Tag: newsD

If you’re looking for a monstrously overwritten 1870s guide to NYC brothels, then you’re in luck!

…’cause the whole damn thing is digitized online: and free for all: A Vest Pocket Guide to Brothels in 19th-Century New York for Gentlemen on the Go

Choice bits include these sick burns on pg. 19 (original page numbering):

Text from "A Gentleman's Directory (of NYC Brothels)" published in 1870. Reads: "The establishment Spring street is a house of assignation kept by Hattie Taylor, It is 8 third class house where may be found the lowest class of conrtezans. It is patronized by roughs and rowdies, and gentlemen who turn their shirts wrong side out when the other side is dirty. The house NO. 114 PPL05 is kept by Mrs. Palmer. It is a low eatablishment and frequented only by the fagends of the community."

and this bit:

Text from "A Gentleman's Directory (of NYC Brothels)" published in 1870. Reads: "No. 127 W. 26th street is & ladies boarding house of the second class, kept by Madame Buemont. There is a report of a bear being kept in the cellar, but for what reason may be inferred. There is not anything else attractive about the place."

I’m gonna admit that I’m extremely naive and just say it: I cannot infer the reason the bear is kept in the cellar. Our sex ed class didn’t cover this. Can someone please explain?

I also love the reasoning highlighted on pg. 7 (annotation #3), because it’s literally Skinner’s “I was only there to get directions on how to get away from there!” gag from the the old “Marge vs. the Burlesque House” episode of The Simpsons:

Recommended Listen: Rick Rubin interviews Tom Hanks

Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin: Tom Hanks

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t always agree with Rubin’s choice of guests. But when this show is good, it’s really, really good. This episode with Tom Hanks is a really good one. I always love listening to accomplished craftsmen discuss craft (as I’ve said before, if there was a documentary interviewing accomplished old plumbers called “Talking Toilets,” I’d be there). In part, I just enjoy hearing the intricacies of any craft. But I also like the consistency that I hear across crafts and craftspeople, and it boils down to something like this:

In order to be good at a craft, we need to accept and embrace the fact that we are an intelligent conduit for that craft. We are nothing more, and certainly nothing less.

Hanks says basically that in a gajillion little different ways here, and each is worth hearing.

UPDATE: we nuked $1.1 million in medical debt

Remember this project from last November?

$10 will erase $1000 of Medical Debt in Michigan RIGHT NOW! 💸

Well, for those who like closure:

Y’all did it!

Just before Xmas we closed out the project, having raised a bit more than $10,000 with your help. The end result was the abolition of $1,114,133.50 in shitty medical debt, freeing 2,006 Michiganders across 17 counties from one more dumb late-stage capitalism headache:

Eliminate-Medical-Debt-in-MichiganDownload

Bummed that you missed out on this project? Then I have excellent news:

You and your pals can start your own! The folks at RIP Medical Debt are super sweet and helpful, and it’s a blast.

I want that to be the takeaway here: there are plenty of religious and moral and political and ethical reasons to work on a project like this, but I still believe the best reason to do it is that it is fun. Every day, multiple times each day, it would occur to me: We’re going to nuke a million dollars of medical debt. And just that thought, that a bunch of us regular folk going about our regular lives could do just a little something more and move such a big goddamn rock—it’d make me laugh. It literally tickled me, that notion. And it worked! And that cracks me up, every time it comes to mind.

Good job, all! When you start your project and need a little dough to nuke a little bad medical debt, hit me up.

Merry Xmas! Please beware of “suicide cables”!🎄🔌🙅‍♀️

‘Tis the season to hang your Xmas lights—and, for many people, to hang one strand backwards and instead of pulling it down, head to the hardware store in search of an “adapter” that is colloquially referred to as a “suicide cable.”

DO NOT DO THIS!

I’m not kidding around. If you don’t kill yourself with such a arrangment, you can easily kill some hapless person who stumbles across your work later.

Recommended Consideration: Rick Rubin’s Tetragrammaton podcast

These aren’t always great and I don’t agree with everyone he features (in fact, I super-duper disagree with ever listening to some of these nutbags). But Rubin is a always a wonderful and honest interviewer, so the episodes are often quite revelatory about art and human thinking (at the very least). 

This one with  Rory Sutherland is quite good and worth your time (even at 3 hours!)

I also really like the two-parter with Tyler Cowen. The first half is also on YouTube (embedded below) while the second isn’t (maybe because of copyright? It’s dedicated to Cowen talking about and offering samples of music he finds interesting and is available here):

VERDICT: Extremely interesting, and honestly worth the time, despite extreme length.