Comic for Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

Posted: 7:50 am, Tuesday, March 11th

Went to the Times first thing in the morning to see if we had a blind dude as governor yet, and much more interesting to me than the same ol' same ol' was that some dude gave a hundred mil to the NYPL and was getting the main building named after him. I was, as I bet you guessed, immediately outraged, but instead of jumping right on the internets to vent, I thought about it for a sec. First off, no one in the history of ever has called it "the Mid-Manhattan branch," and only people being very specific refer to it as "the research library," instead of just the NYPL. So the odds of anyone ever calling it the Schwarzman Library are pretty slim. Also, there was this a few paragraphs in:

"We hope to incise the name of the building in stone in a subtle, discreet way on either side of the main entrance about three feet off the ground," said Paul LeClerc, president of the library’s board of trustees. "It’s in keeping with the dignity of the building."

Alright, then! Donate away, dude. I have, myself, many times wished I somehow had enough money to get my name etched into the wall on the inside, where they write down the donors and patrons and whatever. It's an absolutely beautiful building, and it's full of books, which, you know, I'm a fan of.

We got going on PBS from days of yore for a bit yesterday, so I found a few more to drop up there. One is Commander Mark and the Secret City, which I know I've mentioned in the past. Here the good Commander is drawing away on his mural, which was always my favorite part of that show.

And, of course, no PBS memory lane stroll is complete without Reading Rainbow. Freaking everyone knows the theme song...

...but how many of you remember Run DMC's appearance? I remember being blown away as a seven-year old that the guys write all their own rhymes. (My knowledge of hip-how is only slightly more advanced these days.) And how about LeVar Burton, huh? Three absolutely iconic roles in about ten years - Roots, Reading Rainbow and The Next Generation. That's a good ride for that dude.

And one last thing before I jet, some awesome passive-aggressive notes.

bullfrog

Bullfrog -- Tuesday, March 11 2008, 08:51 am

Would anyone even know Billy Crystal was still alive if not for the Goat Fuckers?

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03112008/sports/yankees/comic_disbelief_101441.htm

Ha!

http://kotaku.com/366213/gta-critic-politician-in-prostitution-ring-bust

I can't quite decide if Spitzer's act was one of pride, power, stupidity or all of the above. I will say this, the way the CBS Early Morning Show's sex expert and political insiders (both women) were wailing against the future ex-Mrs. Spitzer was very amusing, and I laughed at their claims this will have implications about Hillary's chances of becoming President. What could Hillary do? (Or Mrs. Spitzer?) File for divorce and leave Chelsea so distraught that the only thing she could do is write a best-selling tell-all memoir about her days as the First Daughter?

I'd give the ol' Governor a month tops before he resigns.

Is it wrong that my first thought was to wonder if Spitzer beat her up to get his money back to buy a better weapon? The irony is so delicious I may skip lunch.

Zero

The passive-aggressive notes are hilarious, and led me to the more one note, but somehow just as funny "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation marks. http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/ Rampant, unnecessary quotation marks and nonsensically placed apostrophes's were the first things I recognized as crazy when I moved to New York.

Oh, man, what a bummer. I never got my Red Sox Obama shirt!

http://www.obamaofdreams.com/

I gotta disagree with you on naming rights to the library. So what if it's the Schwarzman library? Maybe if it was the Citibank library, that would be a little weird, but individual donors naming things after themselves really doesn't bother me. That's even when it makes no sense, like the David Geffen Medical School at UCLA. After all, in Pittsburgh nobody talks about the public library; it's always been known as the Carnegie Library. The only difference with Schwarzman is that Carnegie has been dead for a lot longer.

Hey, I said I came around on it, didn't I?

And I'm probably wrong here (since I am so often), but I'm assuming Carnegie donated money to get the Pittsburgh library started. I think that's different than coming along and donating a shit-ton of cash on someone else's effort and vision. I mean, the building's been standing for almost 100 years without anyone's name on it. Schwarzman didn't establish or design or fund the construction of the building, and he's done no great civil deed to get it named after himself other than give a ton of money.

But like I said, I came around on it before actually getting upset or anything. Schwarzman > Citibank, but < just naming it the NYPL or whatever.

Also, I had no idea it was the David Geffen Med School. That's wild.

The library building--stunning as it is--is not what is valuable about the NYPL research branch. It's the books inside it, and the ability of the public to access those books.

That money will no doubt go toward keeping the library doors open. As someone who uses the library for research and frequently finds its doors closed, I think a gift of that magnitude DOES show vision, and is most certainly worthy of tribute.

funniest thing i've heard all day - (sorry to bring down the IQ of the library conversation) http://www.tmz.com/2008/03/11/mary-ann-busted-with-mary-jane/

Awesome question from my mom in an e-mail:

"Is Patterson blind? Whenever I see him he has his eyes almost closed. Maybe the bright lights bother him."

Heidi Fleiss says the Governor ought to be put into prison. Hilarious.

On a sad note, the Kansas City Zoo is "threatening" to shut down forever if the city does not restore the planned budget cuts that are planned because apparently past mayors didn't understand the meaning of the words "balanced budget." I do like Zoos. I really do.

thank you for the unnecessary quotes link - it is my secret dream to be a crusader against superfluous quotation marks, especially when small town local elections roll around. i love the yard signs that say, "vote for james 'jim' smith" - as if we couldn't puzzle that one out for ourselves. even better, though, are the ones that say things like, "vote for jim smith, the 'honest' candidate."

He's "honest". That's like saying someone's "special." And by "special," I mean "stupid." Sweaty.