Lindsayism.com

Just So You Know, I'm "Boycotting" WNYC's New Morning Show, "The Takeaway"

So last summer, a good friend of mine who I'll call "Michelle" saw a job listing for writers for a new NPR PRI morning show (nullus on the title of the job listing.) She was applying, and because she knew I was keeping an eye out at the time, she sent it to me and encouraged me to apply too (a typical example of the kind of generosity that should be typical but isn't in media. Michelle, though made ungoogleable here for obvious current-job reasons, is awesome.)

Is It Sam Lutfi or Sam Lufti? No Media Outlet Seems Sure

Not that it really matters whether any media outlet, anywhere, is spelling the name of Britney's latest Svengali correctly (or even consistently), but here's the final answer (or as far as I will go to get one):

Did you mean: sam lutfi 

Yes this is a complex and heartbreaking issue with no easy solution

But The Sex Offender bridge is nicer than my apartment! Whuh-oh!

Also: the Ultimate Mom Email Forward: "honey stay away from this bridge."
Also: Something about trolls maybe?

Elizabeth Spiers on Why Media Companies Should Have R&D Departments

Great essay on the future of media.

I Write For, Like, The Business Section?

I did a triple-take when I read this sentence in the Times today in an article about Facebook's new ad model. It's not in quotes!:

So each user’s news feed will contain items like “Bobby Smith is now a fan of Toyota Prius” or whatever.

I think it's just wonderful, especially if it's editorializing.

Really Readymade? Really?

Okay, so I love ReadyMade as much as the next person-in-my-demographic, but lately every time I read it I'm like "Come ON! Really??" I really think they might be running out of ideas, because everything seems to fall into one of two categories:

1. "YUPPIE SHELTER MAG BY ANOTHER NAME":
"I found this one-of-a-kind huge contraption from the 1800s at an antique store and paid $400 for it even though neither me nor the store owner knew what it was, and painted it (with $5 worth of paint, here's how!) and now it sits in my huge loft and gets me laid. That's it. That's the story. Look at me!" [Example: This month's not online "old print dryer"; Also RM search feature sucks]

2. "LIKE MY OVEN MITTS? I AM SO LONELY.":
"I spent 21 hours knitting/sewing/whatevering this X out of a bunch of old Ys when I could have just bought one at a 99 cent store and spent the 21 hours cleaning old Ys off the street or volunteering or watching TV." [Example]  [Other Example]

On Quirk

Michael Hirschorn doesn't like "quirk". He has some good points (Napoleon Dynamite, Garden State, and You and Me and Everyone We Know tried too hard to be quirky and ended up annoying, but it's still good that they were made) but from what I can gather, he just doesn't like things that are too subtle for stupid people to get and that don't make a ton of money. (This American Life, Flight of the Conchords, Arrested Development, Wes Anderson movies other than Rushmore.) As if intelligent, subtle humor wasn't already in enough jeopardy, let's kick it some more! It's not like what he calls "quirk" is taking over our culture at a time with the best show on TV (the extremely quirky "30 Rock") is in danger of cancellation while exploitative reality shows and  "Two and a Half Men" thrive.

A plea to Mr. Hirschorn: thanks for giving the world Celebrity Fit Club and I Love New York, and celebreality shows in general. But can you leave the already-depressed people who work their asses off to entertain those of us with higher standards alone? We're already hard enough to please, and they're already hearing a constant refrain of "dumb it down, dumb it down, only a few people will get this". Some of us happen to prefer things that only a few people get. Sometimes those things are the only things that make us believe pop culture has anything to offer us. What you call "quirk", we call "originality", and while there will probably never be a huge market for it, we need more of it, not less.

What I Don't Get About the Whole Jane Thing

(This is now on Huffpo: What I Don't Get About the Whole Jane Thing)

Does She or Doesn't She?

Can you spot the fundamental gigantic huge inescapable flaw in this Times story about dumb blondes by a Cornell economist? Particularly pertaining to his hypothesis:

"if gentlemen prefer blondes, fair-haired women should pair more often with intelligent, more successful men, and since hair color is at least weakly inheritable, a positive correlation should also emerge between blondness and intelligence."

If not, it's after the jump.

It's Not the Wayback Machine, It's Time Out New York

This week (as part of what I just learned is an entire issue about hipsters), TONY presents a quiz: are you a hipster? OMG (but before OMG was said all the time)! It mentions Misshapes!! It's so deck! Here are some pitches for future quizzes:

* Are you a hippie or someone over 30 who doesn't smoke grass?
* Are you a flapper or whatever flappers called people who weren't flappers?
* Are you a slave owner, an abolitionist, a slave, a sharecropper, or other?
* Arst thou a witch?
* Do you have the plague or not?
* Do you walk erect?

If someone from Time Out is reading this, call me! There are like, so many other periods in history whose quiz-time has passed besides 2003!