Hard out there …

Blackprof.com blogger Paul Butler talks about two articles in the Washington Post on “Hustle n Flow” – a black article and a white article.

The white article (front page of the Style section), by Philip Kennicott, begins hilariously:

“At dinner, say a month from now, perhaps it will be your very unhip great aunt who says it. Someone skimps her on dessert, so she looks plaintively down the table, waits for a moment of silence and then delivers the line — ‘It’s hard out here for a pimp.’ “

The other day, Boondocks had this to say (thanks Eric!)

Bad School

Synablog, new entrant on my blogroll, reminds us about how crazy life can be when he tries to log onto smashcast at school. Read More.

Every night josephine & other lurid stories

This was not the cover of the book I was caught reading in 6th grade. The cover of that previous edition didn’t show the poodle, and did have a by-line – “My First True Love Story”

Caught reading this ‘trash’ while everyone else was studying for a Hindi exam, our Arts & Crafts teacher, the only male teacher at the school, hauled me up, then announced to the class the ‘terrible’ things I was reading.

Every Night Josephine

GASP

My First True Love Story

OH!

I remember standing there, absolutely still, stone-faced. ITS ABOUT A DOG I wanted to yell, and Jacqueline Susann’s story about how the dog takes over her life, and Jaqueline falls in love with the DOG … but in moments like this, bureacracy doesn’t listen. Too late they figure out that there’s a joke, and its on them. I just let it play out all the way to the hyper-concerned parent-teacher meeting on my precocious behavior (I agreed with the general assessment even though the specifics were ridiculous, so I just let them go at it)

In subsequent years, someone changed the cover of the book to the sober one shown here.

But Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez’s story is a one-up …

“… I needed a business license from THE CITY of Albuquerque No problem. Or so I thought. They called today, to tell me they had decided to reject my application for a business license. “On what grounds?” we asked. “Because you are a pornographic establishment,” said the brilliant people at City Hall. “

Here’s the rest.

Cracking up all by myself, Part I

From Dan Gillmor, one of the funnier blog titles.

STORIES I STOPPED READING NEAR THE TOP

ZDNet: Cheaper to patch–Windows or open source?. Microsoft has sparked heated debate by claiming that Windows software is cheaper to patch than open-source alternatives. A Microsoft-commissioned study–conducted by its business partner Wipro–outlined the main areas of so-called “cost savings” by using Windows.

I’m still laughing.