Great resource for determining whether you’re going to be the next victim of Edgar Hernandez’s swine flu: www.doihaveswineflu.org.
UPDATE: Also, www.doihavepigflu.com.
[Posted by Mallory]
Author Archives: Mallory
olympia snowe on arlen specter’s switch.
I’ll confess that I didn’t know a ton about Olympia Snowe (until Wikipedia helped me out), but I was really impressed by her NYT op-ed on the ol’ Specter Switcharoo. Here’s an excerpt:
I have said that, without question, we cannot prevail as a party without conservatives. But it is equally certain we cannot prevail in the future without moderates.
In that same vein, I am reminded of a briefing by a prominent Republican pollster after the 2004 election. He was asked what voter groups Republicans might be able to win over. He responded: women in general, married women with children, Hispanics, the middle class in general, and independents.
How well have we done as a party with these groups? Unfortunately, the answer is obvious from the results of the last two elections. We should be reaching out to these segments of our population — not de facto ceding them to the opposing party.
There is no plausible scenario under which Republicans can grow into a majority while shrinking our ideological confines and continuing to retract into a regional party. Ideological purity is not the ticket back to the promised land of governing majorities — indeed, it was when we began to emphasize social issues to the detriment of some of our basic tenets as a party that we encountered an electoral backlash.
It is for this reason that we should heed the words of President Ronald Reagan, who urged, “We should emphasize the things that unite us and make these the only ‘litmus test’ of what constitutes a Republican: our belief in restraining government spending, pro-growth policies, tax reduction, sound national defense, and maximum individual liberty.” He continued, “As to the other issues that draw on the deep springs of morality and emotion, let us decide that we can disagree among ourselves as Republicans and tolerate the disagreement.”
Food for thought, for sure.
UPDATE: Also, I have a friend from Maine whom I love. She is cool too, just like Olympia Snowe.
ADDITIONAL UPDATE: From the mouth of the Maine friend: “Once, for Halloween, I was Nancy Kerrigan. I wore this thick black wig and all the adults called me Olympia Snowe. I am still embarrassed by it!”
[Posted by Mallory]
youtube clip of today: twilight remix.
It speaks volumes that Kathleen and I each independently discovered this video and intended to post about it. Or perhaps it just speaks to the creepy way some videos become viral overnight. Either way, I love this. Not exactly the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, but it’s perfect for reminding all of us how ridiculous our obsession with Twilight is. (Don’t deny it; I know you daydream of Edward Cullen.) I’ve only read the first book and can’t get through the second because it’s so bad, but damn gurl, I loved that first book. And I’m ashamed to admit that for like a month, I monitored my thoughts because I was convinced that some people could read my mind. (I wish, more than anything, that I was joking.) Anyway, enjoy this version of Twilight…with cheeseburgers:
[Posted by Mallory]
Filed under crushes, definitely not politics, humor, pop culture, YouTube
arthur giddon at bat (boy) again.
This NYT story will make your day (and, obviously, it made me cry):
“Hi ya, young fella.”
Babe Ruth greeted Arthur Giddon as he did most 13-year-olds, even those in uniform. Giddon chatted with the Babe for a moment but tore himself away because he had a job to do. It was 1922, and as a Boston Braves bat boy, Giddon had to break out the bats, polish some spikes and otherwise outfit his players for that afternoon’s game at Braves Field.
Eighty-seven years later, on Saturday, Giddon will reprise his role for his now-beloved Red Sox — as a special 100th birthday present, he will serve as the team’s honorary bat boy prior to the game against the rival Yankees.
Happy Friday!
[Posted by Mallory]
Filed under adventures, news, sports
john krasinski goes indie, plus beard.
Two video posts in a row maaay seem a little lazy and lame but it’s so worth it because we all must go see this movie together (I’m talking to you, 300-odd regular readers) and smile the whole time and eat Red Vines and fall deeply, deeply in love with a — wait for it — BEARDED John Krasinski:
Now, our love for John Krasinski has been pretty well documented on this blog, here and here and here and here. But I’ve yet to see Johnny K branch out and do a movie that I actually wanted see. I’m always afraid they’ll be bad and ruin my perfect love for him. (No John, seriously, are you listening? I’m tall too. Pretty witty. Did I mention I think we’re soulmates?) This movie, however, actually looks good. A little indie, a little funny, a little tugging-at-the-heart-strings; it’s a holy trinity of movie goodness. Plus, the movie was directed by Sam Mendes, husband of SWTCTW girl crush Kate Winslet AND SWTCTW’s very own Kathleen looks eerily like Maya Rudolph. So there’s that.
FYI, the song in the preview is Alexi Murdoch’s “All My Days.”
Thanks to sometime guest blogger Madeline for the tip!
[Posted by Mallory]
Filed under celebrities, crushes, humor, movies, news, pop culture, YouTube
youtube clip of today: beyonce flash-dance.
Now this is just impressive:
I don’t know what it is about these massive dance events that makes me so happy. The human solidarity? The wackiness? The element of surprise? If I ever seen one of these in person, I will be ecstatic. They make me cry tears of joy EVERY TIME. I think what really got me this time was when they all started clapping towards the end, at which point I thought to myself: “Wow, I hope they are all single and proud and just loving their lives and ohmygod this is beautiful!”
So, things that made me cry today: a presentation about violence against homeless people, and a video of a bunch of random ladies doing the Single Ladies dance outside a train station. I’m a complicated person.
[Posted by Mallory]
Filed under adventures, dance, pop culture, random, YouTube
thursdays are for secondhand inspirational quotes.
This quote is a little touchy-feely, but it really struck me. It reminds me of something my roommate loves to say: “You’re the master of your own destiny.” That’s cheesy too, but it’s damn true, and we can all use the reminder every now and again.
“Surrendering to the absolute truth that you are responsible for everything that you have in your life is my favorite principle. This one offers you total freedom. No one is responsible for how you feel about ANYTHING; only you are responsible. You’re the only one responsible for how you respond and you can choose to be despairing and join the club of whiners OR you can choose to discover something about yourself that you may have overlooked before. Something that was keeping your ‘good’ apart from you. “
[Kyle King via Mary Rambin]
[Posted by Mallory]
come stand a little bit closer…
You should know, first of all, that I’m feeling much better today. It took some Kathleen mixed with some wine with a side of chips and salsa and Ben and Jerry’s and POOF, healed. (Well, mentally. The ankle still causes me to go on angry expletive-laden rants in my head as I walk through Union Station: “God damned ankle. You mother fucker. Could you MAYBE stop HURTING you little piece of shit?!” Ahem.) Last night I may have eaten upwards of 200% of the recommended daily value of saturated fat in the form of Peanut Butter Cup ice cream, and Kathleen and I may have been glued to the television for an entire hour-long David Blaine special, straight out of 1997, with Leonardo DiCaprio and his floppy hair hosting. It happens.
I only overslept by a half hour (okay, 50 minutes) this morning, which was an upgrade from the rest of the week, and this morning this song came on my shuffle:
How could my day go badly if it began with that song? I mean…
Any time I need to see your face
I just close my eyes and I am taken
to a place where the crystal mind and
magenta feeling taken shelter in the base
of my spine sweet like a chicka cherry cola
The magenta feeling has definitely taken shelter in the base of my spine. (What?)
HAPPY FRIDAY, KIDDOS!
[Posted by Mallory]
Filed under ben and jerry's, drinks, food, music, pop culture, weird, YouTube
was it the cure? hope not!
I’m having one of those days. Not one of those days where everything is going terribly wrong, but one of those days where everything is mediocre: I woke up absurdly late today for no real reason. My ankle is still killing me, even though it is most definitely NOT broken or fractured. (I saw the x-rays, so I know that there’s nothing funky going on inside my foot…it’s just skinny little intact bones surrounded by swollen cankle flesh.) I don’t like what I’m wearing, and my shirt smells weird. My boots squeak when I walk. Everything I’ve eaten today has been boring. I have a test in class tonight, even though my professor has assured us that it’s not a test, just a “writing exercise.”
I sound like Debbie Downer-ish martyr, but I’m not actually that upset. I’m just feeling…blah. Feeling blah is almost worse than actually feeling like crap. When you feel like crap, or like crying, you can justifiably skip class or eat a pint of ice cream or watch dozens of old episodes of Arrested Development instead of writing your paper. But when you’re feeling blah, your conscience won’t let you get away with those things. (“Save the Chubby Hubby for when you really need it,” your conscience says.)
I’m not sure why I’m blogging about this. Kathleen and I certainly didn’t set out to be the kind of bloggers who tell you what they ate for breakfast and post pictures of their cats wearing Christmas sweaters, but I’ve somehow gotten into the habit of posting a lot about my life. In my defense, I don’t like cats, and I’m conveniently allergic to them, but you get the point. As my officemate would say, “Blergh.”
That was a fun litany of first-world problems, huh?! Let’s listen to my new favorite waiting-for-the-bus song and forget that any of this ever happened:
There. I feel better already.
[Posted by Mallory]
Filed under blogging, music, post-college depression, thoughts
six words to change the world. 