G as in Good H as in Happy

Eloquent Bodies

May 31, 2006

Who doesn't sympathize, and even tremble, at the level of disclosure public figures now undergo?

W/ extreme thankfulness for a private life,

/s/ dilys and the anonymous antediluvian posse

Essential Accentual

March 29, 2006

At the Speech Accent Archive, the same English passage read by different international speakers of English. For serious linguists, there is a  f-ntk / phonetic script. For general-nuisance mimics, have at it.

Sicily, Sweden, Malta, Pakistan, Botswana, Scotland.

Courtesy Newmark's Door, also pointing to interesting-looking alternatives for a gig of free storage, and presentation-presentation on the Web.

Once upon a time...

...the personally meanest, most contemptuous, dancing-on-the-throat vulture-excretion of an op-ed piece that ever contaminated the Sunday American-Statesman would have gone unchallenged. Maybe some letters to the editor of the Los Angeles Times syndicator in the next week or so, from evident, dismissable sputtering conservatives.

Now, blogs flag the play.

An Army of Davids

February 25, 2006

It's well on the way to Meme-ry, Glenn Reynolds' book title, how the focused distributed interest and labor made possible by the internet -- specifically blogs -- is outpacing the institutions, especially the established print and broadcast media. Where they're smart, they're in motion to keep up.

March 1, 2006 Update re "disruptive technologies:"

...last week ...two high-quality, equally highly acclaimed weblogs published well-written, erudite and startlingly professional pieces of investigative journalism.

Stand Up for Denmark

February 22, 2006

Hejsa!

Christopher Hitchens has called for free speech activity on Friday, February 24, before the Embassy of Denmark, 3200 Whitehaven Street (off Massachusetts Avenue) between noon and 1 p.m. in Washington.

We are not able to attend, but will gladly e-mail PDFs of this graphic in a size suitable for pasting on posters, of the sort [FedEx]Kinko's and other service bureaus can print quickly. Because of the fast turnaround needed, we recommend the b/w version and that red be added by hand with large felt pens, or with paint. Neatness, it being Scandinavian-associated, counts. Please tell us the general size you need: good_and_happy xxatxx yahoo.com

Or, if you can work graphically with the scale, simply download the smaller ones that appear with this post.

We love Denmark, and the Danes, always have, since visiting as a small child. Courageous, straightforward, beautiful (gorgeous!) people.

Via Gates of Vienna

Update post-demo: Don't let them win. You won't like it.

Interesting Blog

February 10, 2005

My mother's birthday in 1901.

Life in the world:

And here is love
like a tinsmith's scoop
sunk past its gleam
in the meal-bin.

--Seamus Heaney, "Mossbawn"

From The Tears of Things, two artists with flair and literacy in Phoenix. Interests include wild parrots and the effect of the paranormal on photography. Also Kabbalah and good order.

"When I hear the word 'community,' I reach for my car keys." -- Jerome du Bois

We wish we'd been quicker on the draw, over the years.

Paul Graham Essays

Paul Graham is now at the top of Mahalanobis' "What Current or Historical Figure Would You Most Like to Have Dinner With?" list.

Every May, speakers all over the country fire up the Standard Graduation Speech, the theme of which is: don't give up on your dreams.  I know what they mean, but this is a bad way to put it, because it implies you're supposed to be bound by some plan you made early on.  The computer world has a name for this: premature optimization.  And it is synonymous with disaster.  These speakers would do better to say simply, don't give up.

What they really mean is, don't get demoralized.

Don't: give up, prematurely optimize, or associate with anything that demoralizes you.

Ombre

For a brilliant example of how a story turns multifaceted, poignant, and often dark when the gaze stays steady for a few moments, as the morphing of the Uzbekistan story above from furless funless cartoon into a sad post-Soviet disaster, see this current masterpiece by the Washington Post's Gene Weinberger. As Lileks says, the piece shoud be taught in journalism school, or whatever succeeds journalism school.

"Blog"odaram

For all our international gratitude needs.

The title is a bad pun based on Macedonian, a language whose comprehensibility to this American improved considerably after several glasses of wine...Alcohol as telepathic aid, a subject for another post, one hopes never.

Family Matters

January 17, 2006

From the son of a friend of Good&Happy:  a new blog by John Hull, consisting of translations from the Arab press.