Super Obama Action Figure
I love this pic of the Super Obama Action Figure:
From this Village Voice slideshow of Obama action figures.
Hardcore short distance run
You want hardcore? The headline alone is more hardcore than any run I’ve done:
Jogger runs mile with rabid fox locked on her arm
May the fastest runner lose
I’ve always wondered what happens at a race if a runner in a different wave runs faster than the first wave finishers. A lot of bigger marathons have separate starts for elite runners and the rest of the pack. Some even just have different waves starting at different hours, like the two starts in Boston.
It turns out that the fastest runner loses.
Arien O’Connel started in the second wave of the Nike Women’s Marathon and ran a 2:55:11. The winning time from the elite pack? 3:06. The ruling? See this SFGate article for details. Pretty lame on behalf of the race and a lame rule for US Track and Field to have in my book.
At least I’ll never have this problem.
card theft ring
This is a good one:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122366999999723871.html
The short gist of the story is that trojaned credit card readers from China are deployed throughout Europe and use wireless to send a very small sample of cards to servers in Pakistan where they’re used for fraud. It was found when someone noticed the cellphone interference and the only other real sign that the reader is trojaned is that it weighs a bit more. $50-100 million in fraud so far.
Can’t. Stop. Watching.
Review: Casellula
So, I thought I had gone to this great Spanish restaurant the other night, but I was wrong.
There was a time long, long ago, like even back in the 90s, when Spanish food meant you went to a place decorated like Don Quixote’s mom’s couch and chose between the double lobster, the chops, and a paella. Then tapas took over and now the small tasty plate of something covered in pork is among the best food you can get in the city. We were fortunate to learn that hog fat is totally good for you, while a tub of paella is not.
Now, if I step into a place and they’re making things that look like tapas, and there’s good ham, I think I’m in a Spanish place, but I can be wrong. The genre of tapas itself lends itself well to eating out well without having to stick with a monolithic plate of something or other. Not sure what to pick? Try a bit of everything. It’s a trend so faded that it’s now just mainstream.
But Casellula wasn’t a Spanish restaurant. That explains the well-selected international wine list and the “Pig Ass sandwich.” The name (sounded like Casa Lulu to me) and the appetizers had me going. Turns out, on sober reflection, that it’s a cheese place. That explains that giant case of cheese in the back. Here’s what I split with my friends:
Stuffed Peppadew Peppers / Buffalo Mozzarella / Speck - wow
Chistorras in a Blanket / Radish Pico de Gringo - wow
Pig’s Ass Sandwich / Fiscalini Cheddar / Fol Epi / B&B Pickles / Chipotlé Aioli - double wow
There were some other little plates flying around, I think the beets.
Everything was fantastic. The place was packed until well past midnight, the staff was great. You wonder what this place is doing on West 52nd, but it’s great to see a place like this doing so well over there.
Best Ska Joke Ever
From the comments in http://www.metafilter.com/74832/Jesus-came-and-touched-me-down-inside.
Q: How many Ska musicians does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Two: one to drop it, then one to pick it up, pick it up, pick it up.
It’s a terrible joke. Dropping? Light bulbs? Picking up light bulbs? Makes no sense. But as a Ska joke? Fantastic.
Doubletake
I was looking for some alchemical art for my PC’s desktop to liven it up a bit, plugged in alchemical to Google and noticed that as I typed alchemical, there were millions of more hits for the phrase ‘alchemical blood’ than ‘alchemical symbols.’ Now that surprised me, it’s not often that you’ve bumbled around the edges of intellectual history and missed a whole concept like…. oh, it’s a World of Warcraft thing, now I get it.
Running mishap
Saturday, I did the Fitness Mind, Body Spirit 4 mile race in Central Park. For a race which promotes the integration of mind, body and spirit, I have to say that it was the most disheartening race I’ve run all year for two reasons: humidity and a frustrating mishap.
The humidity was up around 80%. What does that really translate to? Saturday, I ran those 4 miles, almost didn’t finish, and canceled my training run for next week’s half marathon. Sunday, when the humidity was back down to levels encountered away from the bottom of swimming pools, I ran 11 miles without any problem.
So, the embarassing mishap: old lady smack down. As I was running along, feeling near death, covered in sweat, sick from the heat, a whole bunch of people started to cross the street in front of me into the race. You can do it when there’s a gap. I’m all down for sharing the park: More power to you as long as you hustle a bit. So, a few people go and then an older women starts to join them, small child in tow, seemingly oblivious to the fact that everyone else is rushing. I’m in the clear, I can run right through the hole they’ve all made, cool. The older lady, realizing perhaps that wading through the middle of a men’s 4 M race with a child is a bad idea, panics and turns back into my path. I freak out, thinking I’m going to run into both of them, I can’t really stop, so I try to check her at the shoulder to stop her and get past. Poorly thought out, poorly executed, but the best thing I could come up with to keep from killing everyone.
So, I really hope there isn’t a YouTube video up because at speed, this can only look like one thing: I run by and smack and old woman like the heartless bastard that I am. It ruined the race, ruined the rest of my day. I feel like a heel, but what do you do?
Review: Apiary
It seems inappropriate to post a long-overdue restaurant review with a hurricane in the Gulf, but we’re just waiting.
We went to Apiary with a friend the other night. They’re on Third Ave near 10th St. Promising name, right?
We were originally supposed to go somewhere else in the neighborhood, but the menu wasn’t right for the friend and I remembered Apiary as “that place with that guy who was doing that thing with those guys.” That turned out on later review to be a chef from Bar Americaine who was cooking for the furniture line which owned the place. So, anyway, we tried it after the friend approved the menu.
The furniture company ownership shows, the place looks pretty swank. I liked the modern lampshades with chandeliers cut into them over the modern tables, complimented by the outline of chandeliers around the wall lighting.
Sangria was good. I had a crab cake appetizer that was far better than most. Then came a braised rabbit entree which was really terrible. The meat was well-cooked, but it had a sauce that tasted mostly of grease and an incredible amount of salt. It came with spatzele and some mushroomy veggie thing which also had the bad sauce all over them. I’m going to assume the chef was off for the holiday, it was a little late, etc., but it just wasn’t a good dish by any measure except for the rabbit itself.