40% yankee.

One quibble not dicsussed is that I have not once, ever, and I mean EVER, heard a native New Yorker pronounce the second syllable in "pajama" as jam. It's always pa-JAHM-a. Can't tell you how much those execrable Pajamagram radio commercials are to me because they pronounce it pah_JAMM-a-gram. Like fingernails on a blackboard. Yet, they track pa-JAHM-a as Southern.


"Ooh, ooh. Someone who... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 9:18 AM on May 2, 2008

(When I lived in NYC I got so I could distinguish Jersey and Long Guy Land accents.) This may actually be a feature of the NYC accent

Ha, can tell you're not a native, because people out of town say New York City, or NYC. ;-) We New Yorkers call our fair city New York; let New York state find another name for the state! We had it first.

As a curious side note, now that on-line has a specific term, are New Yorkers now waiting... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 5:58 AM on May 3, 2008

I am also surprised that Amsterdam made the list. I mean, New York, which is pretty freaking dirty, is cleaner than its former namesake city.

But what are the criteria, because if Mexico City made it, I suspect on it's air pollution, then why not Tehran, or Bangkok, or Manila (where the fumes of the traffic are so strong that I had an oxygen-deprived buzz even in my air-conditioned hotel room)

Plus, I have read about some of the Soviet... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 5:39 AM on May 3, 2008

Prison is about both rehabilitation and punishment.

Could I state the proposition that prison is about - or should be about - rehabilitation, punishment, and protecting those outside of prison from those in prison. So if we look at that as a three legged stool, considering her case.

1) Rehabilitation, naaah, she was a soccer mom and homemaker and productive member of society

2) punishment, well 10 -... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 10:30 AM on May 2, 2008

The courts will usually quash this stuff when it's brought to their attention.

Yes, after Kathleen has had to spend her own hard earned money to defend herself and get it brought to the court's attention. That, for me, is the most frustrating part - that crap like this can cause people thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars simply on a whim or out of a desire for some kind of revenge.

That's the point isn't it? A... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 10:25 PM on April 4, 2008

It helps that in New York, "talk" and "stock" rhyme. For that matter, so does "York."

Talk and stork rhyme, along with York. Stock doesn't.
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 5:49 PM on February 20, 2008

Well if these rumors are correct (and I wonder why if they were, it wasn't blaring all over the media) the right-wing might have "issues" with Condi. But let's face it, this ain't gonna happen. McCain isn't dumb.

http://signorile2003.blogspot.com/2007/09/condis-best-friends-yesterday-on-show-i.html

http://www.dykestowatchoutfor.com/condis-housemate

I have no idea about them, but a cousin of mine, who is a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 2:24 PM on February 10, 2008

Were the bad old days really the good old days?

Short answer: yes.

You better believe it. New York spawned punk, disco, hip-hop, Be-bop, Velvet Underground, the folk scene, even Doo-wop. I can't imagine *any* of that coming out of New York now.

We were leaders and trend setters, now we're followers. It breaks my heart to say it but that is the brutal truth.

New York is a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 5:29 PM on January 23, 2008

Man, life here in these United States gets scarier and scarier.

Even apart for the libertarian arguments is that the drawing of blood is a medical procedure, albeit a minor one. I thought you had the right to refuse a medical procedure? What if you are terrified of needles? What if you have some disease where the drawing of blood might be contraindicated (cause a clot, etc.)

I mean do I trust the cops to keep the needles sterile, or use new ones... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 12:53 PM on November 12, 2007

To add,

My brother got stopped at a checkpoint where they had him breathe into a breathylizer. He asked if the mouthpiece was sterile and if it was changed for every person. the cop said it was. My brother said. "I'm not breathing into that thing until I see you change it in front of me!"

Surprisingly the cop did without so much as a peep.
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 1:00 PM on November 12, 2007

I wish the loud-mouth smartass 'critical mass' crowd would be honest about the risks in reclaiming the road from 'asshole drivers.'

As someone who used to live in Washington Heights and got clipped (and cursed and spat at ) by bikers running red lights going up to the GW bridge, who used to see bikers nearly hit old ladies and young women wheeling strollers across the street, who used to see bikers lined up in a crosswalk waiting for traffic to let... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 1:24 PM on November 6, 2007

He Percussive Paul, I fully support any measure like that, but my beef is as a pedestrian

I do feel that since most North Americans come from places with a car culture, when they bike they are as forgetful, neglectful, and sometimes as disdainful of pedestrians as car owners. Indeed, and I mean no disrespect, your reply below illustrates that (I know probably unintentionally)

and I will say without shame that I do... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 4:50 PM on November 7, 2007

I really wish the US would join the rest of the world and go metric.
In a sense the US *has* gone metric, but there is really no way to force US'ians (and their businesses) to go metric. But if you fix your own car, even if it is a Ford, you need metric wrenches now. most packaging is in grams, liters etc., etc. So deep down, American business will (and have) gone metric, but the average joe won't and it will be a quaint quirk, like the way we switch forks, or... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 5:34 PM on October 17, 2007

does your city have a Little Ethiopia?
Actually mine (New York) does. But then New York has a little (any ethnic neighborhood) but so does LA.

Someone once said to me New York is Europe wannabe whereas LA is what Americans secretly wished they could be if they went wild. Hence the dichotomy between the two.

I used to hate, hate, hate, LA with a passion, you know, the typical New York exclamation - "New... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 3:24 PM on October 16, 2007

but my favorite New York era was the 70's through the early 90's when pretty much everyone was weird and the yuppies stayed in their designated areas

Sniff, don't remind me. As a native New Yorker with the accent to prove it I am daily depressed by the homogeneity of the city - even the so called hip places. There are Goddamned Quizno's sub hero shops and Pizza Huts on every block now. just like back in Mesa or Plano. New York is over. It breaks my... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 8:15 PM on October 16, 2007

The best solution to the problem, one that ain't ever gonna happen?

Take back the mandate. The UN declares that the rest of the world is sick and tired of this, US and EU invades jointly and imposes a settlement. All the hot Israeli chicks move to New York to become nannies offering me many opportunities to be a leering, disgusting middle-aged man.

But seriously, I think some sort of imposed settlement by the International community is the only... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 10:30 AM on October 16, 2007

The most likely reason is that her last name came up on some watch list, perhaps an eighth cousin gave money to a Sikh group that may have ties to terrorism. Not to demean an entire group, but there are some Sikhs, like some Irish, Arabs, Americans, some Jews etc. who blow stuff up.

I don't know how common a name Ghuman is but one colleague at my office has that name. The local DHS people probably don't know *themselves* why she is persona non grata,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 11:32 AM on September 18, 2007

Even if you think Dr. Ghuman should be given more opportunity to contest the decision, I don't see how you can conclude that the decision was bad to begin with. We simply don't know what CBP turned up and why they denied her entry.

That's part of the problem, and a healthy distrust of government and its institutions is what motivated our founding fathers to write the Constitution with its checks and balances and habeas corpus... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 1:42 PM on September 18, 2007

The kid was a raging douchebag.
As was probably everyone on Metafilter at his age.

The cops, however, should have picked him up and carried him (shouting, no doubt, and continuing thereby to give evidence of his douchebaggery) out of the auditorium. There were clearly enough of them to do so.
Or at least should have warned him, talked to him or something before getting all apeshit. Admitedly it is hard to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 1:18 AM on September 18, 2007

Surprised nobody mentioned Paul Erdős and the Erdős number.

Pi - faith in chaos is a cult-classic low budget movie about a mad mathematician. Well worth checking out, BTW.
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 11:51 AM on September 5, 2007

Big oil is still desperate for an oil pipeline route from the Caspian and America has the only army for sale that is large enough to secure it, and time is running out on their purchased oval office.

Big oil had no problem with Saddam and has no problem with Iran. They couldn't careless who rules those countries, and high oil prices actually helps them. Big oil made its peace with OPEC and with "nationalization." It was the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 10:42 AM on September 3, 2007

Se, that should not be necessary. I say it's embarassing because I shouldn't have to go around apologizing for or distacing myself from the government that is supposed to represent me. They aren't standing for any values that I hold, but their image is the face I apparently have abroad.

You're right it shouldn't be, just like it shouldn't be incumbent upon a black man to "prove" he is not a criminal, or a Jew to "prove" he is not... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 10:35 AM on August 30, 2007

I don't get this dual citizenship discussion. Chertoff was born in New Jersey.

His mother was Israeli. I think she was the first stewerdess for El Al - remember reading that somewhere. Israel considers children of Israelis born anywhere to be Israeli whether or not they themselves set foot in Israel or speak a word of Hebrew. I don't know if Chertoff himself realizes it or considers himself "Israeli.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 8:15 AM on August 27, 2007

Hell, even without the helmet you have to watch out for fuckwits like this. A friend of mine got shoved off her bike and into traffic one night for the simple infraction of riding on the sidewalk (and YES I know you're not supposed to do that, but let's talk about what constitutes a reasonable response and what doesn't). Another friend has a biker friend who brushed an SUV with his bike; minutes later the driver parked his SUV, ran up to the biker a block away, and beat the crap out of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 10:58 AM on August 26, 2007

Parroting the nay-sayers that say

1) 9 months is bullshit

2) Oldsters who can't afford to retire in New York will move. Those who can afford to stay. You are far more likely to live to a ripe old age if you are wealthy while living to a ripe old age. I'd like to see the stats after all those who moved to Phase II of del Boca Vista (like my parents) are factored in.

Note to New Yorkers, Tourists, and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 12:05 PM on August 16, 2007

They are verbose. it's part of the training to be detail oriented.

Yes, well this guy appears to be a little more self-involved than the usual detail-oriented, I'm a captain and thus I wear a uniform type of guy.

They are verbose to us, but since it was posted on airliners.net, I'm sure his audience actually is interested in knowing that his airbus has the less powewrful F1 engines (or whatever) rather... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 2:44 PM on July 30, 2007

The number of times I've heard things like "do they speak English in England?" is staggering.

I am curious about this, since I've heard this often.
1) is it possible that it was said in some sort of Ironic jokiness? I could see myself doing that to some really hot Brit babe (Julie Christie e.g.) I could now in my forties, see myself going home alone after saying that, but that is another post.
2) Not to really get... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 8:33 AM on July 23, 2007

And I laughed out loud when I got to the end of number 9 on the list: "...an AS/400 (iSeries) recruiting company."

As did I. My first computer job was programming in RPG II on an IBM System/34 with a 69MB Hard drive the size of a filing cabinet. And I thought that was chickbait.

Many of these skills are no longer needed for most but for the dedicated and select few, still very necessary. For example, Windows batch... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 10:02 AM on June 26, 2007

It seems like a disservice to women to do a project that seems to rely on a chauvinistic "Oh my god! There are WOMEN over there! In HARM'S WAY!" reaction for its impact.

Especially since that whole "blurring of lines between combat and non-combat roles" thing means that due to our chauvinistic attempt to protect them, women can't take combat roles... they just die for them.

I agree... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 2:43 PM on February 23, 2007

What on earth is happening in this thread? jonmc isn't saying that violence is an appropriate reaction to any offense, he's saying that it is understandable if you are being willfully and transparently provoked.

Indeed! I note how it seems so easy for hip urban sophisticates, and Europeans as well, to make fun of Americans in the heartland. Much of that is deserved and I am not saying that one should never call out racism, homophobia, or bigotry, but... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 8:01 AM on February 12, 2007

The ugly American stereotype is somewhat true, but the problem is that it isn't true for every American. Once you see an ugly American, however, your stereotype is confirmed but you may not have noticed the five not ugly Americans who passed by.

To put it in another setting, say you're screwed over by your accountant and you may say, "what a thief", but if the thieving accountant is named David Greenberg, for example, it brings up all sorts of assumptions,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 10:17 AM on April 17, 2006

But I still don't believe that playing my iPod during take off and landing would be problematic.
I believe that's so if the plane crashes you can hear the cabin crew telling you to get the hell out of there. The same way you're not supposed to drive with headphones on (well, without the cabin crew in that case).

GuyZero is correct. I have a friend who studies safety issues for the airline industry and this is the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xetere at 4:28 AM on March 15, 2006