THE PLANK OCTOBER 24, 2007
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It isn't enough that the first fifteen minutes of 'SportsCenter' are always devoted to the Yankees and/or the Red Sox. Nor is it sufficient that Washington's finest newspaper has almost no coverage of California. Wait, stop right there. I was going to continue complaining about East coast media bias, and the fact that our nation's "paper of record" had decided that the evacuation of 250,000 citizens from the union's best/biggest state (and the world's fifth largest economy) did not warrant a front page story.But, now that the numbers of evacuees has reached half-a-million, I see that the Times has changed its tune. Bravo, guys. --Isaac Chotiner
13 comments
A pity that the nation's finest journal of politics and the arts has almost no coverage of east or south Asia. Or Europe, or Latin America, or the world outside the US and the middle east.
- teplukhin2you
October 24, 2007 at 1:21pm
I love to watch fires. If I had no conscience, I'd start them.
My buddy Gillis drank a half bottle of Jack Daniels and fell asleep with a lit cigarette. One fireman described how he saw him, trapped by the barrio window bars, arms raised, a human torch.
I was on a ferry to Sausalito when the Oakland hills went up. That was impressive. Later, we stood on our roofs in San Francisco and watched the glow, into the night.
A few weeks ago a forest a few hundred miles north of the Bay burned, and our air had that woodsy smokey tang evocative of winter hearths. For a couple days the sunsets over the Pacific were outrageously beautiful--twenty shades of red. They say that's what we'd see the next time a comet pulverizes the Earth and raises a global cloud of dust, except of course we'll all be dead.
The East Coast can keep its media bias. There is no truth to the little glowing rectangular images anyway, no truth about the World Trade Center, no truth about New Orleans, or about Baghdad, and none whatsoever about the hills above San Diego. The only truth is in your nostrils, when you're running for your life.
- williamyard
October 24, 2007 at 1:28pm
Ummmm.... is it just me, or was that last comment maybe the creepiest thing I've read in a while? Who is this dude? He sounds like Chuck Pahlaniuk waxing philosophical with a Goth band. Yikes...
- sanda
October 24, 2007 at 2:02pm
It is just you. Welcome aboard. williamyard is a man with whom to reckon, a poet and a humanist.
Speaking of, MrYard, that isn't the Sonoma Hooker, is it? And stop scaring the new kids! Down, boy!
- boneill
October 24, 2007 at 2:16pm
Greetings, bone; thanks for the kind wurdz. The Sonoma Hooker? Naw, that's just Jenna Jameson, who pales in comparison, IMHO.
Speaking of the SH, she and I were in eastern Oregon this past weekend, in a remote hunting lodge (long story) northeast of Mt. Shasta--the high desert. The only heat in our cabin came from the cast-iron stove, mesmerizing us with its crackling, blazing wood.
The rejuvenating effects of fire were all around us: sunlight suddenly available for all, ashes washing into the soil to feed grasses, and thence deer, songbirds, rodents, raptors.
On the way home on Interstate 5 we passed about 40 fire trucks barreling south to the main event. We also passed three or four fields beside the freeway that were ablaze--controlled burns, said the SH, a former farm girl who helped torch them in her youth.
Fire, fire, everywhere. We so much prefer our submissive fossil fuels, which burn at our command.
- williamyard
October 24, 2007 at 2:40pm
sanda: williamyard is unique. He gets a wide berth around here. That being said, I'm not a fan of the avatar. I read this at work, my friend.
- stgla
October 24, 2007 at 2:51pm
Speaking of avatars, I should have used one of Jared F--ing Diamond.
<img src="tbn0.google.com/images
- stgla
October 24, 2007 at 2:54pm
Mr Yard, that is a lovely bikini - Calvin Klein?
My Dad's house in Long Beach - many miles from any fire - is covered with two inchs of ash, palm fronds, fire effluvia. The house is filled with "evacuees" drinking all his beer (Aunt, cousins in San Diego). He's hoping for some FEMA money, its only fair.
- Wandreycer1
October 24, 2007 at 2:57pm
stgla, point taken about the avatar. I'll replace Jenna with something more, er, benign as soon as time permits.
Wandrey, glad your dad's okay and let's hope FEMA comes through. Beer is good. Everyone should just drink up, then go up to the roof and piss everywhere, in case of drifting embers.
- williamyard
October 24, 2007 at 3:19pm
mmmmmmm...beer...aarrrggghhhhhhhllllllll
Avatars may be a better idea than I originally thought.
- adamvaught
October 24, 2007 at 3:40pm
Dude, the FNG just compared you to Chuck Pahlaniuk! Them's fighting words where I come from.
- ratnerstar
October 24, 2007 at 4:34pm
I'm sure the NYT will blame Bush for starting the fires and letting them burn.....can't believe them at all....
Just like you can't believe anything at TNR....
You can lump both of these liars together....maybe the "fire" guy will burn them down.....
Not that TNR isn't doing a good enough job of destroying ALL and ANY credibility it once had....
Just stopping by the say ciao.......can't live with liars....
- dadling
October 24, 2007 at 9:45pm
By dadling- your contributions will be missed.
- boneill
October 25, 2007 at 10:35am