Category: etc.

Dateline: The ‘Bu — Holy Moses. Oh wait, no, not Moses. Seems he was a Jew. Holy Frank Rich. D’oh. Holy–
Never mind. Just sayin’, Mel Gibson. WOW.
Gibson’s Anti-Semitic Tirade — Alleged Cover Up [tmz]
Previously: Mel Gibson and his Passion[ate hatred of Jews, apparently]

The Primer was compiled by the Utah State Attorney General as a resource for state agency personnel who deal with polygamist groups and individuals. It details the known polygamist groups in and around Utah and Arizona and provides background on the particulars of their beliefs, culture, practices, and terminology.
Most of my family’s been Mormon for generations, and I have polygamist ancestors along many branches of my family tree, but in the modern Mormon culture, polygamy has been treated almost entirely as a long-past historical oddity. People who practice it today are not considered to have any relationship or relevance at all to the LDS Church, even though they often see things otherwise. And even though their culture and beliefs are almost always a derivative of mainstream Mormonism.
The result is, I have never heard or seen any of this stuff–except for one word, “polyg”–even if some of the religious terminology is familar, it usually means something different [and it’s different between and even within contemporary polygamist communities.
Anyway, here is some polygamy-related slang:

Of course, it’s actually called a yukata, and it’s for wearing on summer evenings or hot days.
And of course, it’s actually Marc by Marc Jacobs, the bridge line, but still. It is the only authentic Marc Jacobs logo kimono on the market right now. Women’s sizes only, I’m afraid.
Marc Jacobs yukata, 48,300 yen [marcjacobs.jp via jeansnow]

Dear Representatives of,
I visited you site as was interested in film “Black Book’s riotous Inside the Actor Love/Hate Studio session…” by Screenwriter Paul Thomas Anderson. I was very surprised and disillusioned to find out the link to the cigarettes web-store ptanderson.com on the page as I’m a non-smoker.
This whole situation is disappointing because the subject of this film is against smoking.
That’s why I kindly ask you to remove this link from your site! With
hope for your cooperation and understanding to this matter!
Best regards,

Sure enough, the URL for what I once called “the blow-away best ‘unofficial’ filmmaker fansite around”, Cigarettes & Coffee, [after his first short], has been taken over by a cigarette retailer.
Perhaps there was a trademark dispute with Mr Anderson, or perhaps the bigtime studio lawyers behind Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee & Cigarettes muscled them into changing it. You know what a Hollywood monkey Jarmusch is.
In any case, the fansite is now called Cigarettes & Red Vines, and can be found at cigarettesandredvines.com. Can’t imagine any trademark problems with that one.
PTAnderson.com is now Cigarettesandredvines.com. Please adjust your links accordingly. Thank you.

Back in the day, Spy sent phony letters and checks for piddly amounts to various rich and famous New Yorkers to see what the response would be. Trump cashed that one, too, for thirteen cents.
Trump v. Trump, Bryan Singer’s grateful tale of having Trump hate on his book in public. [newyorker.com]

How ’bout that, TMZ looks the blog it’s screwing, too.
How Brad morphs into his lovers [1/30: tmz via rw]
Brad Pitt is a Chameleon [1/27: the superficial via kottke]

Football team owner Gigi Becali [aka the Woody Johnson of Bucharest]’s car got sideswiped. So he and a henchman opened the door like they do in the old country: with a couple of crowbars and a sportsnews camera crew watching on.
A Maybach hasn’t been subject to this kind of mitteleuropische humiliation since the Bulgarian-born Christo wrapped himself in one during “The Gates.”

Video: Maybach schadeherstel [autoblog.nl via jalopnik]

For the autumn sports festival season, many schools and kindergartens sang out “oh-ha!” and danced along to Shingo Mama’s song. The word was awarded a grand prize for trendy word of 2000. In the twenty-first century, “oh-ha!” just might become a standard morning greeting among the Japanese.

First shiny mud balls and now oh-ha. The near-instantaneous global dissemination of Japanese flashtrends is one of the hallmarks of the new Internet Century.
Meanwhile, between Shingo Mama and Turner Prize winning potter Grayson Perry, I predict large, doll-like cross-dressers will rule the world by 2010 at the latest
Shingo Mama no Oh-Ha [google video via tmn]
WHAT’S COOL IN JAPAN: July-September 2000: Shingo Mama [web-japan.org]

Because there have been helicopters flying over the house in DC every five minutes for the last hour, apparently. Maybe we’re in the flight path to Camp David, or maybe we’re too close to Cheney’s house, which is where I’d imagine any coup would start.

Is that you CANNOT get Red Vines at a NYC deli. You have to go to freakin’ Target in Queens somewhere, and that’s only if you’re lucky.
DAY-UM.

I was out of town for the holidays [anything big happen while I was gone?] Anyway, for one dollar, less than the price of a subway token, I scored this sweet Transit Workers Union commemmorative t-shirt at the D.I. [aka Deseret Industries, the Mormon-run version of Goodwill] in St. George, Utah.
Not sure if anyone’s ever even heard of the TWU, but I thought it’d be a real kick in the pants to wear this around town.

Like a planet of xenophobic aliens on Star Trek, Typepad has erased the last week from everybody’s memories blogs. Most unusual.

I know that any day now, hundreds of readers will be emailing me, asking for suggestions on how I’d like my gifts wrapped. The answer is below. To the swiftest 150 or so of you, I suggest Cool Hunting’s limited artist-edition wrapping paper. There are two sheets of each of three designs in each set, so if for some reason you’re giving me fewer than six large gifts, you could share amongst yourselves. Above is Derek Aylward’s design. Is it tacky to mention the price? No, it is not. $24.

If six sheets aren’t enough, or if you’re too slow, I suggest the silvery silhouetted goodness of 2×4’s “New World Order” wrapping paper for Cabinet Magazine. 3 sheets are $10, and you can fit 6-9 in each mailing tube.

Want to see whose naughty and/or nice? Check out the greg.org advertisers; there’s a little of both: