Escargo-go

No hugging!

The New York Times reports on a supposed trend of hugging among high school students. A thin story, but it's always amusing to read the cameo appearances by administrators determined to produce another generation of fearful, sexually repressed Americans:

Comforting as the hug may be, principals across the country have clamped down. “Touching and physical contact is very dangerous territory,” said Noreen Hajinlian, the principal of George G. White School, a junior high school in Hillsdale, N.J., who banned hugging two years ago. “It was needless hugging — they are in the hallways before they go to class. It wasn’t a greeting. It was happening all day.”

Schools that have limited hugging invoked longstanding rules against public displays of affection, meant to maintain an atmosphere of academic seriousness and prevent unwanted touching, or even groping. 

Limbaugh on torture

From New York magazine:

"If somebody can go through water-boarding for 183 times, 6 times a day .... it means you’re not afraid of it, it means it’s not torture. If you’ve found a way to withstand it, it can’t possibly be torture." —Rush Limbaugh

Does this mean that Rush doesn't believe in Hell?

Providence considers a later last call (for diet Coke, anyway)

The city of Providence, tired of the unruly crowds on the streets after the bars close at 2 a.m., may try to solve the problem by letting places stay open an extra hour -- with a condition:

Only coffee, nonalcoholic drinks and snacks or light food would be served during the extra hour, and club and bar managers would turn down the music and turn up the lights to prepare customers for the inevitable. No new patrons could be admitted. The approach has worked in other cities such as San Jose...

Sounds like it's worth trying in Boston, though I'm sure City Hall and the neighborhood groups would unite to oppose the idea. (We can't take the risk of people crunching potato chips outside bedroom windows at such a late hour.) Cutting off the liquor and turning up the lights may also decrease "last call" hook-ups. Maybe this should be sold as a safe sex measure?

Burrito shop saves Downtown Crossing!

Cross-posted at Beyond Red and Blue.

I guess you work with the downtown development that you have, not the downtown development that you wish you had. From today's Boston Globe:

Mayor Thomas M. Menino strolled part of the Downtown Crossing district of Boston yesterday, shaking hands with enthusiastic shop owners and celebrating the grand opening of a burrito shop....

"It's important to have people walking there," Menino said after cutting the ribbon at Boloco, a chain restaurant that has large windows that open onto Province Street.

The next time you walk past the section of Washington Street that used to be Filene's, remind yourself: No, this isn't Berlin circa 1945, for I'm within walking distance of a Cajun burrito with organic tofu!

Boston Globe print vs. online

Media Nation's Dan Kennedy asks:

If the Boston Globe (or any major metro) raised its prices to $2 on weekdays and $5 on Sundays, what sorts of print-only content would induce you to pay for it rather than simply reading it online?

OK, here's a start:

1.) A New York Times-level crossword puzzle, or at least a good acrostic.

2.) Comic strips less than 25 years old. Specifically, comic strips that Garfield fans don't "get."

3.) Quirky or offbeat stories from all over New England (because I already know the quirky stories from Boston itself, thanks to my daily blog reading).

4.) "On Beacon Hill" and "Around City Hall" columns by reporters who cover nothing else. I said NOTHING else.

5.) Lengthy TV articles by Matthew Gilbert (as opposed to photo collages of the "Top 10 TV Bosses," etc.)

6.) A tabloid version of the Ideas/book review section, so I can carry it around all week and I can make copies of particularly good articles. (Currently, it's handier to print out each article from the online edition.) But don't reduce the length of the articles.

7.) Cool maps!

8.) Photojournalism in the Boston Globe magazine, other than pictures of food and home interiors.

9.) A good food writer who covers things rather than places (a brief history of Peruvian cuisine, yes; a Q&A with a new chef at a upscale restaurant, blech).

10.)  A handy list of which stores, bars, and restaurants in the Boston area have closed in the previous week, so I don't suggest them to friends. If the economy improves, maybe I'll want to know what has just opened, too.

The 10 shows on my DVR: Winter 2009

Here's what I'm watching in winter 2009 -- while I'm waiting for the return of Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and In Treatment. (And don't ask what happened to Battlestar Galactica; I'm behind on my Netflix DVDs for that one.)

1. The Big Bang Theory. I've always had time for a roommate sitcom since The Odd Couple. Appropriately for a show about scientists, the character of Leonard seems to be a genetically improved (for comedic purposes) version of Felix Unger and Niles Crane. His apparent Asperger's syndrome allows him to be even more persnickety and demanding than any of his sitcom forefathers, while still being a believable and sympathetic character. But a couple of the supporting characters need to evolve. Producers: Please kill off Howard's mother and let Raj speak in front of women.

2. Big Love. Another show about people having to live under the same roof (or three adjacent roofs) without driving each other crazy. The polygamy premise likely scared off a lot of HBO subscribers, but it's no less realistic than the idea of co-workers constantly falling in and out of love with each other. (ER has required more suspension of belief than Big Love ever could.) The relationships among Bill Hendrickson and his three wives have a lot more dramatic tension than the monogamous pairings that last for two or three episodes on other dramas -- which means that, unless you're a drama queen, this show is not going to make polygamy seem attractive to you. One criticism: cult leader Roman Grant has served his purpose on the show and needs to die or go to prison.

The way they save barstools in South Boston?

Someone from my hometown wants to make it easier for bar patrons to take unlimited smoking breaks while keeping claim to their seats. From the Malden Observer:

Once a business purchases [the] cards, the idea is that they will be stacked on the bar, like cocktail napkins, for patrons to pick up and use when leaving beverages unattended to alert other patrons and staff that the owner of the drink intends on returning.

This reminds me of the South Boston tradition of putting out a lawn chair to claim a shoveled-out parking spot, even after almost all the snow has melted.

I have had the delightful experience of finding a seat at a drinking establishment, not noticing the glass with about a quarter-inch of beer parked on the bar, then chatting with friends for about 20 minutes before some guy with nicotine breath orders me off my perch. I don't think he's protecting his beverage; I think he likes being able to stroll around and chat up people without sacrificing his seat.

If these "out smoking" cards become legit, may I suggest some others to level the playing field? How about "outside until Billy Joel song is over"? Or "taking a break because I've heard my friend's story 500 times already"?

How to close all of Boston's gay bars in one swoop

Send in a bunch of police-who-look-like-porn-stars to hit on men twice their age. Andy Humm reports in the Gotham Gazette:

Robert Pinter, a 52-year-old gay man who was arrested for prostitution at the Blue Door in the East Village on Oct. 10, spoke at the town hall meeting. He said a young man — a 29-year old undercover cop who, Pinter said, looked even younger — cruised him in the store. He was "charming and persistent, and we agreed to go home for consensual sex, but as we were leaving he said, 'I want to pay you $50 [to have sex].' I didn't respond, but I thought it was strange," Pinter recounted. As the men left the store, Pinter said, a group of men who did not show police identification pushed him against the wall

"I thought I'd been set up by a gang," he said. "I asked them why they were doing this to me. I was totally clueless. They handcuffed me and said, 'Why the f--- do you think we're arresting you — loitering for the purpose of prostitution.'"...

Following a spate of arrests at another porn shop, the Unicorn in Chelsea, the city sued to close it, citing the arrests by undercover officers.

(Hat tip: JoeMyGod.)

I'm not saying that Bostonians would want to shut down gay bars and porn shops on moral grounds. It's more about their effects on property values. I'm just saying, if someone younger and more attractive approaches you at the Eagle, tell him upfront that anything you do is on the house.

Why are you asking me, Mr. Republican National Committee Chairman?

Matthew Ygelsias points us to a particularly dopey passage in a recent speech by RNC chair Michael Steele:

Democrats in Congress want a one-trillion dollar spending bill. You’ve heard about the pork-barrel programs they want to fund… 45 million dollars for ATV trails and removal of fish passage barriers is one that caught my eye. Exactly what is a fish passage barrier and why does it cost 45 million dollars to stimulate the economy with it?

As Yglesias asks, if Steele didn't know what a fish passage barrier is, why didn't he look it up instead of asking all of us? (Of course, he did know what it is.)

The proper thing for Steele to do was to pose the question, pause to let it sink in, then answer it. Presumably, he could have said something like, "I'll tell you what a fish passage barrier is. It's something that interferes with the upstream movement of fish! Now, why on earth would we care if a species of fish can't reproduce? Don't we have enough fish as it is? Can't they pay for the removal of a fish passage barrier if it bothers them so much?"

Evidently, he thought it better to leave us in the dark. And I'm sure he didn't mean to falsely imply that it would cost $45 million to remove "a" fish passage barrier (as in just one of them).

Help wanted ads for morons

Blogslot discovered an advertisement for a job in journalism(!), specifically a copy-editing position with UPI. And it has a requirement that regularly drove me insane back when I was applying for jobs:

This position does not include design work but requires strong computer literacy and familiarity with Outlook, Word and Mozilla Firefox.

They could have stopped after "computer literacy." Is there anyone in America who has learned how to e-mail but isn't capable of mastering Microsoft Word?

Worse, does it make any sense to specify skills with a particular web browser? Is someone really going to be eliminated from consideration for this job because he or she has spent 10,000 hours on Safari or Explorer but has never used Firefox?

Maybe it's just a trap. Anyone dumb enough to say that they're not familiar with Firefox, regardless of whether they've actually used it, probably doesn't deserve the job.