The Atlantic emails me this handy summary of the upcoming issue, which will get tossed with the others I haven't read yet when it arrives. I used to love reading it, and I would still like to read it, but for some reason, I don't. When enough of them pile up to really depress me I drop them off at the library. Sometimes I'll click the link on the preview and read the online version of an article or two that sounds interesting. What's wrong with me? Can't I leave this freakin' computer for two minutes?

The articles with links have summaries online that anybody can read. You have to be a subscriber to read the whole thing. Maybe I should just bequeath my online subscription to someone who might use it.

The Atlantic Preview
Volume 295 No. 2 | March 2005

COMMENT American Casino
The promise and perils of Bush's "ownership society"
by Robert J. Shiller

FOREIGN POLICY What "W" Owes to "WW"
President Bush may not even know it, but he can trace his view of the world to Woodrow Wilson, who defined a diplomatic destiny for America that we can't escape
by David M. Kennedy

VERBATIM Rather's Familiar Quotations

THE LIST Security Fences
by Abigail Cutler

MEDIA J-School for Jerks
How you, too, can learn to behave like Bill O'Reilly
by Joshua Green

THE ODDS Who Will Be the Next James Bond?
by John Sellers

What's the Matter With Central Park West?
by Walter Shapiro

Primary Sources
Hizbollah's new toy; America's "Pedestrian Danger Index"; the perils of dialing drunk

THE WORLD IN NUMBERS The New Opium War
by Matthew Quirk
[This article is not available online.]

The Accuser
One woman has spent decades documenting crimes against humanity in Iraq. Now Saddam and his circle are facing justice
by William Langewiesche

The Accidental Autocrat
Vladimir Putin is not a democrat. Nor is he a czar like Alexander III, a paranoid like Stalin, or a religious nationalist like Dostoyevsky. But he is a little of all these--which is just what Russians seem to want
by Paul Starobin

The Truth About Harvard
It may be hard to get into Harvard, but it's easy to get out without learning much of enduring value at all. A recent graduate's report
by Ross Douthat

POETRY Male Voices, From Below
by John Updike

POETRY Now
by Frannie Lindsay

Meeting
A drawing
by Guy Billout

EDITOR'S CHOICE Clothes-Minded
The London Look: Fashion From Street to Catwalk, by Christopher Breward, Edwina Ehrman, and Caroline Evans; Harvard Rules, by Richard Bradley; The Glorious Cause, by Robert Middlekauff; The Meaning of Independence, by Edmund Morgan
by Benjamin Schwarz

I'll Be Damned
Graham Greene's most fervent loyalty was to betrayal
by Christopher Hitchens

READING LIST One Great Book Per Life
Writers who said it all to perfection in a single book and then most decently died
by Allan Gurganus

Marshal Plan
The age of parents as friends is over
by Sandra Tsing Loh

Backfire
A leading observer of militant Islam argues that the movement will undermine itself--if only the United States will let it
by Peter Beinart

INNOCENT BYSTANDER Feeling Entitled?
Huey Long's aspiration--"Every man a king!"--is at last within our grasp
by Cullen Murphy

A LOOK BACK 55 Years Ago in The Atlantic
"My Father: Leslie Stephen"

SPORT The Magician
The world's best pool player sees shots no one else can
by Pat Jordan

THE PUZZLER Cloverleaf
by Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon

Word Fugitives
by Barbara Wallraff

POST MORTEM Ex-Husband of Love Goddesses
Artie Shaw (1910-2004)
by Mark Steyn

Who's Who
A selective index to this month's issue
Compiled by Benjamin Healy

p.s. - they don't have an RSS feed or I would have just added it.

CNet: Amazon search pictures your destination

Early Thursday, the company announced the first phase of its service, called A9.com Yellow Pages, with 20 million images from 10 cities, including Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Seattle.

People can call up a business listing to find contact information (with an Internet-to-phone dialing service), reviews, a local map and a photo of the business' facade. With a feature called "block view," people can also click to see adjacent businesses or surrounding neighborhoods.

To accomplish this feat, the company has sent a handful of vans onto the streets of America, touring around with digital video cameras strapped to their rooftops. The cameras are synchronized to a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver so that A9 can map local addresses to their images once recorded onto a computer hard drive. Because GPS can be inexact, the company has proprietary software to further map some images with addresses.

So far it has taken photos of roughly 1 million businesses in 10 metropolitan areas: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland, Ore.

24-hour Sci-Fi Movie Marathon movie list has been offically posted, subject to change as always.

Went to Macworld today with Kathy ((Onpiano) from (e:) west). We spent most of the time ogling iPod accessories. Not that I own an iPod, which not only would require initial capital to purchase, but also an ongoing budget for gadgetry upkeep.

[size=s][cell phone pix below][/size]


iPod Shuffle listening station


Underwater listening station?


And the ultimate iPod accessory...





Damn that thing is gorgeous! It's basically gadget bling when you come right down to it - combining two of my favorite things. I have to get me a paying job soon.

The rest of the time was spent lusting after the new version of Garageband (charmingly pronounced GARageband by the British demo guy). Oh what I wouldn't give for a disposable income!


The Mac faithful congregating at the Apple booth

(e:) west version of the story

Speaking of cinnamon... [inlink]terry,377[/inlink]

I remember reading about this in Health a while back. I couldn't find that article online, but found this one.

Cinnamon joins cholesterol battle

The 40-day study, of 60 people in Pakistan with Type 2 diabetes, found that one gram a day of cinnamon -- one-fourth of a teaspoon twice daily -- significantly lowered the subjects' blood sugar, triglycerides (fatty acids in the blood), LDL (or "bad") cholesterol, and total cholesterol.

and if that's not enough -

Finally, there may be an indirect health benefit to be had from cinnamon, according to Taiwanese scientists writing in the July 14 issue of Agriculture and Food Chemistry. Cinnamon oil, they found, kills mosquito larvae more effectively than DEET, a common pesticide and mosquito repellent. The next step is to test it against adult mosquitoes.

Random notes:

I was listening to some Laura Nyro and I would recommend her to all you Streisand fans out there.

I was just looking at some pix of the mansion (I am suffering from serious mansion-envy) and it's amazing how quickly you guys settled in. It looks so empty in these pictures[inlink]matthew,489[/inlink]compared to when I was there just a week later.

As for me, I just unpacked and put my suitcase away. I think if estripwest is going to have a snowball's chance in Alameda, I'd better get a roommate (or two) to take care of me.

Had an interesting encounter waiting for my flight to Buffalo. This woman sat down next to me and we had quite an animated conversation about her job as a porn star. She's also an internet entrepreneur. I don't think the Hasiidic Jew who was sitting on the other side of her appreciated it though.

Just because of that juxtaposition I had to snap a stealth pic with my cell phone.



Maybe I'll fill in the whole story some day. Her web site is (porn site). I'm in an all-day class tomorrow, so I know if I don't upload this now I never will. (Not like that would be any great loss...)

She really had the most arresting blue-green eyes I've ever seen.

Story continued here [inlink]twisted,122[/inlink]

A friend of mine (in CA) sent this around last year. It's still funny. To me anyway. Don't forget I paid my dues with 20 years in Boston.


Effects of severe weather in California

It was fun to see snow while in Buffalo, but it's good to be back. Don't forget to come visit.

I missed my connection to Oakland at JFK, so I had a few extra hours to kill. Plenty of food options to assuage the disappointment.







I would say JFK is the Wegman's of airport food.

I didn't think I would have any time at JFK, so I woofed down some "Buffalo's Best" wings at the Buffalo airport. I have a serious weakness for wings.

I feel like a peep exchange student, now returning to my home country. It's hard to describe how I feel now or what changed for me. I was so scared of screwing up my 'imaginary' friendship, but I'm glad that didn't stop me from going and meeting (e:PMT) in person. Thanks for taking me into your household, guys! I had a great time with you. I especially loved seeing (e:Mathew)'s beautiful animal collages in person. And now I know (e:Terry)'s culinary concoctions really do taste as good as they look. Strangely enough, being in same time zone with (e:Paul) is not all that different. I still went to bed and woke up three hours earlier than he did. Probably the most telling moment of the visit was when (e:Paul) looked to see if I was online when I was sitting 3 feet from him in the same room. I don't know what that means, but it's probably a good thing I'm back here now.

It was great hanging out at the Mansion and getting to meet (e:Flacidness), (e:Lilho), (e:DrClorine) and (e:Rachel). And I finally had the perfect excuse to visit (e:J3sse)! I looked up just how long it's been since he abandoned me and it turns out he left SF on December 10th 2002. That's exactly two years to the day before estripwest was "born." Is that weird or what?

I wish I could have had a little more time there, but after 18 days as a roaming nomad, it's good to be home. Strangely sad though.

It's all gone but something lingers on
a place i used to call home

p.s. - even though it was really nice being on a pedestal before (not to mention a serious novelty for me) I would have to say that was a big reason for making the trip. I liked it up there, but it freaked me out sometimes. I was just hoping I wouldn't have to take too much of a nosedive off it.

The last of the family[inlink]twisted,114[/inlink]shipped out this morning. Erik & Alisha caught a 5:40am flight (ouch!) from Newark to Charlotte to Atlanta. Dad & Jean took off in the Jetta for South Carolina. My brother and sister-in-law are at work and the kids are in school. Suddenly it's very, very quiet. So I'm playing the CD I made my nephews for their last birthday. Forgot I had put Adam Sandler's "Red Hooded Sweatshirt" on there!

It's been quite the family odyssey. I've slept in 7 different "beds" (I use the term loosely) since I got to the East coast Dec. 20th, and tonight I get upgraded from the air mattress in my brother's home office to my nephew's bed now that everyone else has vacated. I've slept great everywhere, although it was pretty cosy the one night I shared a room with three nephews and my one niece. She got crowded out during the night so we jammed in together on the trundle bed.



Luckily I had my boxer shorts with the glow-in-the-dark stars, suitable for slumber parties.