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Politics
July 26, 2005
I Know It When I See It
That's how Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once defined obscenity. According to an article in the Miami Herald, that's also how the Florida police force decides whether an accused sex offender has violated the clause of his probation that prohibits the possession of "sexually stimulating" material. For Andrew Calderon, that meant a trip to jail for owning a few copies of Maxim.
Media
July 25, 2005
Citizen Kane vs Look Who's Talking, Too
People frequently argue about what activities qualify as "sports." (I've got news for you: Poker is not the new hot "sport," no matter what CNN says. Neither is ice skating or synchronized swimming.) Also included in the is-it-or-isn't-it semantic debate is the argument over which older movies should be granted "classic" status. Now, we may finally have a legal answer. As the New York Times reported today, Time Warner Cable sued American Movie Classics channel, alleging that AMC veered too far from its original format of classic movies. The best part of the article is undoubtedly the caption under the photo of John Travolta striking a half-nude pose: "John Travolta played the role of Tony Manero in 'Staying Alive,' a 1983 movie that is, by legal standards at least, not considered a classic."
Sports
July 22, 2005
Play poker with this guy!
I made two bucks on the slots in Panama City last week, while waiting for a poker game to materialize. The poker boom has spread far enough for the staff of a Panamanian casino to enquire in Spanish if I wanted to play "Tejas hold 'em," but not quite far enough for there to actually be a game. Nonetheless, my absence, combined with the fact that The New Yorker still doesn't have much of an online presence, means I didn't get around to reading last week's issue until just now (even though it turns out this article is indeed online).
Media
July 21, 2005
Hot Coffee Screenshots
Now that Hillary Clinton has spoken out about it and it has received an adults-only label from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (New York Times), the current version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has been discontinued by its maker, Rockstar Games. It seems that some people have found a way to unlock a minigame within the game, entitled "Hot Coffee," in which users get to take a break from stealing and killing and start humping. Which is great for those who already own the game and are savvy enough to download the patch. But how can those of us with no access to the game see some pixellated nudity?
Sports
July 20, 2005
FIFA's Fragile Ranking System
The United States has reached its highest FIFA ranking ever, coming in as the sixth best soccer team in the world, up from 10th last month (AP). Certainly, the team has looked pretty good over the last few months, destroying teams like Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama in World Cup qualifiers, and has most recently advanced to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. (It plays Honduras tomorrow for a spot in the finals.) But Team USA's ascendancy in the FIFA World Rankings, one of the most complicated point systems in the world, has less to do with its strength than its schedule.
Media
July 20, 2005
Forget Exit Polling: We've Got Strategists!
In Friday's New York Times, an article about Republican efforts to lure black voters contained this head-scratcher: "Although Mr. Bush won only 11 percent of the black vote nationwide in 2004, hardly denting support for his Democratic rival, strategists in both parties agreed that he made progress in states like Ohio." Sure, the exit polls weren't spot-on last November, especially intraday. But must the Times really turn to bipartisan strategists to know how Bush did with blacks in 2004?
Food
July 19, 2005
One Lucky Neighborhood
People toss the term "neighborhood restaurant" around lightly, but the folks at Frankies 457 in Brooklyn's Carroll Gardens take it seriously. Luckily for everyone, they know what they're doing.
Full article » | by Aria Sloss
Arts
July 19, 2005
Of Guantanamo and Azkaban
A shadowy figure leading a campaign of terror against civilians. A government floundering in its response, alternating between denial and misdirected crackdowns. "Suspects" led off in chains, their civil liberties violated. This is the wizards' world in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It also may be her view of George Bush's America in 2005.
Media
July 18, 2005
One Man's Tragedy Is Newsman's Drama
Movies dramatize the dashing foreign correspondent running to cover a violent act. And reporters are trained to write gripping narratives to capture readers' attention. So Gelf can forgive newspapers for occasionally forgetting that a tragedy like the London bombings is real life and not stagecraft. But it's another thing to explicitly call the horrific acts "drama," as several articles did in the past two weeks. There may be a natural tendency toward voyeurism among readers following such a story from across the Atlantic, but that doesn't mean newspapers should feed that unfortunate tendency.
Media
July 16, 2005
The Victims of 7-16
On Saturday, a suicide bomber blew up a fuel truck in Musayyib, Iraq, killing at least 58 people, three more than were killed in the London bombing of a week and a half ago. Both sets of bombings made the front page of the New York Times website (see screenshot), but only those who died in London have been mentioned individually.
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