Author: jbenton

Seen somewhere lately (sorry, whoever linked it originally): Important French phrases for the traveller. Highlights: “Tu as grossi” (“You’ve put on weight”); “Je vous aurais bien aide, mais je ne vous aime pas” (“I’d help you, but I don’t like you”); “Vos enfants sont tr

As if troops if Afghanistan don’t have enough to worry about, now they have to be on the lookout for kamikaze camels.
BBC: “Throughout their occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s the Soviets had to contend with the threat of camels wired to explode being sent towards their positions. The Afghan mujahideen fighters would strap dynamite to a camel and send it towards a Russian base. Then, as the animal wandered near troops or equipment, they would set it off with a remote detonator, to deadly effect.”

There’s been a piece of paper on my to-blog pile at home for a while, and I’d like to throw it away, so here goes. These were some of the menu items at the restaurant I ate dinner at on my last night in Tokyo last month: Fried cartilage. Hormone stew. Liver sashimi (that is, sliced raw liver). And my favorite, whale bacon.

At about 8:20 tonight, I got to see the Olympic torch pass outside work. (Why I was at work is beyond me.) Anyway, as the torchbearer ran by, one of my coworkers yelled out, “Wait! That guy with the torch! Is that Nate Newton?”

Odd dream while in Rochester: I’m in someone’s house, which is hosting a big party — maybe it’s a frat house or something similar. I walk into a back room, and 80s-icons Bauhaus are playing to an audience of two or three people. For some reason, Robert Downey, Jr. is their lead singer.
This is an odd dream for several reasons, not least because I could not name a single Bauhaus song, have never been much of a fan, and have no idea why Robert Downey, Jr. would be associated with them, even subliminally.

Remember the crabwalk.com quiz a few days back? “What two things do these people have in common? Thomas Edison! Grover Cleveland! John Fenwick! Joyce Kilmer! Clara Barton! Vince Lombardi! Walt Whitman.”
Well, props to Kim for knowing one of them: they’re all New Jerseyans famous enough to have service areas on the Jersey Turnpike named for them. (They’re name-checked in Slate this week.) And their names are yelled out, in that order, in the closing seconds of “Big Road” by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, on their excellent 1993 release Extra Width.

Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer is the twin sister of Pauline Esther Friedman Phillips. And Esther’s daughter is named Margo Howard.
Of course, they’re all best known by other names. Esther is best known as Ann Landers. And Pauline’s best known as Dear Abby. That they’re sisters in real life is fairly common knowledge. But the fact that Margo Howard is the writer of Dear Prudence, Slate’s advice column, would seem to indicate that nepotism goes a bit too far in the advice industry. (Particularly since Prudence, well, isn’t all that good.)

We’re all going to the dogs. (Gotta love any story that includes the phrases “fundamental paradigm shift,” “reflection of social commentary,” and “dog fancier.”)

From The Onion: Yalie Strikes Harvard Lad Sharply About The Face And Neck / NEW HAVEN, CT

Kelly (whose blog is developing nicely, by the way) just emailed me with an “Are you OK?” message. A multi-day non-blogathon is unlike me — I suppose I was so entranced by the wonders of Rochester, New York, to blog. (Or, more accurately, my friend Kim’s 9″ monitor and watch-the-gears-turn slow computer made blogging a chore, not the burst of joy it’s supposed to be.)
Anyway, I’m back in town. Rochester was nicer than I’d expected (e.g., it had running water) and Kim’s cat Scoop (great journalism cat name, no?) wasn’t as evil as I’d expected (or she’d led me to suspect). Got to see the Buffalo Bills (1-10) beat the Carolina Panthers (1-11) in the Battle of The Two Worst Teams in Professional Football. I’d expected/hoped for a scoreless tie, but instead it was actually an entertaining 25-24 game. (Q: How can you tell when a sports team is really crappy? A: Look at their web site. If the biggest headline is given over to the company Christmas party, and if prominent placement is given to the fact that “the Panthers have allowed the fewest first downs by penalty in the NFL,” chances are your team sucks.)
Anyway, my only complaint is that there wasn’t a blizzard, which I thought was mandatory for games in Buffalo in December.
Did some other fun things in Rochester, including seeing The Man Who Wasn’t There, but the clear highlight was going to Nick Tahou Hots, a local dive restaurant of some (ill) repute, primarily because of its invention, the Garbage Plate. Such an item reads like an eight-year-old boy’s culinary wet dream: first, take a heap of french fries. Then, top it with a bunch of macaroni salad. Then, add a cheeseburger and a sliced hot dog. Then, cover it all with mustard and onions. Finally, coat it all with meat sauce. (It is also possible to sub out the macaroni for beans. Frightening.)
It was as delicious and/or repulsive as that description suggests. Bonus points were awarded for the Ms. Pac-Man game in the back of the restaurant and the last-cleaned-in-the-Ford-administration ambiance. (There’s also a candy machine in the back, near where we were seated. To give you an idea of its age, the Big Red pack of gum in the display was faded to a pale yellow. Big Pale Yellow doesn’t sound as appetizing, does it?)
Anyway, it was terrific fun (thanks Kim!), I’m back at work, and there’s tons to do, so my blogging may be sporadic the next few days.