Economist readers: Bill Gates. Bill Clinton. George W. Bush. And Shakira.
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The Ideapad has been filled with links and news rather than essays lately. There’s a reason for that.
For an assortment of reasons, I’m prsently tapped out. Creatively, that is. Creativity ebbs and flows, and I am in an ebb.
Many factors are obvious: I am in business school, which soaks up much of my time and thought; my days have been overtaken by personal issues (fiancee, dog, apartment construction, furniture, finances, to name a few); I have recently quieted down my involvement in several online communities.
Yet something greater is at work. I am losing interest in many of the weblogs and sites that I visit on the Web. I’m two weeks late in submitting my next Digital Web column, which may not get written at all, if this pace continues. I have composed just three original expository pieces for the journal since October.
The workaday events of my daily life are vibrant and exciting this winter. Business school in particular has invigorated dormant recesses of my brain. What I need next is a spark to reignite my creative half, something to arouse the dynamism that propelled my design and written work the past few years.
You’ll know when I find it. Stick around.
Amy is in Los Angeles working on a television commercial. During the shoot last week, she was approached on the set by a teamster, who took note of her engagement ring.
“It’s beautiful,” he said admiringly.
“Thank you,” she replied. “My fiance picked it out.”
“He must really mean it!”
The fat kids’ lawsuit against McDonald’s, which tried to blame the fast-food chain for its consumers’ lack of responsibility and intelligence, was wisely dismissed by a U.S. district judge today. “If consumers know … the potential ill health effect of eating at McDonald’s,” the judge said, “they cannot blame McDonald’s if they, nonetheless, choose to satiate their appetite with a surfeit of supersized McDonald’s products.” Thank goodness.
Minor Ideapad alteration today: the date/posted-to line of an item, previously beneath the headline, has relocated to the end of the body text.
Astute readers of this page (hi, Mom) will notice a slight stylistic change today: The date/posted-to line of each entry on the index page, previously beneath the headline, has relocated to the end of the item.
Why? Two reasons:
1. Editorially, the date was getting in the way of the reading of an item. I disliked the interruption between headline and body text when leading into a link or a brief item. The date is less relevant than the previous layout said it was.
2. Visually, the datestamp provides a footer to an item, making a clean break before the next one and allowing me to lessen the whitespace between entries.
If my hunch is correct, reading items will be easier and the text will pack a little more punch. (No promises on lessening the use of cliches.)
New Yorkers must use area codes for all local calls starting February 1, 2003 (read: next weekend). Verizon has been advertising the switch for months, but the change will still hit the city like a bad hangover.
News from Texas states the famous cloned cat from last year is much different than the original, proving that cloning is not duplication. Fascinating, and evidence that when used appropriately, cloning may not be as evil as it seems.
Charley the neutered coton, the poor thing, is wearing a cone on his head for the next five days.
Mark Pilgrim: “In 1996, I had my entire apartment wired with X-10 devices … [controlled with] Speakable Items. ‘Connie, Iâm home’ would turn on the lights, the air conditioner, and the stereo, check my email, and read me summaries of my unread mail. ‘Connie, goodnight’ would turn off all the lights and appliances, turn on the hall light, say ‘Dream not of today,’ and put the computer to sleep. I am not in the slightest way making this up.”
My dog is a little bit less of a man today.