tfl: The Flatiron Life

“President Bush Calls On Business Leaders To Create 500,000 Crappy Jobs”

The Onion Radio News reports more truth than the MSM.

I blog for the exact same reason as Scott Adams (Dilbert cartoonist):

There is nothing more frustrating than writing a perfect sentence and not being able to publish it. That’s why I love having this blog. Otherwise, it’s just me and the cat having a laugh at how witty I could have been. And it’s creepy when the cat laughs because I can never be sure we’re laughing at the same thing.

(HT: Vallywag)

Stephen Dubner asks “Do Restaurants Blacklist Low-Spending Customers?”  He is focused on high-end places, but if you ask my mom you will know that she is on the shit-list of every buisness out there, especially restaurants.

Ever wanted to know what the kitchen of your favorite resturaunt looks like?  Ask my mom out for dinner and you will be seated as close as possible.

Ever wanted to know what it is like to fill your own glasses?  Take Vicky out for a meal and she will also serve the tea, because the waitress will not.

Want to be the first to have their order taken in a resturant?  I cannot gaurantee you will be first, but if my mom is at a nearby table, the odds of your order being taken before hers goes up dramaticlly.

You think I am joking?  Not on my mother’s life! Ask her about the flowers to my Grandma Tomaw’s funeral sometime for a non-restaurant experience.

Terrorists are terrible and trying to terrorize you! safenow.gov gives you some excellent advice. The most important is how to stop radiation.

A few weeks ago Joscelynn turned my on to the worlds only stand-up economist with this video.

Today Prof. Mankiw points to the newest video of Yoram Bauman.

Josh Hendrickson says,

If you are like me, you have been quite puzzled by this Bank of America “Keep the Change” scheme that is supposedly designed to promote personal saving.

I am like him.  This program has always rung oddly for me.

Alex Tabarrok is also like Josh and I and has good thoughts on it.

Zach Wendling (frequent commenter here) has figured out why it is so hard to figure out the Bush Administration:

I was recently watching Reno 911!: Miami, when the answer came to me in a jolt of inspiration. Bush and his senior advisers are not, in fact, stubborn and isolated neoconservatives. They are a highly dedicated and creative troupe of improvisational Surrealist performance artists*. Rather than following some ideological agenda, every aspect of this White House seeks to top the previously held conceptions with ever more outlandish behaviour and policy decisions.

Tory sends along this video from Dilbert the TV show. I don’t understand, what is wrong with being an engineer?

And while we are on the subject, I think the dictionary might be a little confused. I am inclinded to believe definition 3 is not an engineer. “One who skillfully or shrewdly manages an enterprise.” Sounds like manager to me. If you disagree, post a comment using engineer in this was in the comments.

Kris sends this along.  It made me laugh.

A first grade teacher explains to her class that she is an Indianapolis Colts fan.  She asks her students to raise their hands if they are Colts fans, too.   Not really knowing what a Colts fan was, but wanting to be liked by their teacher, their hands fly into the air.  There is, however, one exception.  Kelly has not gone along with the crowd.  The teacher asks her why she has decided to be different. “Because I’m not a Colts fan” she reports.

“Then,” asks the teacher,” What are you?”

“I’m a Chicago Bears fan” boasts the little girl.

The teacher asks Kelly why she is a Bears fan.

“Well, my Dad and Mom are Bears fans, so I’m a Bears fan too” she responds.

“That’s no reason,” the teacher says. “What if your mom was a moron, and your dad was an idiot.  What would you be then?”

Kelly smiles and says, “Then I’d be a Colts fan.”

BEAR DOWN, CHICAGO BEARS!!!!!

The most resent episode from the Re:Sound podcast is about Jewish death rituals.  It is a really interesting and enlightening program.  The documentary is a trilogy of segments and the thrd is about the afterlife.  According to the program, there is not clear answer if Olam Haba exists and if so what form it takes.  A Rabbi in the documenty says “If you get 3 Jews together you get 50 opinions.”  One of the more humorous tales is that the afterlife is a place of learning.  Moses sits and teaches Torah all day long.  For the righteous people, this is heaven; for the evil people, this is hell.