On Bill Clinton Will Always Seem Younger Than 65
Our nostalgia for Clinton isn’t because he was a big liberal hero. He wasn’t. The nostalgia is because he cared about jobs and the people who need them, and did something about it. Nostalgia for Obama in 15 years will be approximately the same as for Jimmy Carter in 1991.
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On The Ten Worst Augusts of the Last Ten Years
I think in 2001 we were more focused on Lizzy Grubman than Chandra.
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On 11 Completely Scientific, Not At All Dubious Diets From Our Recent Past
Wack, not "whack"
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On The 'Rolling Stone' Michele Bachmann Profile Aftermath (and Where Matt Taibbi is Right)
Great piece but your comparison of Bachmann's and Ryan's vote totals is potentially off-base. Without checking (lazy!) it's likely Ryan has a much more Republican district than she has. It's also likely that Bachmann's district lines will change with the new census and could be made into a safer seat. Someone who gets 52% in a split district might be a stronger performer politically than someone who gets 68% in a safe district.
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On Life After Zionist Summer Camp
@MikeBarthel No, the socialist Zionist camps are not better. They preach coexistence and understanding, but still subscribe to the same ethnic nationalism and blighted narrative about how the Palestinians left and now they want it back.
My story was the same but very different: we had the same structure (regional camp, then national senior camp, then work as counselor followed by a year on kibbutz, be active in the city during the year). But it was the hippie 70s; I was at the cool NY camp (where we emphasized radical politics) not the more Hebrew-oriented midwestern one. By age 13 we were all debating Herzl and Jabotinsky (though they never gave us his prescient 1923 essay, "The Iron Wall" -- Google it -- that proves anyone with a "progressive" vision of Zionism was deluding themselves), and learned about the sweatshops, the labor movement and those old Jewish anarchists from the Lower East Side. We made up songs about Agnew and Nixon (and interrupted our evening activity one August night to watch him resign) and sang them after every meal, along with Hebrew folk songs, old union hymns, Dylan and Ochs, and songs from the Spanish Civil War, in epic sing-offs. We kicked out the counselors one day each summer for "Revolution" and went skinny-dipping in the pool while the 16-year-old counselors in training who'd been left in charge were tripping on LSD. We were critical of Israel: we enraged Golda Meir by picketing her after she said there were "no Palestinians," we picketed Ariel Sharon in 1982, and in Israel we joined Peace Now, opposed the occupation, and supported territorial compromise. But we still believed the land was ours to take because of an ancient promise, and that it was OK to make Palestinians outsiders in their own home, and keep their refugees away because it would threaten Israel's "Jewish democracy."
But my story ends with the same line as this one.
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On Some Brief Impressions Of The Village Voice Choice Eats Event, Including Thoughts On The Term "Foodie"
http://gawker.com/#!239756/team-party-rsvp-new-york-magazine-oscar-party--the-spotted-pig
emily: (very long pause)
"Well all I will say is that Padma is talented and beautiful and a true foodie."
doree: i hate that word foodie
emily: really? it does kind of sound like what it is though.
a precious word for a precious type of person
doree: ha, true
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On Batman's Butler Dies
I freaked out on Alan Napier's behalf but then was relieved to learn it wasn't him (albeit, because he died in 1988).
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On 41 Songs By Randy Newman You Should Listen To Before You Bitch About Music Written Expressly For A Childrens' Movie
OK but still: "He Gives Us All His Love."
Have to say, though, I enjoyed watching Bob Dylan beat one of Randy Newman's kiddie songs (and another by Sting) for Best Original Song in 2001.
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On Young Manhattanite is Beacon on New York Shabbos Scene
I like to think of it as "pretty vacant."
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On Gawker's "Fox Mole" Raided
It's all good fun and games until somebody gets hurt.