The Toronto Star says we are living in the Age of Vodka: “The entrenchment of vodka comes down to one part alcohol and one part advertising. The drink itself is not a complex spirit. To make it, you simply need a material that contains starch — anything like a grain, corn, carrot, potato or molasses. …
Author Archives: Cynthia Closkey
The Thing in My Pants
A short bit of nonfiction by Maud Newton. Also see the Gothamist Interview with Maud. Funny and talented!
Uglydolls
Talk about an emergent strategy: The creators of Uglydolls didn’t start with a plan in mind. But theirs is a case of the product selling itself. And the creators have discovered a great way to build appeal: “Each character comes with a tag explaining the character’s back story and how they all ”know” one another …
Unexpected bonuses
I bought my house from a woman who was moving into a nursing home. I never met her; rather, I dealt entirely with her son, who was taking care of her affairs because she was incapacitated. When I moved in, I found a number of items that had been left behind because they were too …
I have no willpower
Updating my earlier post: I couldn’t wait. I started looking through the user manual, and when I saw that iTunes was on the CD and it has all the song-management stuff and hot-synching built in (yeah, I should probably have noticed that when I ordered the thing, but I just figured if it didn’t come …
Who says all the good men are taken?
“I am wearing my blazer and a light cologne, with my hair parted at the side, a glint in my eye, and my left hand in my coat pocket in a half-intellectual, half-sexual way. I am also smoking a cigarette, but my breath smells good because I carry mints. If it is springtime, I have …
Actually, I like crap
Terrific t-shirts and more from buyolympia.com. Make sure to look for “Reading is sexy” (boy and girl-cut versions), “Save the fork, there’s pie!” and “What would Devo do?” (Link via Maud.)
The morning routine
Confessions of a New Coffee Drinker: “I’m thinking about getting addicted to cigarettes! I’m going to buy the patch and work my way up! Now I see why all these things are so popular. I’m totally serious. This isn’t satire. I have a lot of catching up to do! I wonder where I would be …
Stranger than fiction
Larry Ellison has married a fiction writer, and apparently people are speculating that he has a hand in writing her books. Having worked for Mr. Ellison at Oracle, I can say that a lot of the documentation and marketing that came out of that company was fiction, and perhaps still is. He is very good …
Mine is on the FedEx truck on its way to my house right now!
Apple Computer Inc. said on Tuesday it has received 100,000 orders for its iPod mini digital music player, which goes on sale on Friday at Apple’s retail outlets, its online store and through resellers. I’ve been tracking the progress of mine, which I preordered the day they were announced. (The geekist thing I’ve done in …
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