"Perhaps part of the reason for Dixon’s remuneration windfall was due to the perpetuation by lazy analysts and commentators of one of the great myths of Australian business: that Geoff Dixon was an elite business executive."

"Sources familiar with the plans - drafted in 2003 for the 2005 Metropolitan Rail Expansion Program - say the north-west link could provide a minimum of six trains an hour in each direction, without the need to upgrade any of City Rail’s major infrastructure. It would require only the construction of an extension between Rouse Hill and Epping stations, and a new junction north of Epping."

"How long ago was it that a black woman would be denied entrance to a whites-only restroom? Well, at one point in the afternoon, a white woman wearing a shirt that said “Kill Fags,” which appeared to be a homemade silkscreen job, felt a similar call of nature. At the door of [A LOCAL SPORTS BAR], she met Matt [LAST NAME REDACTED], one of the bar’s managers. He told her that she could not use the restroom.
“So you’re refusing?” she asked.
“Yes,” Matt said. “There’s no public option here.”
“Bastard,” she said.
“I can do you one better,” Matt said. “I suck cock.”
He then put his tongue in his cheek and cupped his hand, moving it back and forth in front of his mouth in the internationally-recognized gesture for fellatio.
“I’m one of those,” he said, pointing at her shirt.
She left to find a bathroom more accommodating to her sort."

A short ode to golden boy*

My longstanding top-ranked t-shirt – the one I would put on first, all other things being equal – is being retired in a few minutes. The cotton is thin and fragile like a piece of fabric at a museum, with holes forming around the silkscreens on front and back. It hasn’t been publicly wearable for close to a year (although that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been occasionally worn in public).

This shirt was left behind at my place in Montreal about seven or eight years ago by, I think, Ali Karbassi, a McGill friend. It’s a fuchsia Fidel shirt, and it was the shirt that made me aware of the fact that not all t-shirts are made equal. I had planned to give it back to Ali, but after wearing it once I decided to conveniently forget to do so. Sorry, Ali.

I’m writing this to deny, in some small way, the culture of consumption and disposal in which we’re complicit. It’s become so easy to throw things out and replace them without a thought; the value of material things has changed somehow.

But golden boy meant something to me, and so I note that here for the record. I will miss it. I appreciated its quality, and I thank it for its service and dedication.

* A reference, of course, from Seinfeld.

Google developing a micropayment platform and pitching newspapers: “‘Open’ need not mean free”

The Reporter’s Account: 4 Days With the Taliban - NYTimes.com

"The alternative explanation — that a free-market, consumer-addicted, image-obsessed society created by a certain stage of capitalism creates a society where a narcissistic style is the norm rather than the exception — could not be considered. Why? Because it would suggest that free market liberalism and cultural conservatism are in total contradiction — and since their fusion is the core fantasy on which the contemporary right is founded, such thoughts must be screened out."

Glenn Beck debuts as Fox News art critic

"Today, a report from the Australian government agency that looks after the nation’s emblematic Great Barrier Reef reported that “the overall outlook for the reef is poor and catastrophic damage to the ecosystem may not be averted”."