J Larsen

There was a band from the 1950s (I kid you not) called Clitoris that Thought it was a Puppy. But you don't have to take my word for it: AMG Link

The Classical! Thanks for saying the name - I'm terrible with song names and it was really bugging me. I know what you're saying about Pavement - those guys didn't even try to pretend that they weren't ripping off The Fall! Can you get any more blatant than that Conduit for Sale song? Oh well, I loved Pavement back then anyway, because 1) I was from SF 2) indie rock had (IMHO) been in a bit of a rut for a year or two before that record came out and 3) I started buying Pavement records in their noise-pop era (Demolition Plot J7, etc) when they weren't quite so derivative. I always felt that Pavement got worse the poppier they got, and they got poppier from record to record.

The first track on Hex Enduction Hour is brilliant! That is probably my most-listened to Fall song.

Have you tried Bags Unlimited? I'm not sure how good their prices are.

One thing I'll say about the Fall is not to skip the later albums. The Infotainment Scan, in particular, is a very strong album. For the classic 80s material, Bend Sinister, Wonder and Frightening World and This Nation's Saving Grace are my favorites. I never got too into the really early stuff. On Pere Ubu, I'm a longtime fan and will be the nth person to say that Modern Dance, Dub Housing and some form or another of the Datapanik EP (a compilation of the early singles that has been released multiple times in various formats, packaging, and with various titles) are the only truly essential recordings. The others all have their moments but are inconsistent.

Anyone else NOT surprised that the only publication to give this movie a lukewarm review was the New Yorker? (I love the New Yorker, and after what Kaufman did to one of their staff in Adaptation I understand their not wanting to embrace the movie, but I still thought it was funny.) I liked Eternal Sunshine better than BJM, which was a good movie but didn't feel fully developed to me. I'd say this film is destined to be a classic. PS: Did anyone else think that Carrey looked like Nate Fisher from Six Feet Under in this film?

I can't stand full-grown adults that don't cover their mouths when coughing. I run into this on the subway all the time. If I can ever afford it, I'll start taking cabs everywhere.

Dmitry - Sorry I misinterpreted your tone - honestly it wasn't that obvious to me. Maybe a wink would have done the trick. Anyway, I have done all the things you mentioned except go to Old Richmond Town. I would like to do that at some point. I also haven't had Italian food on SI better than what I've had at Genarro, Babbo or Il Mulino - do you have any good recommendations? That would be a fun thing to do the next time I head out there. I stand by my comment though - the island is about 100 square miles and in my experience about 90 of those square miles fit the description I gave. I can see it being a nice place to live if having a normal house is your thing, but if a person is visiting NY for a week I don't think SI is worth their time (unless they're really into Tibetan art - I forgot about that museum). And yes, I realize that this is an extremely silly "argument".

Well, it feels pretty huge when you're driving a large U-Haul from one end to the other. In any event, it's only a little smaller than Brooklyn (60.9 square miles vs. 78.5 square miles). See for yourself: http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2002/JordanLevine1.shtml Look at the table on the bottom of the page. SI is the third largest burrough, and sencond largest in terms of land use. Actually, I just checked wikipedia, and it says that SI is the largest burrough at 102 square miles, compared to 96 for Bkln. This is actually what I thought all along. Not sure why different sources say different things, but wiki quotes the US census bureau. Dmitry, I am not misinformed. I have to go out there rather often, as I have three friends in SI. I've seen plenty of the island with my own eyes. We simply have different taste. No need to even suggest that an "uncivil" response is in order. SI does have a nice botanical garden, I'll give it that.

Whoa, I've never paid anywhere near $80 to/from Newark. It usually comes up to $30 to $40 for me.

Newark is easier than Laguardia or JFK. I always try to fly out of Newark. Quicker commute, smaller crowds.

I must be the only crumedgon in the world who thinks that the Sopranos lost it after the first season... Once the actress who played the mother died, the show went in the dumpster, IMO.

I'm amazed that this is being reported as new news. I posted on similar experiments over a year ago. They've been using similar technology in humans for several years to help the fully paralyzed communicate. The way the current technology works is like this: You attach electrodes to the subject's head. You put a computer monitor in front of the subject, which has the entire alphabet laid out in two rows of thirteen letters each. You tell the subject that if he wants to pick a letter in the top line, think of something romantic, but if you want a letter in the bottom line, think of something violent. Romantic and violent thoughts produce very different risidual brain waves in most subjects, so the electronics can distinguish between these two types of thought. The line not selected then disappears. Now tell the subject to think of somehthing romantic to pick a letter on the left side of the screen, or something violent to pick a letter on the right side of the screen. Continue until you're down to one letter, then repeat until you have a sentence. One fully "locked-in" (fully paralyzed w/o speech capability) subject composed an entire novel in this fashion a few years ago. For some subjects it has proven possible to speed up the composition process by including more types of thoughts, but everyone produces different risidual brain waves for different emotions, so what works for one subject may not work for another. You have to calibrate the electronics for each subject on an individual basis. The monkey-robot arm type experiments are also not particularly new. I was hearing about this stuff at least two years ago. They trained one monkey to play a game similar to Pole Position using just thought. It's not science fiction, it's not some creepy Orweillian thing, and it's not very new. But it is cool, and it's been surprising to see so little coverage in the popular press.

I doubt you'll find your self so far out on the UES, but if you do and you're a beer person, check out David Copperfield's. They have a wide selection of rare cask-conditioned microbrews. 74th and York, by the East River. That place is really serious about beer. They even have a special climate-controlled room for storing and serving the cask-conditioned beers. York and 74th.

I was once in Katz's, with two rather obnoxious brit tourists behind me. They were very loudly and vulgarly deriding everything quintesentially American (going on and on and on about how they couldn't conceive of a nation of people sitting on their butts through three hours of anything as boring a baseball, while simultaneously enumerating the virtues of soccer, calling americans littering pigs, whereas I saw them throw their cig butts on the street before entering, etc. etc. etc.) They finally got close enough to the front of the line to see the pastrami, which, of course, is reddish. One yelled out "blimey, is that shit even cooked?" The other said "Fuck, what do they make that out of?" You could see the eyes bulging out of the server's heads at this point (they have a reputation for being short-tempered). They the first brit responded "I don't know, I think it's pork." Then the server slammed his knife down, pointed to the door, and yelled "OUT!!!!!!" louder and deeper than I've ever heard anyone yell anything!

The deal with the Statue of Liberty is that you can go to it, but not in it. You're about as well off taking the Staten Island ferry, which is free. It passes right by the statue, and offers great views of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Plus you get to set foot on another borrough. But there's really next to nothing to do on Staten Island. I drove across it one day while helping my friend move. Two observations: it's HUGE, and it's nothing like the rest of New York - lots of strip malls and (mostly) trashy looking houses. It's really a more expensive version of the Midwest, IMO. Another essential item: you have to go to Katz's for the pastrami sandwich. People will try to tell you that the 2nd Ave. Deli is better, and, in a sense, they're right. But Katz's has the best pastrami possible (if it was any better, it wouldn't be pastrami anymore), and the Katz's experience is not to be missed. Plus once you're done you can wander around the Lower East Side, which I have to say is much better seen at night when the bars and clubs are going. Also in that area is a very cheap and very delicious Mexican restaurant called El Sombrero, which serves humongous, strong margaritas to go. They get away with it by putting them in Coca-Cola cups. Perfect on a hot day. In general, Mexican food in NYC is disgusting though, so if it's not The Hat, forget it. I can't seem to spell anything today - I see that Shrugs and I crossed up on Katz's .

and don't forget that that Cat 'Shaft', shut yo mouth, hung out there. I've already told you WHY he hung out there.... I've spotted a few minor celebs in that place, but it never feels like an exclusive joint to me. It always just feels like a cozy, neighborhood cafe made for lazy afternoons.

I just thought of a couple other things: MOMA hosts an art/dance party on Saturday afternoons in the late spring and early summer at PS1 (a former school) in Queens. It's usually pretty cool, although it has become a bit watered down in the past few years. Check to see what's going on at the Jazz Gallery. If you had any inclination to do it in the first place, skip the Bronx Zoo - I find it extremely depressing. If it's a rainy day, or if you're just plain tired, fork over $1.50 to take the city bus up Fifth Avenue and just look out the window. If you're into architecture, go to greatbuildings.com, search for New York City buildings, and make a list of the addresses of buildings you'd like to see in person. It's probably worthwhile to get the Zagat 2004 New York City Restaurant guide to carry around with you. If you get hugry walking around, it will give you a wide choice of excellent restaurants in almost any neighborhood. I buy the new one every year and find it incredibly useful. I'm forgetting one really essential thing I always recommend (I remembered it for a split-second, which is why I started this post in the first place). It will come to me later.

My favorite hotel is the Algonquin. It's not too pricey (vis-a-vis Manhattan hotels in general, that is). In addition to all the classic museums (Met, MOMA, Gugg, Whitney, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Frick), I've never gone wrong by sending anyone to the lower east side tenament museum. AMNH is cool, but better if you are taking kids, and not necessarily something that you can't find a similar version of in many other cities. My favorite cafes are closely guarded secrets, but I'll give you a couple tips: Cafe Regio on Macdougal (lots of REALLY, and I mean REALLY hot European women hang out there, plus they make amazing Cappucinos), and this little French cafe on Spring and Mullberry with very strong coffee and incredible deserts. I always forget the name, but it's the only thing on the blook. For art gallaries, just wander around in the Meatpacking district - it's becoming the new Soho. You can check out SOHO too, but it is rapidly becoming a shopping mall. If she's into clothes shopping, SOHO is the place to go. For favorite restaurants, you'd really have to give me a price range and a cuisine. You have to go to Peter Luger's (inner Brooklyn)- you'll drop $100/head, but you'll never have better steak. Grimaldi's (just across the Bkln Bridge, which is a great walk) probably has the best New York style pizza. Lombardi's and Nick's are close. Daniel is an incredible French restaurant - but it's pricey. Union Square Cafe and Gotham Bar and Grill are consistently the top-rated restaurants in the city, but they cater to an older crowd. Not really my bag. One if by Land (west village) is the ultimate date restaurant - I took my gf there for her last birthday. Fireplaces, chandeliers, Bill-Evans-esque piano player, somailier, the whole works, but not done in a stuffy way at all, and not TOO expensive (but bring two credit cards just in case ). Plus it's in Aaron Burr's old farmhouse. It's close to a must-go. For Italian, I like Genarro (UWS) and Babao, a small, pricey restaurant in the Village. Never eat Italian food in Little Italy. DO NOT DO IT! You'll fork over a pile of cash for trashy food. Beyond restaurants and museums, the quintessential aspects of New York really depend on your personality - the great thing about this city is that almost anyone can find their "thing" here. My personal "essential" New York tour would include: walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, walking up along the Westside peers, walking through the side-streets (ie not Canal) in Chinatown in the late evening, hanging out in the Lower East Side late at night, popping in and out of bars/clubs, finding funky cafes (a dying breed) on funky streets (another dying breed), popping in and out of vintage clothing stores (which have become more expensive than new clothing stores ), a long, long, long walk in Central Park on a nice day, and having dinner at at least three fancy restaurants in addition to lower-key neighborhood ethnic spots. I've found it hard to go too terribly wrong eating in Chinatown, for instance. Have fun.

JM, as far as I'm concerned that quote is what they invented the phrase "WTF" for. Uh-oh - we aren't in the politics forum, are we...

Believe it or not, Walmart has a good selection of academic books online, with prices generally lower than those found at amazon. I picked up a stack of advanced (and hence somewhat obscure) math and physics books at Walmart.com a couple years ago at about half the publishers' recommended price. I've also had good luck with Powell's (I used to shop there in person, too - it's an incredible store), but I've found that they tend to somewhat overrate the condition of their used books on their website. I can think of one book I bought from them for around $100 used that was advertised as VG, but was actually quite musty and had a considerable amount of mildew damage on the inside, as well as a severely sun-faded jacket. On the other hand, if you call before ordering they will give you an honest assessment.

Fresh mozarella is definately worth going out of the way for. Fortunately, it's made at a place just a few blocks away from me, so I don't have to go out of my way, but I would if I had to! I find Tillamook to be very bland and lacking bite (it's cheap on the east coast too, btw). For cheddars I stick with the extra sharp WI and NY varities. RD is right about the Tillamook factory, though. My grandparents used to take me up there when was a small child on the way to visiting my aunt who lived in Rockaway, OR. I remember getting ice-cream scoops there that were about the size of my head. As someone else mentioned, smoked gouda is good when you need to shake things up a bit. Nothing beats cambozola on a craker or on a baguette. NOTHING. But alas, I'm on the first diet of my life, so no cambozola for me. Moose, what exactly is it about Velvetta that you feel is "cheese-like"?

The cd stores here are great. But the rents are so high that walking into one is equivilent to financial suicide.

Sorry, I didn't get that out of his posts. In any event, "insider trading" refers to trading based on non-public information. It doesn't matter who you directly get the information from - if it's not public, it's not legal to trade on.

Doc: I'm not 100% sure I understand your question, but I think I do and it really gets to the heart of why insider trading is nearly impossible to prove (Waskal pleaded guilty in order to minimize damage and avoid a potentially harmful investigation). Say Martha's story is true - she really had a standing $60 order. Then the sale is completely lawful, even if she receives the inside tip without disclosing it prior to the sale. There are three stages to proving insider trading: 1) Prove that the person recveived the information (this part is relatively easy). 2) Prove that the information, if made public, would have substantially altered the trading value of the stock (this part is very easy). 3) Prove that the seller did not intend to sell the stock prior to receiving the information. It's the third part that is nearly impossible to prove - prosecutors normally avoid charges that involve proving intent.