dispatch from my suffering from insomnia in my hotel room, manhattan

I just came across this site where the challenge is to name all 50 states in less than 10 minutes. With no especial rush, I did it in 2:53, although when I finished I was a bit surprised I hadn't missed any as I swept across the country.

Brief as it was, I don't think this is the best use of my ASA time. Ugh--I hate when I am unable to sleep.

what photoshop giveth, the internet tmzeth away

TMZ.com, the website dedicated to gleefully chronicling and promoting the decline of our civiilization*, has posted the above side-by-side comparison of Faith Hill as she appears on the cover of Redbook and Faith Hill as she appeared at the Redbook cover photo shoot.

* No offense to Carly.

or else maybe he's been missing dinner parties all these years but people just assume he's flaky and don't bother asking why afterwards

A footnote in Jon Elster's Explaining Social Behavior (p. 49):

[A]nother coincidence felt more significant. There are two experiences I've only had once. One is being invited to a dinner party and then forgetting I'd been invited. The other is being invited to a dinner party and then having the host call me up half an hour before I was supposed to be there, to tell me he had to cancel because of illness. The coincidence, which made me think for a second that someone was watching over me, is that this was one and the same party.

Complete non-sequitur: I'm making good progress on the Elster book despite a recent re-obsession with the Back Dorm Boys. If you've never seen their performance of "I Want It That Way", I'll embed below. I can't believe many sociologists still want to talk about globalization like it's a bad thing.

and you thought mr. pibb plus red vines was crazy delicious

Build your own surreal hot dog, here (HT: DH & JJ). I'd like to see somebody eat 66 of those in 12 minutes (reference to here).

i guess maybe he really is an angel after all. but what kind of angel?!

I have already told the story about my family and David Blaine on this blog. I've been trying for the last several minutes to upload this video from YouTube, but there's some problem at the YouTube-Blogger interface. (Don't be surprised if ten posts of it suddenly show up here.) In any case, it is absolutely hilarious, so click over and watch.

how to promote your book of short stories online

At least here is one interesting idea, by Miranda July.

semicircumgooglequest denied!

People are passing around news of this feature on Google Maps where you can get driving directions from the US to Europe, so long as you are willing to swim across the Atlantic Ocean (see Chris). I tried to see if I could get it to stretch halfway across the globe (12,450 miles). Given actual work to do, I had to abandon the expedition only 120 miles from my goal. So close!

march going out like a lion!*

Turn any blog into an object of protest! Click here (via Eszter).

* BTW: The idea of March going in like a lamb, out like a lion (or vice versa): is that a rural thing, a Midwestern thing, a more broadly American thing, or a more broadly everywhere thing?

jfw valentine's day special!

So, there's this online service some bloggers are using where you can make a blogwidget and people can send you valentines, which you don't receive until Valentine's Day. What intrigued me about this is a separate feature they have, called the "Mutual Love Note." How it works:

A Mutual Love Note is a special type of valentine that gets revealed only when two people have sent each other a Mutual Love Note. If only one person sent a Mutual Love Note, the other will not find out about it. Your Mutual Love Note will be revealed to the recipient only if the feeling is mutual, in other words only if the recipient has also sent you a Mutual Love Note.

The unveiling of this also doesn't happen until Valentine's Day, so there are presumably there will be people hitting refresh all the way until midnight tonight hoping that the crush for whom they have a Mutual Love Note sitting in cyber-reserve will leave one for them.

When I first saw this, I thought that had the Internet existed Back in the Day, a certain weird and mournful conversation several years after high school ("You mean--you mean you'd always had a crush on me too???") might have been avoided. But then I imagined that if the service became popular, it would lead to the fear that some people out there who wanted confirmation of someone's crush on them would leave Mutual Love Notes like:

I *knew* it!  I knew you were in love with me!  How about we play
a special Valentine's Day game of Wheel of Fortune:

U N R - Q U I T - D

Do you want to buy a vowel?  I am flattered, though, sort of.

So, as with so much else, within the Internet lies great potential to create opportunities formerly blocked by asymmetries of information, but this potential comes along with whole new possibilities for mischief.

Update: Sal has signed up to get Valentines. See Sal and I in our matching robot pajamas here. Leave him a valentine or Mutual Love Note here.

ph.D&D

Fellow faculty dorky-types looking for amusement, check out: Scholars & Students: A Compendium of Professorial Magic [hat tip: Jude]. I'm going to resist the urge to cast the listed Level 3 Speak Pop spell when I return to teaching this fall, as there is no reason to think I can pull it off.

another icarus plummets to earth

After, as an aside, I posted a link to the video for Liam Lynch's "United States of Whatever," I got a few e-mails wondering if I had seen the video for his song celebrating his nephew "Arlo." Indeed I had, and like everyone else I thought it was catchy, fun, and sweet. The guy was on a roll. So now he has got a brand new video posted on his sister's site, and it's, well, pretty much completely lame. Suck-tastically sucky, if you know what I mean.

I feel bad for the guy, I wonder why he couldn't keep the momentum going. Could it be poor nutrition? Check out this video.

Speaking of taking care of oneself, I went to the gym this evening after a hiatus that has lasted since my recent spate of traveling. Will I be able to keep up that momentum? Stay tuned.