… but I don’t know what that is.
Merill Perlman sorts out something I needed to have sorted out.
Something improvised as a temporary fix is “jury-rigged.” … Something that is “jerry-built,” though, is shoddily built, usually out of inferior materials. … To be fair, things can be “jury-rigged” and “jerry-built,” meaning temporary and lousy, and it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference.
But if you conflate the two phrases and making something “jerry-rigged” or “jury-built,” you’re guilty of idiom mangling.
OK, then.
Consumerist reports: “McDonald’s Shamrock Shake to Spread Minty Green Rapture Nationwide for the First Time.”
Memo to McDonald’s: Next December, bring us a “Candy Cane Shake.” That would be a Shamrock Shake with pink food coloring instead of green food coloring. You’re welcome.
Charles Fey reminds us of Rule No. 1.
Andrew Breitbart frequently disregards Rule No. 1. Here’s a video of Breitbart mistaking a group of Occupy DC protesters for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. (I’m just guessing, but why else would he be screaming that?)
After complaining recently about the clueless grasping for power of a handful of old white men, let me clarify that I don’t have anything against old white men per se. I hope to be one myself some day. So let me praise a couple of old white men: Clint Eastwood is in his eighties. Bruce Springsteen is in his sixties.
Speaking of Springsteen, here’s Bill See on Nebraska:
Springsteen makes us care for these characters: unrepentant murderers, small-time thieves, disenfranchised night crawlers driving around all night at their wit’s end. Springsteen provides perspective: “You can put together a lot of detail, but unless you pull something up out of yourself it’s going to lie flat on the page. You’ve got to find out what you have in common with that character, no matter who they are or what they did. … [Nebraska is] written with the premise that everybody knows what it’s like to be condemned, which they do, of course.”
In a similar vein, Todd Snider’s new song “In Between Jobs” is streaming at the AV Club. Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables comes out next month.
Also from the AV Club: “When the commentariat attacks! 14 entertaining cases of collective Internet satire.”
How is Bruce Campbell only No. 5 on the Den of Geek’s list of “The top 25 cult film actors“?
Cracked.com: “6 Scientific Discoveries That Laugh in the Face of Physics.”
Ethan Siegel: “Defending Physics Against Cracked.com.”
Siegel also has a really cool look at a really cool storm on Saturn.
Kima! Alan Bean points us to an inspiring profile of Sonja Sohn, known to many of us as Det. Shakima Greggs: “After ‘The Wire’ ended, actress Sonja Sohn couldn’t leave Baltimore’s troubled streets behind.”
Bertrand Russell reportedly said, “Television allows thousands of people to laugh at the same joke and still remain alone.”
I remembered that remark after seeing this performance of Eric Whitacre’s “Lux Aurumque.”
The Internet, it seems, allows hundreds of people who are alone to sing the same song, together, in chorus.
Here’s a Q&A with David Ellefson of Megadeth about seminary and faith on the road:
I think we are all drawn to the word of God but not sure about the church of our youth as it was antiquated and seemed culturally irrelevant to us. So, my hope is that with a modern day discovery we can apply God’s word more universally to all of us. …
Even after Ellefson graduates from seminary, I doubt you’ll hear any Megadeth on contemporary Christian radio, or, as Stephen Mattson dubs it, “Caucasion Christian Radio.”
How long do you suppose it would take to explain to Rick Santorum what’s wrong with the Hanukkah cards sent out by his campaign?
“25 Things I Learned From Opening a Bookstore”
21. A surprising number of people will think you’ve read every book in the store and will keep pulling out volumes and asking you what this one is about. These are the people who leave without buying a book, so it’s time to have some fun. Make up plots. …
“11 New Uses for Old Churches”
(Those last two both via AZspot.)
Salam Rugby. (via)
And finally, The Curator points us to an appropriate article for Valentine’s Day: “How Good Are You at Loving?”
“Loving,” says Dr. Elliot D. Cohen, “is a purposive activity … an intimate, personal activity that seeks the welfare, happiness, and safety of another.” That’s almost Pauline.
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