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Misc.

I’m an Intellectual

Every Sunday night from 11pm to midnight I try to listen to Joe Frank on NPR (WNYC am 820 in NYC) to make sure I have the freakiest dreams possible and can start Monday morning off as it is meant to be: tinged with psychosis. For my money, it’s the best show they run. Yes, better than This American Life. Certainly better than Car Talk. Did I hear somebody say Leonard Lopate? Don’t make me hit you.

Joe Frank

Nick M.

Categories
Misc.

Right this way my pretties

Turducken.

A mythical three-headed fowl perhaps? Succulent certainly. Or perhaps the detritus of a psychopathic serial bird murderer–a birderer–who lures fat little turkeys, ducks and chickens into his death coop with promises of primo genetically altered feed wherein they are viciously decapitated, stripped of their feathers, gutted and stuffed one inside the other. Turducken. Yum!

This past Thanksgiving Reeves H. and myself were determined to find some turducken for our own damn selves, having never sampled it before. But, as circumstance dictated, we ended up at Bill H.’s crib eating a vegetarian feast of quiche, biscuits, various vegetables and some damn fine stuffing. Bill is a devout vegetarian, and we did not want to appear ungrateful for his kind, if meatless, hospitality. So no turducken. Yet. But we did polish a fifth of Wild Turkey and a case of beer, which makes me think that had we eaten a turducken we might just have puked it back up straightaway anyhow, and that would just be wasteful.

For a far more informative and entertaining account of the ins and outs of turducken, visit The Road to Turducken, Part 1. Can’t wait for Part 2…

Oh, and don’t forget The Week in Craig, a surefire way to make you feel much, much better about yourself, if not the world in general.

Nick M.

Categories
Misc.

Holy Scheisse!

This just in: Bertelsmann are arrogant crooks.

“They have been demanding $5bn and then came down and asked the jury for $3.5bn, so we regard this as a big loss for two people who thought they would be billionaires”

Nick M.

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Misc.

Work Schmerk

I know I can’t be alone when I say that sometimes I get bored at work. Not so much “get bored” as “just don’t feel like doing what it is I’m supposed to be doing”. That’ll happen. So this morning I went on a quest to find a Google White Whale–that is, searches using only two words that return only one match. It’s more difficult than you might think. Below are my results.

duplicitous eel: 67 matches
brilliant flagellum: 555 matches!
parapetetic conflagration: No matches (I had high hopes for this one, too. Damn.)
defenestrated ravioli: 2 matches (gettin’ there)
public eyesore: 33,900 matches (just curious about that one)
unfortunate shitzu: 51 matches

and on and on and on…

until

gigantic zyzygy: 1 match!

Great. Now I’ll be at work until 11:00 making up for my slackassedness.

In the meantime, here is a Bold New Model for Success. Endless thanks to sweet, sweet Dana.

Nick M.

Categories
Misc.

Catch Me If You…D’oh!

The last thing you need is to know MY take on “Operation Red Dawn”. And no, that’s not the one where we hunt down Patrick Swayze to exact revenge for all of the people he has tortured over the years with his movies. Though I could definitely get behind that. There’re links aplenty on the intarweb for this most current of events, and I’ll leave it to Newley to form my opinions for me when he returns from vacation. Instead, read The Missouri Review. Not because I said so. Because you want to.

The Missouri Review

Nick M.

Categories
Misc.

Can you hear me now? Of course you can’t.

As we move ever closer to emulating abilities previously thought only possessed by The Almighty Him/Her/It-self (or, for the theologically unconvinced, let’s say…Ronaldo) via breakthrough after technological breakthrough, I’m still receiving messages a week late from T-Mobile.

And God said, “Whoa there!”

Nick M.

Categories
Misc.

Bionicaholic

You either have to pity or admire this guy. After all he went through, where do we find him for this interview? Sipping a gin and tonic. God love ‘im.

The Iceman Drinketh

Nick M.

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Misc.

Enter the Blog-tang

Hello all. I am humbled to accept the distinction of being Newley.com’s first ever guest blogger. Newley, I hope I make you proud. You’ve been damn hard at it of late with numerous insightful, balanced and downright intellectually stimulating posts. That said, and in the interest of maintaining that very same high level of discourse, I present the following:

“Is love a tender thing? It�s too rough, too rude, too rowdy, and it pricks like a thorn”

S’gonna be an interesting week people.

Nick M.

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Misc.

Introducing the First Ever Newley.com Guest Weblogger

Jill and I are heading down to the resort town of Vilcabamba on Saturday; we’ll be there until we leave Ecuador via Guayaquil on Wednesday (see below for more details re: where I’ll be over the holidays).

Since I’ll be away from the Web for the next week, one of my good friends, Nick M., has graciously agreed to to assume the mantle of…drum roll please…

First Ever Newley.com Guest Weblogger.

Nick, who I know from my New York book publishing days, has interesting opinions on a wide variety of subjects. And while he knows a lot about media, politics, sports, music, and other issues of profound importance, I’ve given him free reign to write about whatever in the hell he wants. He can even post haikus, should the spirt move him. (God help us.)

Look for him to make his debut later today or tomorrow.

Categories
Misc.

My Winter Tour Dates

A quick note regarding my coordinates for the coming weeks:

Classes end today, and I’ll be here in Ecuador until next Wednesday, the 17th, when I head back to SC (via Atlanta). I’ll spend Christmas in South Carolina, and then I’ll be in Vermont with friends over new year’s. After that, I hope to spend a few days in D.C.–dates are still tentative. More info soon.

Looking further ahead, I’m excited to say I’m exploring English teaching opportunities in another part of the world: Asia. Logistics are still being coordinated; stay tuned for more details. I shall miss Ecuador dearly. But, as they say, variety is the spice of life.