May 2006 Archives
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Listening
Mp3 Digest: May 31, 2006
It’s well known how you blow up a computer: You give it conflicting information until it can no longer process what you’re saying, until its motherboard eventually fries...
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Of Recent Note
May 2006
It’s the last Wednesday of the month, so it’s time for another episode of what the writers have recently been loving: restaurants in California, television in Japan, vitamin-laced candy, and more.
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Op-Ed
The Weathermen
Why are so many news shows so dully casted—except for the flamboyantly named superhero in front of the blue screen? The top 10 best-named weathermen currently rescuing the news.
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Reading
Book Digest: May 29, 2006
Last week I noted that the recently concluded industrial gathering—the one that occasions much forgettable verbiage and disposable text—has in part the task of previewing the next season’...
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Reader Letters
A Major Hangup
Dear TMN, I enjoyed Lauren Frey’s article on cell phones. I must admit that stuck in Cambridge, dealing with Harvard students and their ilk jabbing away while I am...
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Spoofs & Satire
Virginity Pledge 2.0
With more and more kids reneging on their signed virginity vows, it’s time for swift action. An updated pledge from LifeTime Ministry that explains all you really need to know to keep your ticket to salvation intact.
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Watching
Video Digest: May 26, 2006
This week, an early film from Tim Burton called Vincent has been making the rounds. A charmingly dark animated short from 1982 about a little suburban boy who just wants to...
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Letters From the Editor
Introducing Summer 2006 Intern Jen
We are pleased to announce the arrival of Summer 2006 Intern Jen Turner. As her bio says on the masthead:Jen Turner is the lone college senior in Washington, D.C.,...
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Awards
2006 Editors’ Awards for Online Excellence
Web Geeks Unite! was the original slogan when The Morning News launched in 1999, and though our mission has changed, the spirit is undiminished.
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Listening
Trend Cycles
How often, as you get older and no longer go to shows, can you swallow fantastic new bands and actually digest them? My friend and deep music head Chris has...
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Op-Ed
We’d Like to Hear You Never
Yapping on cell phones has gotten out of hand—on the bus, on the street, even in subways, civil life is trampled with every outspoken call.
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Profiles
Ferry Tale
The best realtors have personality, professionalism, and drive—Mike Ferry’s One-on-One training seminar is where they get it. Three days of ego crushing, dream building, and chasing the world’s greatest real-estate agent, Froy Cadelario.
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Reading
Book Digest: May 22, 2006
This past week, book-business types and then some gathered in Washington, D.C., to do commerce and rub shoulders at the big annual industry gathering known as BookExpo America. I...
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Watching
Video Digest: May 19, 2006
I grew up in the ‘80s without MTV, which felt a bit like growing up without oxygen. I compiled my own music video collection by taping a network show called...
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Contest
Sloppy Seconds With Opal Mehta
After dozens of entries and hundreds of footnotes—and the demise of the publishing industry—we’re pleased to publish the winner of our plagiarism contest, Bonnie Furlong, and her story, “The Parlourmaid’s Tale, or, MS in a Dustbin.”
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Listening
Mp3 Digest: May 17, 2006
Canada’s Bedouin Soundclash should be the bearers of a new wave of pop reggae, but that’s not a wave we’re going to see anytime soon, is it?...
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Gallery
Essentially Public
An interview with artist Peter Haakon Thompson where we talk about icebergs and fishing houses, and a gallery of new photographs about being alone.
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Personal Essays
To Live and Love in Beautiful Alabama
Erik Estrada wants us to buy land, Ron Popeil wants us to shoot our salad. Promising a better life—free of ills financial and otherwise—when infomercials air on a Sunday morning, the effect can be downright spiritual.
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Personal Essays
Binge Listening: the Art of Consumption
Find a new band, listen to the single, expand to a few more songs, then a whole album, then all the albums, and finally, months later, you’ve exhausted their entire catalog—and listened to nothing else in between. Now: Repeat.
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Reading
Book Digest: May 15, 2006
A Bee Stung, So I Killed All the Fish (Notes From the Homeland 2003-2006) by George Saunders The seven tidbits in this limited-edition booklet (cover art by Sean McDonald) are...
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Letters From the Editor
Introducing Digest
Today we're immensely pleased to open a new section on TMN called "Digest." What we'll be featuring: a stack of book notices awaiting you every Monday morning; on Wednesdays, a...
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The Non-Expert
Back Off, Man, I’m a Scientist
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we help a forlorn scientist understand why his friend and co-worker chose to quit her job and leave the state.
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Birnbaum v.
David Mitchell
Author and 2005 Rooster winner David Mitchell talks about his new novel, Black Swan Green, the appeal of Bill Evans, and the differences between sex and writing.
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Profiles
Bend Me, Shape Me
Producing music from printers, hacking Speak ‘n’ Spells for backing vocals—it’s not trendy garage band style, but then, it’s not exactly rock and roll. A look into the engrossing world of circuit bending.
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Fight or Flight
An Ounce of Prevention
We don’t yet know whether the avian flu will become a pandemic. So why are we preparing for a plague instead of fighting the virus where it currently rages—in the animal kingdom? Conflicting reports and strategies still march on, but time may be running out.
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Op-Ed
The Word You Dare Not Spell
Whatever Kaavya Viswanathan’s legacy, she has inspired us to take pleasure in others’ misfortune. And as there happens to be a word that means just that—schadenfreude—many writers have been more than happy to remind us of it.
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Letters From the Editor
1100 and Counting
Just a short note to say we've recently passed the 1100 mark on TMN for features. That means we've somehow published 1100 stories in the last couple years (TMN celebrates its anniversary...
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Spoofs & Satire
A Word of Advice
‘Tis the season of graduation ceremonies, when many will be told it’s the first day of the rest of their lives. We offer the ultimate commencement speech.
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Personal Essays
Dating on Demand
Before you know it, married life can become routine. One way to keep things interesting is by trolling video dating services. The consequences may be greater than you think.
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Reading
Book Digest: May 2, 2006
As someone who reads a fair amount and is surrounded by books and never travels without a few books, and whose inner monologue is frequently preoccupied with things literary, I...
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Personal Essays
Raisin Hell
Fitting in is hard to do. Left to your own imagination, is it better to be yourself—or be a California Raisin? A tale of fourth-grade woe.
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Contest
Steal This Book, and That Book, and That Book…
Announcing the TMN “Sloppy Seconds With Opal Mehta” Contest, where you, as “writer,” plagiarize as much as you want, for a sort-of original story. Start cribbing now—the entry deadline is in two weeks!
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Watching
Video Digest: May 1, 2006
I’m lost when it comes to Lost. I don’t know who’s on the island, what’s in the jungle, or why Michelle Rodriguez keeps getting busted for...