The Missus and I have taken a few gallery tours at the Whitney Museum lately, and they’ve been uniformly excellent – from the recent Lyonel Feininger exhibit to the current Sherrie Levine: Mayhem (through January 29) and Real/Surreal (through February 12) shows.
The Whitney docents are really exceptional. Catch them if you can.
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The hardworking staff has recently received several comments that we’ve filed under “Seamus on Mitt Romney.”
From splendid reader Laurence Glavine:
“Speaking of the Noo Yawk Times: Gail Collins is definitely pranking the folks who make fun of her references to Seamus, Willard’s dog. She did it again [Thursday] morning.”
That would be her column headlined “The March of the Non-Mitts,” which ended this way (sorry no links – still iPadlocked):
“Did I ever mention that Romney once drove to Canada with the family Irish setter strapped to the roof of the car? The dog’s name was Seamus. New Hampshire Republicans, if you can’t think of anyone to vote for on Tuesday, consider writing in the name Seamus when you go to the polls. Maybe we can start a boomlet.
“Makes as much sense as the Newt Gingrich moment.”
Ouch.
Then there’s this from splendid reader Stephen Stein, quoting a post at Firedoglake:
“Say what you will about President Obama, at least he loves his dog.”
Double ouch.
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Actually, a daily double from Charles Isherwood’s New York Times book review of “Would It Kill You to Stop Doing That?” by Henry Alford:
“The implicit promise of thorough and up-to-date instruction in how to behave isn’t entirely fulfilled by Mr. Alford’s book. Readers looking for an organized primer on which proverbial fork to use in a world that is tossing off new etiquette challenges in tandem with the hurtling pace of technological change may be disappointed.”
As may be Times readers looking for an organized sentence structure.
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Now that the Gang of Seven has split up (ave atque vale Rick and Michele), let’s see where things stand with the survivors.
(Production note: The hardworking staff is currently iPadlocked, so no video or links, but we’re ruminating and construing – as one of our teachers at Fordham Prep used to urge us – as fast as we can.)
* Mitt Romney Is Up and Running (Ads) in Florida and South Carolina.
And spending $770,000 in Florida according to the Boston Globe, as well as $550,000 in SC according to MSNBC’s First Read. In other words, business as usual.
* Newt Gingrich Gets All Typographic on Romney.
The Newtron Bomber ran an ad attacking Romney in the Manchester Union-Leader this week. Weak.
* Rick Santorum Devotes His Lunch Money to Ads in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
$44,000. How cute is that?
Stay tuned.
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The very definition of whistling past the graveyard:
Really, guys – that’s what 25% buys you these days? Since when is a single is a home run?
The hardworking staff is pleased to announce Campaign Outsider’s Hawkie Awards, a quadrennial exercise in highlighting the most ridiculous aspects of the Iowa caucuses, outside of the fact that they have any impact at all.
Regardless, nunc est bibendum:
I’ll Miss You Most of All, Scarecrow
Michele Bachmann (R-The Other Michele in the White House) in her not-so-concession speech (via ABC’s The Note):
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — GOP contender Michele Bachmann placed dead last among the Republican candidates competing in the Iowa, a stunning fall for a candidate who just five months ago cruised to victory in the Iowa straw poll.
Despite a dismal six place finish, with a percentage of votes in single digits Bachmann pledged to remain in the race.
“I believe I am the true conservative who can beat Barack Obama,” she said to a small gathering of supporters here.
Hell, honey – you can’t even beat Rick Perry. Time to go home.
The Quarter Horse in the Race
Last night Mitt Romney (R-Mitt Romney) hit his head really hard against the 25% ceiling.
Which means 75% of Republicans don’t like you unto death in 2012, Mitt.
Strap Seamus (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) to the roof of your car and go home.
Tilting of Windbags
The candidate formerly known as Newt Gingrich (R-Stop Lying About Me, Liar) tells USA Today there’s still a “great debate” to be had by Republicans.
Newt Gingrich, blasting “an avalanche of negatives ads” against him by Mitt Romney backers, said tonight the goal of the 2012 election remains the defeat of President Obama — but only after Republicans resolve their own differences.
“There will be a great debate in the Republican Party before we are prepared to have a great debate with Barack Obama,” Gingrich said after his fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses Tuesday.
Yeah, but you’re probably not gonna be part of it, Newtron.
Google Santorum
Still the same search results, despite the Iowa results.
Paul Small
Ron Paul (R-Am I Gold Yet?) got the short end of the stick with his third-place finish. Via Politico:
ANKENY, Iowa – Ron Paul got twice as many votes in this year’s caucuses as he did in 2008 — but his third place finish was short of the win his supporters and allies had been hoping would transform his campaign into a serious factor in the GOP race.
Translation: Please go home.
So, Hawkie Awards fans, who won in Iowa?
Gentle Giant moving company.
From ABC’s The Note yesterday:
MITT ROMNEY RALLY GETS OCCUPIED. A dispatch from ABC’s Emily Friedman from Clive, Iowa: For the first time since launching his presidential campaign, Mitt Romney got a visit from Occupy Wall Street protestors during a rally Monday night just outside Des Moines, Iowa. Midway through his stump speech, Romney was interrupted by protestors shouting their rallying cry, “Mic check!” Nearly immediately, the protestors were drowned out by cheers from the crowd of more than 500 with chants of “Mitt! Mitt! Mitt!” One member in the crowd screamed back at the protestors, “Get a job!” Romney, audibly laughing at the outspoken crowd member, addressed the protestors. “Thanks guys, let’s talk about the Constitution again,” said Romney. But the protestors kept chanting, “Stop the war on the poor! Stop the war on the poor!” “Thanks guys,” Romney responded again, looking around as security escorted the individuals outside. “Isn’t it great to live in a country where people can express their views?”http://abcn.ws/tKHXor
Got that? Romney is extolling free speech while expelling it. Isn’t it great to live in a country where a man with absolutely no self-awareness can run for president?
Blah blah blah blah Mitt Romney is not good enough blah blah blah blah Mitt Romney is Mr. Good Enough blah blah blah blah Newt Gingrich is dead blah blah blah blah Newt Gingrich is still alive blah blah blah blah Rick Perry is a buffoon blah blah blah blah Rick Perry is still a player blah blah blah blah Rick Santorum is a comer blah blah blah blah Rick Santorum is a goner blah blah blah blah
And etc.
(Apologies to Gary Larson)
Lede from a New York Observer piece on a personnel shift at the New York Times:
New York Times reporter Sarah Maslin Nir has announced the end of her Metro section nightlife column, The Nocturnalist.
“This is our final column,” Ms. Nir wrote today. “The last opportunity this reporter will have to refer to ourselves in the plural (that is, without raising concern for our mental health).”
In the past year and half, Ms. Nir and a small army of stringers documented more than 200 parties in her signature, slightly agog third-person plural.
Yeah . . . that’s actually first-person plural. Almost no one (outside of Sybil, maybe) refers to him- or herself as they.
Not to get technical about it.
Sunday’s New York Times Business section featured a piece about “Wordnik, the vast online dictionary.”
The lexisite works not like a modern-day Samuel Johnson or Noah Webster, the Times piece says, but like this:
[A]utomatic programs search the Internet, combing the texts of news feeds, archived broadcasts, the blogosphere, Twitter posts and dozens of other sources for the raw material of Wordnik citations, says Erin McKean, a founder of the company.
Then, when you search for a word, Wordnik shows the information it has found, with no editorial tinkering. Instead, readers get the full linguistic Monty.
“We don’t pre-select and pre-prune,” she said.
But the Times, apparently, does.
Here’s how it describes Ms. McKean:
At one time, she was the head of the pruners, as principal editor of the New Oxford American Dictionary. She is also an author and columnist.
Yeah – a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, a detail the Times conveniently, er, pruned.
That’s small, Timesniks. Really small.
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