There is now a web-site collecting those overheard moments of New York surrealism.

Non-Ivy-Leaguer: So where do you go to school?
Ivy-Leaguer: Princeton.
Non-Ivy-Leaguer: California? That’s awesome.

–5th Ave between 26th & 27th
Overheard by: Shocked Onlooker

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The Widely-Shared Janet Reno Fantasy
Hipster #1: Man, she is so hot.
Hipster #2: Oh yeah.
Hipster #1: But sometimes she looks like a guy.
Hipster #2: True.

–Outside Shea Stadium

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Grandpa: Honey, take off your shoes and put them on the belt.
5-Year-Old granddaughter: Me?!
Grandpa: Yes, everyone has to take off their shoes.
Granddaughter: But me?! Really?!
Grandpa: Yes, you too.
Granddaughter: What kind of airport is this?!

–JFK

Hat tip to Karen Myers.

This link arrived via my college class email list this morning.

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Hat tip to Michael Lawler.

Steve Bodio quotes the Norman chaplain Gace de la Buigne (from Roman des deduis written c.1359-1377):

De chiens, d’oyseaux, d’armes, d’amours,

Pour une joye, cent doulours.

[With hunting dogs, falcons, wars, and women

For every joy, a hundred pains.]

and a Randy Newman parody reflecting the fact that the same hierarchy of status of hunting hawks tends to prevail today as in Gace’s time.

Darth Vader goes on a date, and is moved to the Night Shift.

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Episode one

Berkeley graduate student Cecilia Lucas was moved by the revolutionary struggle of the Shiite people of Palestine to put pen to paper and produce this poem:

I Don’t Want to Love You, But I Do

You were born out of death to a life in a cage
Where bombs are not the only reason people die
Fed by the violence of hunger and homelessness
Raised by colonialism
Your heart and your will still grew strong

You scare me
Not just because they tell me to be scared
Not just because they repeat, repeat, repeat
The story of 1983
Begging me to understand
Americans are worth more than Lebanese….

And so on.

And the older, and more cynical, Iowahawk was moved to respond.

You were born in the Valley to a life in a suburban cage
Encino, where mean girls and cheerleaders
Drop bombs of hate on the unpopular girls
Shy poetry club chicks like you
With 1480 SATs and early admission to Berkeley
Fed by the violence and lookism of the dance squad
Raised in a four bedroom colonial
They wouldn’t let you wear your Che T-shirt to prom
But your heart and your armpit hair still grew proud and strong

You scare me too
Not just because you have that Code Pink Manson girl freak-vibe
Not just because you repeat, repeat, repeat
All those quotes from your dog-eared volumes of Chomsky
and Zinn
and Edward Said
Begging me to understand
Can’t we just hold each other
Instead of talking, talking, talking
About your Masters thesis?

And so on.

Hat tip to David Ross.

Ann Telnaes – SLATE

Re-edited preview of Scorsese noir classic as inspirational uplift flick.

Failed demos are really embarassing, aren’t they?

Ambient noise? what ambient noise??

Do not miss this Israeli war song with a catchy beat.

Chorus:

Yalla ya Nasrallah, we will screw you Inshallah
We’ll send you back to Allah with all the Hezbollah

video – (Hebrew, with English subtitles)

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Hat tip to Sondra K, who gives it a 10.

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This is a good one.

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Chris Anderson web-site.

5 minute video of Darth Vader working as supermarket day shift manager. He should have sold those tech stocks sooner.

For an evening block of shows termed Midnight Spank on G4.

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Look closely in order to avoid missing the butterfly’s threatening antenna gesture .