Someone Else Noticed

Specifically, someone at Slate noticed the mesmerising ad for overstock.com featuring the eye-grabbing Sabine Ehrenfeld. She shoots and flies.


Last Modified 2005-02-28 11:31 PM EDT

A couple thoughts on the Oscars

A number of folks didn't like Chris Rock's performance. I thought it was pretty funny. Even though I like Dubya, I chuckled at Rock's analogizing the US/Iraq conflict to a war between the Gap and Banana Republic. There's something I'd pay to see.

I particularly enjoyed a delayed effect: Rock pricked the ego-balloons of probably 95% of the actors in the room by dissing the star power of (for example) Jude Law and Colin Farrell. A couple hours one of those balloons named Sean Penn whizzed up on stage to object: Hey, those guys are really talented, really.

Here's a job I wouldn't want: trying to explain jokes to Sean Penn. (Was he ever funny? Intentionally?)

Also hilarious was Rock's interviews with folks at the Magic Johnson Theater; nobody had seen Million Dollar Baby, but White Chicks was a clear crowd favorite. Come to think of it, I'll more probably see White Chicks than Vera Drake, or Motorcycle Diaries.

Renee Zellweger was way too made up, as was Drew Barrymore. (Mrs. Salad didn't even recognize Drewie; I had to chant "Alligators in the sewers" before she got it.)

Finally, it was nice to see Clint Eastwood acknowledge his 96-year-old mom, and Jamie Foxx talk about his corporal-punishing grandma. I'm a sucker for that stuff.

Don't miss Lileks for his perceptive Oscarly comments.


Last Modified 2005-03-01 11:20 AM EDT

Introduction

This is the first post to my "Pun Salad" blog. Here are some things you might, but probably won't, find interesting.

  1. Title. "Pun Salad" is an anagram of my name, Paul Sand. There will probably be very few actual puns in the blog; feel free to be disappointed or relieved, however you are so inclined. Google says that "Kao Pun Salad" is apparently a Laotian food item, which I've never tried. Also apparently, "Kao Pun" is the name of a temple in Thailand, near the Bridge over the River Kwai. Would a Laotian food item be named after a temple in Thailand? Who knows? Anyway...
  2. Disclaimer. The unquoted opinions expressed here are not those of my [past] employer, the University of New Hampshire (UNH). Or any other entity or individual. I know, I know: duh. But I suppose it doesn't hurt to point this out.
  3. Free Speech. This blog was originally hosted on a UNH-owned machine, on the UNH network. UNH has been (relatively) good about respecting a free speech zone on its web servers for faculty, staff, and students. Well, at least they have a proud history of backing down when faced with bad publicity about administrators trampling on individual rights of free expression.

    But, for the record, no UNH official ever even mentioned the blog to me, let alone in a censorious matter.

    Since August 2008, we have been hosted by Reliable Webs LLC (originally "Arias Web Hosting"). So if you see something in this blog that irks you, and you're the sort of person who would enjoy complaining to higher-ups about it, they'd probably be the guys, so go for it. We might make the papers.

  4. Implicit Endorsement. There is no implicit endorsement of any material linked to. Sometimes there are some pretty wacky things out there; don't assume I agree with them just because you see them by following a link from my blog.
  5. Commercialism. There's strictly no capitalistic enterprise allowed on machines attached to the UNH network. So: no tip jar, no ads, no I-get-a-cut links to Amazon. If you really want to send money or buy me something, I assume you can figure out how to do that. But don't do that.

    Update: Pun Salad is no longer hosted on the UNH network, so it's a big thumbs up for ads, and (theoretically) I get an Amazon-cut for the links you click. So buy, buy, buy!

  6. Mission. This blog is nothing more than a repository for half-baked thoughts, ill-informed opinion, bad-tempered rants, gooey sentiment, and links to things on the Web I think are worth clicking upon, which you could probably find on your own anyway. Is that too self-deprecating? Probably not. I may be in love with the look of my own words on the web, but you may not be. Don't get your expectations up.
  7. Where I'm Coming From. (Or, "from where I'm coming.") See those links over there on the right? (UPDATE: now the "Blogs I Read" pulldown.) If you kind of average them, I'm right there, ideology-wise. Eloquence-wise, several sigma below their average, unfortunately. Intelligence-wise, ditto. Most of them are very smart.
  8. Topics. Basically, whatever strikes my fancy. I've noted some bloggers are taken to task for not commenting on certain issues, and often have blog entries explaining why they haven't blogged on Jeff Gannon, or the Michael Jackson trial, etc. None of that here. If you don't see it, it's almost certainly because I'm not interested in it. Or maybe I can't think of anything to say. I don't see any need to point that out explicitly.
  9. Editing. I'm not planning on being particularly anal about detailing after-the-fact tweaks, or corrections to previously-posted articles, although there should be a little note indicating when an article was last modified. Any article can be removed without notice or remorse (although you may be able to catch removed articles in Google caches).
  10. No Comments or Trackbacks. More trouble than they're worth, judging by what I've seen in other blogs. Feel free to send mail, though: sand.paul@gmail.com.
  11. Syndication. Maybe I'll figure out how someday. Not a high priority. [Update: I did.]
  12. Credits. The look of this blog is due to the "Modern Lines" stylesheet cribbed from a now-defunct website "MovableStyle.com"; it's designed for use by Movable Type users, and I've shamelessly ripped it off (but not without credit). Other than that, it's a few homegrown Perl scripts.

Last Modified 2024-02-27 7:36 AM EDT