Magic Jewball

Here’s the scenario. Imagine that your grocery store has two floors. If you live in New York City this will be easier for you, but work with me here. And that the elevator is kind of old and creaky and slow and the button is hidden behind a display but it doesn’t really matter because the unit is in constant usage and thus you can rely on people inside pressing the buttons and ensuring its arrival. Once inside, people fit themselves in like a Tetris game for the 20 second ride. Usually, I just take the stairs (I can’t imagine maneuvering a cart around this narrow-aisled, super-crowded place) but either way, it’s no big deal.

Can you imagine a less interesting blog post that what I’ve just described in the last paragraph? And yet The New York Times, the newspaper of record, the staid Gray Lady, put that on the front page on Saturday. I have a weird relationship with the print media industry. That is, I see it the way the rest of you see the music industry. I subscribed to the daily NYT from my first year of college (my family were subscribers so I suppose you could say I’ve read it since I could read) through 2007. That’s when I realized I read so many news blogs and online papers that all I ended up doing with the physical paper was throwing it in the recycling bin. I still get the weekend Times (I’m thinking of stopping, though), thus me seeing this on the front page. Like your relationship with my own dying industry, I not only feel like I can get what they sell for free on the Interweb but now I’m beginning to feel it’s mostly crap anyway.

An article about my grocery store’s elevator? Really?

A Slow New York Passage, Up to Organic Food

Title comes from:
Joe Jackson – Sunday Papers

Ummm…..

click to enlarge

Maybe the man collapsed when he saw these hot chicks living in an icehouse while he was sweating it out in 108 degree weather.

From the London Telegraph.

Icehouse – No Promises (youtube)

Start spreading the news, indeed; it’s more awesome journalism from the Telegraph. Imagine my surprise, taking a break from rugelach baking to watch the farewell-palooza to Yankee Stadium on ESPN and check my feeds, to come across the news that the game had already happened. Yes, the final game at Yankee Stadium has already been played, dontcha know. Would the Telegraph lie?

Yankee stadium sees its last game
An illustrious chapter in American sporting history came to an end last night as the Yankee Stadium in New York hosted its last baseball game.

By Tom Leonard in New York
Last Updated: 10:27PM BST 21 Sep 2008

The 57,545-seat stadium, America’s most famous sporting venue and the home for the past 85 years of the New York Yankees, is to be demolished and replaced with a $1.6 billion (£870 million) new ballpark close to its location in the Bronx.

An extra 2,000 security staff were drafted in for the final game to prevent chaos as fans were expected to attempt to rip up the stadium and make off with souvenirs. Fans had previously been found trying to bring spanners into the ground.

The enthusiasm of souvenir hunters is understandable given the unique place the stadium holds in American sports history, not to mention the fact that Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali and three popes have spoken there.

The stadium was nicknamed “The House That Ruth Built” in homage to Babe Ruth, the baseball superstar who inaugurated the stadium in 1923.

The so-called “cathedral of baseball”, with its famous 12ft high letters spelling out its name, went on to become home to 26 World Series-winning teams.

However, there was no spectacular finale yesterday as the Yankees, currently languishing in the baseball league, played the even less successful Baltimore Orioles.

I wonder if I should watch now. I mean, they say right there that it wasn’t spectacular. What to do, what to do.

By the way, I wonder where “Tom Leonard in New York” really is. Maybe he’s in a bar, picking up a chick right now. Perhaps he’s on the beach in Spain. Perhaps there really is no Tom Leonard. Whichever it is, I’m sad to see that baseball fans in the UK are being swindled in this fashion. Both of them.

Yankee stadium sees its last game

Thompson Twins – Lies

A lot going on in House of Becca, but in the meantime, in case you’re having a slow news day, here’s an exciting article from the London Daily Telegraph.

Duke of York and his travelling ironing board

The ironing board with the HRH label was spotted by baggage handlers in the hold of the plane taking the Duke to Vietnam from Heathrow’s Terminal 5 on Friday.

There’s more, but you get the idea. Yes, this entire article can be summarized by saying, “Prince Andrew’s staff carry an ironing board with them when he travels. To iron his clothes on. Because he wears a lot of suits and needs to look neat.”

My God, who knew? Tomorrow in the Telegraph, Prince William travels with comb.

Sorry, but I need you to say it in that announcer-y voice. Anyway, it’s Friday, it’s November-almost-December, it’s gray, and all my sports are out of season. So it’s time for another edition of this, this time with no video, just this handy still from a story on new Parisian spas (I don’t know about the pink tint, I think it’s the lighting in the spa). I tried to caption it, I really did, but it only makes my head explode. It’s not just the statement but the glow in the spa-lady’s eyes. So, I will just share it with you as is. Have a good weekend, everyone!