From: Bill

Hello, Emerson...

(Can I just call you Ralph, or would you prefer R. Waldo?) You sound like a great gadget, and I'm definitely in the market for a good lightly-used micro; you're even located walking distance from me; but I need more info. Do your owners have a photo, or any measurements? I realize that sounds a little personal, but don't take it the wrong way...

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Update, January 29: This person bought Emerson and reports back that it (he?) "works tremendously." Enjoy, Bill.

Emerson is getting fan mail:

From: UserC6999

Baby, you have either to much time or your hands or have taken too many drugs.

But I did LOVE Emerson, I hope he finds love and a new, loving home.

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From: etie

Just came accross your ad in craigslist. I am not interested in Emerson although he sounds like a real fine micro and I hope he found a good home.

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From: UserC6999 (separate message)

Now, I'm starting to worry about him. What if no one buys him, will you abandon him, like an old Trojan wrapper....to the garbage...doesn't he DESERVE BETTER?
I know some drug crazed woman who might offer him a home.....a warm and loving spot where he would become a "family" member....not just......garbage

--

Maybe my friend was right‹I should have listed it under "pets."

Poor Emerson is getting lonely.

I bought a Lexar Jump Drive USB memory flash drive today. My purchase went through circuitcity.com, because Circuit City is across the street from my apartment, and I can pick up my already-placed order on my way home tonight.

Circuit City led me to believe I got a great deal on the drive: $20 off their $99.99 list price with an "unpublishable" discount, and a $20 mail-in rebate, bringing the total to $59.99.

However, a little price shopping reveals otherwise.
J&R: $59.99
Amazon.com: $64.14
TechOnWeb: $67.02
Fry's/Outpost.com: $69.99

I still got the best available price (tax and shipping being a wash), and thanks to Circuit City's in-store pickup, I'll have it today. But does CC really charge $99 on non-sale days? I suspect they're actually playing games to keep the float on my $20 rebate for a good three months before releasing my money back to me.

So long as the product is in stock when I arrive tonight, I'll be a contented customer. But I'm now a skeptical one. That's probably not what a troubled electronics retailer wants, especially when good old J&R can price-match so smoothly.

I've started keeping a linklog at del.icio.us. Sooner or later I'll have the links included on this page in an RSS feed. Expect no particular rhyme or reason to the links I share. Which, of course, is the fun of it.

Nearly midnight and freezing. The return of Arctic chill has cleared the streets; tonight is among the quietest I've seen Union Square, before the subway lets out, that is. A young man, stoned and chatty, exits my building with me, asks for the nearest ATM, then disappears. The temperature is easily below zero fahrenheit when the wind whips, which is often. My wool hat itches my widow's peaks; my earmuffs hush the already quiet side street. I am nicely alone, chilled but peaceful, head filled with sophomoric prose trying to commemorate the evening, impatient to get home.

The dog, on the other hand, charges ahead, wholly unaffected by the cold, straining his leash to investigate every scent and speck, wondering why no other dogs are in the run. Because it's cold, Dog, that's why. If only we all had his fur coat.

"I think when the movie died in the box office, I remember feeling somewhat relieved. Yes, I played this bizarre dork, but at least no one will ever see it." ‹actor Dan Schneider, who couldn't have been more wrong, recollecting filming "Better Off Dead"

Cardhouse ran my all-time favorite GIF again this holiday season:

What makes a good bagel? in the New York Times. Agreed! Bagels should be crisp and heavy-doughed. I will have to make a few Saturday trips to the outerboroughs to check these places out for myself. (And while I'm at it, I'll bring the missus to the Mill Basin Deli, where her cousins still crank out a good pastrami sandwich.)