Filed under: Inside The BPP
The always game Tricia McKinney. Instant costume and pic by the amazing MJ Davis.
Every year on Halloween, Chipotle offers a free burrito to anyone who shows up at a store dressed as a burrito. All you need is some tin foil and an empty stomach...and the ability to disregard the Chipotle calorie counter.
MJ Davis, a producer type, decided we simply had -- had -- to make a burrito costume for someone and send that someone to the Chipotle downstairs. Tricia McKinney, an editor type, remembered that journalists love free food like Pam Anderson loves saline.
Except for those occasions when. . .
Continue reading "Free Burritos! We're So There." »
Dan Pashman
3:51 PM ET | 10-31-2007 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post
Filed under: News
What's up with the CSPC?
These buggers just got recalled. Beware.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has come under scrutiny this week because its acting director asked members of congress not to give her agency more money. So that makes the timing of the CPSC's announcements today of yet more recalls rather, um, interesting?
Just as I was absorbing the news that Toys R Us is recalling 16,000 Chinese-made toys because of excessive lead levels, I saw another headline cross--this one warning about lead in something that's actually intended to go in your mouth: Halloween "Ugly Teeth." Better late than never, I guess.
So spit out those chompers if you bought 'em.
Tricia McKinney
1:51 PM ET | 10-31-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
Filed under: The Dagobah System
Yargh. . . I'm docking your station.
Whatever day it is in space, it's Oct. 31 here. Astronauts on board the space shuttle Harmony are noting the arrival Halloween. The guy up there is either a pirate or a vampire, but he's supercool in any case. Give the camera time to cycle back--it moves from the control room to various parts of the shuttle.
I guess he was tired of showing up to Halloween parties dressed as an astronaut.
MJ Davis
1:30 PM ET | 10-31-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
Filed under: Election 2008
Hot moments in the debate last night
Barack Obama at an agriculture summit in Iowa
Seventy-five years ago this month, as legend (and some grainy video) has it, Babe Ruth called his shot. He gestured to the outfield bleachers just before a pitch to let the fans and opposition know he was about to hit a home run, then he hit a home run. Babe Ruth was a badass.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama called his shot on Sunday, when he told the New York Times he was about to start going after the front-runner Hillary Clinton more aggressively. But I don't know if he was as successful as the Babe.
I'm interested in the strategy of announcing your strategy before executing it. It seems that announcing a strategy shift like this one days before starting it might take away some of the spark that the shift might generate. Conversely, you might argue that announcing the strategy before executing it prepares the media and the voters to accept a difference in tone.
I just wonder if it helped Obama that, all day Monday and Tuesday, at events like that MTV town hall, he ended up in this annoyingly meta situation where he was talking about the strategy instead of actually executing it, which he finally started doing last night.
I'm not sure whether Obama's approach was effective. I don't have an opinion yet. Please give me one.
12:55 PM ET | 10-31-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
Filed under: Media
In today's New York Times, the D.C.-datelined story of the Supreme Court halting a Mississippi man's execution at the last moment went like this:
Moments before a Mississippi prisoner was scheduled to die by lethal injection, the Supreme Court granted him a stay of execution on Tuesday evening and thus gave a nearly indisputable indication that a majority intends to block all executions until the court decides a lethal injection case from Kentucky next spring.
Back home, in the Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger, the story went like this:
"You can't help a fellow whose wife was killed for no damn reason!" Charles Bounds said, his tear-filled eyes glaring at [the corrections commissioner]. "You want to tell me we got a fair shake today?"
Laura Conaway
12:50 PM ET | 10-31-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
Filed under: Stuff We Love
Whether this online quiz bears the slightest resemblance to being, you know, actually scientific, I don't know.
But I just took it, all 171 questions of it, so I could find out where I am on the spectrum between neurotypical and Asperger's. Got a nice little graph of the results and everything.
12:17 PM ET | 10-31-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
U. Michigan's infamous anonymous blogger is outing himself.
He built a following under the nom de net Johnny Quest, tenacious critic of fraternity culture and judge of female allure. But over the weekend, Quest was forced to reveal himself himself as senior Paul Tassi, the Michigan Daily's film editor.
For months, the MD had been investigating Johnny Quest's identity. Once his editors found out the opinionated blogger was one of their own, Tassi was given the choice: old media or new media.
Tassi chose the daily -- reluctantly -- writing, "I've never been anti-Greek, only anti-douche."
Ilya Marritz
11:56 AM ET | 10-31-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
Working and living in a war zone makes for a crazy, stressful existence. Journalists, aid workers, diplomats all work at least 18-hour days with a soundtrack of mortars, random gun fire and car bombs roaring ad naseum in the background. So when you have an opportunity to blow off some steam and distract yourself from the reality that is Iraq, you take it....like this year's Embassy Halloween party.
But according to an email I got from a friend over there today, not everyone gets to play dress up -- which I suppose is a good idea. Here's an excerpt.
"All MILITARY Personnel carrying a weapon to the Halloween Party...Wednesday 31 OCT 2007 CANNOT WEAR A COSTUME! You must be in PT's, ACU's, DCU's, or BDU's to carry your weapon. NO EXCEPTIONS! If you have a place to check your weapon prior to your arrival...you may wear a costume. Thank you in advance for your cooperation."
Rachel Martin
10:42 AM ET | 10-31-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
Filed under: City Living
This will become a pan of brownies.
The cookbook conflict hit the late night TV.
Last night Jerry Seinfeld defended his wife against a woman he called a wacko.
Here's a quickie rundown: There are two cookbooks out, one written by the Seinfeld's wife, titled Deceptively Delicious and one titled The Sneaky Chef, by Missy Chase Lapine, former publisher of Eating Well magazine. The latter's came out first, and there are some striking similarities between the two -- leading to charges of puree plagiarism!
Both are full of recipes that hide vegetables in kids food--like spinach in brownies. Both have a brownie recipe that will make you gag, or at least that made the BPP staff gag. I made them ( see disgusting picture above) and received comments like "I will never eat brownies again."
Continue reading "The Cookbook Controversy Reaches Letterman!" »
Alison Stewart
10:35 AM ET | 10-31-2007 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post
Filed under: Music, Stuff We Love
Halloween reveler at a Heidi Klum party
Musician Jill Sobule, one of our new favorite human beings, lobbed the first of her NPR musical essays at the world today.
You'll be happy to note, as we were, that it takes on the searing issue of women whose Halloween costumes are costumes only because they're slutty. No sexy nurse for her--no way.
We think you'll agree that Ms. Sobule's on to something, or is at least a genius.
9:05 AM ET | 10-31-2007 | permalink | comments (18) | e-mail post
Filed under: Sports
'All Things Considered' on the touchdown that broke my heart
I finally heard my alma mater mentioned on NPR, and it was because my Millsaps Majors had been on the losing end of a 15-lateral touchdown by the Trinity Tigers. We'll get you next time.
7:05 AM ET | 10-31-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Filed under:
The BPP's second hour
Today, feeling only a little rushed, harried, bonkers and out of control, we drew back and fired a second glorious hour of the Bryant Park Project. It's got all this --
Ben McGrath explains baseball superagent Scott Boras; a look at history's dirty campaigns; and a visit with the band The Go! Team --
and more...
1:59 PM ET | 10-30-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Stray bits from the aftermath of the Boston Red Sox sweep in the World series:
A furniture company that promised fans their spring purchases would be free if the Red Sox won in the fall will have to make good. (with thanks)
And Boston Mayor Thomas Menino hurt his knee while trying to show off the trophy. Must be an awfully heavy piece of hardware.
1:48 PM ET | 10-30-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
In a potentially landmark decision, the United Methodist Church has ruled that a transgender pastor who applied for a name change can remain in the ministry. The decision in case of the Rev. Drew Phoenix was released on Tuesday by the church's Judicial Council.
The United Methodist Church, or UMC, bans gay people from serving as clergy, but its Book of Discipline makes no mention of transsexual people. "Essentially, they said that I'm a pastor in good standing and therefore I'm appointable," says Phoenix, who leads St. John's in Baltimore.
In affirming Phoenix as an ordained minister, the council left aside the specific question of whether transgender people can serve. What mattered here was that Phoenix faced no "administrative or judicial action" beyond the question of the name change itself. "The Judicial Council does not reach the question of whether gender change is a chargeable offense or violates minimum standards established by the General Conference," council members wrote.
Continue reading "Methodists Vote to Keep Transgender Pastor" »
Win Rosenfeld
1:14 PM ET | 10-30-2007 | permalink | comments (29) | e-mail post
Filed under: Music
Britney Spears recalibrates your hopes.
Political campaigns often try to lower expectations for their candidates before big events, so that even average performances end up looking great. President Bush himself has acknowledged that he has often benefited from this approach, saying, "I am the master of low expectations." (Before the 2000 election he also famously remarked that he had frequently been "misunderestimated.")
Now the line between politics and entertainment grows blurrier still. After breaking new ground in the field of Expectation Diminution, Britney Spears today releases her new album, Blackout. (Listen to the whole record here.) As evidence of how low the bar has gotten, most of the reviews can be summed up with the Houston Chronicle headline, "A surprise from Britney."
Of course, people would probably be surprised if Britney made it from her house to the recording studio without engaging in some form of parental negligence. But can she actually sing? Is this album really any good?
No and not really.
Britney's voice on Blackout is so computer-modulated that she sounds like she's being channeled by HAL. The only worthwhile elements of this album are provided by the production, which consists of several good radio-friendly dance/pop ditties and five songs I could have created on my MacBook by pressing Apple-F2. (Spoiler alert: The song "Get Naked (I Got A Plan)" is about Britney wanting to have sex with someone.)
All that being said, if you're prone to liking dance/pop music and you want something catchy and mindless to listen to at the gym, you could do worse than Britney's new album. But you could also do much better. I give this album a rating of two PopoZaos out of five.
10:31 AM ET | 10-30-2007 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post
Filed under: Sound Off
Dooney Da' Priest, writer of the rap song "Pull Your Pants Up," tells the BPP that he meant no offense to the gay community with lyrics that suggest you look gay and you're less than a real man if you wear your pants low:
"Whether their sexual preference is to be a homosexual or being gay, that's their problem. I'm the street, I'm the street priest, and I have real good Christian values on what I believe in, and I am against homosexuality."
So what if Dooney Da' Priest thinks being gay is wrong? To me, that's his business. But I'm less convinced the message belongs in a city campaign. You?
9:06 AM ET | 10-30-2007 | permalink | comments (28) | e-mail post
Filed under: Links From the Show
From today's Ramble:
Americans just too stressed / Massachusetts school offers anti-stress classes / New evidence in the case of the West Memphis Three / Kid runs up big tab at strip club
8:40 AM ET | 10-30-2007 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
Filed under: Links From the Show, Stuff We Love
Next up for Merry Miller: The View. True-true-true.
8:12 AM ET | 10-30-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
Jim VandeHei talks politics
Barack Obama goes on the attack against Hillary Clinton. Mike Gravel can't get in the debate. And Ron Paul takes his much money on a visit to Leno.
Jim VandeHei of Politico.com makes sense of the madness.
1:32 PM ET | 10-29-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
PC Magazine calls the Rentometer a "cool way to get a very rough estimate of whether or not your rent is a good deal."
We call it a brief, worthwhile obsession. Matt Martinez was pleased to see that he's paying the right amount for once. Others among us are maybe scared to look. (Note: When you enter your rent, don't use commas -- "5000" would be $5,000.)
You?
12:45 PM ET | 10-29-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Possibly the western world's least-fashionable capital city gets the second-hand bug.
Well, actually, D.C.'s Goodwill is on an aggressive campaign to convert all those Cap Hill interns from chinos and sweater sets to frayed cords and loud synthetic blouses (on weekends, at least!) Goodwill has hired a style blogger (no joke) and even posted this corporate-sponsored runway show on YouTube.
10:31 AM ET | 10-29-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
Red Sox, Red Sox, Red Sox, Red Sox
Bill Wolff, our very own Monday morning quarterback, once crawled all over the Boston Red Sox, saying that no one feels good when the big, bad boys from Beantown win.
This morning, Wolff took note of the Red Sox winning the World Series over the Colorado Rockies in four straight, and also of the New England Patriots whupping up on the whole darned world.
We are so moving to New England. For the summer.
8:39 AM ET | 10-29-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
YOU made these stories some of the most popular on the Web. WE accept no responsibility for them!
Governor Schwarzenegger on marijuana: "That is not a drug. It's a leaf."
Scientists discover the world's longest-lived animal, EVER...a quahog clam named Ming.
Sen. Obama promises he'll rip Sen. Clinton's record.
North Dakota's Fighting Sioux may need to choose a more politically palatable name.
Alison Krauss and Robert Plant make sweet music together.
7:58 AM ET | 10-29-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
On Friday, guest host Robert Smith cued us in to JFK airport's endangered -- and controversial -- colony of feral cats.
The presence of feral cats is just one of the offenses that got Russia's Mineralnye Vody Airport on Foreign Policy Magazine's index of the World's Worst Airports.
Mineralnye Vody's other - ahem! - blemishes include frequent incursions of snowdrifts and ice into the terminal, a gigantic wall map of the old Soviet Union, and VIP Restaurant, which the BBC's Steve Rosenberg described this way in 2005:
"It didn't have any tea, or food. In fact, it didn't even have any table or chairs, just a picture of a bottle of water on the wall. And a rusty sink full of cigarette butts."
One more not-so-nice thing about Mineralnye Vody: It's a transit hub for journalists headed to Chechnya.
Click here for the full list.
7:30 AM ET | 10-29-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Filed under: Video
There seems to be no shortage of people wanting to dress up their Roombas for Halloween. For me, at least, the best thing I ever did with my Roomba was video blog with it when I first got mine three years ago. Perhaps it was just the excitement of finally having my very own robot, but I was more enthusiastic about using the Roomba as a wandering video tripod than I was about cleaning my floors with it. (Click the pic to play a clip.)
Once I got over this little obsession, I finally started using the Roomba for its stated purpose -- cleaning the floors. I'd hoped it could help us manage our chronic cat hair problem, since our two cats seem to be caught in a perpetual molting season that's lasted over six years now.
At first, the Roomba did a fine job, but the cat hair fought back valiantly.
Continue reading "The Arc of a Roomba Romance" »
Andy Carvin
7:17 AM ET | 10-29-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post
Interview: Dooney Da' Priest explains that in jail, showing your boxers is a way of signaling sexual availability to other men.
If the city of Dallas is hoping kids will quit with the saggy pants because the fashion makes them look gay, then maybe it's time for a new strategy.
Dooney Da Priest, whose "Pull Your Pants Up" is the signature song of the Dallas public service announcement, says people who favor saggin' should know where the hip-hop style comes from -- jail, he explains, in the clip above. Snopes.com, the Internet's favorite debunker of urban myths, says that's a lot of hooey.
Bonus: Song Links Saggy Pants to Being Gay Dallas Saggy Pants Song Homophobic? In Dallas, a Hip-Hop Plea: Pull Your Pants Up
6:35 AM ET | 10-29-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Man, oh, man.
2:03 PM ET | 10-26-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Get 'em while they're still hot:
132 Empire State Buildings in pennies would pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The secret history of saggin' pants. How to split an atom. The cops were right to Tase that bro.
2:01 PM ET | 10-26-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Russian President Vladimir Putin summoned up some old ghosts today, warning that the U.S. strategy for missile defense in Eastern Europe could trigger another missile crisis a la Cuba in the 1960's.
Russia doesn't like the American plan to install a radar base in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland (both formerly under Soviet control back in the day). The U.S. says it's an effort to protect itself from a potential Iranian nuclear threat. Russia says Iran's decades away from developing missile technology.
12:54 PM ET | 10-26-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
The man, the system, the debit card. . .
So it has come to this: I've turned into the guy who woke up this morning exclaiming, "It's here! The day Leopard is released!" Sure, I had to produce a radio show today, but that was secondary to how geeked out I am about getting Apple's latest update of OS X. Shout it with me, "Time Machine! Finder with Cover Flow! Quick Look! Stacks on the desktop!" I am a walking, talking -- and now blogging -- commercial. I am just hours away from heading to the Apple store on Fifth Avenue here in New York to buy it. Then, I am going to take it home and install it and love it and play with it and stay up with it all night. Yeah, that's my Friday night.
Me and everyone like me: we're the new Star Wars fanatics, we wait on line for hours for a software update. Unfortunately for civilians, we're not as easy to spot as someone in a Boba Fett costume. How many dork nerd people are as excited about this as I am? Cuz I'm in a sea of "I Don't Care" here at BPP headquarters. Maybe all us "enthusiasts" can meet up for an installation party later tonight, watch old Steve Jobs presentations, and reminisce about the Newton. Ahhh, the Newton...
Matt Martinez
12:04 PM ET | 10-26-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
Nuclear waste -- I'm going to go ahead and say the guy in this video is against it.
On today's show, we talk to Gwyneth Cravens, a writer who used to oppose atomic energy but then did some research and ended up writing a book called Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy.
The guy in this video's not buying it.
11:06 AM ET | 10-26-2007 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post
You know, by Friday, we let it all down...Some furry links from today's Ramble.
A lock of Che Guevara's hair sold at auction DNA analysis reveals Neanderthals were redheads Feral Cats get evicted from JFK Airport in New York 720,000 ladybugs touch down in Manhattan
7:27 AM ET | 10-26-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
A last-minute costume, perhaps?
Stuck for a costume this Halloween? Our BPP hosts suggest turning your desperate eyes to the headlines.
Put $400 on your head and go as John Edwards' haircut, they propose. Throw on a dinner jacket and you're Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The possibilities are endless. Hit the comments with your ideas.
7:07 AM ET | 10-26-2007 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post
Happy 60th birthday, Hillary Clinton! Her party last night was a fundraiser for her presidential campaign. As one of our producers said, "She's registered at the bank". Mrs. Clinton is exactly twice the age of actor Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) who turns 30 today -- but we're pretty sure he's voting for Pedro.
6:31 AM ET | 10-26-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
The Red Sox had plenty to feel good about after whumping the Rockies in the first game.
Special from Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus:
The 1996 Atlanta Braves. The 1982 Milwaukee Brewers. The 1959 Chicago White Sox. What do these teams have in common? They won a blowout in the first game of the World Series, beating their opponent by at least 10 runs. Before last night, in fact, when the Boston Red Sox defeated the Colorado Rockies 13-1 -- their 12-run margin is the largest ever in Game One -- these were the only three teams in history to win the first game of the World Series by a double-digit margin.
What else do these teams have in common? In spite of having a victory in hand, they all lost the World Series. The Braves shut out the Yankees in Game Two, and took the series back to Atlanta ahead two games to nil -- then proceed to drop four straight to give the Joe Torre the first of his four titles. The Brewers, who had also won Game One on the road, lost in seven games in a see-saw battle with the St. Louis Cardinals. And the White Sox would be upended by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Continue reading "World Series, Game 2: Momentum Means Nothing" »
2:58 PM ET | 10-25-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
For the past couple of weeks, I've been trying to articulate something that both my husband and I had noticed--that Halloween decorations are much scarier and more disgusting than the ones we remember from childhood. It's not so much that we're squeamish. But our young daughter is so freaked out by the gory zombie our next-door neighbors put by their front door that we now avoid walking that way. And I am becoming well-practiced in the art of diversion whenever we drive by one well-decorated lawn.
But I've been searching for evidence that it's not just oversensitivity on my daughter's part, experts to tell me there's a real trend here, that people are increasingly going for gore in their front yards just like they're going for really disgusting, twisted horror films like the Saw series. I called the National Retail Federation and a spokesperson told me that Americans are spending more on Halloween displays and putting them up for a longer period of time than ever before, but he couldn't provide any figures on the sales of gory displays versus your garden variety happy skeleton and friendly-looking spider ones.
Now the Washington Post has published the very story I've been looking for.
Continue reading "Boo! Halloween Makes My Kid Cry" »
1:45 PM ET | 10-25-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post
Kind of an amazing clip from coverage of the California fires. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, faced with questions from Good Morning America's Claire Shipman, decided to let her know what a positive story this all was. Schwarzenegger grabbed Shipman's arm and shook it as he spoke:
Trust me when I tell you, you're looking for a mistake and you won't find it because it's all good news, as much as you maybe hate it, but it's good news. Trust me, okay?
12:52 PM ET | 10-25-2007 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post
Nate Ritter has been cranking with a blog and a Twitter feed that pulls in reports from two TV stations, a radio station, a newspaper, and eyewitness reports.
Whew.
12:42 PM ET | 10-25-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post
David Chase "sends a message" to his fans.
Finally breaking the Omerta on the controversial ending of his Emmy-winning series, Sopranos creator David Chase labeled his audience "pathetic" this week.
As you may recall, a lot of people were left confused and/or unfulfilled by the final scene, which quickly cut to black without a clear resolution to the major storylines of the show's six seasons. Now, for the record, I was among the fans who loved the way the series wrapped up. The Monday after the finale aired was my first day at the BPP -- and I was the only staffer (out of four at the time) who liked the way things ended. I thought it was powerful, nerve-wracking and demonstrated some serious stugotz. I applauded it as pop art that avoided a more predictable bloodbath or witness protection program epilogue.
Today, I renounce my defense of the Sopranos denouement.
Continue reading "'Sopranos' Creator Whacks His Audience" »
12:03 PM ET | 10-25-2007 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post
From Oct. 10, Rabbi Julian Sinclair explains the shmita year
A couple of weeks ago, you may recall, we did a segment on the shmita year controversy in Israel.
The shmita year takes place every seventh year and, among other things, requires Jewish farmers to let their fields lie fallow. Decades ago, rabbis in Israel devised some ways for farmers to essentially circumvent the rule, but a new guard at the C
