Welcome
Thanks for stopping by Phillystine, my on-again, off-again personal blog.
phillystine@phillystine.com
Mail Bombs
An Arkansas lawyer and his son are going to jail for mailing a poisonous snake: Bob Sam Castleman, an attorney and former city judge in Pocahontas, Arkansas, and his son, Jerrod, were charged with mailing a cardboard box containing a venomous copperhead snake to a neighbor with whom they had feuded. The two pleaded guilty […]
Boss-across-the-hall update
Very happy news–Mrs. Boss-across-the-hall delivered a healthy baby boy over the weekend (their first child). Best wishes to all! And remember, boss-across-the-hall, that you are entitled to three months of leave.
John Allen Paulos: Who’s Counting?
A reader noticed that Once Upon a Number: The Hidden Mathematical Logic of Stories is currently in the pile of to-be-read-books and kindly sent the link to John Allen Paulos’ Who’s Counting column at abcnews.com. Thanks, Dan! There’s lots of good stuff in the archives. For example, concerning hidden codes in text: If, to use […]
That Ain’t Fare
I got into a cab on Saturday night and was greeted by really loud Middle Eastern-style music. It sounded not quite right, and after a few minutes I figured out why. The music wasn’t coming from the cab’s stereo–it was coming from the two-way radio. Once the music ended, the airwaves filled with disgruntled chatter […]
The Yes Men
Yesterday’s Marketplace had an interview with Andy and Mike, a couple of activists who fight “evil doers”: In 1999, just before the big protests in Seattle, Mike and Andy set up a parody of the WTO website at the domain GATT.org. Some people mistook it for the real thing and wrote in with questions about […]
Megalomaniac Managers
It’s all well and good that Professor Robert Hare and Dr. Paul Babiak have developed a test to detect corporate psychos. The article intriguingly states that “millions of harassed workers could have their worst fears confirmed about their bosses.” Right. Hello, boss-across-the-hall. Would you mind filling out this 107-point questionnaire? Have it on my desk […]