American Girl selling “homeless girl” doll for $95

What could be a better way for your child to learn that the homeless are just like real people than to buy her a “less fortunate” playmate for her other American Girl doll(s)? How about spending some time with — and money for — someone who is actually homeless? The latest addition to the American [...]

Twitter valued at $1 Billion say people with a vested interest in Twitter

Hysterical story in today’s journal headlined: Twitter’s Value Is Set at $1 Billion The lede: Twitter Inc. is nearing a deal for as much as $100 million in new funding that would buy the fast-growing Internet-messaging company more time to figure out its business model, according to people familiar with the situation. But the punch [...]

If the Wall Street Journal Is So Smart, How Come They Agree With Me?

Me: Second, housing starts are at a nine month high! Great, just when a huge amount of housing stock is about to be dumped on the market, aka, more foreclosures. Them: Recovery Obstacle: So Many Houses They have to get better reporters over there.

Los Lobos Goes Disney

That is not a slight on one of my all time favorite bands* but the title of their latest release. On it they cover Roger Miller’s masterful “Not In Nottingham” (from Robin Hood), Randy Newman’s “I Will Go Sailing No More” (from Toy Story) as well as other great music from The House of Mouse. [...]

Why I don’t believe in this recovery

What’s the opposite of cherry picking? Prune picking? This may be an exercise in that but this “recovery” looks like smoke without mirrors. Here’s a reader of items that explain my thinking. First, the decrease in the rate of unemployment as positive sign is pure spin and doesn’t reflect the actual situation at all. The [...]

BitterlyBooks does great catty reviews of non-fiction books

I have no idea who is writing BittlerlyBooks but he/she/it/they are geniuses (or a genius). Here’s just a few great quotes From the review of The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Second Life: Making Money in the Metaverse by Daniel Terdiman: … there is detailed information on other opportunities in the adult services industry including sex fasion, [...]

Great look at what Disney should have done instead of buying Marvel

Geoff Carter is an excellent and smart writer who, among other things, produces the Disney-centered blog YourSouvenirGuide (but don’t hold that against him). In the post Ten things Disney could have done to geek up without buying Marvel he explains both why Disney buying Spidey was a bad idea and how they could have leveraged [...]

US Army can’t hide the fact that its camouflage stinks

The Army Times reports The Army’s Universal Camouflage Pattern (right), now under scrutiny by soldiers and Congress, is “significantly” worse at concealing soldiers than the Marine desert digital and MultiCam (left) camouflage patterns, according to a two-year Army camouflage test. So far the Army has spent $5 billion on putting the camo on uniforms and [...]

Mrs. Vince McMahon running for US Senate

Dear Reality, Please leave something for the satirists. Yrs, CollateralDamage Get used to hearing a lot of “political smackdown” references because Linda McMahon, CEO of the WWE, is challenging Conneticut’s Chris Dodd for his Senate seat. Dodd – head of the banking committee who got a sweetheart deal on a mortgage from Countrywide – is [...]

Congress rebukes Kanye, Serena and that guy who flipped me off in traffic

If this were The Onion there would be a story here that I wouldn’t read because I’m mostly about the headlines with The Onion.

Original Americans ask Supreme Court if “Redskins” is offensive

And I ask, “Are you kidding?” The NFL is certainly the only major US business still successfully using a racist epithet in its marketing. For some reason people give a pass to the name of its Washington franchise usually on the grounds that it’s been is use for so long. (Only in America do we [...]

The Iraq War: 10 Lessons Learned During My Brother’s Deployment

1: I can hold my breath for six months. It’s not that hard, really. I just inhaled when my brother shipped out and exhaled again when he returned for R&R. I did it again when he went back until he returned from his tour. This is a convenient literary description of what it felt like [...]

10 Memories of 9/11

  I wrote the following on 9/11/02. Except for the last item, which I added in 2008. 1. First hearing the news — a bulletin on the radio. Just, “a plane has crashed into” and figured it was something stupid, some idiot in a Cessna going into the Tower like bug vs. windshield. I remember [...]

Industry puts “healthy choice” label on Froot Loops, Cocoa Krispies, etc.

The cereals are just two of the foods to receive approval from a new food-labeling campaign called Smart Choices, backed by most of the nation’s largest food manufacturers. The green checkmark label is “designed to help shoppers easily identify smarter food and beverage choices.” Smarter than what, you ask? Donuts according to Eileen T. Kennedy, [...]

Still looking for that obnoxious Frenchman

Maybe it’s because I live in Boston where we set pretty good standard for obnoxious but after my third trip to France I have yet to encounter this mythical creature. Lest you think this is because I can pass for a native the entirety of my French consists of, “Pardonez moi, je ne parlez pas [...]