Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Sunday, February 19, 2006
A riddle wrapped in some mystery links inside an enigma
morning US and canadian people, afternoon, Europeans (or americans in europe) evening jeremy!
i am in the strange position today of not being hungover on a sunday. it is a novelty i can tell you. so this is what sunday morning feels like! i have been avoiding sundays for this reason…
“In the end, it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn’t cope with, and that terrible listlessness which starts to set in at about 2:55, when you know that you’ve had all the baths you can usefully have that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the papers you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o’clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul.”
Douglas Adams
mystery links…
http://tinyurl.com/c9u75
http://tinyurl.com/9fuy8
http://tinyurl.com/9zq9q (far too strange)Posted by michael on from scotland 02/19 at 08:55 AMCheers, Michael. Welcome to Sunday morning. Love the links. The bottom one is odd beyond words but the middle one is brilliant. Something I will pass on to others.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/19 at 09:13 AMHi Mickey & Michael and everyone yet to arrive,
I looked at a few of the links but I befuddled my brain while choosing mystery links myself.
Sunday mornings.The story of the Japanese, or rather your analysis of the manner in which the rationale for internment brings to mind the popular mindset as it pertains to Palestians. The movie Paradise Now is encountering some peculiar opposition; all due to an ‘us and them’ mentality that I find particularly small considering the global economy and village we seem to be collectively pursuing.
Kenya!!! love it.
The middle link is very good. Sage advice.http://tinyurl.com/cuy2z
http://tinyurl.com/c84u9
http://tinyurl.com/bmu3tThe first one’s for Mudge.
About yesterday’s late night forum talk - I think I’m with Mudge.
I’m not sure what more a forum will achieve - it’s still not my ass following my head (I’m in agreement with you on that point Keir) but I think I may be missing something.Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 02/19 at 10:19 AMhi mickey
i am a big fan of monbiot. his books are very good. he was speaking at the G8 summit protests this year and was universally thought to have won the “line of the week” competition.
He stood up at the end and said…
“tomorrow all the newspaper headlines will read ‘G8 summit marred by anarchist protests’ . We are all here fighting for a world where the headline will be ‘Anrachist protests marred by G8 summit’”
captcha is ‘dead’
Posted by michael on from scotland 02/19 at 10:21 AMsimultyping!
morning amelopsis. those photos are amazing
Posted by michael on from scotland 02/19 at 10:25 AMI agree - Michael, that Monbiot article is superb. I wonder, though, how many people will read that and say “luckily, I made it through with my aims intact,” when they aren’t? I would be interested in taking a genuine stocktake, for lack of a better phrase, of my own aims. How much have I kept my integrity?
In some ways I would say yes, to a degree, but then shifting perspective may make that totally redundant. Ah shit, this is too thought provoking for a Sunday. But at least I don’t have to work with people who use marketing buzzwords & my own pet hate, “proactive.”
Captcha = “became”. Ugh!
Posted by Chris Wood on from Manchester, England 02/19 at 10:29 AMMichael glad you liked the photos. I think my comment sounded like I was referring to my own middle link - I meant your middle link was sage advice.
Monbiot’s advice is possibly too simple for many to follow without first being offered it.(forest for the trees sort of blinders apply here) I think it’s a great piece.Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 02/19 at 10:32 AMHi all,
about that idea of the forum, I say if it goes ahead I wish well but I will most likely stick around here. Though I understand why Luna would want a way to keep conversations going longer, I find with all the subjects sliced and segmented, if I want to talk to one person about one thing I click here and if I want to talk to the same person about another thing I click there, it seems a little impersonal to me. Too, on other forums I see people apologise for being “offtopic”, as if a conversation was something had to travel along a specified track, just seems to me to be contrary to what healthy yakking can be.
But: if there was a forum, I could contribute a page by perhaps scanning the backpages here for unifying themes and including the choicest pieces of what people here had to say about them.
here be a mystery link, enjoy:Posted by owen on from barcelona 02/19 at 10:35 AMEmpress, those pictures of the sun are astoundingly beautiful. Thank you.
Posted by Chris Wood on from Manchester, England 02/19 at 10:36 AMp.s. the one about the Ramblas isn´t mine, it´s something that popped up in a word document when I got into a netcaf computer.
Posted by owen on from barcelona 02/19 at 10:37 AMnot a mystery link here - just a link…
Posted by michael on from scotland 02/19 at 12:35 PMMickey, that optical illusion is amazing.
I liked the article about having a life but maybe more emphasis should have been given to the fact that when someone is in survival mode, there is not much opportunity for having a “life”. A little bit of hunger might have inspired Van Gogh but if he was really starving he probably would have sold his paint brushes.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 02/19 at 12:53 PMWhat can I “say”? I ask for mystery links and the Expendables deliver. I’ve browsed them all except Owen’s (which will require more time). Great stuff...nice variety,
Also, RMJ, you said it here: A little bit of hunger might have inspired Van Gogh but if he was really starving he probably would have sold his paint brushes.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/19 at 01:19 PMWhoa, I’m like shocked the forum question came up without me bringing it up. I honestly thought it had become a dead topic here. lol
Seriously, I am willing to devote the time into setting up and running an Expendables forum. I want it to be more of an extension of the community that has developed here and not something that would take away from it. We could even make it a private one. You would have to register to view and make postings.
I would prefer that honestly over the emailing list which I attempted to get of the ground earlier this week. I posted once (Monday I think) and got one response. I was initially planning to post again each day or every other day about it. However I wasn’t entirely comfortable with doing that, so I didn’t.
So if a majority of the regulars are willing to try it out, I’ll get cracking and knock together something over the next few days. What do ya’ll think?
Peace and Love,
LunaPosted by Luna_C on from home 02/19 at 01:47 PMI like that link to Monbiot.com
“To Choose Life”
some more “think links”:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/06/1750135.php
http://letters.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/06/07/mccarthy/view
Monbiot was recently interviewed on C.S. Soong’s excellent program, Against the Grain:
http://www.againstthegrain.org/
http://www.againstthegrain.org/audio2.08.06.mp3
another, aside:Singapore’s Talkingcock.com has some great comix and talented satire-- had fun reading this morning (written in Singlish) about what upcoming elections there would be like if conducted along the lines of American Idol-- thought this idea could be easily translated into our own upcoming elections:
http://www.talkingcock.com/html/article.php?sid=1877
Posted by Robert B. Livingston on from San Francisco 02/19 at 02:22 PMMystery Links. Jeez.
Nice stuff. Hey Mickey I think your article on Japanese-Americans was one of the first works I ever saw of yours. Still good. And I love Galeano.
In light of some very thoughtful comments on the subject of an Expendable forum, I have a suggestion: what if instead we made an aggregator---I don’t know if that’s the word---a place where Expendable writings showed up as soon as they were posted: Mickey’s, Michael’s, Rosemarie’s, JOS’s (he’s back posting!), mine (he said), Amelopsis, Youngfox, Owen (holy shit, dude, that link will keep me busy), Hawk, and all the others I’m missing...? Is this a good idea?
Posted by Keir on from The Hague 02/19 at 02:32 PMGood morning/afternoon/evening, all!
Michael, welcome to the long dark tea-time of the soul for real...and no Dirk Gently to liven things up.
Empress #3: “So just as there is no need to recreate the natural habitat of smart, blond, handsome Nazi storm-troopers who can then prey on their natural victims (and Nazis are a no less natural and noteworthy pattern of matter and energy thrown up in the course of evolution, albeit of a type now fortunately extinct), likewise the practice of continuing to breed pre-programmed feline killing machines in homage to Nature is ethically untenable too. It is not, needless to say, the fault of cats that they are prone to torturing mice; but then, given the equations of physics, it isn’t the fault of Nazis they try to persecute Jews. This is no reason to let them continue to do so.” A calm, rational voice at last. Bless you.
Owen #8: >sigh<
Mr. Livingston #15: HILARIOUS!! Thanks!
Keir #16: I am a technopeasant and don’t know what you’re proposing would look like...sounds to me like the same thing we got goin’ on over here...?
Last:
Posted by Mudge on from Austin 02/19 at 03:18 PMhello all...enjoying all the links today. always like post a secret, Mick.
Mr. Livingston, I like the talkingcock link, reminds me of my days in Singapore, la.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 02/19 at 03:52 PMAbout the toads...from MZ’s main-page link..."show us some leg, toad!” Like hydrilla (and the invasive carp brought in to eat it) and kudzu here in the South; or like that aquarium weed that’s choking the Mediterranean to death because the Monte Carlo aquarium tossed a bunch of it into the sea with some dead stuff; or like eucalypts displacing cottonwoods here in the desert Southwest, it’s all so well thought out huh?
Even I would’ve been a video-game addict with THIS one:
Posted by Mudge on from Austin 02/19 at 03:57 PMEvidently I missed some links when I thought I’d checked them all earlier. I arrive back to check updates and I find JOS on about talkingcocks with a peculiar engrish.com selection immediately above. I’d better go and provide context.
Keir - an aggregator that we could run on our respective blogs? I rather like the notion, but I’m unclear as to how this relates to your original concern of action?
Now to find talkingcocks...and frogs with long legs (all the faster to jump with, my dear)
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 02/19 at 04:00 PMMudge, stop making fun of cats and Danish people! Or at least Danish people. Haha, glad you’re back here. Here’s this, to continue some remote reference to whales:
Khaaaaannnn!!!
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 02/19 at 04:01 PMAlso, I don’t have a link to it, but is it me, did I misread something, or did that guy that Cheney shot in the face and chest just *apologize* for everything he’s put his buddy Dick through this week?
Look, you Expendables are the greatest, but if any of you shoot me full of ‘birdshot’, I will categorically not apologize. Man, I really thought that was an onion headline when I saw it.
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 02/19 at 04:05 PMNow I see: onion-like cocks!
Mudge I thought of you as soon as I read that cat piece. How are you feeling today? Well enough to be looking for humour in all the likely places - thank you.
Luna I’m interested in your idea too, but I suspect I would find it more interesting to lurk than to partake - time is not always as plentiful as I’d like.
These links are very time consuming. Anyone follow the kenya link one farther to ‘I am Spartacus’? Very good for a slow in the head Sunday.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 02/19 at 04:08 PMCoincidental onion reference...I was simultyping with you, James.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 02/19 at 04:10 PMJames, you are right about the apology from the victim to the perpetrator. These are strange times in which we live. Right after the shooting they put out the story that the VP didn’t do anything wrong because the man who had been shot walked into the “bullets”. Republicans shooting republicans, I guess that could be considered collateral damage.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 02/19 at 04:37 PMthe victim apologised? way to encourage dickle infallibility…
Posted by owen on from barcelona 02/19 at 04:39 PMHaha, yes, well I just saw a headline of it passing by a newsstand last night, but now websearching for it I came across this site:
Anyone seen this Seeing the Forest site before?
So, I guess the idea is that he broke some rule in these hunting games, failing to take some precaution that he should have to avoid getting all that lead in the face. I guess he’s just a better man than I am, apologizing like that.
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 02/19 at 04:54 PMJust finishing up The Corporation...excellent. One piece of info I had never heard before was an attempt by several corporations to organize what amounted to a coup against the US government of Roosevelt after he introduced the New Deal...anyone know anything about tha?
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 02/19 at 05:43 PMWell, welcome to Monday morning (it is 9:55 am in Daylesford) which means it must be Sunday afternoon in the eastern US and very late on Sunday night in Glasgow/Manchester. Being Australian, I clicked on ‘Australian Toads’ - thanks for all those mystery links, Mickey!
I have to wander off shortly which will be a bit harder today as my back is giving me some trouble. Never mind - here’s a warm welcome to Michael, Amelopsis, Owen, Chris, Rosemarie, Robert, Keir, Mudge, James, Luna_C and JOS - hope I haven’t forgotten anyone. I think from now on I’ll just say ‘Hi, Expendables’.And thanks for all those mystery links, MZ’ers/expendables.
Arrivederci ..
P.S. James, the seeingtheforest site is very good - I visit nearly every day, although not quite as often as at Mickey’s site.Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 02/19 at 05:56 PMJames #27: If you’d paid as much to get someone into a position of power as Whittington paid to see Bush & Cheney where they are, swallowing your pride to apologize to the man who shot you would seem like a mere bagatelle. Birdshot doesn’t hurt much, more stings and itches.
#21: Cats, o CatLady, earn my opprobrium merely through the existence of their toxic spit-having, unhealth dander-shedding selves. I do not like them. I will not be swayed in my opposition to their non-extinction. Down with cats! Danes are mere collateral damage. I have nothing against Denmark or Danes, but hey...a chance to needle a “Danmark-uber-alles” patriot simply can’t be passed up!
Empress #23: Feeling reasonably pain-free today. I’ve adjusted to the weather at last. Of course, now it’s due to change. >sigh<
RMJ #25: “Republicans shooting republicans, I guess that could be considered collateral damage.” I think it’s just a plain, ol-fashioned good idea. I’d like larger ammo and more careful aim for vital organs.
Paul O’Neill’s retraction of his statements regarding Bush’s nastiness are particularly chilling to me. Scary, they can intimidate a man of his wealth and power into the position of retracting his heartfelt statements!
Posted by Mudge on from Austin 02/19 at 05:58 PMWilliam Shatner, Fuckman, Danish phallic symbols, and talking cocks? Sounds like the hot tub at Mudge’s place.
Hello Expendables. Very lively here today. I must admit that I do not know what an aggregator is...but it’s hard to imagine that I’d find time to converse with you all both here and somewhere else.
JOS: I wrote about that FDR coup story in Saving Private Power. Smedley Butler spilled the beans on it, if I recall.
Am I the only one who thinks that Ricardo Montalban in Wrath of Khan looked eerily like Barbara Stanwyck?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/19 at 06:31 PMOkay fine. Now I’ll explain why the Vikings were generally the invaders rather than the invades. See, outsiders would attempt to scale the walls of Danish castles, but could never get a foot- or handhold in because the bricks fit together too smoothly… that’s a Legos joke, seems to work better when I tell it in person.
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 02/19 at 06:33 PMNow this really sounds like the hot tub at Mudge’s place (to continue Melville/ whale references, and see also: http://tinyurl.com/je5tt):
Squeeze! squeeze! squeeze! all the morning long; I squeezed that sperm till I myself almost melted into it; I squeezed that sperm till a strange sort of insanity came over me; and I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co-laborers’ hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules. Such an abounding, affectionate, friendly, loving feeling did this avocation beget; that at last I was continually squeezing their hands, and looking up into their eyes sentimentally; as much as to say,- Oh! my dear fellow beings, why should we longer cherish any social acerbities, or know the slightest ill-humor or envy! Come; let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness.”
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 02/19 at 06:38 PMThe sperm of kindness? Now look how far this has, uh...come.
Btw, I wanna say hello to Robert...haven’t seen him in a while. And since Keir found a place that had already used the “mystery links” moniker, I guess I need a new title for this thang. Anyone have a suggestion?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/19 at 06:45 PMWhittington walked into Cheney’s bullets? And I suppose Dresden walked into a firestorm, Hiroshima and Nagaski both walked into an atomic bomb, and it was actually the city of Troy that popped out of the goddamn trojan horse to lay siege to itself.
Whittington got exactly what he paid for. Trouble is, why do the rest of us get what Whittington paid for?
Posted by Keir on from The Hague 02/19 at 09:34 PMLet me explain: I think everyone’s right: a forum elsewhere would take away from the fantastic thing we got going here. But I do believe that there are some issues that come up here that die too quickly. Cool Observer has a wonderful and quick pace that I appreciate but sometimes can’t keep up with---but more importantly, I sometimes feel that we leave interesting discussions with the last “g’night”.
An aggregator is a website that looks like a blog where posts from various blogs appear as soon as they are posted to their original site. An Expendable aggregator would show Mickey’s new post every day, Michael’s fairly regular new posts, and the less frequent posts of the others. I think it could be done so that comments made to the original blog (e.g. Cool Observer) or the aggregator would show up in both places. So that daily postings intended for faster consumption could mingle with lengthier, more in depth (or “off-topic") stuff. While you’re checking into Cool Observer you would see automatically what has been recently posted by other Expendables.
Personally, I would only be interested in something like this if it were more or less automatic---i.e. no one would have to manually post their stuff twice and comments posted in either location (a person’s “blog” or the “aggregator") showed up in both places.
Why? I value these discussions immensely, and grow with the input of the other Expendables. And want to take the discussion further. Maybe this is not a good solution. Discuss.
(PS ZNet blogs used to have an aggregator feature but they are revamping the whole system so now it’s gone.)
Posted by Keir on from The Hague 02/19 at 09:40 PMIf someone (Luna?) could put together what Keir describes above, it sounds like something worth trying.
On that note, thanks for another great day.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/19 at 10:09 PMP.S. If it seems like I’m wavering back and forth on the forum/aggregator idea, well...I am. I just can’t say yet if it’ll make “sense” for me.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/19 at 10:11 PMGreat links today Mickey and others who shared them. I concur with Robert in that I especially like the one that links to Monbiot.com
Posted by Fiona on from CA 02/19 at 11:42 PM“morning US and canadian people, afternoon, Europeans (or americans in europe) evening jeremy!”—michael
;) Late afternoon now, so I guess y’all are in bed. Which probably means nobody’s going to read this. Oh well. I like talking to myself anyhow. I often do. I guess if anyone caught me, they’d think I was a little crazy. That’s OK. I probably am a little abnormal. I always seem to be the last one to post. Makes me feel like the one kid who wants to play with the group, but always lags behind and can’t keep up with their games. “Hey, guys, wait for me!” LOL! :D
On the matter of forums, I have my own. It doesn’t get much use, unfortunately. I don’t want to detract from the Expendables’ blog by any means, but I’d like to at least throw out the invitation to check it out (Thanks, MZ, BTW, for inviting me here). I’m more than happy to host discussions there the Expendables would like to discuss at greater length.
So here’s my mystery link (OK, so it’s not a mystery, since I just told you, but here it is anyhow):
Posted by Jeremy on from Taiwan 02/20 at 03:18 AMHi Fiona. And Jeremy, fear not: I just read your comment. I’ll check out your forum later, I hope. Thanks.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/20 at 07:08 AM
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