This Is Pitch Perfect

III. How College Kids Imagine the United States Government
THE NINETEEN-SIXTIES

—Mr. President! Did you hear about Woodstock?

—Woo— Woodstock? What in God’s name is that?

—Apparently, young people hate the war so much they’re willing to participate in a musical sex festival as a protest against it.

—Oh, my God. They must really be serious about this whole thing.

—That’s not all. Some of them are threatening to join communes: places where they make their own clothing . . . and beat on drums.

—Stop the war.

—But, Mr. President!

—Stop all American wars!

—(sighs) Very well, sir. I’ll go tell the generals.

—Wow. It’s a good thing those kids decided to go hear music.

More.

Via Steve Silver

Oh No.

Cathy Seipp is gravely sick. I'm only too sad to have found her blog so late. Having been around lung cancer patients I know how quick the end can come. So sad.

An Old Cliche

Fox's Hezbollah Inside Americ covered a Hezbollah cell in America today, including an interview with Mohammad Hammoud, the ringleader in charge of of tobacco smuggling and credit card frauds in support of Hezbollah. At trial, he claimed he supported Hezbollah not on political grounds but because Hezbollah did so much charity work helping the sick and poor. It reminded me of a cliche so many men hear in strip joints: "I'm just doing this to put myself through college." Maybe he was just forking over all that tip money because he thought Hezboallah really liked him or something.

(This post has been edited by Ace to make it 70% more funny.)

Design and Ethnicity

A while back I was doing some shopping with H. He was looking for a lamp, since his old one broke. Since I was spending significant time at his place and had the car we drove to Cambridge where I remembered a bunch of furniture stores. Now H. happens to have nice enough furniture it's a mix between Japanese and Hemingway type stuff. So when we got to the furniture store and H. disliked all designs calling it "too modern." I was perplexed. Turns out the boyfriend and I don't have the same taste in furniture. Minimalism and cute things weren't his bag. In fact it was suggested at one point that Jews love the fifties furniture look (H. says it's more Swedish/euro style, rectinlinear and simplified in geometry, plus the colors -- which tend to run to the sandy/desert side of things -- brown, sand, orange, etc.) while someone else (me) suggested that the Laura Ashley floral sofas, so popular with the WASPs, wasn't the height of chic interior decorating.
I wasn't put off by H. comments (his not Jewish and told of me of his observations rather cautiously not wanting to offend) - I knew what he meant. I remember showing an Israeli friend my home and him remarking on how "Russian" it felt. I think my feelings were a bit hurt since my family prided itself on not seeming stereotypically Russian. Yet there our home stood, the archetypal Russian kvartira (apartment) with heavy furniture (although no rugs on the wall) and the chachckas on the shelf. It seems each culture prefers its own decor, nothing wrong with that.

Here are some random things I like (and he probably won't):

The French might be off putting.


I really like the ladybug details.



Who knows maybe in time our tastes will rub off each other. Specifically my taste! :)

He means what he says

Students who heckled Ahmadinejad are now being denied entrance to the University and are looking at doing compulsive military service. I guess this is what real civil disobedience is all about, standing up for your beiefs despite the consequances.
Guess dressing up like the homeless and screaming obscenities about Bush and co. pales in comparison.

One of my favorite t-shirts

It's old but quite good:



This site has many more cool designs.

Super cute take on Weenie the Pooh:

But I fantasize about walking around with this Meat t-shirt on in Cambridge.

I'm really loving this and this t-shirt and kind of bummed that I can't get it.

On Feeling Old

Having to explain what the movie Clueless is about and that it's starring Alicia Silverstone. Only to be met with a blank stare and the question "Who is Alicia Silverstone?"

Man I feel over the hill. :P