June 2008
67 posts
PersonalIy, I Would Have Gone With "Chill Pils"
The restaurant at the freshly opened Courtyard by Mariott in Plzen (don’t ask, I’m not sure when they built it, either) is indeed called the “Pils’n’Grill”. This was clearly put through a kind of dorkiness focus group, whereby only a painful pun would be selected as the restaurant name.
The restaurant itself is pretty snazzy, though a schnitzel should not be...
Translation: Delusional
katert0t:
This from Publisher’s lunch on Friday:
“Bloomsbury issued the standard happy statement in advance of their annual meeting: ‘As a result of a tougher book acquisition policy, the cost control programme in progress across the Group and lower than expected returns for credit of unsold books, cash flow has been strong in the year to date. Cash held at 30th June is expected to be in...
“Most important, there is the FIFA soccer World Cup, for which South Africa is to...”
– from “Soccer:1, Mugabe:0”, a June 24th NYT Op-Ed by the aforementioned Peter Godwin
The person most capable of fixing the Mugabe situation is, hands down, Thabo Mbeke. And what is he doing about it? Nothing.
(via spiers)
And lest we forget, FIFA is antsy about the infrastructure of the...
Memo to CNN International:
Please stop showing the “Mandela at 90” special eight times a day. It makes it seem like you’re worried he’s gonna cork off and you wanna get as many uses from this special as possible before he does.
Watchbrooklynmutt:
Today Now!: How To Pretend You Give A Shit About The Election
“Use marker, pen, or cray-pas”. Been awhile since I heard the word(s) cray-pas.
Kayak has all the airline's fees listed as a new... →
If you're gonna make the bar the only wifi...
Do you really have to put a pair of Czechs with keyboards singing Josh Groban and Celine Dion’s song “The Prayer” in there too?
Yes, I had to look up the lyrics to figure out what they were singing.
Holy shit, they're going to start selling Wafels... →
davidcho:
This completely changes the dynamic of available waffles in the East Village, namely I don’t have to go to Le Petite Abeille to get Belgian waffles.
You still have to go to La Petite Abeille for Belgian waffles; otherwise, you’re eating the New Jersey variety.
Write Your Thesis in 15 Minutes a Day
katert0t:
This is an example of titles that explain the entire interior of your book so well that it isn’t even worth buying the book. Bad marketing on this one, people.
I still saw a woman on the train reading it intently. In the 4-6 hours on the subway she spends reading that, isn’t that time she could really be spending WRITING HER THESIS?
When you’re writing a thesis, there are...
Chuck Klosterman, Deep Throat
Listen, kids: Don’t blame the fact-checker. When writers do it, it comes across as plain classesless. You write it, you are responsible for it; fact-checkers are there to get people’s named spelled correctly and ensure the magazine doesn’t get sued for libel.
Alex Wichtel should also know better than to use idmb, which is not an official source and is barely a step up from...
Rites of Passage
“It was a busy day for recent Yankees alumni on Wednesday: pitcher Shawn Chacon was suspended by the Astros for physically attacking General Manager Ed Wade; infielder Andy Phillips signed with the Mets; outfielder Kevin Thompson was released by the Pirates; and reliever Scott Proctor went on the disabled list with an elbow injury for the Dodgers.”
Like the swallows to Capistrano, it...
the gchat bloopy sound that you hear when someone...
thegreenfieldsofthemind:
is what ovulation sounds like, according to my friend at work. He just said when he hears it he imagines eggs descending.
So what bodily function is the AIM message sound?
Meta-Meta Blogging
lowlife:
A food writer who I quoted in a piece about super-expensive hamburgers was called out by Accidental Hedonist for saying that the urge to try a $40 burger is a universal human desire.
I still stand by the thesis of that piece: The DB Burger is freakin’ awesome.
Universal, schuminversal, expensive hamburgers and their pricey comfort food ilk make for easy copy first and foremost. Does...
MasterCard Pays $1.8 Billion to American Express...
Glad to see I’m not the only one that owes AMEX money.
“Later in the day, after a panel discussion on the strange power of LOLcats,...”
– Wired [via]
Pony Express
“Your government money arrived today, you massive asshole. I hate you and your check. Where was mine? WHERE WAS IT?”—Kate
“New York mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s favorite put-down for egghead...”
– Slate
Fowl Doings
After an extensive tasting menu (for lunch) at CzecHouse—during which time I managed to consume more “contemporary” Czech food than a man looking to break sixty years of age should—there was meet and greet from the chef. We started talking ducks, since that’s what happens in this country if you’re not talking about beer. Yes indeed, turns out that he is not a...
Watchlowlife:
Steven Colbert Interviews The Cookie Monster
“Me like the Robert Downey Jr. of cookies.”
George Carlin
alexbalk:
I hope Mike Barnicle can repurpose some of his encomiums for Tim Russert.
Don’t worry, I’m sure a friend will forward him something.
Pigs, Dollars, and Peacocks
I had a $25 hamburger at Hergetova Ciehelna today. Stupid exchange rate. Sure, you’re paying for the view—and it’s probably the best view from any restaurant in Prague—but that still smarts. I don’t know if it outpaces the burger at Mozaika, which I haven’t tried in awhile. Plus, I still have to try the Potrefena Husa burger.
My question: why has no Czech...
How Did They Find Me?
Somehow it seems cosmically unfair that there would be jackhammering and construction in front of my apartment building here every morning. It’s as if they knew a New Yorker would be present and therefore used to it.
Oh boy! America gets to be the new Costa del Sol,... →
Modern Villians Decoded
katert0t:
Carter and Ethan decided that the only realistic way a true super villian would exist in NYC today would be to create a crime wave so massive he or she could finally afford property in the city again.
Bring it on!
So what you’re saying is that the superhero counterpart would be Bruce Ratner in tights and a codpiece?
Which might sum up “The Love Guru” in its entirety... →
Interpretive Dance Comes to the Prague Food...
Chances to experience old school Czech weirdness are few and far between these days, in this era of… can I call it the “dollar is a piece of shit” era? Nonetheless, in Prague, things are WAY too classy now.
But, for reasons that are not readily apparent to me, I ended up on the list for the VIP opening of the Prague Food Festival tonight. And it was old school Czech...
Lunch with Gordo
I ate at Maze, the new(ish) Gordon Ramsay restaurant in the Hilton Old Town in Prague, for lunch today. Gordo’s not there in the kitchen, of course, it’s a Welshman with a crooked tooth named Phil.
There are hits and there are misses, but they’d best rethink the rose jelly petit four at the end of the meal, which managed to perfectly capture the essence and flavor of a bar of...
“here’s no Beatles on this, and no Sinatra. But yeah, I feel like...”
– Pitchfork (new Girl Talk this week, via)
