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Monday, September 17, 2001Clear Channel, the world's largest radio network, has sent their stations a list of songs that are "lyrically objectionable" in the wake of last Tuesday's
events. "Imagine"? How is that objectionable? "99 Luftballons"? "War"? Good God, y'all, indeed! Apparently anti-war songs are verboten on CC stations. Saturday, September 15, 2001After I wrote the below note, I thought about it some more and decided I wanted to see what other people thought about the topic, as well. So I posted it on Metafilter, where hopefully there will be some discussion of the issue. Neil Howe and William Strauss have written a series of books (really, the same book rehashed three times, but who's counting?) on generational cycles -- Generations, 13th Gen, and The Fourth Turning. In the first and third of these books, they discuss at length their theory that we are due for a "fourth turning" in the first part of the 21st century: a catalyst event that causes an extreme change in public mood, causing us to go through a decade or two of crisis. For example, the 1929 stock market crash was a catalyst, and the Depression and WWII were the crisis time. Whether you agree with them or not, it's interesting to read that Strauss and Howe have posted their thoughts on whether this is the fourth turning they predicted on their web site forum. What do you think? More fallout from 9/11: Major League Baseball is implementing new security policies. Osama bin Laden's family in Dubai don't think much of him, either. I guess he's the "black sheep" of the bin Laden clan. They have expressed their sorrow over Tuesday's attacks, and they condemn violence and terrorism. AskOxford.com is a new website by the folks who bring you the Oxford English Dictionary. Articles, puzzles, quotes, and a Word of the Day. Today's word: thurifer: a person carrying a censer, or thurible, of burning incense during religious ceremonies. Friday, September 14, 2001MetaFilter has been so busy over the last couple of days that I missed this link when it was first posted. It shows copies of the front pages of many of the special edition "extras" that newspapers published on Tuesday. It's interesting to compare and contrast. The most common headlines appear to have been "Terror" and "America Under Attack," in 60-72 point type. I hope if I ever have to see a headline that large again, it will say "M's Win Series!" Or, far better, "PEACE." I just saw a fighter jet overhead. We live under the Sea-Tac flight path (and up the hill from Boeing Field). We are used to flight noise. But, even with flights beginning to happen again, it's been awfully quiet. So quiet that when I heard this plane, I ran out into the other room to watch. But it wasn't a nice, reassuring, Boeing 747 passenger plane. (I haven't seen one of those yet.) Perhaps I should be reassured by the military plane up there. Somehow, I don't think I am. As some of you know, I was an infographic artist for a daily newspaper a few years ago. So I'm more than a little interested in the infographic archive at nixlog. It's a collection of infographics describing Tuesday's terrorist attack. My favorite so far is this Dutch one, which is also available in Spanish. Everyone and anyone have linked to it, but if you haven't seen it yet, it's really an impressive Flash animation. It does an excellent job of illustrating the facts. Thursday, September 13, 2001A few minutes later, it hit me. Backpacks? Abandoned? Bombs? And we looked out and saw that the packs' owners had returned to pick up their belongings. That we even thought, for a split second, that those packs could contain bombs, is just more evidence that the world has changed. Wednesday, September 12, 2001There are really no words for what happened yesterday. My friend Matt was in the World Trade Center at 8:00 am EDT. 50 minutes later, the attack began. He was safe. But I can only imagine what could have happened -- what did happen, to thousands of others. Yesterday morning I dreamed there was another Seattle earthquake. Instead, I woke from the dream to hear Jason's clock radio playing a simulcast of WCBS. I instantly recognized the tone of the reporters' voices -- there had been some kind of disaster. But every fact we heard was more and more unbelievable. One tower had just collapsed, and that was outrageous enough, in the most serious sense of the term. But a plane collided with it? And then a second? The implications dawned pretty quickly. A few minutes later the second tower collapsed, and despite only having two hours of sleep, I knew I wasn't going to get much more. I don't know what else to say. I'm afraid of what's going to happen next. I can't imagine anything good, right now. Please, if you can, donate money to the Red Cross to help the thousands of people who will need it over the next few weeks. You can donate $1 and up via Amazon. Amazon is waiving their usual fees. Friday, September 07, 2001It took 71 years to compile this new dictionary. I want this more than you can imagine. What a fine gift this would be for a language geek such as myself. Saturday, September 01, 2001You can use this PDA to remind you to buy lots of dairy products. Quite possibly one of the oddest things I've yet seen on eBay. The best part is the list of Top 10 Things to do with it: 10. Message & track incredibly large butter-sculpted
mobile workers, field service vehicles Previous entries© 1994-2000 by Wendi Dunlap / litlnemo@slumberland.seattle.wa.us |
