gogo

I'm not trying to be snarky, but I don't understand why the president saying something that you admit you know to be true, would make you sick. I don't think he's talking to/about any of us in that statement (unless there are some hidden billionaires on VC that I'm not aware of). He's talking about the richest of the rich, who don't want to pay more, even though the hit to them would be slight in comparison to the benefits to society overall. If that makes me sound like Reverend Wright, so be it.

It is! Haven't started it yet, but I just re-read The Magicians, and I'm looking forward to it. I've been trying to read new, different books, I'm starting to feel like I'm old and running out of time to read everything I'll ever want to read so I don't really want to waste time on re-reading a ton of stuff anymore. But I do love to re-read, even something that's just a fun read, it's always interesting to me to go back and see what I missed the first time, pick up on things that I read differently once I know how the story ends, etc. And I'm also a Goodreads stalker! Not quite as fast

Perfect, thanks!

Sarah, I don't know anything about Schubert, so if you've got any recommendations on what to listen to while I'm reading, I'd love to hear them.

I know, I know! I will get to that one, I promise. Oh, and a few friends whose work I want to plug: Haven't read this one yet, but it got a nice blurb from Dennis Lehane, so if you like his stuff, might be worth checking out. And of course: Haven't read this one yet either, but very much looking forward to it. p.s. Sorry for gunking up the thread!

Ooh, lovely, thanks! Will be watching that one tonight!

This looks great. Despite my obviously lowbrow tastes, I've got an idiotic aversion to bestsellers (also, they're too hard to get from the library!), so I'm holding off on this one until literally everyone I know tells me I must read it. That should be sometime within the next couple of weeks, at the rate things are going.

Next up, the Frances Perkins biography, and

And: and the last six Volumes of the Walking Dead. I didn't think I'd been reading that much for the past few months, but I knocked out a few, I guess. Even though some of them are obvious "vacation reads"!

Also: (we were on vacation, I had to borrow an extra vacation book from my niece!)

I am officially bad at this thread. Since I posted in May, I'm still only just getting to the Francis Perkins book (although it's making me want to go back to Greenwich Village and stare up at the Triangle Factory building again...) and still haven't cracked Game of Thrones. But since then, I've managed

The Opening Ceremonies fascinate me. I remember reading something about the Sydney opening ceremony that still makes me laugh, the reviewer said that a ceremony like that could only be done in Australia, because where else would you ever be able to assemble a cast of 12,000, and every single one of them was totally selling it. Beijing was also great, but that was more like a cast of 15,000, and every single one of them was terrified about missing their cue. I'm really looking forward to the London ceremony, mostly because the time I've spent in the UK has been mostly in Manchester, amongst

I eagerly await your reports! I had never seen that clip of Vera Caslavska before, thanks so much for that. Amazing that some of these athletes, despite often growing up so single-minded in pursuit of their athletic achievements, still manage to be so politically aware and astute, often at very young ages.

I was turned off the swimming events after having to listen to Jim Lampley's non-standard pronunciation of "aquatic" during his reporting from the Olympic Aquatic Center in Athens. Seriously, that "a" in the middle should be soft, right? He sounded like the Aflac duck, he put a major quack in the middle of that word for some reason.

I love 'em. I'm a fan of all the nonsense associated with the Olympics, including the human-interest tearjerker profiles that NBC manages to produce for every single athlete. NBC's coverage is usually ridiculous, of course, but I never realized just how bad it was until I was lucky enough to get to spend a week in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Seeing events live and in person was fantastic, but I would have been almost just as happy to sit in and watch coverage from a non-US broadcaster. A little bit of Canadian boosterism going on there, obviously, but it definitely brought

I think that one was on the Autumn Defense's website. Also, a tinfoil sculpture tucked in Jay Farrar's shirt pocket, St. Genevieve, of course.

Lou, I'd bet if you e-mailed her mom (there's contact info on the site) and explained how you knew Nat, she'd be willing to send you a print copy. One of my favorite pics ever was from the tour when Carla Bozulich's band Night Porter opened for Wilco. Nat had made tinfoil sculptures for everyone in Wilco, and Carla got a tinfoil spider. I'll have to dig up the pic, Carla is wearing the spider on her shoulder like a brooch. Thanks, everyone, for sharing in my joy.

Some people have enthused in the other thread, and a bunch on Facebook. But I want to see dancing in the streets right here and now on this one, people!

I thought this deserved its own thread, in case anyone misses it in the other thread: For anyone who wasn't around during the Natalie regime (Natopia!), please check out this thread: http://viachicago.org/topic/32865-natalie-jane-st-genevieve/

I hate to say it, but merch-wise, I think I'm over the owl.

Article in The Nation on the Texas law: http://www.thenation.com/blog/168784/discriminatory-texas-voter-id-law-challenged-federal-court# "Hispanics in Texas, who vote solidly Democratic, are not only more likely to lack ID compared to white voters, but will have a harder time obtaining the voter ID required by the state. There are DMV offices in only eighty-one of the state’s 254 counties. Not surprisingly, counties with a significant Hispanic population are less likely to have a DMV office, while Hispanic residents in such counties are twice as likely as whites to not have the right ID. His

Yes, it's discussed a bit above. This is a fundraiser for Via Chicago, not Wilco merch. Not that we'd be cutting too deeply into their sales or anything but we're definitely not in the Wilco merch business. This is intended to show off the skills of VC's finest. Also discussed above: other artwork is acceptable, as long as it's high-res and reproducible. I'll try to dig the size/etc. requirements out of the zazzle site.

I spend most of my time in the 2012 Election/2012 Baseball threads. Might as well just merge them, right?

Yeah, for most people, it's probably not a problem getting an ID, and showing it when they go to vote. But it we are talking about a few thousand people, versus a tiny number of actual cases of voter fraud, I'd rather err on the side of letting those few thousand people vote without ID. There are a lot of people who don't cash checks regularly, or in the same way most of us would (the number of shady check-cashing places near my office is an indicator of that), don't drive, and certainly don't ever see the need to pick up will-call tickets. Those people do exist, and if it's a hassle for t

Coolest Jumble yet. Just A Kid, you rock. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151025949654106&set=a.173452729105.120768.35677414105&type=1