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November 03, 2003

New stupid human Starbucks tricks
: I'd reached peace with Starbucks. I like my coffee. I like it large (not vente, damnit, just large). I like it black. So I grit my teeth and go to Starbucks to drink the grit.
But they do find new ways to irritate me.
Lately, they have taken to asking for a name -- "first name only" -- with every order. And I want to shout: What happens when three Ashleighs come in and order caf and decaf and halfcaf and they all get the wrong frigging coffee and end up in caf-induced fits and you end up with a riot of over-and-under-caffed Ashleighs? Huh? Can't you just give somebody a number? Can't you just make the coffee faster instead?
I went to a coffee place in Cambridge during Bloggercon and they put the orders into a computer so we were spared all this Starbucks shouting: "Vente skim decaf latte!" "Vente skim decaf latte!" "Aye-eye captain!" "Battle stations!" "Battle stations!" "Dive!" "Dive!"
And then today I went to Starbucks get my plain large (not vente, large) decaf, which is usually poured by the person who takes my money and I'm on my way. But my wife also wanted a large iced coffee. The cashier didn't pour that. No, that had to come from a barrista. But it's just ice and coffee, said my whining look. The line is long. If you took all the people -- all the Ashleighs -- waiting for their overpriced coffees and laid them end-to-end they'd reach halfway to Bloomingdale's. Can't you just pour the damned coffee over ice? I wonder if it would help if I shouted it: "Ice!" "Ice!" "Coffee!" "Coffee!" "Roger!" "No, Jeff!" But he just points to the barrista. The coffee artista.
I wait. I wait longer. They spritz and steam and shout out orders and names.
And finally, the barrista reaches into the fridge for the pitcher of cold coffee. He pours it into the special Starbucks patentened iced-coffee thing. Then he pours in ice. Then he shakes it. I swear, he shakes it, with flourish, as if this were a martini and I were a spy. "Vente iced coffee for James!" "Bond!"
There's nothing to mix. But he shakes it. OK, the gags on me and it's over, I think.
But no. Then he lets it sit, as if this is going to do anything besides melt. He goes back to more shouting and spritzing and steaming. Then, at long last, he goes back and pours the damned coffee and ice into a plastic cup and gives it to me. Ah, that special barrista touch.
Damn, they do find ways to drive a person nuts. I paid a premium for this twit to shake this coffee.
I think I'll go back to drinking too much Coke.vito remote v2.5.1 serial

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Gag
: I found Zell Miller's endorsement of George Bush to be about as appealing as a finger down the throat:

I am moved by the reverence and tenderness he shows the first lady and the unabashed love he has for his parents and his daughters.
I admire this man of faith who has lived that line in that old hymn, "Amazing Grace," "Was blind, but now I see." I like the fact that he's the same on Saturday night as he is on Sunday morning. And I like a man who shows respect for others by starting meetings on time.

Oh, ferchrissake. Let's make him Pope, too. Or at least bishop of New Hampshire.
Unlike Miller, Roger L. Simon, and other once-Democrats, I'm not ready to vote for George Bush.
I'm not a Democrat-Republican.
Or a Republican-Democrat.
I may be a liberal hawk or a hawkish liberal.
But I'd prefer to think of myself merely as open-minded.
I find lately that I can sit with conservatives and not feel as if I'm about to be turned into the FBI; that's relatively new for me (it helps when I'm wearing the flag on my lapel). I also find that I can sit with reasonable liberals and find ground for agreement (Saddam was a bad guy, very, very bad). I can disagree with the Bush-backers over the Supreme Court and the tax cut and lots more. I can disagree with the Bush-wackers over support for human rights in Iraq and such. Wishy-washy? Ha. Fence-sitter? Hardly. The war on terrorism and weblogs, among other things, have merely made me selective.
And I'm still quite selective about my presidential candidates. I'm still selecting. Just because I'm willing to support the president in this war on terrorism, that doesn't mean that I'm ready to turn into a damned jelly-filled donut like Zell Miller. You have to admit: His valentine to Bush would make a Hallmark writer gag.vito remote v2.5.1 serial

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Those were the days
: Yup, those Iraqis were sure unhappy to see us coming. From tomorrow's NY Times:

"If I catch Saddam I won't kill him. That won't be enough. I'll suck his blood. And if he escapes I'll follow him to the ends of the earth."
Rage of such intensity courses through Iraq, where the dead, the maimed and the missing consume the thoughts of the living.
Six months after President Bush declared that major combat was over, countless problems crowd in on Iraqis, not least unemployment and the absence of security. But nothing seems to preoccupy them quite as much as the urge to settle accounts with the old government.
Suspected mass graves continue to come to light, replenishing the stores of grief and anger. Aided by forensic specialists and satellite imagery, American legal experts in Baghdad say they have found 262 sites that may contain multiple human remains.

vito remote v2.5.1 serial

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PC terrorism
: Both Josh Marshall and Atrios are trying to stage a PC takeover of the word "terrorist."
Marshall says those on a killing spree in Iraq today are not terrorists but, because they're killing soldiers in the mix, are "insurgents" or "guerillas." Atrios says, "what he says," and then glibly adds, "Pretty much everything is now called 'terrorism' from graffitti to smoking bongs to fake bomb threats."
Cut the crap, boys.
I'd say that people imported from another country to wage battle and raise mayhem for the sake of trying to disrupt the civil order and population in the supposed aim of a sick cause are terrorists. Fits in my dictionary.
But by your definition, boys, just because the September 11th murderers killed some soldiers at the Pentagon, they're not terrorists but "insurgents"?
Crap, boys, crap.
Because these people in Iraq are happening to kill some U.S. soliders while also killing civilians and health relief workers, they are "guerillas"?
Offensive crap, boys.
This is newspeak a la Che: insurgents as the brave resistance fighters in the jungles of the new world order. Yes, I can see the poster art now. Make mine suitable for black light, will you?
The killers in Iraq today are trying to stop the nation from achieving order so as to defeat America in a larger war that has nothing to do with Iraq.
I dare you to call the families of the Red Crescent workers and tell them that their loved ones were killed by "insurgents" with a cause. I dare you to call the families of the 16 Americans killed on their way to R&R and tell them their young ones were killed by "guerillas." I dare you to correct them if they dare use the unPC word "terrorist."
It's terrorism, boys. It's terrorism.vito remote v2.5.1 serial

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Bush bites
: Jackie at Au Currant got herself a news exclu: Nigella Lawson, famed TV chef, will be cooking for George Bush when he visits Britain.

The day after Tony Blair's heart scare, TV cook Nigella Lawson piqued the interest of the media by arriving at 10 Downing Street for a meeting that, spokesmen insisted, was with neither the Prime Minister nor his wife. Some -- rather cluelessly and hilariously, to anyone familiar with Lawson's "Bring on the butter, cream and Marsala" dietary ethos -- speculated that she may have been advising Downing Street nutritionists (do such roles exist?) on a more heart healthy diet for the PM.
Speculate no longer. In what I am quite sure is a blogging exclusive (blogclusive? Ugh.), I can now reveal that the real reason Nigella was hunkered down with the PM's people is because she is planning the menu for President Bush's upcoming state dinner with the Queen and Tony Blair.

The Guardian picks up the news (attributing it only to a web site -- how unblogsmart of them!) and adds this choice journalistic morsel:

On President Bush's recent visit to Thailand, 10 mice were assigned the task of tasting the president's food first for poisoning. Whether such security measures apply in the UK is unknown.

vito remote v2.5.1 serial

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Constitutionally
: Afghanistan just got a draft of a new constitution. To those wanting to rush the process in Iraq, note how long it took from liberation to this step. The process has occurred quite quickly, but the process is far from over. Democracy takes effort. Democracy takes time. vito remote v2.5.1 serial

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Newsman and Blogboy
: I spent the end of last week at an Aspen Institute session on whether and how journalists should be involved in public policy. (I wasn't important enough to be invited on my own; I was subbing for someone more important who generously got me included; in any case, I was glad to enjoy the company, the conversation, and the surroundings.)
[For my report, click on the "more" link...]
vito remote v2.5.1 serial

I found myself in an odd position: Here I've been in the news business for more than 30 years (yow), yet I felt like a bit of an outsider. That is, I wasn't really there as Newsman; I was there as Blogboy. And it's as Blogboy that I report back to you, my editors, on the meeting. vito remote v2.5.1 serial

I have been infected with this populist virus; it has taken over my brain and career; and now I'm trying to infect others. But I found that I enjoyed the role of blog evangelist; you should try it at any opportunity. The group had just the range of perspective you'd expect: Some are skeptical about this phenom; some are hungrily curious; some are already enthusiastic; all know there's something worthy of attention here. vito remote v2.5.1 serial

At the start, the group was asked the kind of question that is often asked in gatherings such as this: Who is a journalist? You'd like how the conversation turned. As someone said, journalism is a "what," not a "who." Journalism is about news, information, and viewpoints. Journalism is about standards. But journalism is not about accreditation via a journalist's paycheck. It's an inclusive attitude. Not what you may expect from the pros, eh?vito remote v2.5.1 serial

When talk turned to diversity -- as it often does at such media confabs -- I found myself arguing in favor of the idea that the Internet, and especially the weblog movement, are the best new source of diversity media can find. When a news organization wants to find new and diverse news, information, voices, and viewpoints from its own backyard or from elsewhere -- as, in fact, they all struggle to do -- there's a faster, easier, perhaps more effective way of doing this than only having to hire those voices: You can go out and read them online. Quote them; link to them; make them stars. We the pros have owned the printing presses for centuries; now we the people own them and it's our turn to speak and be heard. vito remote v2.5.1 serial

Somebody there challenged me to do more of this myself and, in fact, the meeting gave me some new ideas for using weblogs locally to involve new ethnic and linguistic constituencies. vito remote v2.5.1 serial

The real point of the meeting was for these leaders in journalism to wrestle with the question of whether journalists should be involved in public policy. If you'd been there, you'd surely have been impressed with the effort, even agony, that these people go to when debating such questions. They worry about issues of ethics, credibility, labor and about practical matters of setting and maintaining standards. The group came to consensus that there is a range of proper and improper involvement: On one end, if a matter of policy directly affects the public's right to know (e.g., the passing of an official secrets act), then it is the right and perhaps responsibility of journalists to speak up and even to lobby. On the other end, if a matter of policy is controversial (say, globalization), then it is not right for journalists to take a stance on an issue they are covering. Of course, there's much in the middle. I'm unfairly summarizing a lot of discussion in a few sentences; the institute will issue a paper on the topic soon.vito remote v2.5.1 serial

Amid all the blather we hear about "media bias," note that these professionals take hyperseriously their responsibility to report with fairness, balance, and accuracy and without bias. You can criticize them all you want on whether they succeed. But too often, the critics forget that they do try. One cannot dismiss this effort easily. vito remote v2.5.1 serial

On the other hand, in this era of increasing opinion and perspective in the news -- this era of FoxNews, of an international audience for the Guardian and Britain's opinionated press, and of weblogs -- note that the journalism business is grappling with the proper and improper roles of opinion and activism. This trend toward opinion did not come up as an explicit discussion, and I chose not to raise it, but I see a coming-together nonetheless: The news business -- with help from the likes of Aspen -- is recognizing the trend toward opinion and even activism and is trying to understand how to properly operate in this new world. That takes time and deliberation and work but the work is going on.vito remote v2.5.1 serial

Now, at long last, is my real point in telling you all of this: If we media people met the bloggers, we'd be impressed with the sincerity of their effort. And if we bloggers met the media people, we'd be impressed with the effort of their sincerity. In short: the more established media people and blog people meet and talk, the more they will understand each other, the more they will focus on issues and information, the less they will waste time bashing or belittling. vito remote v2.5.1 serial

I've been talking with some folks about a possible upcoming confab that would bring these two mobs together. I don't expect such a meeting to end with a group hug (God forbid) but I do think it would be worthwhile for all.vito remote v2.5.1 serial

Sometimes I feel as if that meeting goes on in my own head, since by day I am Newsman and in the off hours, I go into a (high-speed Internet) phone booth and emerge Blogboy. But it's not a war in my head (despite appearances). The two worlds can, and should, coexist sanely, civilly, and productively. vito remote v2.5.1 serial

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Or should it be Ewwsama?
: Pedram sees a conspiracy in the spelling of bin Laden's first name. He says Usama is right but we couldn't stand having an enemey with USA in his name so we switched to Osama. He gives us too much credit for organizational skills.vito remote v2.5.1 serial

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Can do
: J Krank, blogging from Bulgaria, finds deeper meaning in the story to which Glenn Reynolds linked about soldiers who used money they found to rebuild Iraq on their own:

They didn't steal the money.
You remember the film "Three Kings," where disaffected angst-ridden grunts went off on their own in search of gold? I mean, they were stuck there in some sort of 'war,' and the crisis they face is whether to help the citizens or succumb to greed. It was very 90's, and brilliant and all that?
Let's repeat this: A squad found tons of money lying around...
...they started to spend it...on others...without orders.
They didn't steal the money!
You think they'll make a movie of that?
Their honesty is simply taken for granted. It shouldn't be. It's not how the rest of the world works.
What they did is both outrageous and thoroughly American.
So is not realizing it.

vito remote v2.5.1 serial

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Africa blogs
: Since I'm a blog internationalist, often linking to Iranian, Iraqi, and German blogs, a reporter emailed me this morning asking whether there were blogs from (or about) Africa. I follow a few and I followed the links on them and in no time, I had quite a list: AfricaBlog, AfricaPundit, Mostly Africa, Ethiopia Express, A Taste of Africa, Swamp Cottage, Letters, AfricaBlog, Head Heeb, Mr. Dutton Goes to Mozambique, and there are more where those came from. Is there a country where there aren't blogs? I doubt it.
And by the way, isn't that a smart reporter looking to weblogs to find new news, information, voices and viewpoints? vito remote v2.5.1 serial

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Cool on cool
: Inside the small and self-important world of New York media, this is intriguing news: Kurt Andersen has been hired as editorial director and chairman of Colors, Benetton's magazine, and he, in turn, had the good sense to hire Simon Dumenco -- of the aforelinked New York Magazine column on bloggers -- as editor of the magazine to "recapture the buzz it had in the mid-1990's."
Andersen was a founder of Spy and Inside and now he's the host of my other favorite radio show, Studio 360 (which will continue). He's one of the most admired guys I know in this small and self-important New York media scene. I'm delighted to see that a guy my age can still be hired to recapture buzz. Dumenco, who columnizes for both NY Mag and Folio, is -- and I'm not just saying this because he flogged blogs today -- the best low-key critic of media around now; he has an engaging viewpoint and voice and he's the guy who was smart enough to hire Elizabeth Spiers away from Gawker for New York.
I haven't looked at Colors in years. Now I will. Smart hires. vito remote v2.5.1 serial

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The manly phone, part II
: Howard Stern started off the show this morning talking about our phone, the Treo 600. He said he spent his whole weekend learning how to use it (and loving it even more). He had a guy named Mandel from the company helping him and today he'll have his IBM consultant help him some more.
When you're rich and famous, not only do you have people but your phone has people. vito remote v2.5.1 serial

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Fame, no fortune
: Simon Dumenco tells the world about blogs and a half dozen of the blogging bloggers who blog them in New York Magazine today. I was honored to be one of them.vito remote v2.5.1 serial

: Choire Sicha is, of course, much wittier, snippier, and snarkier than I am on the New York Magazine, um, blogjob. Though as cranky as Choire, I'm not nearly as ironic. vito remote v2.5.1 serial

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