in the abyss

Where do we live? No one's quite sure what to call it. South Slope? No no. You can't just keep applying a neighborhood name as far as you want. The Prospect Expressway provides a convenient divider line, and we're south of it (South Slope would be something like 12th-16th street, in my book). But calling our area Sunset Park? That doesn't work either. The park itself is at about 40th, and the neighborhood extends around and south of it.

That leaves us with Greenwood Heights, a name that's not overly common but can be found on some maps. Joanna found a NY Post article that seems to have dug up the history:

Taking claim for the Greenwood Heights name, Fillmore Real Estate vice president Sal Cappi says he coined the moniker back in 1988, when a new development of six townhouses was being built.

"We were trying to come up with a marketing edge for what was this no-man's-land. Something with pizzazz. It still took a couple of years for it to stick."

They say that "Greenwood Heights' boundaries are debatable, but the consensus is the area goes from 18th Street to 30th Street, between Fourth Avenue and Prospect Park West." so it's settled. bada bing, bada bam, bada boom.

Flight 93

I got really tired of those endless articles a few weeks ago about the then-upcoming Flight 93, which rhetorically asked "is it too soon?", and often concluded in the affirmative (one of the prominent exceptions: the LAT, 4/18/06). Many of these weren't the reviews; these were the pieces that were written earlier, before anyone had actually seen the film.

Anyhow, once the critics saw it, they almost all gave it stunning reviews.

Those witty anarchist-nerds

If you own a Riseup list, you get the pleasure of receiving occassional email updates about changes in Riseup services (along with pleas for money). I'd say that you should create a new list just so that you can receive their witty emails, but that'd probably be a bad use of resources (In fact, one time they sent an email encouraging people to close down their unused lists, prompting mattio to say that "i'm guessing that there's little difference in resource use of low-traffic listservs and no-traffic listserv, compared to the difference between lo/no-traffic listservs and no listserv").

Anyhow, from Riseup's latest email:

After careful consideration, we have decided to phase out insecure
connections to riseup.net. Don't panic! We will make this change gradually over time so as to minimize the inconvenience and pain. This change is kind of like switching to recycled toilet paper: it may be a pain in the ass at first, but you will be better off in the long run.

Oh, Bezerkeley

Who says you can't wear Berks and socks?

With shorts. And mismatched socks. hmm.

Man in Bubble

Too much of a Clinton Democrat?

See Markos Moulitsas' piece in Sunday's Post about why Hillary Clinton is lame and isn't going to win the nomination.

the end of an era

Doug Bennet announced today that he'll step down at the end of the 2006-2007 academic year.

Mobocracy!

mobocracy n. 1. When people you disagree with exercise a hint of possible political power.

"When the rule of law is dictated by a mob of illegal aliens taking to the streets, especially under a foreign flag, then that means the nation is not governed by a rule of law -- it is a mobocracy."
-Jim Gilchrist, a founder of the Minuteman Project (NYT, 5/2/06)

But how steep will it be?

76 degrees steep.