bjorn_skurj

Mencken was a good journalist, and that was a positive contribution to world in which he lived. Nothing personal was intended - I rarely launch ad hominem attacks. Not cricket.

Mencken wrote all of that back in the 1920s. He was against optimists and optimism, which came in the form of a school of thought and practice called "Christian Science" in those days, in general. I'm not saying I agree with Mencken much of the time - after he wrote a book about how misguided democracy was, he got a signed picture from the deposed Kaiser Wilhelm II - but that motherfucker had a way with words.

I had that on a burger a few weeks back. But since it was Rhinebeck, and the burger was $10, it was called "wasabi aioli." Tasty, though.

There are many different types of jazz. I kind of approached it via Steely Dan and now I listen to Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Coltrane and Louis Armstrong from the 1920s. Like some big band and western swing too. It'll never be my favorite form of music, but there's certainly some good, life-enriching stuff out there.

When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost... All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a

That really should be an official VC smiley at this point.

Can you play "Tron" on it?

I'm old. I believe in paying for things.

I was often asked at SUNY Albany if I had ever tipped a cow. I have not.

If Hillary was president, she'd get you a new car, or at least a bus ticket. It takes a village to get people to Tweedy solo shows.

I paid the iTunes 99 cent for "Holly Holy."

Not a lot of concerts these days are worth the effort. I think the last rock band I saw was The Shins, down in Gotham, in May 2005.

At this point, for the sake of historical accuracy, I feel I need to point out that it was the Red Army that beat the Third Reich. We just hastened the process of its capitulation. (The Japanese, however, were all us. Holla!)

I know a lot of men who hate her too, but they're usually the kind of men who look down upon women as a policy.

I've seen a few mixed in with the Black Israelites and Moonies, sure. This was in pre-Giuliani Time, though.

There was a time when they were one of the top bands, but that was about 15 years ago or more. Now they just write songs about California. Apparently they just put out a double album full of songs about California.

I think it's kind of touching that she's willing to put it all out on the line for true love. And a Mount Fuji-sized pile of blow.

I love Hillary and would gladly martyr myself for her cause.

Also true.

Life's too short to drink shitty bourbon.

Me too, if you swap in "shots of Maker's Mark" for antidepressants.

"In-a-gadda-da-vida, baby ... "

New York City survival skill No. 1: Ignore crazy people.