Category: Unfiled

Kucinich: Right Place, Wrong Time

The reporters who were there swear that this happened: After the National Public Radio debate in downtown Des Moines, a post-debate press room was set up for the Democratic candidates to talk to the media. Cameras and reporters surrounded Dick Gephardt, but many of them left after he finished speaking. Just then, Dennis Kucinich entered the room and began addressing three television cameras that were sitting on tripods. The only problem was, nobody was operating the cameras. And that's not all. As one newspaper reporter muttered under his breath, "It's not like any of those cameras are on, congressman." Hey, you never know.
-- Des Moines Register, 10 January, 2004

NYT Font Mania

If you've been feeling off-kilter, like nothing's been right all month, you can blame the New York Times. Eminent typeface consultant Matthew Carter has gone to work on the paper's style, and established a new font regime to replace the customarily slapdash effort. On the Media interviewed Carter about the change. Bear witness to Bob Garfield cracking himself up. Slate has a good amount of hand-wringing on the subject, as well as this succinct summary of the change:

"The lead story is usually topped by a triple-deck, single-column headline, which in the old setup employed two typefaces: Latin Extra Condensed at the top and then two decks of the sans-serif News Gothic below. In the new design, all three decks are in Cheltenham, in its Bold Extra Condensed, Bold Condensed, and Medium varieties."
For some truly inside-baseball discussion, head over to Typographica, where you can eavesdrop on conversations like this:
It's interesting how the smaller x-height of Cheltenham highlights the headline style of The NY Times: 'Initial Word, and All Important Words Capitalised'. Curiously, this effect is not as strongly pronounced in the headlines set in Italic. Also, in the captions the figures are pretty big, and stick out a lot. I wonder if these side-effects of the typographic make-over have been considered by Tom Bodkin.

“Perfect” Security for Athens Games

Athens is preparing for the Olympic Games, and it seems to have gotten to their head. First, the U.S. issues a report claiming that secuity in Athens is bad. Spokesman and (future Iraqi Minister of Information) Christos Protopapas responds: "These scenarios have no relation to reality. We have a perfect plan for the security of the Olympics... There seem to be (foreign) interests that want to pressure us, but we will not cave in. We will organize the safest Olympics." Those "foreign interests" must be Spain, Germany, Britain, the United States, Israel, Australia and France, who Greece has asked to consult on the $600 M security operation. A week later, Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos told an international conference the $600 million security blueprint for the Olympics was even better than similar plans drawn up by cities and countries faced with bigger threats. "It is hard to find another city in the Western world that has such extensive security measures like Athens," Venizelos said. "Security is based on a new dogma, a holistic dogma and not one based on random checks to deal with any potential problem," Venizelos said. "The Games will be perfect." ...again with this "perfect" thing. "Hubris" is Greek, isn't it?

Manhattan Equinox

From Monday, 14 July to Wednesday 16 July, residents of Manhattan will get a special treat: a complete sunset. On a typical evening in Manhattan, someone facing west on the east-west streets will see the sun set behind a building. On these special days, and their companion days in December, the sun will instead rise and set directly over the street, visible until it disappears over the horizon. The effect is astounding: shadows stretch to infinity, and the sun seems to descend on the street traffic just blocks away. Sunset on 34th Street This magic is possible because the famous grid pattern of Manhattan's streets is oriented 29.5 degrees off-center, keyed off of Amersterdam Avenue. On the special days, the sun also rises and sets on this same line, creating a perfect alignment. You'll read about this effect in the local papers. Unfortunately, there's no name for this phenomena, making it awkward to talk about. If the Manhattan streets ran perfectly east-west, we could use the handy summer equinox or winter equinox. Alas, John Randel had different ideas. So, it needs a name. We suggest: the Manhattan Equinox. Lovely, yes?

Bush Video on September 11th

Everyone remembers the videotape of Andy Card whispering into President Bush's ear on September 11th. It was at a Florida elementary school, and Card tells the President: "A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack." The President then looks into the distance. Some understood the look as a summoning of strength, others saw bewilderment. In any case, take a look at the next five minutes of the video, courtesy of Memory Hole. They don't end the photo-op. The Secret Service doesn't hustle the President out of the room. Ari Fleischer and Andy Card wait patiently. Remember what were you doing that day? The President sits there and does nothing. The videotape doesn't provide good context, which is unfortunate. This could be a clever edit job -- for all we know, Card whispers to the President at the end of the video. It hardly matters, though. The image of the President and advisors finishing their self-serving photo-op while the country is being attacked and before the Pentagon was hit is heartbreaking. How does this match with the other accounts from that day? The President left the photo-op and proceeded to fly around the Southeast until the afternoon. There was confusion in the Situation Room as to whether planes could be shot down -- eventually, Dick Cheney made the call. This video tells us that the President wasn't rushed to safety. He wasn't consulting with his aides. He was hanging out. Jokes about Cheney, Rove, et al being the real power behind the Presidency are common -- after watching this, they're not funny. They're terrifying.

Fox Guards Henhouse

Anyone who thinks for a living has been plagued by "business talk." "Synergy", "leverage", "touch base", etc. They're weapons in the hand of consultants, and can be shields for the stupid. More than anything, they're shibboleths, a substitute for real thinking. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu helped create this golem, but now they've seen the error of their ways. To aid in the battle against handwaving, they're released a piece of free software: Bullfighter. It analyzes documents for these bullshit words, and ranks them accordingly. Oh! Those bandy-legged roustabouts! They're in touch with my inner Dilbert! They understand what's it's like here in the trenches! They sympathize with me! They're here to help. Physician, heal thyself.