"I run the house, and Tommy runs the city"

Great line by Mrs. Tom Menino, describing the division of labor in the Menino household.

Comes from an article about some contracting scandal involving the mayor, his son, and some contractors, or something that may or may not be unethical - we've seen the headlines for the last few days, and still can't be bothered to read too deeply into the stories.

Ten AM Quiz

Our readers are a smart bunch, so we figured we'd offer you a challenge to spice up your day. Here goes:

O'Ryan Johnson is a reporter for the Boston Herald. He posted a story today:

Cops vs. EMS in restraint flap
A battle is brewing between police brass and the head of Boston EMS after a deputy police superintendent handcuffed an EMS dispatcher moments after he directed an ambulance to a wounded man in South Boston, claiming he violated a restraining order in the process.

Your challenge: go read the story then come back here and try to tell us what happened. A prize for the 1st person who can actually piece together an order of events.

Johnson is a real reporter, not an intern. He acutally was paid to submit this, and his editors saw fit to publish it. Something to think about next time someone raises the idea of a newspaper bailout.

Marlo Stanfield was right

Remember the brouhaha back in January when it loked like Obama would have to surrender his BlackBerry? Most of us assumed it was a public records/confidentiality issue - the White House lawyers being afraid of a device that turned simple Presidential conversations into a documented chain of conversations that now need to be archived and made public. Or maybe they were concerned with someone hacking into his private emails.

Turns out there is also a legitimate personal security issue; the BlackBerry-as-homing-device.

"Thus, as long as President Obama keeps his BlackBerry turned on while he is in China, it is likely that the Chinese government will be closely monitoring his location, as reported by the president's phone to the Chinese government-owned phone company. The same sort of security issues will likely arise in many other countries.

Due to these security concerns, this blogger would be extremely surprised if the Secret Service permitted the President to use his BlackBerry when on foreign trips." via CNet.com

Wonderful

Michael Jackson is holding an auction of some of his crap.


Here's a sampling of what's available. It's spectacular.

17 Great Mindfuck Movies

We love lists like this.

Some thoughts:

• They give much-deserved love to Cube. We find that people who like Cube invariably discovered it by accident (we came across it on pay per view one bleak Sunday in January, only to spend the rest of the day hating our television for not living up to what we just saw), so we won’t hype it at all. Just go out and rent it, and be prepared for a low budget flick w/mediocre acting, and probably just a liiiiiitle too much gore for the genre.

• The Game doesn’t hold up. Great concept, well executed, but it falls apart upon repeated viewings. Once you start asking questions, it becomes apparent they relied upon coincidence one too many times. . Such as THE BIG ONE NEAR THE END: how did they know Michael Douglas would pick that.exact.spot to leap off the building? A few too many of these for our taste.
  

• We agree wholeheartedly with their take on Primer, but we recommend it only if you’ve got a place in your heart for time travel stories. This one gets deep. (Genius of this movie is that these guys are the only ones to come up with a viable method of time travel. We figured out another viable method years ago, but have thus far been unable to surround with a compelling story. So deep down in places we don't like to talk about at cocktail parites, we hate these guys)
  

Enjoy


found via kottke.org