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When he retired in 2000, Mr. Tytell had practiced his recently vanishing craft for 70 years. For most of that time, he rented, repaired, rebuilt, reconfigured and restored typewriters in a second-floor shop at 116 Fulton Street in Lower Manhattan, where a sign advertised “Psychoanalysis for Your Typewriter.”

There, at the Tytell Typewriter Company, he often worked seven days a week wearing a white lab coat and a bow tie, catering to customers like the writers Dorothy Parker and Richard Condon, the newsmen David Brinkley and Harrison Salisbury, and the political opponents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Adlai E. Stevenson. Letters addressed only to “Mr. Typewriter, New York” arrived there, too.

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electromagnetic fields

via zoller
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Composer John Cage talks about artists Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Marcel Duchamp, among others. 104 minutes.


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songs that mention galveston


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But I can’t think of any precedent, at least in America, for the blizzard of lies since the Republican convention. The Bush campaign’s lies in 2000 were artful — you needed some grasp of arithmetic to realize that you were being conned. This year, however, the McCain campaign keeps making assertions that anyone with an Internet connection can disprove in a minute, and repeating these assertions over and over again.

Take the case of the Bridge to Nowhere, which supposedly gives Ms. Palin credentials as a reformer. Well, when campaigning for governor, Ms. Palin didn’t say “no thanks” — she was all for the bridge, even though it had already become a national scandal, insisting that she would “not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that’s so negative.”

Oh, and when she finally did decide to cancel the project, she didn’t righteously reject a handout from Washington: she accepted the handout, but spent it on something else. You see, long before she decided to cancel the bridge, Congress had told Alaska that it could keep the federal money originally earmarked for that project and use it elsewhere.

So the whole story of Ms. Palin’s alleged heroic stand against wasteful spending is fiction.

Or take the story of Mr. Obama’s alleged advocacy of kindergarten sex-ed. In reality, he supported legislation calling for “age and developmentally appropriate education”; in the case of young children, that would have meant guidance to help them avoid sexual predators.

And then there’s the claim that Mr. Obama’s use of the ordinary metaphor “putting lipstick on a pig” was a sexist smear, and on and on.

Why do the McCain people think they can get away with this stuff? Well, they’re probably counting on the common practice in the news media of being “balanced” at all costs. You know how it goes: If a politician says that black is white, the news report doesn’t say that he’s wrong, it reports that “some Democrats say” that he’s wrong. Or a grotesque lie from one side is paired with a trivial misstatement from the other, conveying the impression that both sides are equally dirty.

They’re probably also counting on the prevalence of horse-race reporting, so that instead of the story being “McCain campaign lies,” it becomes “Obama on defensive in face of attacks.”

Still, how upset should we be about the McCain campaign’s lies? I mean, politics ain’t beanbag, and all that.

One answer is that the muck being hurled by the McCain campaign is preventing a debate on real issues — on whether the country really wants, for example, to continue the economic policies of the last eight years.

But there’s another answer, which may be even more important: how a politician campaigns tells you a lot about how he or she would govern.

I’m not talking about the theory, often advanced as a defense of horse-race political reporting, that the skills needed to run a winning campaign are the same as those needed to run the country. The contrast between the Bush political team’s ruthless effectiveness and the heckuva job done by the Bush administration is living, breathing, bumbling, and, in the case of the emerging Interior Department scandal, coke-snorting and bed-hopping proof to the contrary.

I’m talking, instead, about the relationship between the character of a campaign and that of the administration that follows. Thus, the deceptive and dishonest 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign provided an all-too-revealing preview of things to come. In fact, my early suspicion that we were being misled about the threat from Iraq came from the way the political tactics being used to sell the war resembled the tactics that had earlier been used to sell the Bush tax cuts.

mcpalid

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"The New Orleans 100" is a worldwide initiative that will highlight and encourage discussion among millions about 100 of the most innovative and world-changing ideas to take root in the city since Katrina.
thanks justin!
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only women bleed


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tom moody found this interesting architecturecentric photostream


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cry like a baby


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break on


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endangered ridgewood

Opening its doors on December 23, 1916, it was considered the longest continuously operating neighborhood theater citywide, and potentially throughout the U.S. It staged Vaudeville, silent films, saw the advent of photoplays, & the first "100% All-Talking" feature, Lights of New York (1928). Its original seating capacity was 2,500, but currently contains 5 screens and seats 1,950.

Modeled after Times Square's long-demolished Mark Strand Theatre (the 1st movie palace in the world), the $250,000 Ridgewood Theatre was designed by America's foremost Thomas Lamb & built by the Levy Brothers. The 3-story Indiana limestone & glazed terra cotta facade is highly ornate, incorporating unique geometric patterns, medallions, a frieze, pilasters, and proudly boasts Ridgewood Theatre across the top. Interior murals originally depicted the history of Ridgewood. Nearby theaters with an unfortunate fate include the Oasis, Parthenon, Irving, & RKO Madison Theatre (retail), but hopefully the Ridgewood Theatre won't be on that list.
via vz
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a clean alamo is a happy alamo


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so last night im minding my own business, sitting in the living room here on the second floor waiting for the season premier of entourage to come on and what floats through the only un screened wide open window in the apartment....


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harry smith early abstractions #1 of 4


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the doors live in miami #1 of 9


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ciao for now


trailer
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vanishing barns of iowa


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George Nelson's bold look went beyond future schlock

Blaming Nelson for the soullessness of today's open-plan offices seems as unfair as slating Le Corbusier for other architects' sloppily designed skyscrapers, or Marcel Duchamp for every lazy piece of conceptual art. Yet his association with something that's become synonymous with corporate monotony is one reason why Nelson's role in mid-20th century design has been eclipsed by those of his peers, such as Charles and Ray Eames, Isamu Noguchi and R. Buckminster Fuller.

The Vitra Design Museum at Weil am Rhein in Germany hopes to redress this by celebrating the 100th anniversary of Nelson's birth with a retrospective of his work, opening Sept. 13. "Although Nelson was one of the most important American designers and design writers, it's almost as if we are introducing him in Europe and reintroducing him in the U.S.," said Jochen Eisenbrand, the exhibition's curator. "Most people, even those interested in design, may not know much more about him than a few design classics."

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rare fred sandback prints from the 1970's at noland

via vz
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The New York Subway, by Anonymous / The Project Gutenberg


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mrr


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stair baskets


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BRIGITTE LACOMBE Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall at Château de la Fourchette, near Amboise, France, 1996.


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Cindy McCain's $300,000 Tuesday Night Outfit



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