Category: People & Human Interest

Over at Dinner without Crayons Tanya is ready to think of her Gram and go another round if needed.

At least one New Orleans-based Who Dat, who goes by the name of “Jimbeaux61”, has already made his plans for Super Bowl Sunday, which happens to be nine days before Mardi Gras.

Says Jimbeaux61: “Breakfast will be beignets and café au lait at the French Market. A two-block walk for Bloody Marys at Margaritaville. Catch a Mardi Gras parade on Canal Street. A shrimp po-boy at Johnny’s in the Quarter. A Hurricane at Pat O’Brien’s. Stroll over to the Superdome parking lot for tailgating. Early dinner at Galatoire’s. More Hurricanes at Pat O’Brien’s. Watch the Saints beat the Colts at the Absinthe House. Back to Canal Street for another parade. Close out the night on Bourbon Street. Sleep till Tuesday. Get ready for the draft. Geaux Super Bowl Champions.”

Peter Finney, Times-Picayune

Sounds like a good day.

Ten days after the massive earthquake in Haiti, some 80,000 of the estimated 200,000 dead have been buried, two million residents now find themselves homeless, and hundreds of thousands of them are now trying to flee the capital city. Rescue crews are beginning to abandon hope of finding any further survivors in the rubble – the last person to be pulled out alive was on was rescued on Wednesday, the 20th. Aid agencies are still ramping up their efforts – the Red Cross alone has deployed what it calls its greatest deployment of emergency responders in its 91-year history. Collected here are some closer looks into recent events in Haiti, seen through the faces of the survivors and the recently-arrived security, rescue and care workers. (46 photos total)

The Big Picture – Boston.com

Don’t skip this one.

Over at Dinner without Crayons, Erinn confesses to being a crime show junkie and lets us “in on a few things [she’s] learned about crime.” For example:

7. No matter how much you love scrapbooking (and Lord knows I do), do not scrapbook pictures of you with the people you kill. Especially if in the pictures they are wearing jewelry you stole from them and are currently wearing. And you’ve already told the police you’ve never seen those people in your life.

People of Walmart: a collection of all the creatures that grace us with their presence at Walmart, America’s favorite store.

Thanks to Erinn and Mike.

Learn the right way (and the wrong way) to lace your shoes. It’s never too late.

I find these still photos from Haiti more interesting, more emotional and more harrowing than the TV images because they can be studied and thought about — in other words, for me, it’s not as mindless as some TV reporter telling me what I’m seeing, what I should think.

Haiti remains a place of profound need, anguish, desperation and danger, with a few glimmers of hope and slowly growing capabilities to receive and distribute the international aid now flowing in. Sporadic looting, sometimes violent, was met with force by security oficials and ordinary citizens, resulting in a number of further deaths and injuries. The tenuous security situation has led to at least one temporary evacuation of a medical facility, to protect the care-givers. Despite the long time since the earthquake, at least five people were pulled from the rubble alive this weekend, including a young girl trapped inside a supermarket who was fortunately surrounded by food, and survived on fruit snacks. (38 photos total)

The Big Picture – Boston.com

“It is more erotic to wonder if you’re about to be kissed than it is to be kissed.”

Another wonderful look at times and mores past by Roger Ebert, this time sex on campus.

Ebert’s memories resonate with this pre-baby boomer. We weren’t even allowed to dance the Twist at my Catholic high school — as if the Twist was more sexy than slow-dancing. Of course, the rule was the good Carmelite fathers had to be able to see light between the slow dancers.

… but now that I’ve read this I am pretty sure there are some under the bed and in the closet and god only knows about the garage.

And I don’t even live in East Texas.

… but dammit.

Joe Rollino, the famed Coney Island Strongman, was killed yesterday after he was hit by some asshole driving a minivan while walking across the Bay Ridge Parkway. Rollino, who would have been 105 in March, was a lifelong vegetarian and fitness buff who celebrated his 104th birthday by bending a quarter between his fingers, only to apologize to onlookers for no longer being able to do it with a dime.

ANIMAL

… read this from Roger Ebert’s Journal.

It will make you appreciate life all the more.

Nothing wrong, just busy with other distractions. What are you all up to?

First posted this date in 2006:

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If you’d like to become rich, NewMexiKen suggests you invent the self-cleaning refrigerator. I don’t mean the self-defrosting refrigerator, although lord knows that was a breakthrough right up there with Velcro. No, I mean self-cleaning: throws out the time-dated food, cleans up the nasty spills underneath the produce drawers, refreshes the ice bin (some of those cubes may be old enough for geologists to take core samples).

As you might gather I just cleaned out my refrigerator. Just a cursory wipe out and jettison of the older stuff. It doesn’t really need a super cleaning. Hell, I’ve only lived here 7-1/2 years.

There was some strange stuff in there though, stuck in the back. A loose egg. I wonder where that came from. Better yet, I wonder when that came from. There were some spills of food that really didn’t look familiar. Must have been from the previous owners.

Why, you say, did I get the impulse to clean my refrigerator early on Saturday morning? (Go ahead, say it.) It was either that or address these damn Christmas cards.

Sad commentary: NewMexiKen’s two produce drawers contain a total of one-half lime. Of course, one-half lime is enough to wet several Margarita glass rims. 🙂

“Family, we are told — over and over again — is the saving grace that makes the holidays worthwhile.”

The Lens Blog offers eight photographic variations on that theme. Nice. My kindness post for today.

I forgot, but here’s one (the people in the restaurant).

Today, I proposed to my girlfriend of four years in a nice restaurant. When she said yes, the entire restaurant stood up and applauded.

We’re both women.

Understanding of true love GMH.

GivesMeHope

And the pilots keep thinking, “How come this plane is listing to starboard?

Jill takes on an unwanted visitor. Great story.

I think I will post a Random Act of Kindness story each day in December to get us all in a better frame of mind for the stress of December. Here’s today’s found at The Consumerist.

Once on Mother’s Day, this older lady came in alone and told me that her kids weren’t able to be with her that year, but they had mailed her a gift card. So I told my manager that we had to make this an exceptional experience for her. I told her to come back with a friend some time and use her gift card because tonight, her meal was on us. We comped her dinner, and I sat with her through dessert while she told me about her kids. My coworkers were happy to cover my other tables for 15 minutes. The woman told me she would remember that dinner forever.

—Melissa McCracken, longtime waitress in Hawaii

What is the essence of human nature? Flawed, say many theologians. Vicious and addicted to warfare, wrote Hobbes. Selfish and in need of considerable improvement, think many parents.

But biologists are beginning to form a generally sunnier view of humankind. Their conclusions are derived in part from testing very young children, and partly from comparing human children with those of chimpanzees, hoping that the differences will point to what is distinctively human.

The somewhat surprising answer at which some biologists have arrived is that babies are innately sociable and helpful to others. Of course every animal must to some extent be selfish to survive. But the biologists also see in humans a natural willingness to help.

The New York Times has more.

Glad I could help you find this article.

Jay Mariotti writes:

The public deserves to hear exactly what happened in the wee hours of Thanksgiving night outside his mansion in Windermere, Fla., suddenly a world-famous dateline when it didn’t have to be. Mind you, this is not the demand of a journalist protecting the right to know. No, this is the requirement of a consumer who has seen Woods polish up a supposedly spotless image for years while selling us cars, apparel, golfing goods, cereal, cameras, energy drinks, razors, credit cards and video games, all feeding into his unstoppable machine as the world’s first billion-dollar athlete. If Woods is going to market his image so aggressively and relentlessly, part of the deal is addressing a negative issue when it surfaces. He maintains his credibility that way, his believablity.

Do we deserve to hear exactly what happened? Or is it none of our business?

Jill explains.

Go read it.

Another warm, somewhat sad, but amusing story.

Link via SinPantalones – Journal.

I wish they were wrong. But here’s more evidence the saying is right. Click to learn a little about Cassandra Yazzie-Hotchkiss and perhaps donate.

But click especially to see the best wedding photo ever.