January 2009
31 posts
“reading his twitter page’s abrupt end, really bringing home the ‘life’ in ‘life...”
– comment on The Internet Says Goodbye To Martin Schaedel | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD (via fred-wilson)
Technology romanticization aside, this is very sad. I’m an advisor to Flavorpill and so was Martin, so for the last few months, he’s been flitting in and out of the office,...
Maybe Domino should have been re-branded as “Budget Living.” Ah, well.
Irrational outlier bias: was running along the West Side Hwy and kept nervously eyeballing planes flying over the Hudson.
“The media typically blames this on Zimbabwe having a bad, unresponsive...”
– Life, liberty, and the pursuit of property - Megan McArdle (via josephweisenthal)
Land rights and, you know, not having a murderous psychopathic head of state who’s willing to starve his own people (when not torturing and killing them) and pillage any infrastructure that’s still left...
Note to Job Applicants: (Please. I beg you.)
I’ve gotten a tidal wave of resumes for various editorial positions in the last two weeks and resolved to plow through at least 100 a day till I get through them all. Candid reality: most of the people I hire end up with a job because I found them organically—reading their blogs, reading them in mainstream pubs, recommendations, etc.. But I’m always open to finding people...
Dear Tumblrs,
cajunboy:
Hey, have you seen the cool new Tumblr feature called “Tumblr Crush?” It’s really cool and it shows you which Tumblrs you’ve “reblogged” or “liked” most often and even puts a gay little heart next to the avatar of the top person in that list. Hey, you know what you should do? You should take a screen shot of this cool new feature and post it to your Tumblr and make some sort of “no...
Hodgman, still on a roll →
paultough:
Question: Exactly how and when did New York become “a city that never sleeps,” and hasn’t this had a negative impact on its health? — Posted by Jim Moskowitz
Answer: Kander and Ebb wrote that line for Liza Minnelli to sing in the movie “New York, New York,” because the lyric “the city full of hatefully ambitious people who are destroying themselves” didn’t fit; and also, at that...
Was going to suggest that 15 degree weather is my version of Hell, but then i remember that Hell would be *warm*. Ergo, Hell > winter in NYC
Book Burning...
caro:
spiers:
It’s freezing in my apartment right now. I’m wearing a polar fleece (and still cold) and my dog is actually shivering. Am considering culling my book collection and starting a fire with the disposables. At a glance: prime candidates (bulky hardcovers only, as those make better fires):
…
SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS by Marisha Pessl. It wasn’t bad; I just got a little...
Book Burning...
It’s freezing in my apartment right now. I’m wearing a polar fleece (and still cold) and my dog is actually shivering. Am considering culling my book collection and starting a fire with the disposables. At a glance: prime candidates (bulky hardcovers only, as those make better fires):
THE EMPEROR’S CHILDREN by Claire Messud. To be honest, if it had a pink cover with a fake...
I always take that US Airways flight back from Charlotte when returning to NY from Bama. And I always half expect it to land in the Hudson.
“Years from now, bored students will skim their history books and think Bernie...”
– John Francis Carney III (via caro) (via katiebakes) (via mikehudack)
Given the quality of most mainstream financial reporting, I’m sure plenty of people already think Bernie Madoff brought down Citigroup.
To be fair, I should mention that I learned that lesson the hard way, after coming off like a complete asshole in various newspapers and magazines.
Hello, World
peterfeld:
fimoculous:
We talked for six hours, about 20 minutes of which was about relationships.
Press Relations 101: Any sentence - phrase, even - that you utter may appear stand-alone, stripped of context. Choose your words accordingly. I learned this the hard way as a deputy Northern California press secretary for Michael Dukakis, back in the day.
See also.
Press Relations 101a: If you...
*Sigh*...
First, two things:
1) Generally speaking, I like the New York Times. And I read it mostly online.
2) I’m also generally inclined to applaud traditional media organizations when they use the web in intelligent ways—particularly since most of them don’t.
But…
New York’s cover story this week is killing me. It’s titled “The Renegades at the New York...
I used to hate covering celebs, so I’m gleefully *not* watching the Golden Globes because now I don’t HAVE to. No one’s making me!
Well, that explains it.
I’ve always thought of Sarah Weinman as one of the most well-read people I know. Now I know why: 462 books in a year. I speed read and cycle through text pretty quickly, but it’s still linear to me and there’s a certain audial pacing that goes with it, which puts an upper limit on speed. She sees text paragraph by paragraph, which most people are theoretically capable of...
peterfeld:
spiers:
And yes, I think without Felix, they’d have zero relevant coverage. At least slashing their web staff didn’t include slashing his blog. But then, from what I understand, his blog and Bercovici’s blog get more traffic than anything else on that site.
Ohhhh? This was at the top of their most emailed list for a whole entire week! (And I see it’s the #5 Google result for mark...
This reminds me: I think I left the free umbrella...
peterfeld:
spiers:
Bakes: Ha. You did. It’s now at my apartment, if you want it back. (We didn’t know it was yours. I assumed it was Feld’s.)
I don’t have a Portfolio umbrella! (Or subscription.) Daily Beast, though.
If The Daily Beast were giving out free umbrellas, at least that would explain where some of the money was going.
Also, that you don’t have a subscription is pretty...
This reminds me: I think I left the free umbrella...
Bakes: Ha. You did. It’s now at my apartment, if you want it back. (We didn’t know it was yours. I assumed it was Feld’s.)
youngmanhattanite:
The cover story of this month’s Portfolio is an 11-page profile of Sumner Redstone by Lloyd Grove. Oh yeah, and there’s a 1-page discussion of the “Madoff Mess” on page 16. Thank God for Salmon. Spiers would’ve had a field day with this even only there was someone who still needed convincing.
A few weeks ago I pitched a Madoff-pegged piece on why the SEC was broken as an...
Potatoes, potahtoes
At this point, I’m sort of assuming that the “quantitative easing measures” mentioned here refer to the following:
- Pretending U3 is the most relevant indicator of unemployment, when U5 (or, godforbid, the scary U6) is more pointedly indicative of overall economic health.
- Pretending that overall inflation can be ignored in favor of core inflation, as if there’s no...
What a coincidence! I found $173 million in signed checks between my couch cushions the other day! (Actually, I don’t have a couch.)
HuffPo on Valuation →
(via caro)
RE: Huffpo’s valuation: When that $200 million figure was first being floated, someone asked me whether I thought it was a fair number and how they would conceivably have arrived at it. I said I thought it was ludicrous but I can imagine how they got to it.
Herewith, the HuffPo Valuation Method:
1. Lick finger.
2. Stick finger in air.
3. Think of number at which you could...