HAPPINESS
What’s the use of happiness? It can’t buy you money.
— Henny Youngman
Archive for April, 2012
Quote of the day: HAPPINESS
April 3, 2012In this week’s New Yorker
April 3, 2012A bunch of stories I skipped: Steve Coll on ExxonMobil, Rivka Galchen on the German public’s fixation on American Indians, Ben McGrath on the Miami Marlins. I did, however, devour Evan Osnos’s “Letter from China” about the gambling industry in Macau, which takes in five times as much dough per year as Las Vegas does. That story introduces a man who has become mythical in China as “the God of Gamblers,” just as the narrator of Jonathan Lethem’s short story “The Porn Critic” identifies himself as a “Conceptual Lesbian.”
Jeffrey Toobin’s good editorial joins the chorus of pundits shaming the Supreme Court for straying into politics.
You probably almost never notice the “spots,” tiny drawings that appear throughout the magazine to help even out the columns and break up large chunks of text. This week’s, by R. Kikuo Johnson, all depict people in hoodies. Way to go, New Yorker.
Playlist: iPod shuffle, 4/3/12
April 3, 2012“Good Goodnight,” Aqualung
“Deep in a Dream,” Frank Sinatra
“I Love You So Much It Hurts,” Jimmy Wakely
“Alicia Ross,” Kathleen Edwards
“Everything Changed,” Aqualung
“Summerday,” Dar Williams
“United States of Pop 2009 (Blame It on the Pop),” DJ Earworm
“Get It Wrong, Get It Right,” Feist
“White Tooth Man,” Iron & Wine
“Brahms: Violin Sonata #3 in D. Minor, Op. 108 – 1. Allegro,” Annie Sophie Mutter, Lambert Orkis
“Apres Moi,” Regina Spektor
“Bayless St.,” Rickie Lee Jones
“Time Will,” Hercules and Love Affair
“Everything’s Just Wonderful,” Lily Allen
“Sleep on the Left Side,” Cornershop
“Light-Pop’s Principle,” Laura Nyro
“Going Home,” Leonard Cohen
“Night Ride Home,” Joni Mitchell
“Keep this Party Going,” the B-52’s
“The Moonlight Butterfly,” the Sea and Cake
“Sorry to See Me Go,” Teddy Thompson
“Sonnet,” the Decemberists
“The Circle Married the Line,” Feist
“Make Love So Hard,” Darden Smith
“O Fole Roncou,” Luiz Gonzaga
“Fix It,” Grizzly Bear
“Be Mine,” Alabama Shakes
“My Step” (IndieAnimalJones Remix), Little Dragon
“Afro Blue,” Lizz Wright
Quote of the day: FANTASY
April 2, 2012FANTASY
A woman has the right to pretend she’s being raped by a pirate if that’s what she wants to pretend. Very few people act out their fantasies, except in Northern California.
— Anne Rice
Quote of the day: APRIL FOOL
April 1, 2012APRIL FOOL
April Fools’ Day is the day for pranks and hoaxes. One such famous April Fools’ Day hoax was the so-called “Jupiter Effect” of 1976. During an interview on BBC Radio 2, British astronomer Patrick Moore announced that a very rare planetary event was about to take place—that Jupiter and Pluto would soon align in relation to Earth, and their combined gravitational pull would momentarily override Earth’s own gravity and make people weigh less. He called it the Jovian-Plutonian Gravitational Effect, and said that if people jumped in the air at exactly 9:47 a.m., they would experience a floating sensation. Moore signaled, “Jump now!” over the airwaves, and within minutes the BBC switchboard was flooded with calls from people who claimed it had worked.
–The Writer’s Almanac
another eye opens 