Entries from August 2008

August 20, 2008

All rise for Judge Tubbs

 

I don’t know anything about Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones that I didn’t learn from this three year old Colbert Report interview, but I think it says it all: She was a smart lady with a sense of humor. I’m sure the Capitol will be a little less interesting without her.

August 19, 2008

This is totally old, but I just love this photo of the Brazilian foreign minister upon the collapse of the Doha round of the World Trade Organization negotiations. Hey, who doesn’t have a bad day?

August 19, 2008

Why can’t we kill paper?

As a young second-wave environmentalist during the first Gulf war, I used school notebooks made from recycled paper. This pre-consumer waste was gummy gray in color and the consistency of pressed sawdust. My pencil mark barely showed on its mottled pages.
Now, of course, recycled paper is mostly post-consumer waste and as bright as bleached linen, [...]

August 13, 2008

Suspension without suspense

The Olympics Games inspires such a vacuum of interest in me that it has become inversely epic. I fiddle with the antennae on top of my television as Michael Phelps swims through snow, sometimes skipping like a too-slow film projector. He wins a fifth or sixth gold medal and flicks his swimcap and goggles onto [...]