NotionsCapital
Happy Birthday Charlie Dickens
As you (like Google) may know, author Charles Dickens was born 200 years ago today. He was a peculiar person, being obsessive-compulsive, a practical joker and an egomaniac and all, but he was pretty odd as a writer, too. He published his novels in weekly or monthly installments before he finished them, which must have been nerve-wracking for author and editor alike. Maybe we should think of him as a sort of Victorian blogger.
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Food Fight @ Busboys & Poets February 13th
February 13, 2012 6:30 pm
Busboys & Poets Bookstore
2021 14th St NW
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 387-POET
Daniel Imhoff will discuss and sign Food Fight: The Citizen’s Guide to a Food and Farm Bill in the Langston Room at B&P. Free and open to all.
From the website:
“Every five years, the U.S. Congress passes a little understood legislation called the Farm Bill. Primarily accountable for setting the budgets and work plans for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Farm Bill is anything but bureaucratic trivia. It is an essential economic and policy engine that drives the food and farming system and provides nutritional assistance to tens of millions of Americans—many of them children. In recent years, more and more citizens are realizing just how much is at stake in this political chess game. Originally published in 2007, Food Fight was Daniel Imhoff’s highly acclaimed primer on the 2008 Farm Bill. Now in a newly updated and expanded edition, Imhoff looks ahead at this important issue, as the debate for 2012 is already underway. With the legislation due to be reauthorized in late 2012, Food Fight offers a critical resource that can help them deconstruct this challenging bill, organize in their communities to gain a seat at the bargaining table, and ultimately vote with their forks.”
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Image: Watershed Media via Teaching for Change.
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White House Soup
The White House Soup of the Day for February 6, 2012 via MSNBC and FishbowlDC:
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Gingrich Craps Out
Newton Leroy Gingrich, disgraced former Speaker of the House, lost the Nevada Republican Presidential Caucus on Saturday, a crap shoot won by Mitt Romney. The campaign of High Roller Gingrich is now $600,000 in debt.
Nevada draws 50 million tourists a year with its two famed industries, whores and gambling. Sadly for Mr. Gingrich, he’s losing the backing of Nevada casino owner Sheldon Adelson, and Nevada’s prostitutes voted for Ron Paul.
Related:
“Gingrich Backer Sheldon Adelson Faces Questions About Chinese Business Affairs,” Steve Huff, New York Observer
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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Super Bowl Stories You May Have Missed
The USA’s largest gladiatorial sporting event, Super Bowl XLVI, takes place tonight. 68,000 spectators will cram into Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, 113 million Americans will watch the game on TV, along with unknown millions of viewers in more than 180 other countries. A 30-second Super Bowl television ad cost $3.5 million. You may have read these facts as well as speculation on the physical condition of Giants and Patriots players, but you probably overlooked these critical 2012 Super Bowl stories:
“Super Bowl is the No. I event for Roman numerals,” Frank Reust, St. Louis Post Dispatch
“Over 1.25 Billion Wings, 4.4 Million Pizzas Eaten During Super Bowl Weekend,” Ryan Tepperman, NESN.com
“Nuns plan to tackle Super Bowl sex trafficking,” Douglas Stanglin, USA Today
“Super Bowl 2012 Prop Bets: The Weirdest Ways to Make Money,” Anthony Riccobono, International Business Times (compare this spoof)
“The Super Bowl is not a job creator,” Alexander Heffner, Salon
“The 21 Rules of Surviving a Super Bowl Party,” Jason Gay, Wall Street Journal
“Driving Fatalities on Super Bowl Sunday,” Donald A. Redelmeier, MD, Craig L. Stewart, M.Sc., New England Journal of Medicine
“Super Bowl 2012: Marketing hype runs from beer and cars to condoms and cookies,” Barry Svrluga, Washington Post
“Super Bowl Science: Are Football Coaches Irrational?” Joseph Stromberg, Smithsonian blog
“Injuries, overwhelming crowds reported in Super Bowl Village,” John Tuohy, Indianapolis Star
“Super Bowl Tackles Climate Change,” Tim Wall, Discovery
“The child molesting glam rocker who almost profited from the Super Bowl,” The Week
“‘Mind over matter’! Madonna overcomes hamstring and nose injuries just in time for Super Bowl performance,” Dianne King, Daily Mail
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Image (“Super Bowl 2012, after Henri Rousseau”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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The Big Game
The hairiest game of year is this Sunday, February 5th. It kicks off at 3:00 PM Eastern. That’s right; it’s Puppy Bowl VIII, on Animal Planet.
More:
“Forget the Super Bowl, It’s Puppy Bowl Time!” David Mizejewski, Animal Oddities
“The Puppy Bowl (and Kitty Halftime Show),” Washington Post photo gallery
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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Orange Line Special Reunion Saturday February 4th
The Orange Line Special band will hold a Reunion Concert on Saturday, February 4, 2012 as part of the Folklore Society of Greater Washington’s annual Mid-Winter Festival (“Mini-Fest’) in Takoma Park. The event runs from Noon to 10:30 pm, and Orange Line performs in the Roots Americana Room (104) during Charlie Bean’s “DC Doin’s” session from 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM.
Takoma Park Middle School 7611 Piney Branch Road, Takoma Park MD 20912 (off Piney Branch Road two blocks North of MD 410). Map.
More details here.
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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Newt: Every Student Must Work, Like I Didn’t
Newt Gingrich, disgraced former Speaker of the House, is running for U.S. President, and he has a unique education platform. After poor children finish cleaning school toilets and graduate from high school, they can work their way through college, too. If the nation repealed those pesky child labor laws, it could rid itself of over-paid unionized school janitors and government-subsidized loans for coddled, lazy college students, too. right?
Not quite. In New York, for example, the most expensive city in America, the folks who clean schools earn, at most, $37,710 a year. And as for compulsory college work/study, Mr. Gingrich spent a lot of time in college himself but he refused take a job to pay for it, relying on his parents and the earnings of Jackie, Wife #1, his former high school math teacher, who supported him all the way through graduate school. Mr. Gingrich told stepmom Marcella McPherson: “ ‘I do not want to go to work. I want all my time for my studies. . . . “ Gingrich congressional staffer Dolores Adamson adds “Jackie put him all the way through school. All the way through the PhD. . . . He didn’t work.”
Of course even today, with jobs scarce, 57% of college students have part-time jobs.
More:
“Gingrich Plan for (Other People) Paying for College,” InsideHigherEd.com
“Lazy Jerk Newt Gingrich Refused to Get a Job While Studying,” Kirsten Boyd Johnson, Wonkette
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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Groundhog Day
It’s February 2nd, time to monitor Marmota monax and dream of winter’s end. Whether or not you believe in woodchuck weathermen, one thing is certain: you can’t have groundhogs if you want a backyard full of fresh garden veggies.
Groundhogs (aka woodchucks, whistlepigs, and marmots) are insecto-vegetarians and confirmed locavores. If you plan to plant this spring, harvest those hairy beasts now. Celebrate Groundhog Day with with critter cuisine.
Serving suggestions:
Woodchuck Recipes from Michigan (Oriental Groundhog,Waco Groundhog in Sour Cream,Woodchuck Stew, Woodchuck Meat Loaf)
More groundhog lore and recipes here and here.
In his book Groundhog Day, Don Yoder reprints a classic groundhog recipe from Cooking with the Groundhog, published as a fundraiser by a hospital auxiliary in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, home of the “official” Groundhog’s Day Festival (there are more than a few others ). A Georgia groundhog is on Twitter.
Two years ago, whilst stalking the elusive picturebook Geoffrey Groundhog Predicts the Weather, we espied an ad for the Range Kleen Preseasoned Cast Iron 10 Inch Fry Pan on the book’s Amazon.com page and cooked up today’s graphic. There’s no “storybook ending” to this post if you’re a groundhog.
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Image (“Marmot sauté, after John James Audubon”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Romney: ‘I’m not concerned about the very poor’
“I’m not concerned about the very poor,” Millionaire Mitt Romney told CNN, “we have a safety net there.”
Mr. Romney tried to explain this away: “But we have food stamps, we have Medicaid, we have housing vouchers, we have programs to help the poor.” That’s, um, rich, coming from a party that wants to cut food stamps and Medicaid and a candidate who would shrink the social safety net to the size of a Gucci bag just when we need it most.
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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Moon Over Miami
Tonight, somewhere in Florida, Newton Leroy Gingrich is mooning over his GOP primary loss to Mitt Romney. An attempt to attract voters from the state’s aerospace industry by proposing a lunar colony ended in a sudden loss of gravitas. Pundit Charles Krauthammer calls that moon base speech Newt’s “Dukakis in the tank moment.” [Youngsters: look here.]
The low Earth orbit of Space Cadet Gingrich wobbles toward Nevada’s Republican Caucus on Saturday. Meanwhile, tonight, the moon gleams above Biscayne Bay.
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Image (“Moon over Miami, after Clement Hurd”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Orange Line Special Reunion February 4th
The Orange Line Special band will hold a Reunion Concert on Saturday, February 4, 2012 as part of The Folklore Society of Greater Washington’s annual Mid-Winter Festival (“Mini-Fest’) in Tacoma Park. The event runs from Noon to 10:30 pm, and Orange Line performs in the Roots Americana Room (104) during Charlie Bean’s “DC Doin’s” session from 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM.
The Orange Line Special bluegrass band was formed in 1999 when Charlie Bean and Friends were invited to play at the Washington Folk Festival. Charlie and bandmates Lynn Healey, Richard Dress, Paul Gregory, and Mike Licht noticed that they each lived near an Orange Line Metro station, so the band name choice came easily. The group disbanded in 2007, when Richard moved to Nashville. Banjo virtuoso Joe Zauner will fill in for Richard at the 2012 Takoma Park Mini-Fest.
Takoma Park Middle School
7611 Piney Branch Road, Takoma Park MD 20912
The school is just off Piney Branch Road two blocks North of MD 410 (East-West Hwy – Philadelphia Ave). Map.
This a fundraiser for FSGW. For ticket prices, scroll down on this page.
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Photo: Randy Gafner. Orange Line Special at Lucketts Fair in Loudoun County, Virginia. Bottom row, left to right: Mike Licht, Richard Dress, Paul Gregory. Top row, left to right: Lynn Healey, Charlie Bean.
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Countdown to Florida
We are now on the final 24-hour countdown to Blast-Off in the Florida Republican Primary. Space Commander Newton Leroy Gingrich hopes to go where no man has gone before, from congressional disgrace to the White House. Mitt Romney hopes this will be Newt’s Final Frontier.
We hope to hear from Mission Control after the Florida polls close at 7:00 PM.
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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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New Model Year at the Auto Show
It’s that that time again. Gleaming new automobiles are being previewed at auto shows, and pretty young girls are leaning on them. This symbolism sends messages you won’t find in manufacturers’ specifications. Men: buy this car, get that girl. Women: buy this car, be that girl.
Back in the last century, when the USA manufactured real products instead of just bad business deals, the auto show circuit started in Detroit, the Motor City, and fanned out around the country. Today the auto industry is globalized, and so is the car show circuit. The U.S. may not sell many American cars abroad, but the Girls-Leaning-on-Cars concept is a hot export. Compare the ladies of the Detroit, Delhi, Tokyo, Geneva, Guangzhou, and Qatar auto shows.
The meme has permeated all levels of American culture. See selected Flickr images from family photos, movie mags, and amateur hot rod shows in these galleries.
More:
“The Secret Life Of A Car Show Model,” Hannah Elliott, Forbes
“All the hot models on display at car show,” Pete Holley, Houston Chronicle
“Ten Cars And The Type Of Women They Attract,” Andrew Didorosi, Jalopnik
“The Queen Bee Of The Car Show Models,” Micheline Maynard, Forbes
“Smiling Faces: A sneak peek into the lives of Auto Show Models,” Rituraj Mishra, Vehicle Passion
“New York Times adopts Jalopnik-coined term “Booth Professional,” Matt Hardigree, Jalopnik
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Image (from a 1956 Dodge ad) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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DC Meat Week 2012
Sunday marks the start of the annual animal flesh festival here in the Nation’s Capital, DC Meat Week. Pork. Beef. Goat. Whale. Everything you love, sizzling on a skewer, plate, or bun.
Here’s the schedule of meat-ups:
Sunday, January 29: Urban Bar-B-Q, 5566 Norbeck Rd, Rockville, MD 20853 6:00 PM
Monday, January 30: Hill Country Barbecue, 410 7th St. NW, Washington, DC 20004 (fundraiser for Texas wildfire victims; live music, tickets $20) 6:30 PM
Tuesday, January 31: Pork Barrel BBQ Restaurant, 2312 Mt Vernon Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22301 7:00 PM
Wednesday, February 1: PORC (Purveyors of Rolling Cuisine) [SOLD OUT]
Thursday, February 2: Smoke & Barrel, 2471 18th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20009 [SOLD OUT]
Friday, February 3: Memphis BBQ, 320 23rd St S. Arlington, VA 22202 7:00 PM
Saturday, February 4: Mr. P’s Ribs and Fish, the converted school bus in the Safeway parking lot at 660 Rhode Island Ave NE, Washington, DC 20002 1:00 PM
Sunday, February 5: Rocklands BBQ, 2418 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20017 11:00 AM — 2:00 PM
More information here.
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Image courtesy of Capital Spice.
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White House Soup
The White House Soup of the Day for January 27, 2012 via MSNBC and FishbowlDC:
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Newt Skywalker, Space Cadet!
Newt Gingrich, disgraced ex-Speaker of the House, addressed GOP voters on Florida’s Space Coast this week, so of course he spoke of reviving the area’s aerospace industry by colonizing the Moon. Perhaps he’ll campaign in Nevada in support of gambling and whorehouses.
But Mr. Gingrich has soared through the deep void of space since 1984, when he, along with David Drake and 2nd ex-wife Marianne, published Window of Opportunity: A Blueprint for the Future. Today, copies of that volume sell for as much as 66 cents.
Actually, Mr. Gingrich had written science fiction before, for the U.S. Congress. As a young congressman he sponsored the National Space and Aeronautics Policy Act of 1981 which seeks to “achieve the peaceful expansion of space and atmospheric environments for the benefit of mankind and the nation.” It also contains “provisions for the government of space territories, including constitutional protections, the right to self- government, and admission to statehood.” Perhaps he yearned to be Moonbase Governor.
“I first became interested in space during the Sputnik era and began reading Missiles and Rockets Magazine when I was in the eighth grade,” Newt Gingrich told Gregory Anderson, a fellow member of the L-5 Society. “The human race has a destiny to spread across the solar system and then across the stars. I prefer that destiny be led by free people.”
More:
“Is Newt Gingrich’s space plan science fiction?” Joel Achenbach, Washington Post
“Newt Gingrich: 8 of the GOP idea man’s more unusual ideas — Using space mirrors to light up the night sky, “Linda Feldmann, Christian Science Monitor
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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Occupy Davos
Every year since 1971 a meeting of billionaires and their pet statemen and economists has convened at Davos, in the Swiss Alps, the World Economic Forum. This year they have been joined by the 99%. “OccupyWEF” protesters can’t afford the town’s luxury hotels, so they’re using the famed ski resort’s snow as lodging, building a community of igloos.
But the real voice of protest isn’t in an igloo. It belongs to the Forum’s Chairman and founder, Professor Klaus Schwab:
“Capitalism, in its current form, no longer fits the world around us. We have failed to learn the lessons from the financial crisis of 2009. A global transformation is urgently needed and it must start with reinstating a global sense of social responsibility.”
– “WEF seeks to rewire global leadership,” Matthew Allen, swissinfo.ch
Lost your Forum program on the slopes? Borrow our copy here.
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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Aye, Bobbie Burns and the Library of Congress
By now, no doubt, you’ve finished your haggis and neeps and drained a wee dram to toast the 253th Birthday of poet Robert Burns. The Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division has an online celebration of Scottish links for your post-Burns Supper perusal:
“Robert Burns Day: Haggis, Anyone?” Kristi Finefield, Picture This
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Image (“Robert Burns at the Library of Congress”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Twitter McNuggets
The McDonald’s Corporation started 2012 with TV ads personalizing the multinational fast food giant through first-person “McDonald Stories” narrated by its rural, agricultural suppliers. A few days back McDonald’s took the human element a step further, inviting consumers to add their own 140-character #McDStories on Twitter, a recipe for disaster. McDonald’s found the results not to their taste, and 86ed the Twitter campaign.
More:
“#McDStories: When A Hashtag Becomes A Bashtag,” Kashmir Hill, Forbes
“‘McDialysis? I’m Loving it!’: McDonald’s Twitter Promo Fail,” Colleen Curry, ABC News
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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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