February 2012
2 posts
January 2012
3 posts
NPR and Hip Hop and crossword puzzles, oh my.
PETER SAGAL, HOST: Last Saturday's puzzle offered this clue - listen carefully - "wack, in hip hop." And the answer was "illin." Now, this is ridiculous, as all the street smart readers of the Times know, because wack means bad, as in, "Whoa, the Style section was wack this week." And illin means good, as in "Oh, I thought Maureen Dowd's column on Michelle Obama was quite illin, n'est pas."
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BRIAN BABYLON: No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
SAGAL: No, no, Brian, you're disagreeing?
BABYLON: As the expert on the panel...
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BABYLON: "You Be Illin" was a song. You be illin, so that means that you're doing something bad.
SAGAL: Anyway, we can settle this. Because to talk about the controversy that followed, we are pleased to welcome our friend Will Shortz. He's the NPR Puzzlemaster and the editor of the New York Times Crossword. Thanks for joining us, MC Shortz.
WILL SHORTZ: Hey there, good to be here.
SAGAL: Nice to talk to you again. To prove your authority on this topic, Will Shortz, please use illin in a sentence for us.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SHORTZ: You caught me by surprise.
BABYLON: That's hilarious.
SHORTZ: The illin comes from the Run DMC song and the example is that a guy goes into KFC and orders a Big Mac and that's illin. Clearly, that's bad.
SAGAL: It's bad.
BABYLON: Told you.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: All right, so illin is bad and wack is also bad.
SHORTZ: That's right. So that's why I thought that that was a good clue. It turns out this Run DMC song is from 1986 and the words...
SAGAL: Well, I knew that.
SHORTZ: The word has changed meaning since then and nowadays, illin is kind of cool.
SAGAL: So you're getting these complaints from the reader, and did you ever say to yourself, "What do you know about hip hop, you do the crossword puzzle in the New York Times?"
SHORTZ: Exactly.
SAGAL: Since we've established you as an authority on street vernacular, Will Shortz, have you ever gotten jiggy with it?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SHORTZ: All the time.
SAGAL: All the time.
PAULA POUNDSTONE: That is wack.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Will Shortz is the Puzzlemaster, of course, for WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY. He's also the editor of the New York Times Crossword, and a man so dope he spells Shortz with a Z. Thank you so much, Will.
December 2011
12 posts
One teachers approach to preventing gender...
I’m having some emotions over this. <3
togetherforjacksoncountykids:
“It’s Okay to be Neither,” By Melissa Bollow Tempel
Alie arrived at our 1st-grade classroom wearing a sweatshirt with a hood. I asked her to take off her hood, and she refused. I thought she was just being difficult and ignored it. After breakfast we got in line for art, and I noticed that she still had not removed...
:: procatinator :: →
oh my goodness.
“GZA - a.k.a. Gary Grice, founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan - is known for an...”
– At Harvard and MIT, The Genius meets the geniuses - Metro - The Boston Globe
I thought you might appreciate this.
November 2011
26 posts
A freshly tattooed Faye Daniels and a rather...
therealkatiewest:
Tiger Beatdown › 13 Ways of Looking at Liz Lemon →
Okay. You’ve probably read this, and I normally dislike reading Tiger Beatdown, but every so often she writes something great and this is in that category. Let me know what you think?
3 tags
2 tags
SPIN | Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon Are 53... →
I don’t even.
copycats:
latenightjimmy:
AND we’ve got the complete History of Rap Spotify playlist ready to go for you. Hop to it!
This is less about the covers and more about the source material, but here you go. It’s relevant to some of your interests. —AJR
Drinkify - Nicki Minaj →
“Don’t listen to Nicki Minaj alone. We suggest:
10 oz. Vodka
10 oz. Fassionola
8 oz. Orange juice
Combine in highball glass and serve. Garnish with sugar.”
What you do with the overflow I have no idea. Maybe it’s a comically super-sized highball glass.
388. BODY A WONDERFUL CONTRIVANCE OF CREATIVE...
Giggles. Also pretty cool.
scientificsidelights:
I have no wish whatever to exalt unduly the body; I have, if possible, still less desire to degrade the mind; but I do protest, with all the energy I dare use, against the unjust and most unscientific practise of declaring the body vile and despicable, of looking down upon the highest and most wonderful contrivance of creative skill as something...
3 tags
October 2011
15 posts
Pat Buchanan: American Jews Made "Collective... →
You know, I expected this to make me angry. Instead it just makes me go “whaaaat.”
