The European Union is well known for its detailed regulations on agricultural items. Commission Regulation (EC) 2257/94, for example, states that bananas sold in Europe must be “free from malformation or abnormal curvature,” though Class 1 bananas can have “slight defects of shape,” and Class 2 bananas can have full “defects of shape.” Bananas were not covered in the ruling, so for now, these standards remain.
Last night I had some Yuengling and watched the Phillies flail, then fail. When Jayson Werth got picked off at first base (after having made an error in right field), I made my first sports pun...I won't say ever, but in a long time! See blog entry title for joke. Other important name commentary included talking about Evan Longoria every time he batted. I also recounted the story of how I broke a bat playing softball in Silver Spring in summer 2006.[O]ther cities with weird campaigns, they are more committed to their towns’ weirdness. "They have street performers," she offers as an example."So what we need are mimes?," I ask. "Yes," she says. 'Mimes."
"And maybe those people who look like they’re made out of gold, but they’re really not.'
"Yes," she says, "or maybe pewter. Anything metallic."
2) from NYT:
a. Keith Irvine turned 80 last week and threw himself a garage sale to celebrate. "A very elegant garage sale," he said dryly, raising silvery eyebrows.
b. Mr. Irvine can be balky. In the 1980s, he said he suffered a midlife crisis, which he expressed by building an addition to his early 19th-century farmhouse. The addition included a very grand ballroom, and did not include any input from his wife.
"It was very irritating," she said in a phone interview last week. Mrs. Irvine, who has written 13 books on architecture and decorative arts, took her revenge by threatening to have an image of the new wing engraved on expensive stationery emblazoned with the words "Keith’s Erection."
When SmarTrip came out and then began expanding, I didn't pay much attention to it. I kept not paying much attention it even when I moved out of metro-less Georgetown. And I still don't have one! Which has been due to a) laziness b) using bus/metro to get rid of my coins and c) my desire and decision, as of spring, to find a new city. But now unless I move before January, WMATA, I think you have got me! They are eliminating paper transfers, which would pretty much make taking the bus twice as expensive since I use them round trip. According to the press release, "Only passengers who pay with SmarTrip will continue to be able to transfer from one bus to another for free and transfer from Metrorail to bus for the discounted 35¢ fare."Eliminating paper transfers will save Metro about $350,000 a year for the cost of paper and printing, plus expenses associated with the repair and maintenance of the old transfer machines in stations. It also is expected to minimize fraud and abuse of paper transfers by individuals who sell or give away their transfers to other riders, and reduce assaults on bus operators by riders who have disputes with operators about transfers.
This past Sunday was Crafty Bastards, and despite the time crunch (only three weeks to prepare) I managed to have a lot of things ready and to sell a good number of them. Wooot. I had a lot of helpers (4!). I think the thing that made me most able to enjoy the day was having better prepared my display. Mom and I even bought some flowers, and I really liked the easel and canvas display I had for some hanger/organizers I made with wood from PA. I also spent more time on packaging, although that was only really for the notebooks.
This year, given the fact that I had been on the "waiting list" for over a month, I thought a lot more about the confidence factor that selling something handmade requires. I realized my CB application was flawed (as KW pointed out, didn't showcase my more unique stuff) and that they were trying to get new sellers, but being almost rejected was something of a blow. I had never gotten that kind of negative reaction to the things I make, and it was hard not to take it personally. In the same way, I felt much more inclined to really hawk my wares when I was confident that my setup looked good. And how goodgoodgood it feels to have people peer over your table and say how clever or cool they think something is. I'm just happy it worked out, and, for many reasons, I have tons of respect for people who do this full time.
I am not really sure why this article about women and online advertising exists, considering it's nothing groundbreaking to expose that women go online and, you know, also buy stuff. My favorite part, though, is the fact that one adman interviewed is named Mr. Draper. His lines might as well be coming from Don himself:
For the past month or so, I've noticed what looked like a fancy bike rack next to the old Riggs bank at Dupont Circle. But there were never any bikes. Then today, for the first time, at about 8:45, there were four, each emblazoned with SmartBike DC. Not that I'm all that into biking (fear + discomfort), but somehow I hadn't heard anything about it.
I've blabbered to most of my friends already about my new toys: a MacBook and an iPod Touch. But given that it has been five years since I last bought a computer and knowing that the two iPods I've owned were, in order, a bulky hand-me-down and one of those tiny Shuffles...I feel fine gushing about my gadgets.
Avoir des casseroles au cul: To be haunted by a scandal (literally: "to have saucepans hung on the ass")
Ça va chier des bulles: There'll be one hell of a row (literally: "It will shit bubbles")
Courir sur le haricot: Get one someone's nerves (literally: "to run on someone's bean")
Je te vois venir avec tes gros sabots: Now we are finally getting to the point (literally: "I see you coming with your big clogs")
According to Erik Wemple, blogging about what you ate for breakfast is boring...but I don't think that puts tiered French desserts off-limits. The sweets in the caf today made me giddy. They served religieuses! These "nuns" weren't violet flavored like the La Durée pastry in the photo, but they were very, very, chocolate-y. There were also strawberry macaroons.
Woot! I just sent in my application for 2008 Crafty Bastards. Today, of course, is the deadline--last year I somehow did it ahead of time. I revamped my mission statement to sound less dorky and hopefully succeeded (can't c+p because I managed to not save the exact version I sent).
I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet. (Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar)
Responsibilities include writing on-air facts and press conference quotes for daytime programming. Individuals must have strong writing skills, be able to handle multiple assignments and deadlines, and work well in a team atmosphere.(Three posts and it's not even noon. The coffee is working.)
I was on the British Embassy web site looking for their mailing address, when I noticed the job listings. I passed one along to Krista and noticed two lovely tidbits. First, this paragraph:
So, my stomach and body in general are getting better; the salmonella is gone, and my cold's almost there! Woooo. Also, I bought tickets for my cousin's wedding in Portland in August, and now I need to book the train leg of the trip down to San Francisco. (Yes, that's approximately 18 hours on Amtrak.) It's remarkable how much the act of purchasing tickets makes things that much better.From NYT:
The inquiry involving the Air Force was an effort to determine how four high-tech electrical nose cone fuses for Minuteman nuclear warheads were sent to Taiwan in place of helicopter batteries. The mistake was discovered in March — a year and a half after the mistaken shipment.
Mr. Gates made clear that most troubling was that the inquiry showed how little the Air Force had done to improve the security of the nuclear weapons infrastructure even after it was disclosed last year that a B-52 bomber had flown across the United States without anyone’s realizing that it was carrying six armed nuclear cruise missiles.
(Emphasis added.)
Last night, I went to my first Nats game at their new stadium. It didn't start or end well.Below is a list of 106 books most often marked as “unread” by LibraryThing users. They sit on their shelf, perhaps to make their owner feel smart or well-rounded.
The meme comes with these instructions: Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish, and underline the ones you read for school.
For a brief period, I had a green backpack that featured my initials in white machine embroidery. I was one of those kids. The point of admitting to the monogram isn't to call out my nerdiness, which I think is fairly self-evident, but to talk about my initials themselves and their potential hazard.
The NYT article about walruses is ripe with potential LOL cheezburger/bukkit jokes, especially considering that the cited expert exclaims in the lede, “They’re pussycats!” The NYT of course, does not go there.
