Fleishr

Accidentally in Rhinebeck

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 20:06:06 -0400

Took what I thought would be a shortcut to my grandma’s house on Friday and landed in Rhinebeck, where Chelsea Clinton and Marc Guy-Who’s-Marrying-Chelsea got married. Never knew where the place was.
Didn’t even know where I was, until I started to see signs congratulating the couple.

"From the beginning of our joy ride with legalized gambling, there was a worry that more gambling..."

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:38:42 -0400

“

From the beginning of our joy ride with legalized gambling, there was a worry that more gambling would mean more overextended suckers addicted to slots, poker tables, lotteries and roulette wheels.

Now we know it’s true — only the addicts are not necessarily day trippers on tour buses.

They are also states, like Connecticut, New Jersey and New York — and most of their neighbors — desperate for cash, averse to raising taxes and doubling down on the one business that seemed to be eternally growing until it wasn’t.

”

- States Hooked on Gambling for Revenue, By Peter Applebome, The New York Times

Got a kick out of this. (haha)

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 13:27:52 -0400

Got a kick out of this.

(haha)

"They did not give out allowances, which they viewed as a parental version of a government handout."

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 14:49:26 -0400

“They did not give out allowances, which they viewed as a parental version of a government handout.”

- Few rules, no curfew: The Pauls’ libertarianism began at home - NYT

Gina as kitten. Uncovered while throwing a few display photos...

Sat, 29 May 2010 13:56:39 -0400

Gina as kitten. Uncovered while throwing a few display photos onto the iPad that is temporarily mine. Tails tk.

"The current leadership model, it’s not it’s not that there is something inherently wrong..."

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 09:15:10 -0400

“The current leadership model, it’s not it’s not that there is something inherently wrong with it. But rather that it is so ubiquitous that we tend to tune it out. We’ve heard confident leaders speak to us in confident tones on such a regular basis that we tend to not even listen anymore. So that when we are confronted with someone who appears to be more thoughtful, more reflective, even to the point of revealing some measure of uncertainty, I think it appeals to us as humans and our ears perk up. And we actually pay attention.”

- Youngme Moon, Havard Business School professor, on non-generic leadership, on the Brian Lehrer Show

me: Graves disease: worst disease name ever?

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 10:22:40 -0400

me: Graves disease: worst disease name ever?
Dan: strumpfs disease is worse
me: what are the symptoms
and what's the prognosis?
Dan: it makes you
incurably handsome
the prognosis is poor
me: what are the effects?
Dan: i don' tknow
shutup
i have work to do
me: I see
it makes you stupid and petulant
Dan: i hate you

Definitive. Authoritative. Comprehensive.

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:46:00 -0500

(this post and this blog are none of those things. nonetheless: )

Gawker Media just bought Cityfile. For all the details on that you can go here, here (read the comments) and here. (Besides Gawker itself, which just has its own memos.) The key line in all of this:

Cityfile’s 2,000-plus profiles of New York notables will be the centerpiece of our new topic and people pages.

That means that Gawker will inherit an authoritative, definitive, comprehensive bio cache. Cityfile’s style includes an encyclopedic entry, a photo gallery, user comments and a newsfeed. Each page is something like a Times’ topic page, with less STUFF on it, but more standardized and easier to navigate.

It’s the type of thing you’re shocked Gawker hasn’t had already. Gawker recently tried converting its readers to using hashtag pages, which is sort of like a half-born transformation of your basic tag page that aggregates all posts about a specific topic while letting users contribute.

All this to say: Print was confined mostly by space. (And obviously no interactive stuff.) But with the web, papers (tv, radio, whatever. media) have the shackles of space lifted. You want context? You should get context galore. Your go-to news site shouldn’t just be the place where you can get the latest headline, but the place that helps you understand it. Part of that involves biographies. The Washington Post has been doing that, with a wiki component, over at WhoRunsGov.

NYT Pay Plan and Why It's A Good Idea

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:01:00 -0500

The people who are huge Times readers/fans will pay - and yes, the web design IS worth paying for because it helps you understand and get to information, especially on or through topics pages. People are interested in a certain topic, story or genre are going to keep coming back.

Beyond that, one thing this does, whether Times execs realize it or not, is this plan gets readers conditioned to understand and believe that content is not and should not be free, and it is indeed valuable - meaning it is something they should pay for. But it does so gently, without alienating readers or hitting them with a hard and fast paywall, denying access to all or some content immediately. If the content’s worth it, as high-end niche mags have shown, people will understand that content is worth paying for, and they’ll come to think of it as just another usual, regular, normal cost of living, like a $3 latte, like a $120-a-month cable subscription, like an $11.50 movie ticket (which still seems outrageous but I pay it every time.)

My triumphant return to the blog. So busy with statehouse reporting.

David: hey do you want anything from Dushanbe

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:19:39 -0500

David: hey do you want anything from Dushanbe
me: yes
a small child
David: okay but it'll have to be carry on-size
me: baby's fine
David: k cool

Public borrowing and debt

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:01:26 -0500

Chris Edwards at the Cato Institute argues that governments should limit borrowing and get rid of state and local defined-benefit pension plans as a way of curbing corruption.

My (now) colleague John Reitmeyer of the Star-Ledger/Record Statehouse Bureau details the recent history of the use of debt in New Jersey, writing that the state has increased borrowing 700 percent over the past two decades. The state got around the constitution by setting up authorities that are allowed to issue debt without voter approval - but voters, too, gave the go-ahead for the state to borrow about 50 times in the last 60 years.

Bloomberg’s Dunstan McNichol also wrote last week about a report saying New Jersey’s debt grew to 33.9 billion, but I can’t link that because, well, y’all don’t have terminals. But you can read AP’s story on the same New Jersey debt report.

So glad I don’t have to do WH press briefings. I think I...

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 07:47:00 -0500

So glad I don’t have to do WH press briefings. I think I would explode and then it would be on Romenesko.
(Thanks SheraCiara for the video.)

Postcard From My Dad From: Dad Date: Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 7:30 AM Subject: credit cards passwords...

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:34:00 -0400

Postcard From My Dad

From: Dad
Date: Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 7:30 AM
Subject: credit cards passwords etc
To: Lisa, Dan

I think you should have a photo copy of the front and back of your credit cards

I think you should email yourself a list of user names and passwords to all accoubnts

I GUESS I AM SENILE BUT I TEND TO FORGET PASSWORDS FOR ACCOUNTS I DONT USE OFTEN

BECAUSE SOME REQUIRE MIX LETTERS AND NUMBER SOME DONT ETC

Mike: i mailed it to you

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:36:00 -0400

Mike: i mailed it to you
me: that will take forever
probably until monday at least
Mike: E
MAILED

Low appraisals a Major Problem (clearly)

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:09:00 -0400

So major, The New York Times has run at least three stories in the past five weeks about the same thing.
The latest installation, printed this weekend, explains the issue like this:

Real estate agents, mortgage brokers and appraisers all say that the low-ball appraisal has become increasingly common in today’s unsettled market. The problem is even more pronounced when homeowners are hoping to refinance a mortgage or get a home equity loan, because there is no current agreed-upon sale price as a benchmark, they say.

It goes on to explain the changes that have come with the Home Valuation Code of Conduct, which changed the way some things are handled between appraisers and banks.

The first incarnation of the story was back on Aug. 19, and dealt largely with the rage appraisers were feeling over the new rules, and how they feel like they’re always caught in the middle of real estate rage. On Aug. 21, another story about low appraisals came in, this time focusing on the buyer.

(My story on low appraisals, by the way, ran Aug. 22.)

How to get e-mail during a Gmail outage

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:23:00 -0400

Before Gmail fails again, set up a system to retrieve your gmail via IMAP/POP - or, to us non-techies, on your phone.

In the middle of a pleasantly readable/understandable breakdown of yesterday’s outage, this sentence explained why my mail kept coming to my Sidekick:

IMAP/POP access and mail processing continued to work normally because these requests don’t use the same routers.

Also from the Gmail blog is this explanation of (and the differences between) the two acronyms.

"I don’t know if we can make the definitive case that most newspaper purchasers were actually paying..."

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:50:44 -0400

“I don’t know if we can make the definitive case that most newspaper purchasers were actually paying for news. They were paying for a bundle of utility that included news. … We used the paper to help us shop every week (coupons and flyers, travel, living and food sections) and decide what movie to see at what time and where. Now the utility bundle is broken.”

- Judy Sims

"A large percentage of online readers are content to read someone else’s analysis of the news rather..."

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:48:06 -0400

“A large percentage of online readers are content to read someone else’s analysis of the news rather than the news itself. A pay wall encourages users to find commentary on the news rather than the story itself. Thus conversations about a particular news story will occur all over the web, but not on the originating site.”

- Judy Sims

Mike: hi

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:39:24 -0400

Mike: hi
sup
me: life is restored
Mike: i dont understand.
me: gmail
Mike: oh
was that a nationwide problem
me: HELLO, YES.

tech fail

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:26:00 -0400

tech fail