20 August 2004

  • New York's currently: ignoring the weatherman
  • As Iraqi troops struggle with their role in a possible strike on the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf, Moqtada al-Sadr sends word that he'll hand over control of the mosque, in order to save it.
  • How the Swift Boat anti-Kerry ads began, 30 years ago. And: The Iraqi soccer team really, really, really doesn't want to be in Bush campaign ads.
  • A massive collection of textfiles you'll want to read. Such files may include Ian Frazier's Coyote v. Acme.
  • Ted Kennedy was stopped for questioning at airports five times in six months because a name similar to his appeared on no-fly lists.
  • Tonight freebasing, er, vaporizing liquor will be all the rage in Manhattan.
  • Celiac Chicks are the coolest for what they're doing to make true gluten-free dining-out possible. Related: Child's wheat allergy gets her first communion invalidated.
  • Italo Calvino's widow "Chichita" takes Corriere della Sera to court over publication of old love letters written by Calvino to a married woman.
  • Casting cock-ups, as when Helena Bonham-Carter was in Planet of the Apes, or when Kevin Costner was in…too much, really.
  • Straight-Edgers: See who's gone to the other side at the Edge Break List.
  • But can you get Palpatine to read your vows? A Star Wars wedding.
  • Biggie's lyrical shrine to non-Lexus Asian import cars.
  • 1961 illustrations of New York. (Note: "weiter" means "next") [via coudal]
  • An obituary on the extraordinary life of Czeslaw Milosz.
  • Does Dick Cheney speak only to the lizards?
  • Eighties MP3s of the bands that would become everything to the '90s: My Bloody Valentine and Nirvana.
  • Keep your lexicon up-to-the-second with new words at Double-Tongued.