Category: Uncategorized

My brother Seth is the one kneeling down in full gear. Nothing like walking into a burning house when it’s already a katrillion degrees out. Here’s the story.

(Via The Awl, which got it from here)

After writing this bit at work today, I’ve really got nothing left.

So I’m taking my kid and my mom and my wife to the Yankees vs. Mets game at Yankee Stadium. I’m sure I’ll be called a gutless commie by both sides, but I don’t know who to pull for.

The background is I grew up in Louisiana, without baseball. (Hell, considering the default status of the Saints, you could say I grew up without football, too.) Famous Cajun Ron Guidry, of course, played for the Yankees. My first baseball game was an Astros vs. Mets matchup in the Astrodome, where I pulled for the Mets. When I moved to New York, I moved in with a Yankee fan. I’ve been to numerous games at the old Yankee Stadium and never set foot in Shea. Hell, I’ve been to Camden Yards and last fall found me in Philadelphia for a Phillies win that turned out to be the first in their amazing run to the Series.

Also, I’m a fair-weather baseball fan in the best of circumstances — and neither the Mets nor the Yankees are providing the best of circumstances. (One final note: I own a Yankees cap. I have no Mets gear.)

So who’s it gonna be?

My son Nicholas turned 11 today. I don’t discuss him much here because when I blog I try to blog with either humor or anger and, well, either is likely to embarrass a child–if not now, then later.

He lives down in Louisiana with his mom. Most of the visiting involves me going down there. He came up to New York last summer for my wedding. He enjoyed it but I didn’t get to spend much time with him because, duh, I was getting married.

So tomorrow he arrives in New York with my mom. I can’t fricking wait. I love playing tour guide in New York. Sure, usually, it involves adults and a tour of places to get drunk, but this is going to be about six hundred times cooler.

On the agenda: Yankees-Mets game; Metropolitan Museum of Art (he saw Natural History last year); dim sum (which should be interesting considering the picky nature of 11 year olds); Phantom of the Opera; Nintendo Store*; Intrepid Museum; the Bodies exhibit*; and Coney Island (including Shoot the Freak and the aquarium).

How sweet is that gonna be? Pretty damn sweet, that’s how sweet.

*Today on the phone, I told him the Nintendo Store burned down, which he did not find funny.

**Given the choice between Statue of Liberty and Bodies exhibit, it took him approximately zero seconds to decide on Bodies, followed up with the following question: “Do they have chainsaws at the exhibit?”

“The thick-muscled man with close-cropped hair who called himself Rick Duncan seemed right out of central casting as a prop for a Democratic candidate running against Bush administration policies last fall.” So begins a story in The New York Times about Richard Strandlof, who pretty much chumped everyone. Everyone who wanted to believe that is.

But note this paragraph from the Times:

The tale of how Mr. Strandlof managed to fool so many people for so long says much about the power of veterans in Colorado, a swing state with numerous military bases. Politicians who now shun him were eager to have him by their side a year ago, no questions asked. Antiwar groups like VoteVets.org embraced him as a valued spokesman. And real veterans buried doubts about him out of respect, they said, for his alleged service and injuries.

Notice what’s missing from that paragraph of blame. Journalists, we are told — professional journalists — can’t be replaced by blogs and citizens because, well, this is just what you get. No one asks the tough questions to get at the truth. Of course, in this case, journalists didn’t ask the tough questions to get at the truth.

It wasn’t like there weren’t any red flags or anything. “There were also things that made Mr. Strandlof seem not credible. He never mentioned what unit he served with. He claimed to have lost a finger, but had 10 digits.”

Ultimately, it wasn’t journalists who blew the story open. It was the Colorado Veterans Alliance, one of many veterans’ groups who do the work of investigating guys who come out of the woodwork making suspicious claims.

Perhaps professional journalists were too afraid to question a Marine. God only knows the field day certain elements would have had with this at the start. How dare you questions this hero? Perhaps they liked the story too much — a gay, anti-war vet sticking it to the man — to check.

There were probably a hundred little reasons, some of them valid, that no journalist checked into this guy’s background. But these are the sorts of stories to keep in mind when journalists — and, yes, I am one — go on about how they’re professionally trained seekers of truth and that such a lofty task should not be left to unqualified bloggers.

Video for the baseball fans.

They want YOU back.

Every New Yorker who’s taken the subway has seen Dr. Zizmor’s weird ads. Gothamist has an interview with the guy. Cool.

Breaking news from the Associated Press: “Britain’s largest clothing retailer, Marks & Spencer, has backed down on its incendiary policy of charging a 2 pound ($3) surcharge for bras that are DD or larger in the face of a spreading consumer revolt.”

It’s about time, Marks & Spencer. It’s about time. Haven’t these women been through enough, what with the aching backs and the ogling men. You have to go and pretend it costs you an extra three bucks per bra to make ’em bigger? I, for one, would have been outraged if I’d heard about this prior to five minutes ago.