Archive | October, 2005

Kids Wear the Darndest Things …

25 Oct

Another addition to the “Funny Things to Put on Your Kids” files:

Kidioms is a new line of baby onesies and T-shirts that, ahem, “combine the style and names that adults love with the familiar but original images that kids adore.” (That’s according to the email I received today from a PR rep.) Apparently, the company was founded by three fathers who were frustrated by baby clothes that were either too sweet or edgy, and wanted something both cool and whimsical for their children to wear.

Thus, Kidioms was created. Now you, too, can let your toddler walk (or crawl) around with a t-shirt that says “Bad Ass,” “Chick Magnet” or, yes, even “Eager Beaver.”

I suppose it’s a good thing the kids just think the pictures are cute.

Best $5 Ever

25 Oct


So I’m sure every Boston-area blogger has a similar posting about how hard the commute into work was today. The wind is powerful, the rain is hard, and most folks this morning are all wet.

Except me, that is.

Got to South Station and saw a coworker. We had made it most of the way down the side wall of the station — walking in the opposite direction of the wind — when she turned to me and said, “This sucks. Let’s get a cab. I’ll pay.” So, $5 later (including tip) we had taken a cab all of one mile (if even that long) across the Summer Street bridge. It was the silliest and yet smartest $5 ever.

Thanks, Ellie!

Gone Shopping

25 Oct


From its first frame, Shopgirl announces itself as sort of an elegant, high-minded — but pompous — filmed version of one of Steve Martin’s literary works. In fact, it’s one of the oddest films I’ve seen all year, and not the film I expected it to be based on the tv and print ads I’ve seen. Martin himself plays a character who isn’t as compelling as he’s supposed to be, and Jason Schwartzman (so good in Rushmore, but not as good in much else since) brings the film to life — then disappears for most of it. (Huh?) And Claire Danes is so plain looking — and acting — that you can’t quite understand why Martin’s character would find her so appealing. Still, Schwartzman’s performance is fun, and the film does have high aspirations that I’ll assume just went over my head. And Martin, who also wrote the screenplay, has included some pretty great lines of dialogue that come up unexpectedly, such as one that Danes says close to the end of the film that I can’t quote here for fear of ruining it for folks who haven’t seen the film yet. So in summary, I’ll give Shopgirl the benefit of the doubt and rate it a B–.

Stop Reading This and Get Back to Work!

24 Oct

From AdAge.com:

<< WHAT BLOGS COST AMERICAN BUSINESS

LOS ANGELES — Blog this: U.S. workers in 2005 will waste the equivalent of 551,000 years reading blogs.

About 35 million workers — one in four people in the labor force — visit blogs and on average spend 3.5 hours, or 9%, of the work week engaged with them, according to Advertising Age’s analysis. Time spent in the office on non-work blogs this year will take up the equivalent of 2.3 million jobs. Forget lunch breaks — bloggers essentially take a daily 40-minute blog break. >>

There’s more online if you are registered to read AdAge.com.

No word, however, about how much time workers will “waste” (and I take real issue with that word) writing blogs …

Al Knows Wilma Blows

24 Oct


Poor Al Roker.

Looks like Al drew the shortest straw on the NBC morning team and had to go down to Florida to report from the eye of Hurricane Wilma in Naples. And today on the, ahem, Today show, he was literally blowing away while giving his report at 8 a.m.

Why must news shows feel the need to have reporters and weatherpeople out in the thick of it all during big storms? I mean, we all know the rain and wind is bad — just like we know the snow is bad in the wintertime. And yet, some poor reporter always has to go out and show us just how bad it is.

What was perhaps worse was the way Katie Couric and Matt Lauer were mocking Al from the studio in New York. They were actually laughing at him! (Then again, so was I.) And this was just 60 seconds after Matt did a promo for his upcoming “Where in the World Is Matt Lauer?” segments, during which he’ll be sent to report from exciting locations over the course of a week, and a clip of Matt in Egypt in front of the pyramids from 1998. Cut to Al Roker, blowing away on the roof of some hotel in Naples.

Poor guy.

The Weekend in Review

24 Oct


Despite the crummy weather, I only saw one movie this weekend: North Country, starring Charlize Theron. My review in brief: Good film, worth seeing. Acting’s good all across the board. Charlize may be Oscar-nominated again, I suppose, but she won’t win. The film gets a B+ from me.

I Always Did Like Saying "Coxswain"

21 Oct

Is the Head of the Charles really this weekend?

I remember when this was one of the biggest events of the year, when you’d make plans with your friends to go over, watch some races and make a whole afternoon of it, and it felt like the whole city was over there on the water.

In fact, I even remember when Mr. Stickman went out rowing on the Charles River on the same day as the Head of the Charles and got hit by the Brandeis crew team. (One of Vijay’s best Mr. Stickman strips from back in the day.)

Then last year the weekend was more significant because it coincided with games one and two of the World Series and, well, people had better things on their mind. Continue reading →

The Other "Martin’s Musings"

21 Oct

They say that everyone out there has a twin, and while I doubt this guy looks anything like me, he does have the same name for his blog: Martin’s Musings.

My proof that the only thing we have in common is the name of our blogs? He’s a married conservative Christian, with two children and one chocolate labrador retriever, who lives in Phoenix. His favorite books include The Holy Bible and his favorite movies include True Grit and The Passion of the Christ.

Thankfully, it sounds like we’re both rooting for the Houston Astros to win the World Series, so at least we have something in common …

Tie One On

20 Oct

Since it’s officially fall, allow me to announce that today is the first Tie Thursday of the 2005–06 season. From now until May (or, depending on the weather, June), I’ll be wearing a tie every Thursday, just as I’ve done for the last few years. Continue reading →

T Time

20 Oct

So here’s an etiquette question: Let’s say two guys standing in the middle section of a car on the T (i.e.: not on top of anyone) are having a discussion. Not a loud one so that it’s disruptive to those around them, but admittedly one about a topic that everyone seems to have an opinion about (i.e.: Theo Epstein remaining the general manager of the Red Sox). Do you interrupt and join in on the conversation?

If you’re the random guy who did just that to Todd and I last night, well, I guess you thought there was nothing wrong with this. But Todd and I surely didn’t want to talk to this guy, and we didn’t appreciate his butting in. Were we wrong to act not all that interested in what he had to say? Did we perpetuate the unfriendly image that so many people seem to have of Bostonians? Or were we perfectly justified to not really indulge his desire to add his two cents to our conversation?

Personally, I think the guy should have minded his own business. Call me rude, but we didn’t care what he had to say. We certainly weren’t forcing our opinions down anyone’s throats (the T wasn’t that crowded), and we were amusing ourselves quite well until this guy stood up and joined us. And then he wouldn’t leave us alone! Blah, blah, blah, Theo’s parents won’t let him leave town. Blah blah, I once heard Dan Shaughnessy speak, blah blah blah.

Suffice it to say, the guy was good for something: He gave me something to write about today. But really — am I wrong? Is it alright to butt into someone else’s conversation on the T?

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