McCain Makes Historic First Visit to Internet: “McCain aides said that the senator’s journey to the Internet will span five days and will take him to such far-flung sites as Amazon.com, eBay and Facebook.” [ via The Morning News ]
New York City has a quota of 3,000 street food licenses with a years-long waiting list and the Vendy Awards, an annual cook-off to celebrate the city’s best food carts. Meanwhile San Francisco, by all accounts an equally food-obsessed city, only has 120 licensed pushcarts—and 71 of them are inside a ballpark. Why so few carts on the streets?
Rules include leaving 10 unobstructed feet of pedestrian passage, not being within 18 inches of a curb, not stopping on sidewalks with colored curbs, not being within 12 feet of a building’s entrance, and not selling food available in restaurants within 600 feet. Entrepreneurs complain that year-round licenses forbid cooking on the carts, so food can’t be fresh but must be prepared ahead and reheated.
Also: no carts within 1,500 of a school. Oh SF, you nanny state, you!
Previously: my town can take your town.
“Lately I’ve heard a lot of people ask, ‘Is Steve Guttenberg really that nice?'” he said. “And I think, how shitty. When you’re a prick, people believe it right away. No questions asked. If you’re really nice, people are like, ‘Is he really that nice, what’s up his sleeve?’ Oh, fuck you.”
Helen Mirren, in a bikini, at 63. Looks better than any 23-year-old starlet I can think of.
Asimov’s 30 Laws of Robotics: “8. A robot may not act in such a fashion as would make dogs obsolete, because dogs are less expensive than robots, and robots should be reserved for science things.”
Fourteen Passive-Aggressive Appetizers, by Yoni Brenner: “6. For a taste of the U.K., fry up mini-servings of fish-and-chips. Take it to the next level by wrapping them in small pieces of newspaper, which, oddly enough, all seem to be printed with unfavorable reviews of Jeff ’s novel.”
It’s not surprising at all that Manny Pacquiao completely demolished David Diaz to win his fourth world title in four different weight classes—he’s widely considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in boxing—but what is pretty amazing is that apparently so many Filipinos were glued to their screens during the bout that there were zero major crimes reported in Metro Manila during Pacquiao vs Diaz, and 30% less cars on the road than usual Sundays. [ via angry asian man ]
Christoph Niemann’s sons are obsessed with the NYC subway system: “The A train pulled in, and Gustav (who had been hoping for the C) started throwing a fit. However, the other passengers in the car gave me warm smiles. I guess they hadn’t seen that many 3-year-olds sobbing, “Local…I want the local.” I would love this story even if Niemann’s illustrations weren’t note perfect—and they are! This made me so happy today.
David Sedaris on nit-picky fact checkers: “I take a story, put it on a scale, and say, “OK, if this is 96 percent true, that’s an acceptable ratio for ground beef, and it’s more than acceptable for heroin and cocaine, so I’m going to call it nonfiction.” [ via The Morning News ]
This past June was a pretty horrible month overall and most intentionally viral videos make me cranky anyway, so when my friend Butters sent this video to me I fully expected to be annoyed and unimpressed by it (and the Where the Hell is Matt? project that spawned it). Instead I ended up so happy and so pleased that I nearly cried. I hope you like it too.