Ocelopotamus

News, culture, and politics. Not necessarily in that order.

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Entries from August 15th, 2007

Tea-Upon-Ice Now Available in Restaurants

August 15th, 2007 · 6 Comments · Culture, Journal, Restaurants, Tea

It is astonishing sometimes, when you have a truly good idea, how quickly it will be adopted by the rest of the world. For example, you loyal readers of Ocelopotamus will surely remember my “tea-upon-ice” idea from last week. (Idea is too small a word, really. Discovery? Breakthrough? Epiphany?) And I’m sure you all have […]

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Roundup: Skydiving Baby Giraffe Edition

August 15th, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Skydiving Baby Giraffe Edition · Activism, Apple, Books, Chicago, Comics, Culture, Death Penalty, Fantasy, Fiction, Film, Food, Health, Human Rights, Internet, iTunes, Journalism, Lit, Media, Meta, Nature, News, Politics, Roundup, TV, Ursula K. Le Guin

Out, damned spot! Fox News caught red-handed, laundering entries on Wikipedia. Keep on scrubbing, Lady MacFox, but those stains belong to you always. The GOP’s California strategy: winning the 2008 election by undoing California’s winner-take-all electoral system. Once the state goes piecemeal, the Repubs gain at least 20 electoral votes from safe GOP districts. Arianna […]

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Rolling Stone: John Edwards is “the Real Liberal” in the Race

August 13th, 2007 · 4 Comments · Climate Change, Healthcare Crisis, Journalism, Labor, Media, Politics, The Economy, Stupid

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I Share This with the World

August 10th, 2007 · 10 Comments · Journal, Tea

I have, in the kitchen of my own home, concocted the most marvelous refreshment. Having made some hot tea by the normal infusion method, on a whim I poured the tea over some cubes of frozen water, thus lowering the temperature of the tea and transforming it from a steaming hot beverage into a refreshing […]

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Roundup: Ronald Reagan Memorial Bridge Edition

August 9th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Activism, Apple, Comics, Culture, Human Rights, Infrastructure, Journalism, LGBT, Lit, Macintosh, Media, Nature, News, Poetry, Politics, Religion, Roundup, Science, Tech, Torture

This is brilliant. Peter Smith at the Huffington Post has a proposal for renaming the new I-35W bridge in Minneapolis that will replace the one that collapsed: “For a while there, back when the Republicans held the White House and both houses of Congress, they were naming things after Ronald Reagan everywhere. Airports. Aircraft carriers. […]

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Boiling Some Cabbage with the Smothers Brothers

August 8th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Comedy, Culture, Music, TV, Video

Because I could use a little cheering up tonight … some classic Smothers Brothers. Remember, if you’re a folksinger, when someone says “take it” you are obligated to take it.   And here’s an updated version of “Cabbage” from the 80s. Now with bonus naked bacon!   Poor Tommy … all those years later and […]

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Bridge to the 21st Century

August 6th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Culture, Infrastructure, Media, News, Politics, Public Transportation, TV, Video

Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow say pretty much what I’ve been wanting to say about the Minneapolis bridge collapse story.   I hate to say it, but I feel like we’ve just had a “welcome to the 21st century” kind of moment, and this isn’t going to be the last time this kind of preventable […]

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B-52’s Update: New Album, Cindy & Fred Interviews, and “Glove Slap,” Baby

August 6th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Culture, Music, New Wave, News, TV, Video

Yet another piece about the new B-52’s album, all recorded now with 12 shiny new songs, and just waiting for the right record deal to bring it to the public. The super-lucky-ducky writer of the piece got to sit around and listen to the new album with Cindy Wilson in her basement, and offers this […]

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The Money Power: Clinton, Edwards, and Obama at Yearly Kos

August 5th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Activism, Blogs, Chicago, Culture, Media, News, Politics, Video

From a story in the Washington Post on the Yearly Kos convention taking place in Chicago this weekend… I can’t believe Hillary actually said this out loud. Clinton came under attack for declining to join former senator John Edwards (N.C.), who is quite popular with bloggers, and Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) in pledging not to […]

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A Message from Ian McKellen

August 1st, 2007 · 5 Comments · Activism, Culture, Film, Human Rights, LGBT, Media, News, Politics, Theater, Video

… to the people of Singapore.  

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Yvonne Zipter: “A Canine Metaphysics”

August 1st, 2007 · 3 Comments · Books, Chicago, Culture, Lit, Nature, News, Pets, Poetry, Spirituality

As a sort of spiritual antidote to the horrible Michael Vicks dogfighting story, here’s a lovely poem by Chicago poet Yvonne Zipter (shared here with her permission). It’s from Yvonne’s most recent chapbook, Like Some Bookie God, which came out last year. A Canine Metaphysics In his meditative moments — nose to the air or […]

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