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I'm starting to get my very own Disturbing Search Requests! Samples from my log: "thumbnails of people living in slum environments"; "musical play about a Morrocan (sic) guerrilla group." Google indexed every post from 2001 on the same page (my URL/date/2001), so there's a huge pool for random word combos.
- tom moody 11-27-2001 6:36 am [link] [add a comment]

Liberty State Park News

Liberty State Park is a vast amount of open land, reclaimed from old industrial and railroad land, facing the Statue of Liberty in New Jersey. Walking through the (barely-used) facility most days is quite eerie (and beautiful): the lower Manhattan skyline appears to be sitting all by itself in an empty field.

Unfortunately, developers have been salivating to carve up the land since the park's inception. They apply constant pressure to put in water parks, golf courses, amphitheatres, and other money-making ventures--so far with no results, thanks to vigilant friends of the park.

Recently, though, I've noticed three separate encroachments on the park's open space. After the 9/11 tragedy, a triage area was set up in the old railroad station, but the anticipated flood of emergency cases never materialized--it's now something called the "WTC Family Assistance Center." This occupies a small amount of space, but for some reason a huge adjacent section of the park (including a pedestrian bridge along the Hudson) was made inaccessible through barricades and permanently stationed cops. Park benches, walkways, and waterfront have all been cordoned off. Not to be unpatriotic, but I can't see any purpose for the land-grab, other than "because we can."

Another big chunk of grassy land was torn up next to the Marina for a permanent parking lot; during working hours it's used as a bus transfer and pickup point, but the rest of the time it just sits there. This huge expanse of asphalt was "prettified" with little stunted pine trees held up with stakes, and hundreds of feet of plastic white picket fence.

Finally, within the last week, "Mount Liberty" suddenly appeared in the landscaped area across from the bus lot. This twenty-foot-high, hundred-foot-long mound of dirt--fill material for some as yet unspecified project--was just plopped on top of the grass (the same spot where I saw the pheasants a few months back). It's covered with straw and some kind of turquoise powder, and fenced in with crappy-looking sheets of plastic. In order for dumptrucks to access it from the cobblestone road, white gravel was poured willy-nilly on the grass.

I hate to say it, but giving the public a park and then taking it away whenever it's convenient is just low-class; New Jersey ought to be capable of better.
- tom moody 11-24-2001 7:48 pm [link] [15 comments]

pink cadillac



- bill 11-23-2001 2:48 pm [link] [add a comment]

Pravda he said she said




- bill 11-22-2001 7:48 pm [link] [add a comment]

the tide is high
- dave 11-21-2001 3:16 pm [link] [1 comment]

PR




- bill 11-21-2001 2:56 pm [link] [add a comment]

Weasels at the Helm

From "Today's Papers" on Slate:

Rumsfeld said that the U.S. plans to "incentivize a large number of people to begin crawling through those tunnels and caves." The plan is being broadcast over Afghanistan and dropped in leaflets:

"Attention people of Afghanistan! Up to $25 million reward is being offered for information leading to the location or capture of Osama bin Laden or Aiman al-Zawahiri."

- tom moody 11-20-2001 4:02 pm [link] [8 comments]

Catty Kitt

Quote of the day (from Page Six) has second-string Catwoman Eartha Kitt, who almost ruined her career in the 60s by publicly opposing the Vietnam War, opining:
"This war against the terrorists in Afghanistan is nothing like Vietnam. I support this war unequivocally. We were attacked on our soil. We have to bomb these people until we teach them not to hate us."

- alex 11-20-2001 3:11 pm [link] [1 comment]

On the road to NOLA

I'm packing up the computer and Yoyo the geriatric cat to drive to New Orleans. I'd like to fry up a turkey while I'm there.

more ...

- mark 11-20-2001 8:11 am [
link] [1 ref] [add a comment]

just (randomly) heard our friend phoebe doing the voiceover in a visa ad for the winter olympics. its about snowboarding in the wasatch valley with a remake of Surfin USA as the soundtrack. nice work if you can get it.
- dave 11-18-2001 3:39 am [link] [add a comment]

ARGENTINA IS MY 50TH COUNTRY/TERRITORY
- Skinny 11-17-2001 8:36 pm [link] [1 comment]

comity
- dave 11-17-2001 3:47 am [link] [2 comments]

having a soiree saturday night december 1.

352 east 8th street
apt. #2
on the corner of avenue c
212-674-2052
9 pm...

be there or be square.
- julie 11-16-2001 8:38 pm [link] [5 comments]

Off to Argentina, love you all!!!
- Skinny 11-16-2001 2:14 pm [link] [2 comments]

putin visits bush at his ranch in texas. says hes looking forward to riding horseback with bush around the ranch. unfortunately, bush does not ride. but he can drive.
- dave 11-15-2001 5:04 pm [link] [2 comments]

Doomed Plane's Number Lottery Winner
- dave 11-14-2001 10:34 pm [link] [add a comment]

british pm tony blair has sent not so super secret agent harry potter to afghanistan to wreak havoc at the box office. having worked his magic in kabul theatres, he has moved on to bewitch taliban audiences in jalalabad and kandahar with his cuteness and pluck if not his magic. potter said the covert operation has come as a welcome relief from promoting his movie and merchandising tie-ins.

grateful for the assistance while mindful of the need to spend another 20 billion before the war ends to satisy the defense contractors, bush has issued guarded praise for the movie and potters secret intervention. he has publicly put on a good face and offered potter an open invitation to play t-ball at the whitehouse once all the evil has been wrung from bin laden. however, dratfink has unearthed secret NSA and CIA communiques outlining strategies for countering, kidnapping, cloning or killing potter if he becomes a risk to americas global hegemony.
- dave 11-14-2001 7:34 pm [link] [3 comments]

stock for the gillette company soared on the exchange today at the prospect of an almost clean shaven afghanistan. their new ad campaign plastered on hastily assembled billboards amidst the rubble of kabul extols the virutes of 'gillette: the new face of freedom'. but dont confuse that with lancomes 'le nouveau visage de la liberté' campaign for women. the french beauty multinational have set up make-up booths in mazir e sharif to instruct the afghani women in the art and ritual of face painting. no more blaming the taliban for being dateless on a friday night, ladies!
- dave 11-14-2001 5:26 pm [link] [1 comment]

birds cleared of all wrongdoing in airbus crash. incarcerated rebel flock leaders released from detention. bald eagles breathe easier. audobon society sues over defamation of character for birds everywhere.
- dave 11-14-2001 4:52 pm [link] [1 comment]

america needs this kind of commitment to its olympic sports.
- dave 11-14-2001 4:33 pm [link] [2 comments]

is this picture really necessary?
- dave 11-14-2001 4:27 pm [link] [2 refs] [add a comment]

"If you put your ear to the ground, you can hear the lake draining," said geologist Amy Clifton of the Nordic Volcanological Institute in Reykjavk, Iceland. "It sounds like water going down the sink."
- linda 11-14-2001 4:13 pm [link] [1 comment]

The Northern Alliance takes Kabul; the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are pinned down in the mountains and effectively neutralized; democracy is restored; Bush was right, the left was wrong; forget the Saudis, forget Palestine; let's put 9/11 behind us and get back to Britney.
- tom moody 11-13-2001 4:46 pm [link] [2 comments]

"Study of Disputed Florida Ballots Finds Justices Did Not Cast the Deciding Vote" say the Bush lackies at the NYT. The headline could just as easily have read "Overvotes Put Bush Election in Doubt," but the status quo must be maintained at all costs.

- tom moody 11-12-2001 7:15 pm [link] [2 comments]

Hollywood helps out with the war effort
- julie 11-12-2001 4:31 pm [link] [3 comments]