"Three days after the September 11 attacks, reporters at The New York Times, armed with stacks of homemade missing-persons fliers, began interviewing friends and relatives of the missing and writing brief portraits of their lives to create “
Portraits of Grief.” Not meant to be obituaries in any traditional sense, they were informal and impressionistic, often centered on a single story or idiosyncratic detail." As we near the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the Times has revisited some of the people they interviewed back then, for
Profiles Redrawn.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Aug 11, 2011 -
8 comments
Halló humans on the Inter-net. My name is Iceland. I am an island, full of mountains and glaciers and hot water and sheep and many nice Icelandic people, who like to make music, and who are sometimes cold. (Maybe you have seen me on your tele-visions, or your Inter-net.) I have heard that many humans use the Inter-net to make friends, and to talk about themselves. I decided to do this, too.
Iceland wants to be your friend. [more inside]
posted by carsonb
on May 19, 2011 -
57 comments
What you don't know about your friends:
The problem, [Francis Flynn, a psychology professor at Stanford] says, is that interacting with people and sharing experiences with them doesn’t necessarily translate into knowing lots of things about them. The main hurdle is the way we talk to those we’re close to: our conversations are usually meant not so much to gather information as to establish rapport and to bond - in short, to make friends.
posted by Korou
on Aug 18, 2009 -
69 comments
Another weekend sitting alone in your apartment? Thinking of sending that two thousand word cry for help to anonymous Ask Metafilter? Maybe you should take a look at the advice at
Succeed Socially first.
[more inside]
posted by TimTypeZed
on Feb 16, 2008 -
63 comments
The One where the Writers Totally Got Themselves Uninvited from Any Parties at Courtney Cox or Jennifer Aniston's House. In the midst of all the dry-as-kindling "Friends" stories being published, there's been one spark: Amaani Lyle's
sexual harassment suit against the show's writers. While it's easy to be distracted by the actual meat of her complaint — making Joey a serial rapist (
#74), a fill-in-the-genitals coloring book (
#56-#58), the importance of spelling "penis" (
#59-#60), the twigs in Courtney Cox's uterus (
#91), a missed opportunity to bugger Jennifer Aniston (
#88-#90) — their defense is even more interesting: Such talk is a necessary creative element of their job.
Writes Joanna Grossman:
The defendants admitted that many of Lyle's allegations were true. They testified in deposition that they did many of the things she complained of, but argued that the conduct was justified by "creative necessity." The writers' job, defendants argued, was to come up with story lines, dialogue, and jokes for a sitcom with adult sexual themes. To do this, they needed to have "frank sexual discussions and tell colorful jokes and stories (and even make expressive gestures) as part of the creative process." An interesting new permutation in how we classify inappropriate workplace behavior with major ramifications for the creative class, or a big ol' weaselly dodge?
posted by blueshammer
on May 5, 2004 -
75 comments
Friends Reunited Oh how lovely to link up with old buddies again, and let them know how well things are going these days! To tell them of the sports cars you're driving, and how it was all made possible through your occupation of selling 'charlie'.
Surely no-one will ever find out?
posted by apocalypse miaow
on Jan 19, 2003 -
15 comments
Rachel: "Look, she is breastfeeding. Look!" [Phoebe was pummelled by Wizard_cev]
"These images were recorded by the performers during our visit to the "Hulk" server. Note the yellow text at the top of the screen shots which are dialogue from the performance. The blue speakers bubbles represent our characters typing their lines. The other gamers depicted are constantly killing us. Scroll to the right to view additional images."
Conceptual artist
Joseph DeLappe and
his mates hybridize The Ultimate Shoot-'em-Up with the Acme of Sit-Com: now the teen boys and the teen girls can play together!
posted by dash_slot-
on Nov 16, 2002 -
21 comments
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People I've been waiting for months to post about this. Since I don't remember anyone posting the NYT article about this and Toby Young amuses me to no end, I thought this article is an ideal introduction. (more inside)
posted by rodz
on Jul 17, 2002 -
11 comments
The Boston Marriage. An article in Ms. Magazine describes the author's choice to live with a beloved friend rather than a sexual partner. The arrangement differs from a typical roommate situation in that the two people involved take care of each other and socialize together like a couple traditionally would, and are even considering raising a child together - yet they are heterosexual and have lovers that don't interfere with their partnership. For straight people that don't want to live alone forever but are disillusioned with marriage... could this be the social institution of the future?
posted by hazyjane
on Jun 14, 2001 -
17 comments
Oh, those naughty SMILTs. Or single men in their late thirties. Apparently, they mack on all the twentysomething chicks, and get away with it. Twentysomething guys, really, are too desperate to settle down to merit serious attention. "I'm shy and awkward and desparate for love!" Chandler cried as Janice quickly shut the door behind her.
Thanks to textism for the initial link. It's a great time to be 21!
posted by moz
on May 27, 2001 -
14 comments
I have one, and so does Marky Mark Finally there is a support group for all who have a supernumerary nipple. Most of us are still getting over Chandler's removal of his on Friends, so we need all the support we can find as a group. Please visit this page and see just what 1.5% of the population is experiencing.
posted by DragonBoy
on Aug 8, 2000 -
2 comments