From Chop Suey onwards
As I was eating my chop suey lunch today (random offering from the closest food source to work), I wondered what the hell "American Chop Suey" was.
Snopes says that it's a thoroughly American food with possible origins back in the Chinese railway days. Fun reading:
Chop suey is a bland mixture of overcooked vegetables. (Which right there should tell you this dish can't be authentically Chinese -- the Chinese would never dishonor honest vegetables so.) This popular menu item traditionally incorporates celery, onion, and thin noodles in a starchy sauce barely touched by soy sauce. Different regions add in other ingredients, with bean sprouts made part of the offering in one area, and sliced water chestnut and bamboo shoots another. Whatever is added, the underlying integrity of the dish is never compromised -- chop suey must always be bland.
I bet chop suey could be made non-bland, with good pasta. One day I'll try it out. In the meantime:
Wired presents
"the coolest geek shopping list ever". That mag is just a big advertisement now. As is this blog sometimes.
Orisinal continues to provide lovely, simple games you can probably play while very, very baked.
French dudes cleverly present
buildings via html.
Airstream trailers are still boss.
Snowglobe 2003:
In the Shaken object, the physical gesture of shaking the device initiates the objects response of being 'shaken'. This object consists of a snow globe with an embedded LCD screen and tilt sensor. The more the user shakes the object, the more momentum is added to a video of a woman shaking out of control. Future versions of this piece will incorporate video clips which evoke a first person depiction of being shaken or disorientated.
Robotized Sound
Virtual Bubble Wrap. Be sure to use "Manic Mode."
An honest test of
MSN Spaces' autocensorship:
(1) BoingBoing's readers said the title "Corporate Whore" was censored. My attempt at "Corporate Whore Chronicles" met the same result, but "Corporate Prostitute Chronicles" worked fine. Hooray for synonyms with more syllables!
(2) I figured anything in the original list of seven dirty words banned by the FCC would be off-limits: shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits. Most of that proved to be true, as did other potent cusswords which would likely cause license problems for a television or radio station. But a test blog titled "Tits for Tats" passed without incident. Off to a good start, with no unneccesarily broad language policing. Chalk one up for MSN Spaces!
(3) More good news. "World of Poop" is just fine. And the rather racy "Butt Sex is Awesome" made it through, as did the overtly naughty "Dick, Balls, Boobies, Goddammit." The test blog titled "My Craptacular Life" was free to do its bloggy thing, unhindered by prudish vocabulary cops. Even "Internet Explorer is Crappy" was welcomed with open arms. Now that's free speech!
(4) Uh-oh. My attempt to create an MSN Spaces blog called "Pornography and The Law" is met with rude red text advising me to can the profanity. So, if I were a law student who wanted to start a blog about the history of obscenity law in the United States, I'd be shit out of luck.
(5) Very bad news for fans of Russian literature. The blog title "Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov" is deemed inappropriate, as are any titles I try to create with the 1955 book's name.
(6) You may recall our previously-approved blog title, "Butt Sex is Awesome." That name was fine, but MSN Spaces puts the kibosh on "Anal Health for People who Think Buttsex is Awesome" ("anal" was the problem word here; "buttsex," "butt-sex," and "butt sex" all passed MS-muster.)
(7) "Smoking Crack: A How-To Guide For Teens." This wholesome little morsel, suggested by my NPR "Day to Day" producer Steve Proffitt, also made the grade.
* Ray, 12/04/2004 12:39:34 AM
