Highly Complimentary

Surely, at this midway point in November, seasonal affective disorder already beginning to churn, shops filled with cheap Christmas decorations, people angrily dismissing those who say Happy Holidays, the same old tunes coming from the radio, the same holiday arguments beginning to take shape, weekends filled, cheap electronics getting cheaper, surely, you could use some shit to read, right?

-This is the final essay in David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster (which for some reason is NOT included in the iBooks version), a stirring piece about John Ziegler, conservative talk radio host, and while it was published in '05, it could not be more applicable at this late date.

-This is an op-ed piece by Warren Buffet, and I think John Gruber's description of it pretty much sums it up:

Warren Buffett, well-known foe of capitalism, thanks the U.S. government for its efforts to prevent an economic collapse two years ago.

-Here is a Safari extension called "Facebook Neue," for all those who agree that Facebook.com is one unwieldy, ugly mutha.

-Yeah, we've all heard about the TSA scanners, and the naked pictures, and the junk groping, but the reality is that these scanners could be dangerous to our health, and haven't been proven to actually make anybody safer. So why are they still being instituted, even fought for? Lobbyists, anyone?

-Alexia Tsotsis writes about something I've been saying for a while now: the phone call is dead.

-This is a gigantic piece from The New Yorker on Nick Denton, the head of Gawker Media. Worth your time if you're at all interested in the future of journalism.

-David Pogue's review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab seems to be the most fair of them all.

-Everyone heard about Caitlin Burke, right? The woman who solved a Wheel of Fortune puzzle with only one letter showing on the board? I, like many (most likely), thought she guessed/got lucky/took a shot in the dark. Turns out that's not the case.

-Do you like true crime stories? Are you somebody (I am) who thinks that most of the chatter about cyber crimes and identity theft  is born out out of people not keeping their identities secure? Read this piece. It'll change your mind.

-Mikey "Eyedea" Larsen passed away on 10/16/10. I hadn't been listening to his stuff much recently, but when I was, boy, did it blow me away. I was fortunate enough to see him live once, and his manic energy is something I will never forget. This is a review of the benefit show that took place in his honor.

-Amy Hempel, one of my favorite writers, and probably one of the greatest living American short story writers, did a rare extensive interview with the Paris Review in '03. Here it is.

-For those apt to swoon at the mention of JD Salinger's name, here is the story of one your (our) brethren attempting to track down a copy of the rare short story "A Girl I Knew."

-This is the Rolling Stone review of Kanye West's forthcoming My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Spoiler: it is highly complimentary. Double spoiler: it makes me giggle.

-When the iPad was first released, it was said that the iPhone was actually born out of the effort to perfect the iPad, which is interesting because one would think it would have been the other way around. Regardless, there is a long history of Apple attempting to bring tablet computing to the mainstream, and this is a really interesting piece that attempts to document that process.

-Bart Scott, a linebacker for the New York Jets, talks a whole bunch of smack every Sunday. But don't let that get in the way of realizing that this is a guy who truly cares about his hometown and the people who live there.

-The iPad gets knocked every so often for being a toy, a superfluous consumption device for those with disposable income. Just don't tell that to the children in this story.

And as always, let's finish with a video:


Roy's Jeans - Video by Self Edge from Self Edge on Vimeo.


More soon,
JS