This Is Steve Temkin's tumblog.
Why should all the cool junk I see on Teh InterToobs clutter up my brain, when it could be cluttering up yours?
Come back often... better yet, make your own tumblr and follow me.
Anonymous asked: What's the deal with this SOPA thing? Have you called your Senator?
It’s a tool of the devil, I tells ya. And yes I called my Senator. Exactly what I called him, I do not wish to say!
Because it’s Wednesday: GPOYELSAS (Gratuitous picture of your eye looking scary as shit). I’m not worried though, as I got a clean bill of health after a very extensive diagnostic exam from the very top specialist available at the clinical facilities located at the rear of the CVS, next to the “As Seen On TV” merchandise aisle. This may be from watching too much Iowa caucus coverage.
Mitt Romney must be thrilled: he’s in a tie with a lawn gnome and a guy who opposes man-on-dog marriage.
retweet: Andy Borowitz
- I will learn where people buy toilet paper and stop stealing packs from my parents’ house.
- I will stop actively rooting for the funniest candidates to win the Republican nomination.
- I will not make fun of people who pronounce foreign words correctly.
- I will not get frustrated…
Certainly can’t complain about these resolutions, even if I am reblogging them on my naked iPhone.
Doing a little kitchen remodeling.
Attention shoppers: in the event that CVS runs low on Chia Pets, remember — gas stations, beef jerky.
Otis Redding, “White Christmas” (1968) A Blues Tune?
My favorite performance of Irving Berlin’s song, which has a really fascinating history, so fascinating in fact that NPR has done at least two stories on it: one in 2000 and one in 2002. Both very much worth listening to.
In January 1940, Irving Berlin, the most popular songwriter in America, raced into his office and asked his musical secretary to take down a new song. “Not only is it the best song I ever wrote, it’s the best song anybody ever wrote,” he said. His “White Christmas” was a seasonal, secular hymn that has lasted over half a century.
The composer of one of our most beloved Christmas songs, Berlin was Jewish, born in Russia, and his first language was Yiddish. This really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. In The Book of Gossage, Howard Gossage wrote that the best creative folks are “extra-environmental” — they are your immigrants, your outsiders, the folks who are able to notice what’s already there because it’s not “natural” to them.
Jody Rosen, author of White Christmas: The Story of An American Song, says that there might be a darker side to the song:
Berlin’s own feelings about the holiday were certainly ambivalent. He suffered a tragedy on Christmas Day in 1928 when his 3-week-old son, Irving Berlin Jr., died. Every Christmas thereafter, he and his wife visited his son’s grave. “The kind of deep secret of the song may be that it was Berlin responding in some way to his melancholy about the death of his son.”
“In spirit, if not in form, it’s a blues song.” (Enter Otis.)
via austinkleon:
ONLY THREE SHOPPING DAYS LEFT TIL FESTIVUS
Festivus was a 1966 family creation of writer Dan O’Keefe and was introduced into popular culture 31 years later by his son Daniel, a writer for the ‘Seinfeld’ tv show. “I had actually repressed/forgotten about it,” the younger O’Keefe told The Washington Post, adding that he was about 8 when he realized the holiday wasn’t real. “My younger brother mentioned it to the ‘Seinfeld’ head writers, and they made me stick it in an episode.”
It’s too late for this year, but you can buy your Festivus Pole for next year from Wagner Industries (made in Milwaukee — A city known for its Very High Strength-to-Weight Ratio.)
I’ve had a change of heart on the whole corporations as people thing. Corporations SHOULD have EXACTLY the same political contributions limits as people.
