Malcolm Gladwell writes about the perils of profiling in the New Yorker:
One afternoon last February, Guy Clairoux picked up his two-and-a half-year-old son, Jayden, from day care and walked him back to their house in the west end of Ottawa, Ontario. They were almost home. Jayden was straggling behind, and, as his father’s back was turned, a pit bull jumped over a back-yard fence and lunged at Jayden.“The dog had his head in its mouth and started to do this shake,” Clairoux’s wife, JoAnn Hartley, said later. As she watched in horror, two more pit bulls jumped over the fence, joining in the assault. She and Clairoux came running, and he punched the first of the dogs in the head, until it dropped Jayden, and then he threw the boy toward his mother. Hartley fell on her son, protecting him with her body. “JoAnn!” Clairoux cried out, as all three dogs descended on his wife. “Cover your neck, cover your neck.”
A neighbor, sitting by her window, screamed for help. Her partner and a friend, Mario Gauthier, ran outside. A neighborhood boy grabbed his hockey stick and threw it to Gauthier. He began hitting one of the dogs over the head, until the stick broke. “They wouldn’t stop,” Gauthier said. “As soon as you’d stop, they’d attack again. I’ve never seen a dog go so crazy. They were like Tasmanian devils.” The police came. The dogs were pulled away, and the Clairouxes and one of the rescuers were taken to the hospital.
Five days later, the Ontario legislature banned the ownership of pit bulls. “Just as we wouldn’t let a great white shark in a swimming pool,” the province’s attorney general, Michael Bryant, had said, “maybe we shouldn’t have these animals on the civilized streets.”
My favorite thing about Letters to McSweeney’s is the occasional flurries of correspondence spurred by one strange letter. For example, if you click here and scroll down to “billectric”‘s letter from Friday, January 20th. From there scroll up and enjoy the responses it garnered.
And on an unrelated note, Southern California’s greatest fast food franchise appears to be mired in legal trouble. Actually, they should probably be just fine, but the article provides me the opportunity to wax philosophical about how great In-N-Out really is. Fondly I remember driving through Claremont, California to buy a double-double, animal style.
I love the food, I love the secret menu, I love the fact that they pay their workers more than anyone else, and I love the fact that they have so far declined to expand beyond the west coast in order to maintain the quality that sets them apart from their competitors. I love these things so much that I don’t mind paying a little more for the food and am willing to turn a blind eye to the unobtrusive biblical references they print on their cups and french fry boxes. Good old In-N-Out.
This weekend I went to Maine and engaged in some immature but fun socializing. You can look at pictures here if you want to.
RICHMOND, Jan. 25 — The state Senate all but guaranteed on Wednesday that Virginia will hold a November referendum on whether to amend its 230-year-old Bill of Rights to bar same-sex marriages.
The Senate voted 28 to 11 to follow the House of Delegates in approving the amendment. Though each chamber still must pass the measure adopted by the other, their wording is identical and support among the senators and delegates is strong.
“The family is the foundation of our society, and it’s been based on a union of a man and a woman since the inception of marriage,” said Del. John A. Cosgrove (R-Chesapeake). “A constitutional amendment . . . will protect that.”
RICHMOND, Jan. 26 — A Virginia lawmaker accidentally discharged a handgun in his General Assembly office Thursday morning, firing a bullet into a bulletproof vest that was hanging on the wall of his office. No one was hurt.
Del. John S. “Jack” Reid (R-Henrico) apologized to his colleagues on the floor of the House of Delegates Thursday afternoon, saying that “everyone has a right to feel safe here.”
Reid said he has a valid permit to carry a concealed weapon and regularly brings his gun to the legislative session. But he said he usually ejects the cartridge that holds the gun’s bullets and carries that separately in his pocket.
Virginia, you’re in great hands.
Netflix, I live in Boston, Massachusetts. So why does my return envelope say “Closest Return Location” and yet bear an Oregon address? I call foul!
Yes, Netflix, it’s been a rough few months for us. First the mail carrier started stuffing your envelopes into my mail slot, cracking eight or ten discs in a two month period. And the turnaround time on my movies seemed to inch up, such that while I used to be able to send in a movie on Monday and receive a new one on Wednesday it’s now Monday/Thursday (and sometimes even Monday/Friday, probably because of this Oregon scam). What’s the deal, Netflix? My money’s not good enough for you?
You’re just lucky you’re still more convenient than leaving my apartment.
For more info on Netflix and the movie rental market in general, check out Hacking Netflix.
NBA great and New York Knicks General Manager Isiah Thomas is getting sued for sexual harassment and discrimination. That’s not great. The most interesting part of the story is probably this:
The lawsuit also alleges that Thomas told Browne Sanders he was pushing for more home games at noon on Sundays. His plan, according to Browne Sanders, was to have opposing players go to certain clubs, including strip clubs, that Thomas had connections with on Saturday nights and get them drunk so they would be sluggish for the game the next day.
Classy, Isiah. In recent weeks Thomas has taken a break from his job of systematically ruining the Knicks franchise to threaten ESPN columnist Bill Simmons in an ESPN radio interview (link 1; link 2).
It’s a good day not to be a Knicks fan.
Oh man. So on SNL they had this Young Chuck Norris music video. Which I thought was basically just a weird joke related to the whole Chuck Norris Facts phenomenon that has been all over the internet lately.
But apparently it’s ALSO a parody of this horrifying, creepy, superpatriotic music video that is sung from the perspective of a guy who died fighting in the War on Terrorism. I don’t even know what to say, except that you should check out this link to learn more about this SERIOUS, NO JOKE music video, which is subtly titled “America We Stand As One.”
We live in a truly amazing world.
[much of this info from Boing Boing]
The Washington Post’s Lisa de Moreas has a nice column about the cancellation of West Wing.
The first four seasons of the West Wing were pretty much as good as network drama gets. Great writing, great acting, great directing, and intelligent, issue-based plotting all contributed to a show that deserved its four straight Emmys as TV’s best drama. Writer/producer/creator Aaron Sorkin’s drug use and resulting work problems led to his leaving the show, which then led to a rapid downturn in quality (spurred by NBC bringing on ER’s John Wells, a guy who loves a good helicoptor crash).
After a couple of mediocre melodramatic seasons, a lot of people stopped watching. And once people stopped watching, NBC must have given the writers a lot more freedom to write about whatever they wanted–the show, while languishing in bad time slots and cultural obsolescence, improved a lot. It still paled in comparison to its first four seasons, but it was one of the more interesting and intelligent shows on the networks.
But ultimately, nobody was watching. And unlike Arrested Development, it’s hard to argue that the network didn’t give this show a chance. I’d say the last couple of seasons were icing on the cake, and although I’m sorry it’s heading off the air now I feel like they had a good run. Still, the recent death of John Spencer makes it more than a little bittersweet. Ultimately, however, I’m glad that West Wing is ending at an appropriate time–a change in presidency–and the only real disappointment is that Sorkin (and his producing partner Thomas Schlamme) won’t be involved in the finale.
And apparently Sorkin’s got a new show in the works centered around an SNL-type sketch comedy show. Sounds like a welcome return to his Sports Night days.
Interesting update: “Producers are negotiating the return of Rob Lowe, the early series star who left because he was upset by his diminished role, for the finale.” [AP, via West Wing News Blog]
My friend Paige directed me to the pretentious 17-year-old’s guide to dating. In addition to being funny, this reminded me that I often enjoy McSweeney’s's (is that apostrophe work right?) daily pieces. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find an RSS feed for those pieces. Anyone out there have any information that could help me?
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