Calling "Race & ethnicity" a news category is marbles

Or maybe it's just sad that as a practical matter we need such a category . . .

The ALR's index is marbles

It doesn't matter what the ALR itself is, other than that it's a legal publication on the case law governing all sorts of stuff. Thus, as one would expect, its index is extensive. But it is also downright silly:

Saying "the book was better than the movie" is marbles

I can't stand it when people say that. Books and movies are two entirely different things. To paraphrase, it's like comparing Johnny Mathis with Diet Pepsi.

I can say without much hesitation that I've only genuinely disliked 5 to 10 movies in my entire life. But the number of books I've genuinely disliked is at least 10 times that number. Most books are terrible. Many movies are terrible, but they're still movies, which can be entertaining even when (or because) they're bad, and at worst only take up a few hours of your time. But to waste days on a book that ultimately sucks is just devastating. Maybe this is why I stopped reading books.

That largely irrelevant discussion aside, please lay off the movie adaptations, Slate, et al. Just tell me whether the damn movie was any good on its own merits and holster your comparative literature degree for another day.

Ticketmaster's idea of "buy one get one free" is marbles

I realize I'm taking aim at some easy targets here, but I had to share. I was tempted to go see School of Seven Bells with Fujiya & Miyagi next week until I saw that Ticketmaster surcharges turned a $15 ticket into a $26.75 ticket. Just don't like them enough for that. But then I saw today that they were running a two-for-one special on that show, so I checked it out thinking I might con somebody else into going and save a couple bucks. Turns out, it cost $29.60. Essentially the same as buying two full priced tickets (sans surcharge rape). What a deal.

Using the New York City skyline on a Philadelphia transit pass is marbles

Oh, SEPTA, I could dedicate a whole blog to ridiculing you.


via philebrity, of course

The Philosophy of Furniture is unintentionally hilarious, marbles

Today I discovered that Edgar Allen Poe had some strong opinions on interior design. Indeed he published an essay in 1840 boldly titled "The Philosophy of Furniture." A few choice quotes:

A judge at common law may be an ordinary man; a good judge of a carpet must be a genius.

Yet we have heard discoursing of carpets, with the air "d'un mouton qui reve," fellows who should not and who could not be entrusted with the management of their own moustaches.

The Dutch have, perhaps, an indeterminate idea that a curtain is not a cabbage.

Weird dude.

Reason #643 why the Philadelphia Parking Authority is marbles

via philebrity

Nobody ever liking my favorite song is marbles

I did a little experiment tonight and was proven correct. While I usually agree with friends and critics on what albums are good, I almost never agree on which songs on those albums are the best, and I don't know why.

Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion was the subject. Everyone pretty much agrees it's brilliant, and so do I. And after having sat with it for a few weeks now I feel like I have a handle on what my favorite song is ("Taste"). So I went on metacritic and checked five or six of the higher-rated reviews to see what they thought of my song. The majority didn't even mention it, even the ones that made a point of going through a track-by-track description. What gives?

I'd like to blame it on the short period of time that reviewers have with an album before their deadlines come (so they might overlook a grower), but I don't think that's really the case anymore, since everything leaks months in advance. The only thing I can really come up with to explain it is that everyone is wrong except me.

Whining that your pirating software is being pirated is marbles

Crackulous, the new iPhone software that cracks the DRM on App Store apps so they can be shared freely on jailbroken iPhones, has apparently been wrested from the control of its developers and sold, SOLD, for $10 a pop by a different group of software pirates. One developer describes this as "absolutely disgusting and downright insulting."

The absurdity of this needs no elaboration. There seems to be a whole big world of insanity out there, the extent of which I'm only slowly becoming aware. Just makes you want to smack someone.

That polydactyly is the least marbles thing about this video is marbles

Wait for the doctor. Flamenco guitar and typing skills?

Tennis instant replay is marbles

Does anyone seriously believe that that silly computer replay thing they have in tennis bears any meaningful relation to reality? I know the players don't (particularly Federer). Though it is probably better than the human eye, on average, I just have to laugh on close calls when they zoom in on the little image to show the sub-millimeter gap between the computerized ball mark and the computerized line. Infinitely precise this thing is, apparently.

It's like at work when you make the mistake of throwing a number out to roughly estimate something and your boss latches onto it and treats it like gospel. As soon as something gets quantified, any hope of qualifying it is lost.