Month: August 2001
Regulating the bush meat trade pales when compared to the health crisis
“One of the more remarkable things that distinguishes the US from any other place in the world is that, if a group of people move to the US and take out American citizenship, in less than a generation, in most cases, they become Americans, they refer to their country, they refer to their Constitution, they…
We’re this far from the Starbucks Phattest video
“Though ‘music of black origin’ has figured heavily in the charts ever since Elvis was dubbed a ‘white Negro’ (someone once calculated that German synth automatons Kraftwerk were the only band to have no black influences whatsoever), by common consent it’s now the biggest, most lucrative and most visible genre.”
Poverty is not learned; therefore, it cannot be ‘unlearned’
“Condescend, Condescend, Condescend. Instructors should learn at least one good phrase like this one: ‘It’s that kind of thinking that got you where you are today.’ Another advantage of the widely popular life skills strategy is that it produces those tidy little units called ‘outcomes’ that government and charitable funding sources have begun to require…
Every day is its own mini-tragedy
“When I’m alone, I wander the house. Ellen handled the finances, so I have no idea whether we’ve paid the bills. Until the collectors call. One asks when I’ll get the car payment in. ‘I’m sorry, my wife’s in a coma…’ The woman cuts me off. ‘Sir, I’ll read the contract to you.’ ‘Did you…
She’s made the transformation from first lady
“She could rescue three children from a burning house, and they’d believe she staged it for publicity purposes. She is ‘La Diabla’ to them, and that isn’t going to change.”
The thing about great endings: They are really just a beginning.
“While great endings have always been the exception, not the rule, they seem on the verge of extinction in today’s pop-culture marketplace. That’s because great endings require a lot of things that aren’t fashionable in this age of flash and spectacle. They’re the culmination of ideas and emotions, of things that take time and energy,…
Russia is the only country outside Africa in which life expectancy is falling
“Sometimes, I almost decided that there was no point in going on, but I thought that it would be even worse for my family if I wasn’t there. Though there were days when I felt so useless that I even wondered about that. But that wasn’t the worst moment. It came when I had to…
These are 18-year-olds. They’re not adults. They like to think they are.
“A common freshman lament is, ‘I was a lot smarter before I got here,’” Dr. Coleman said. He asked the parents how many had marveled at how little homework their children did in high school. Numerous hands went up. College will demand more than high school, he said. “This is a place where you can…
US expansionism these days involves waistlines, not imperialism
“Clothing’ and ‘XXXL’ produced 4,630 sites, mostly mail-order companies. At XXXXXXL, we were down to 38, including the last gasp of the Morbid Obesity Support Group, which recommends stomach-stapling as a cure and produces a ‘Look I’m Melting’ T-shirt in this size. By XXXXXXXXXL, we were down to four entries, including a New Zealand shop…
I like being poor and the freedom it gives me to lead a life on the margins
“My immigrant grandparents were poor, and proud of it. They told great stories of the Depression, making potatoes for unemployed men walking by the house in the middle of the day and being happy to do it. Stories of victory gardens and neighbors helping neighbors. Jell-O salad, once thought of as ingenuity in stretching the…