There are many uses for the accordion, but the worst I’ve seen is as a writer’s crutch in this painfully-written piece on John McCain by Glen Johnson for the Associated Press:
John McCain embraces and expels Washington like an accordion player belting out a song.
Squeeze in and he touts his vast knowledge of the capital city. Draw out and he casts himself a reformer bent on changing its ways.
The accordion metaphor gets tortured for the rest of the article.
Sirius Radio has set up a “limited engagement” radio station that will play nothing but AC/DC 24 hours a day (here’s where I pause to “throw the horns”). Its limited engagement started last night and will run up until January 15, 2009. It’s on Sirius channel 29.
Daily Show writer Rob Kutner sent me a link to this video, John Oliver’s Literature Rodeo, Apocalypse Edition, in which John “The British Guy from the Daily Show” Oliver provides some reading suggestions for the upcoming apocalypse (one of which is Rob’s own book, Apocalypse How). Who knows, the fall of civilization may be only a couple of bank collapses away. Sure it may be the End Times, but why can’t they also be Good Times?
After all, getting money from the government is his stock in trade.
(If you don’t recognize Matthew Lesko, you don’t stay up late. His oddball late night infomericals are the stuff of legend and second only to the works of the great Tom Vu. I’ve included some of his ads below…)
Photo courtesy of LOLFed.com.
Click the photo to see it on its original page.
Looks like I wasn’t the only one to make the bailout-Lesko connection.
[This article was also posted in Global Nerdy.]
After “a much-needed summer hiatus” (which you can read as “the complete implosion of Toronto’s worst-run software development shop, which used to host the event”) Ruby on Rails Project Night makes its comeback this Friday, September 19th at its new home at the Rich Media Institute in Kensington Market.
Event organizer Corina Newby promises that it won’t normally be on Fridays, which should the minds of your significant others, party-going friends or World of Warcraft clans at ease. The event is being held on a Friday this time to accommodate the schedule of special guest James “Smalltalk Tidbits, Industry Rants” Robertson, who’ll be there to give us a presentation of the Smalltalk-based web application framework Seaside and the Seaside-based Smalltalk development environment WebVelocity.
Also scheduled is local Ruby on Rails developer Paul Doerwald, who’ll be doing a presentation on insights he gained from working with ActiveRecord validation.
As always, one of the greatest benefits of these gatherings is actually meeting local developers who work with or are interested in working with Ruby and Rails. It’s good for you, your software development career and the future of Accordion City as a hub for high-tech when gatherings like this take place, so be a part of it!
By the way, did I mention that the event is FREE?
Once again, the date is this Friday, September 19th at the Rich Media Institute (156 Augusta Avenue). The presentations will start at 6 p.m. and run until about 7:30. If you’re planning to attend, let Corina know at corecorina@hotmail.com.
In Monday’s edition, the Dallas Morning News placed an article about David Foster Wallace’s suicide beside the continuation of an article titled Career Suicide was a Good Move. Ouch.
Today is rich in irony!
Smart: The Republicans are holding a rally to reach out to minorities.
Not-so-smart: One of the speakers is former Virginia Senator George Allen, of the infamous “macaca” slur, an incident caught on video: