Havent you heard? I'm the king of NY! (news thread)

[Bernard]

Am I really supposed to feel the same about Steve Jobs as about somebody who's left no trace of my life whatsoever, and indeed about whose existence I am totally unaware? I happen not to have the same emotional reaction to his death as I did to Chick Hearn's (for example) but dang.

[RavingLunatic]

I don't think it's anyone's business to tell anyone else how they're supposed to feel. You feel the way you feel. It's like telling someone they should feel bad when they eat twinkies because I think they're disgusting. But if I said that I suspected a big part of the reason that so many people eat twinkies is because of intensive marketing to children, that's not an example of telling people how they should feel; it's just the propounding of a tentative hypothesis explaining why people feel how they feel.

[Greg Nog]

Whoa wait a second twinkies are delicious

[C of heartbreak]

chances are you were suckled on sweet, moist twinkies as a child, greg

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

wait so are some of you disputing the idea that american culture obsesses over famous people just for being famous? because um

[jm]

wait so are some of you disputing the idea that american culture obsesses over famous people just for being famous? because um

How is that specific to American culture? I seem to remember some worldwide pants-shitting a few months ago about some kind of wedding between a commoner and a relic.

[jm]

OR: no, not disputing it, just calling it reductionist and trite.

[Good Intentions]

Can't see why it's supposed to be reductionist, but whatever. Knock yourselves out.

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

i think he means 'reductive', but i get confused sometimes. i know one is a philosophical theory, and the other is a bullshit word used all over the internet by those who want to sound intelligent without actually arguing anything, but i don't know which is which

[elpollodiablo]

Can't we all just come together in the spirit of how cool my iPhone is?

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

but i've spent all day making this android app for school!

[jm]

Can't see why it's supposed to be reductionist, but whatever. Knock yourselves out.

Oops, yeah. Wrong word totally.  I got distracted thinking about famous rich people.

[peacocks]

Am I really supposed to feel the same about Steve Jobs as about somebody who's left no trace of my life whatsoever, and indeed about whose existence I am totally unaware? I happen not to have the same emotional reaction to his death as I did to Chick Hearn's (for example) but dang.

no, jees, of course not.

[Good Intentions]

Can't see why it's supposed to be reductionist, but whatever. Knock yourselves out.

Oops, yeah. Wrong word totally.  I got distracted thinking about famous rich people.

I don't get why it's reductive either. I posted that very early this morning, and didn't notice the swap of one word for another. 

[FreddyKnuckles]

When someone dies who
I do not know
I do not tend to feel
real bad at all

because a lot of times
famous people aren't as cool
aren't as cool
aren't as cool
as they may seem

in fact a couple of those famous
or semi-famous folks
who I've admired
turned out to be a bag of
dicks
in person

So if you feel real bad
when a famous person dies
there's like a 50/50 chance
you're pouring you heart out
for a big 'ol bag of dicks

Steve Jobs was an intelligent, innovative
successful duder,
who was the ceo of a company that changed the computing
and telecom worlds
Now he's gone, and we're out a smart
dude

I'm not saying he was a big 'ol bag of dicks
but I also don't know
that he wasn't

[FreddyKnuckles]

also did you guys see this?  So AWESOME

@MargieJPhelps MargiePhelps
Westboro will picket his funeral.He had a huge platform; gave God no glory & taught sin. MT @AP: Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has died at 56.
5 Oct via Twitter for iPhone

[fishjim]

When someone dies who
I do not know
I do not tend to feel
real bad at all

because a lot of times
famous people aren't as cool
aren't as cool
aren't as cool
as they may seem

in fact a couple of those famous
or semi-famous folks
who I've admired
turned out to be a bag of
dicks
in person

So if you feel real bad
when a famous person dies
there's like a 50/50 chance
you're pouring you heart out
for a big 'ol bag of dicks

Steve Jobs was an intelligent, innovative
successful duder,
who was the ceo of a company that changed the computing
and telecom worlds
Now he's gone, and we're out a smart
dude

I'm not saying he was a big 'ol bag of dicks
but I also don't know
that he wasn't

Exactly.

[Anne the Man]

Hey, so I wrote a thing about Occupy Wall St. I'm a real newsperson now, I guess, with my name in a URL and everything.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1110/S00102/anne-russell-99-mad-as-hell-occupying-everywhere.htm

[Antero]

Awesome!

[Trousers and Pat]

well done, anne !

also, “I won’t believe corporations are people until Texas executes one” is right up there with "soon the poor will have nothing left to eat but the rich." Signs for the win.

[peacocks]

That's great Anne! Your news story and Freddy's poem both belong in the AWESOME thread. Because Freddy, yeah man, yeah.

[fishjim]

Agreed, peacocks.

Anne, your story is about 10 years ahead of the NYT's editorial board in connecting the Occupier dots. They finally came around in an editorial on Sun Oct 9, "Protesters Against Wall Street."

Better late than never, etc., but why this elitist swipe at the "chattering classes"? After the Occupiers, it's been the chattering classes on FB, blogs, tumblr feeds and radio who compelled this crow-eating editorial. The rest of the world seems to understand the basics better than we Americans do.

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

Hey, so I wrote a thing about Occupy Wall St. I'm a real newsperson now, I guess, with my name in a URL and everything.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1110/S00102/anne-russell-99-mad-as-hell-occupying-everywhere.htm

that article had the perfect tone, and was really right-on - great job anne!

coincidentally, my first published short story went out today! granted, it was in Salient, but you gotta start somewhere!

[elpollodiablo]

Like a lot of other people, I'm generally supportive but also pretty cynical about the OWS thing. D was down there yesterday and sent me some photos and video. All of the criticisms of the protestors not having a cogent agenda are misguided, I think, as are all of these satellite OCCUPY TOPEKA, etc. protests. If whatever's going on in lower Manhattan has *any* chance of being a catalyst for something greater than a liberal Tea Party or a really unbearable continuing conversation in the national media, it would seem to me that every able-bodied person organizing in cities around the country should instead head for NYC. Ten people camped out in a park in Cincinnati or Madison ain't accomplishing shit, but if you could swell the numbers in the Financial District to the point where it was continually disruptive...

[peacocks]

I really like that idea. I know a couple of people who went up there but they are the people in my group of friends who have rich parents and don't have to work for money.