Tinkerty Tonk

Fare Ye Well

2011-04-15T23:08:00.002-04:00

I must bring my meager contributions to this blog to an end. I really appreciated the opportunity to contribute, Rachel. Please keep in touch. God bless you all.

What Holmes is Listening to

2011-03-01T21:45:00.002-05:00

Just because it is an amazing song. All politics and no music makes Holmes a dull boy.

Pent Up Demand

2011-02-25T22:20:00.000-05:00

Some (slightly) good news for once...

In the US We Call It a Stimulus

2011-02-23T20:26:00.003-05:00

>Saudi King gives away billions to buy off angry subjects.

Madison Teachers to Madison Parents: "Drop Dead...

2011-02-21T09:28:00.001-05:00

...and pay us."

Charles Krauthammer

2011-01-12T19:52:00.002-05:00

Uses his psychiatry skills to analyze the ravings and motivations of a deranged man.

The Decay of England

2010-12-27T21:51:00.000-05:00

continued by these little cowardly bastards.

The Decay of England (cont.)

2010-11-26T09:52:00.000-05:00

via Althouse.

Forget TSA Opt-Out Day

2010-11-22T20:01:00.001-05:00

TSA Cucumber Day will do.

What Holmes is Listening to

2010-11-07T13:56:00.002-05:00

After reading:

Barney Frank reelected

Harry Reid reelected.

Obama is not happy.

And Minority Leader Pelosi?

Be careful who you're messin' with Republicans...

Yes!

2010-11-02T23:21:00.001-04:00

Yes!

What Holmes is Listening to

2010-10-14T14:31:00.003-04:00

While reading about Nancy Pelosi's rock and roll lifestyle:

It's good to be the queen.

The starfish vs the spider

2010-09-28T20:02:00.002-04:00

Jonathan Rauch on the Tea Party movement.

The Starfish and the Spider, a business book by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom, was published in 2006 to no attention at all in the political world. The subtitle, however, explains its relevance to the tea party model: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations.

Traditional thinking, the book contends, holds that hierarchies are most efficient at getting things done. Hierarchies, such as corporations, have leaders who can make decisions and set priorities; chains of command to hold everyone accountable; mechanisms to shift money and authority within the organization; rules and disciplinary procedures to prevent fracture and drift. This type of system has a central command, like a spider's brain. Like the spider, it dies if you thump it on the head.

The rise of the Internet and other forms of instantaneous, interpersonal interaction, however, has broken the spider monopoly, Brafman and Beckstrom argue. Radically decentralized networks -- everything from illicit music-sharing systems to Wikipedia -- can direct resources and adapt ("mutate") far faster than corporations can. "The absence of structure, leadership, and formal organization, once considered a weakness, has become a major asset," the authors write. "Seemingly chaotic groups have challenged and defeated established institutions. The rules of the game have changed."

Fred Willard Interviews with a Transvestite Pentecostal

2010-09-26T22:14:00.002-04:00

Hopefully the first of a multi-part series. via Ace of Spades.

All Your Money Are Belong To Us

2010-09-22T09:22:00.001-04:00

Or the Decay of England (cont.)....

I beg to differ

2010-09-09T20:47:00.002-04:00

Megan McArdle:

FDR lived in a different era. His speeches come across so well today precisely because they were designed largely to be read; Obama is making speeches for an era when most people get their news from television, and so naturally, his speeches read flat and uninteresting. FDR's speech delivery, by contrast, was surprisingly poor for an audience used to taking in most of its news in audio or video.

FDR would do just fine on video:

What not to wear to court

2010-09-02T20:41:00.003-04:00

T-shirts with slogans, flip flops and wrinkles.

Hell is other people

2010-09-02T12:08:00.003-04:00

The existential crisis of Obama supporters:

According to Maureen Dowd, “Obama is the head of the dysfunctional family of America — a rational man running a most irrational nation, a high-minded man in a low-minded age. The country is having some weird mass nervous breakdown.” Jonathan Alter argues that the American people “aren’t rationally aligning belief and action; they’re tempted to lose their spleens in the polling place without fully grasping the consequences.” And Slate’s Jacob Weisberg has written that “the biggest culprit in our current predicament” is the “childishness, ignorance, and growing incoherence of the public at large.”

Miscellany

2010-08-31T21:42:00.003-04:00

Break out the booze: Heavy Drinkers outlive teetotallers.

Animal, vegetable or mineral? South Sudan cities.

Beware the wrath of writers.

Now, that's a downward facing dog.

I prefer a wimple

2010-08-31T21:05:00.005-04:00

To that godawful black taffeta poke bonnet worn by the nuns in "Doubt."

Meryl Streep is an overactor

2010-08-31T20:25:00.003-04:00

There, I said it. I just saw "Doubt," and I found Ms. Streep's much-vaunted ability to do accents a huge distraction. I'm happy to see that I'm not alone.

I did like the movie, though. And I actually sympathized with Sister Aloysius, though I don't know if I'm supposed to. Apparently the author/writer/director, John Patrick Shanley has mommy issues. And the movie is dedicated to the Amy Adams character, a sweet and trusting nun who comes to believe in the innocence of the priest, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Hoffman, who is excellent, plays Father Flynn, a likeable, progressive priest trying to breathe life into the Bronx parish whose school is run by the iron hand of Sister Aloysius Beauvier. But the devil always has the best lines. So who are we to believe: The earnest, compassionate priest or the dried up old termagant?

CIA guns

2010-08-31T11:46:00.007-04:00

Virginia Postrel ponders the sartorial choices of Joan Campbell, a CIA chief played by Kari Matchett on "Covert Affairs."

Joan ... never covers her arms. Is this a new form of power dressing? Is it Michelle Obama's influence? Or is it yet another Hollywood fantasy? (They've been putting female detectives in tank tops for years. But at least they also have jackets.) You'd think that Langley's air conditioning alone would dictate more coverage.

Others have also noticed. And it's not just the lack of sleeves. Matchett's character also sports plunging necklines with a concomitant bralessness that's extremely distracting. And not in a good way--if you're looking to suspend your disbelief and enjoy the show, that is. If you're just there to see Matchett's assets, you're in luck.

Joan should take a cue from another TV woman with a high-powered job, Diane Lockhart from "The Good Wife."

Played by the terrific Christine Baranski, whom I adore, Diane always looks both elegant and professional. It helps that Christine Baranski can really wear clothes.

Baranski's older than Matchett and her character is likely richer, so maybe Joan would do better to use the title character as her inspiration. Julianna Margulies seldom shows as much as an elbow at work, yet she still manages to look gorgeous.

Channeling Rachel

2010-08-27T22:37:00.002-04:00

Cool old photos of English schoolchildren.

via Lucianne.com

Another blonde overlooked

2010-08-27T09:29:00.003-04:00

Farah Fawcett, the subject of the best-selling poster of all time. Really, this list has some serious omissions.

Who's your favorite blonde?

Jean Harlow didn't even make the cut

2010-08-26T20:27:00.005-04:00

Marilyn Monroe tops the list of greatest blondes. That's fine, I suppose, but who the hell are these other people? Denise Van Outen? Holly Willoughby?

But Jean was the original blonde bombshell. She also died tragically young.