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Where Is Salam?

It's now been over a month since Baghdad blogger Salam Pax last posted, since the bombing of the city intensified and the international media outed him. Anyone have the latest rumor on his well-being?

- 4/26/2003

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NYC Wind Power

From the press release:

Setting an example as an environmentally friendly workplace to mark Earth Day 2003, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it will switch to non-polluting wind power for its offices in lower Manhattan.

- 4/24/2003

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Topless in NY

Cool. Apparently, it's legal for women to go topless in NY. Let's hope this is the start of a new trend.

- 4/24/2003

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You Know The World's Gone Crazy, Revised Edition

I already pointed this out a few weeks ago, when it was first doing the rounds via email, but I just got a new, improved version, so I figured I'd repost it (the new pay-off at the end is worth it):

You know the world is going crazy when
the best rapper is a white guy,
the best golfer is a black guy
the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese
the Swiss hold the America's Cup
France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance
Germany doesn't want to go to war,
and the three most powerful men in America are named 'Bush', 'Dick, and 'Colon.'

- 4/22/2003

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Spare Me the 3-1-1

I realize I'm not exactly a top source of generating hipster or ghetto youth slang in our language, but none the less, I'd like to humbly propose "3-1-1" entering the vernacular as petty complaining or non-essential issues.

This slang would be only natural. A decade or more ago, cool people brought us "4-1-1" as slang for "the skinny," "the low down" or "the info." (The explanation, for you foreigners and slow-witted Americans, is dialing 4-1-1 on the phone gets you directory information.) In his superbly funky song from last year Business, Eminem pronounces "Hip hop is in a state of 9-1-1." (Nine-one-one, the emergency number, of course, takes on even stranger new connotations as slang in this post-9/11 world.)

Now, New York City recently introduced a new directory service at 3-1-1, which the city's web site describes as "Citizen Services Center: The Public now has one easy to remember number to access New York City's non-emergency Government Services." Basically, it's where you call to complain about things like pot-holes.

NY was not the first city to do this; it is simply one of the latest to addopt it based on the provisions for use of 3-1-1 as a non-emergency local government services number set forth by the Federal Communications Commission in 1996.

Slang examples:

• "All she ever goes on about is 3-1-1."
• "I'm in the middle of a deadline meltdown, and want me to drop everything for your 3-1-1?!"
• "Here comes Mr. Concerned Neighbor."

- 4/22/2003

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Iraqi Disinformation Minister Resurfaces

Via Mark

Mark also points out the Information Minister is renting out his service broadly for PR purposes at TheInformationMinister.com.

And, in case you haven't already seen it, there is also the original parody site, WeLoveTheIraqiInformationMinister.com.

- 4/21/2003

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