story here.
December 14, 2010 – 10:54 pm
Once again I am sitting at my office at 10:30 p.m., with no time for writing. So, for tonight: I imagine that those of you who prowl the reactionary blogosphere are familiar with the mysterious, magniloquent monarchist “Mencius Moldbug”, who blogs at Unqualified Reservations. I was surprised to find, the other day, a video of […]
December 10, 2010 – 12:17 am
I worked far too late again tonight to do any writing — it’s after midnight, and I’ve only just got home from the office. But that doesn’t mean I have nothing for you, readers: have a look at the humbling, and exalting, life-story I read on the way home.
December 8, 2010 – 11:10 pm
I haven’t had much to say about politics for a few days, and don’t feel the need tonight to add to the chorus commenting on the tax deal, and on how adroitly the President managed to offend both the Right and his own liberal base at his petulant news conference yesterday. All I’ll say is […]
December 7, 2010 – 5:54 pm
I’m surprised to find that I’m still knocked out from yesterday’s periodontal surgery. I always forget the depressing effect that surgery has on the bodily system as a whole — surprisingly so, in this case, because as surgeries go, this was nothing: a couple of hours in the chair, a molar implant in the right […]
December 6, 2010 – 8:39 pm
I’m recovering (with the help of Scotland’s amber restorative) from a weakening bout of periodontal surgery (my thanks as always, though to Dr. Louis Franzetti, who is the Jascha Heifetz of prosthodontics), and so am in no mood to write. Go then, to Mangan’s, and read an interesting thread on the regrets of the dying. […]
December 6, 2010 – 2:33 pm
While we’re on the subject of dramatic images of nature, here’s a fine shot of an enormous magnetic filament twisting across the surface of the Sun. Its length is about 55 Earth diameters. Have a look.
December 3, 2010 – 2:21 pm
Here’s an absolutely amazing image, taken by Montana photographer Sean Heavey. If you liked that one, there are more here, and you can order prints at Mr. Heavey’s website, here.
November 26, 2010 – 5:07 pm
A little while back we posted an item about the purpose of the sophisticated “Stuxnet” computer virus, which appears to have been aimed at Iran’s nuclear program. Everybody agrees it was one hell of a piece of work. Now, here’s an update on how it did what it did. This is some serious programming, folks. […]
November 25, 2010 – 11:33 am
To all. And my thanks to you, readers.
November 23, 2010 – 8:18 pm
I’m working late again tonight, and haven’t had the time to write anything interesting, or to work on any of the longer posts I’ve been gestating. So here’s some truly shameless filler.
November 20, 2010 – 2:51 pm
The lovely Nina and I are recuperating in the Outer Cape for the weekend, so there’ll be none of the usual long-winded bloviation here for now. Instead, here’s an enjoyable diversion, featuring an extraordinary young Scotsman and some lovely footage of my ancestral homeland.
November 16, 2010 – 6:15 pm
It appears that the linked video in our recent post Is This A Great Civilization, Or What? wasn’t working for some readers. I’ve since found it on YouTube, and updated the link.
November 7, 2010 – 10:17 pm
I’ve twice mentioned my mother-in-law, Lily Renée Phillips, in these pages — first here, a few years back, and then again just a few months ago, when an article about her appeared in Newsweek. Now, fittingly, she has herself appeared in a panel of a syndicated comic strip, which was found and sent our way […]
November 2, 2010 – 9:33 pm
Ah, Election Night at last! The wigs are accumulating on the green even as I write. It will be some time before the casualty count is tallied, however — so for tonight, we need a little diversion, with an appropriately conservative theme. I’ve found just the thing, from the fertile pen of John Derbyshire, who, […]