Amusing End-of-the-Year Stuff

PZ sends along this NYT quiz (the quotes section is interactive; the quiz itself is way too much for me) and a link to the Top 10 RightBlogger stories that is a pleasant reminder of what we might have lost, had we not won.

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Losing the News

The Ithaca Journal has downsized once again, and the only local bit of news yesterday was a piece on the SPCA. In a fit of pique, Paul has declared that we must cancel our subscription. After all, we read the bulk of the paper online anyway, and if we want national news, we read the online Times.

Of course, I feel terrible. After all, it's the loss of subscribers that has led the IJ to such a pass in the first place. Not only that, but this will mean the first time in my adult life that I haven't read a real-life newspaper once a day. Paul points out that it's not as though we're supporting a local institution anymore; the paper is printed in Binghamton, and only four reporters remain on staff. As far as I can tell, the office downtown is just a big classified ad department.

Paul thinks the paper should just use freelancers and close up the office entirely, functioning more the way the local weeklies do. I'm just very sad about the whole thing. Plus I'll miss the comics and Jumble.

I think I'll put Alex Jones's new book on my reading list.

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Required Reading

I'm still puzzling over Krugman's op-ed from yesterday and have decided I don't understand economics well enough to have an opinion about it. But I welcome the opinions of others.

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Required Reading

Via PZ, Dave Barry's end-of-the-year review.

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New Site

Former assemblyman Marty Luster has resurrected Tompkins County's progressive news site, so I'm adding it to my right-hand column.

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R.I.P.

Harold Pinter, always interesting, often annoying. My favorite Pinter experience: Seeing "Old Friends" on a whim, alone, at London's Royal Theatre Haymarket. It must have been 1985, because Liv Ullman was playing Anna. Michael Gambon played Deeley, but back then, I had no idea who he was. He was better than she was. It wasn't the best Pinter I've seen, but it was the most fun--back in the days where you could just stroll up to a theater of an evening, buy a ticket for under $10, and sit in the back of a 1720 theater with those cute little opera glasses provided for each seat.

LATER: Of course Mark is right. "Old Times."

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Happy Holidays

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