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here's an interesting story about the zero-tolerance policies in schools today. an elementary school kid arrested for bringing a plastic knife to school to cut her chicken at lunch, an honors student suspended for his dad leaving a pocket knife in his car after he fixed the rear-view mirror, kids suspended for threats that included "i ought to murder his face." what's wrong here? is it really that difficult to tell the difference between a true threat to children's safety and the desire to eat their lunch in small bites?

if anyone's in the nyc area and looking for good places to go on day trips try escapemaker. it helps you find a good place, tells you some of the town's history, places to eat, shop, go out etc., and all the transportation info. i'm trying to find last-minute day trips for this weekend, and so far new paltz and red bank look kind of cool. thanks to michele, who should really just start her own pita.

one of my favorite things in the nyt magazine is the "what were they thinking" photos. sometimes they're really funny, sometimes really depressing, as they were this week. they showed a few pictures of girls who go to camp shane, a pretty popular weight-loss camp, and how they feel about their bodies, etc. all i have to say is the girls featured hardly looked fat, especially the last one. and the scenario with the parents sounded all too familiar. i remember on more than one occasion when i was working at my old camp hearing parents say to their kids on the first day, "you better watch what you eat so you don't get fat this summer." um, these are 14-year-old girls. let them be happy with who they are before you start telling them they need to shed a few. it truly disgusts me.

i really hate when i read an article that appears to be somewhat of an entertaining profile of someone and there's not one quote by the subject. this observer story about jennifer capriati does just that. but admittedly i did enjoy the article because it furthered my reasons to like her: she's an "average looking" 25-year-old who likes to eat.

i wonder if any of my college friends are the lucky winners of the last winning powerball ticket and if they can lend me a few bucks.

i am proud to announce that with only one week left to go, i'm no. 98 in the top 100 for studio boss, my fantasy movie league. plus i'm way ahead in my own league, which means i'll be winning a poster from a summer movie of my choice in the near future. and since my two roommates are also first in their leagues, we'll have an even better shot of winning the grand prize of a dvd player, which i've been holding out buying on the off chance that we'll actually get lucky.

work was insane yesterday and it didn't help that we got a whole new server and email system so everything was all screwy. thus, i didn't get to post anything about my jampacked weekend. friday night i helped keep it no. 1 at the box office and saw american pie 2. not as funny as the first one and if you saw the previews, you've seen most of the movie, but still good for a laugh on a friday night. saturday my roommates and i got up early and headed to hurricane harbor, which we've been dying to go to all summer. all i have to say is way too expensive. i can't imagine bringing a family there. a little slice of pizza and a water cost me $8.50! plus, the lines were really long and the annoying kids constantly splashing me were getting on my nerves. but you really can't go too wrong with a lazy river, wave pool and roaring rapids. saturday night was spent getting way too drunk for my own good at mcswiggan's in hoboken and playing with jared's super-cool digital camera. don't really remember much of the night so i need him to email me the pics at his earliest convenience. after only about three hours of sleep, my roommates and i got up early on sunday to head up to camp for the big 75th reunion. not as many people in my division as i would have liked to see, but it was still a good time. even found my parents in some old pictures. but way too many people with babies who i still consider 14 years old.

anyone who was feeling my pain with my short guys story yesterday, have no worries. i've found one bar in the tri-state area that had a few tall boys. black bear. if you're going just for drinks, you really have to want to like being in a frat-boy bar, or like getting hit-on by married men on business trips who don't even bother hiding their wedding bands. but if you're going for some yummy, greasy food, you can admire the tall boys from afar. or watch the baby bombers in the world series like i did. or spot fellow bloggers.

i just have to share how truly odd some people in new york are. a friend of mine shared this scenario with me this afternoon after she got back from a weight watchers meeting:

this girl who looked to be about 25, brought in Rolling Stone with all the AP2 girls on the cover - and was ranting and raving that she must look like that and ASAP. Apparently she is an actress and needs to get movies (she needs way more work then her weight - if those are the kind of parts she is going for). She writes down .4 points if she has a handful of popcorn, and only has 15 points a day [ed. note: you are supposed to have at least 18 points a day], and she is so frustrated because she is not losing and she needs to lose NOW NOW NOW.

this is truly bizarre.

it appears no one's won last night's powerball that means i have another chance, which is great since i forgot to buy them in the first place yesterday. though i heard some newscaster saying i had a greater chance of getting hit by lightning twice on a sunny day than winning. those odds aren't sobad...

why does it seem that so many guys are ridiculously short these days? this has been a recurring topic in my apartment because my roommates and i can't understand why we always feel that we're the tallest people in the bar. never mind the fact that not one of us is taller than 5'5. last night the shortness factor was in full force at off the wagon, where i went to meet up with some of gail's co-workers. some warning to anyone who plans on going: they have $2 drafts, so don't be dumb like i was and order a bottle of amstel. and don't bother with the nachos. you get a few chips and a thick layer of congealed cheese. but back to the height issue. i'd be curious to learn the average height of men in nyc compared to the rest of the country. where have all the six-footers gone? do people in other parts of the country have this problem too? i don't remember it being the case down in delaware but maybe i was wearing flatter shoes back then. feel free to share any info about this phenomenon. or at least tell me where i should move to feel little again.

it's about that time again for the us open to start. i'll be making it to a match the first week in september, so let's hope some of the good guys are left.

this week's voice is their back to school issue, and although i'm a slave to the 40-hour work week, i found this story helpful on selling used cds. i've been meaning to get rid of some of the more ridiculous and g-d-awful discs in my collection to make room for some better choices.

to continue the saga of the poor '93 sentra, last night i was expecting my dad to have it safe and sound back in the garage when he called me from right outside the lincoln tunnel. turns out the new alternator that was put in didn't seem to work too well. he got into a big ol' argument with the guy at the shell station because he wanted to charge some insane price. then i had to leave work early and rush over to midas with him, which was closed, but since they've gotten to know me very well in the past few months, i was able to leave it there and slip the key under the door. when i spoke to them this morning they told me it would be a whopping $366 but after a little fenagling and figuring out that my dad would have to travel between queens and jersey city changing old and new alternators around, i had to pay for a mere one hour of labor and supposedly, i'll be able to pick it up tonight. keep your fingers crossed, please. i was so worked up about it last night that i happily accepted the glass of wine offered at the hairdresser's. seriously, if anyone lives in hoboken or cares to make the trip across the river, check out mad one jack's. it's a good haircut, but even better, they give you a little head and neck massage beforehand, offer you bagels and juice on saturdays, wine and beer at night. and they're open till 10 during the week! ok, that's the end of my free commercial.

this is hardly the most interesting of items, but jenny wanted to learn how dry cleaning works so i thought i'd help her out. i didn't get past the fourth page, but they even go into detail on how the workers tag your clothes before they clean it. very riveting read.

those who have been hearing about my car troubles, it gets even worse. i swapped cars with my dad sunday so he could get it inspected (since it's still illegally registered in ny). so yesterday it needed new brakes, and today it died on my dad as he was driving to work. turns out it needed a new alternator too. the poor man had to stop every few blocks and let it rest for 20 minutes till he could start it up again. but now all seems to be a-go. battery: check. ac: check. brakes: check. alternator: check. inspected: check. should be safe and sound in my garage roughly at 7 pm.

i attempted to get a little culture in me last night and watched richard iii by the pier in hoboken last night, but the bad acting and the kids and dogs running around distracted me too much to follow the story. i remembered liking the play when i read it in college, but besides the usual shakesperean plots, murders, sword fights and soliliquies, i had no clue what was going on. i'm pretty sure though that richard iii wasn't supposed to yell every line. last year's othello was far better.

and then there were five. yet another fish died this weekend. but we think that's the end of it. we decided the big orange fish had some weird parasite or something that was infecting the others. once we flushed him, the rest seemed to be much happier and even the other orange fish that before was hanging out inside the cave, is now swimming about. maybe there were just too many in the tank to begin with. or maybe we just don't know how to take care of fish.

quick weekend recap: tick, tick...boom was awesome. if you've seen rent or not, this "prequel" is a must-see. so many similarities between the two though i still think rent was better. it really makes you sad though to think that jonathan larson never got to see how successful he really became. headed to the beach saturday with the roommates and catherine even though the sun wasn't completely shining. we did manage to get a little color though. i was also highly entertained by the woman sitting next to us who was chatting with her friend about her daughter (who goes to delaware) being mad at a best friend because they both hooked up with the same guy or something. but then i wasn't so sure because apparently the daughter's boyfriend is a big gambler and it seems to run in the family and the mom is just not happy about that. i really have such a problem eavesdropping but it's just so fun to do. i almost interrupted their conversation when she mentioned my camp but i thought that would imply i'd been listening the whole time. yesterday i ate myself silly at a bbq at my parents' house. we almost didn't make it to westchester though because my brake light on the dashboard decided to start flickering while we were on the bridge and a large grumbling sound was coming from the engine, which sounded very similar to a small airplane. i had to drive the rest of the way with my hand near the emergency brake just in case. why do cars have to be such an expensive pain in the arse? and that brings me to a dreary monday morning.

i just finished reading this insane piece that linnea linked to a few days ago. they are letters from a peace corps volunteer in zimbabwe. an amazing story. now i wish i racked gail's friend's brain more about her experience in tonga when she was visiting last sunday. i really admire people who commit themselves to helping people in places such as the remotest parts of africa. i just don't think i'd be strong enough. but as much as it's uplifting to read about the impact this volunteer can have on the people in her village, i warn you that reading about how bad the aids epidemic is there or how "rape doesn't exist. lust is like thirst, it is considered a need" is truly disturbing.

the past few days, i've been a good citizen and have been voting for my best of choices on citysearch. and conveniently today, to whet my burrito-addicted appetite, is this list. i may try tortilla flats tonight since it's conveniently located near the jane street theater.

i'm finally going to see tick, tick...boom! tonight, which didn't work out the first time around. hope it's as good as rent and maybe i can get addicted to a new soundtrack. after that, it's off to celebrate amy's birthday in the 'boken. if anyone cares to join us, we'll be getting our drink on at duffy's.

i started my hebrew classes last night. i have no idea how i'm going to learn in five weeks what all my friends learned in years of hebrew school, but the class is free and it's worth a try. plus the teacher is so corny he cracks me up and there are free refreshments. i even get a "diploma" at the end of the course. no cute jewish boys in attendance like i'd hoped there would be, but come on, there never are. sigh.

and then there were seven. another one of our fishies died last night. the same kind as the first one. i guess that's why they were so cheap. and why the fish man at the store gave them to us free. i just hope it's not an epidemic.

poor jc penney. their ads are apparently too cutting-edge for their clientele. i personally think the t-shirt is very amusing and may even consider buying it.

i'm trying to find out where rhett miller likes to go in his three favorite cities, but citysearch isn't giving me the right link or something. for all who are interested (catherine), you can try to link to it yourself from here. and once you do, kindly tell me what they are.

did you know that hollywood "paints down" stunt doubles, meaning they get white actors and put black makeup on them so they look like the black actors they're supposed to be doubling for instead of finding black stunt doubles? read all about that and more in brian's article.

continuing with the mtv theme, i watched becoming again last night, and it still wasn't as good as the first britney spears episode. but i found an explanation to why there could be so many college-aged kids interested in becoming people like jessica simpson and dream and no little teenyboppers getting on the show. mtv is asking for kids 18-25. i want to know what 25-year-old guys are interested in becoming n sync. maybe they're just in it for the free goodies, a night in a rad hotel room and the free haircut. i know that's why i would be there.

does anyone else find this season's real world cast even more annoying than miami's? what's up with everyone arguing with each other just for the sake of arguing. i missed last week's episode so i only partially know what nichole and malik's fight was about but to decide then and there that they aren't going to speak to each other ever again? and can coral puh-leaze get off her high horse? and how hard could it really be to get a focus group together. especially when you have a camera crew following you around and you could just flash the magic word—mtv—to get people interested?

we had our first casualty last night. one of the little jail-stripe fish sunk to the bottom. we can't take advantage of petco's 15-day guarantee though, because the nice fish man gave this one to us for free. we can bring them a sample of our water though to find out why it looks so murky even with a filter. we're also a little worried about the two big orange ones since they just kind of like to hang out inside the fake cave. but maybe they just like their alone time.

did you know you can get a degree in golf in various universities around the country? and now they're starting a similar program in england.

so apparently a friend of mine from high school and the younger brother of another friend have a band and they're being played on mtv. since my company won't let me listen to music or watch videos, i cant' learn anything about them except that they're trying to get played on trl. they just don't seem to look like they'd fit in with the justin timberlake crowd but who am i to judge?

everyone curious what natalie, blaire, jo and tootie are up to these days, you'll only have to wait just a little longer for the facts of life reunion. they're all coming back to peekskill to help natalie figure out who she should marry. let's just hope disney does a better job with this one than that g-d awful growing pains one i watched last year. were the shows really that bad when i was watching them the first time around?

for a monday, last night was pretty eventful. but that tends to happen when we have office parties. we started the night at plate 347, which has a great outdoor garden in the back if anyone's interested. when all of us were completely wasted by 10 p.m., the alcoholics of the group decided we might as well continue the festivites at poolbeg. we started out having a jolly old time dancing to the jukebox and sipping our pints but the next thing we know a girl from the office was passed out at the table and 45 minutes later off she went in an ambulance. hell yeah, we know how to party. but in all seriousness, i think she's fine. just a bit embarrassed to say the least. but anyway, the whole point of the party was to celebrate our abc numbers for this year, and though my memory is a little fuzzy, we kicked arse. i think we're the fastest growing magazine over family style (?) and oprah. and the only men's magazine to go up in numbers this year. or something like that.

thankfully teen vogue is the only teen magazine dumb enough to run ads for breast enhancement pills. way to tell vulnerable teenage girls that they need to improve their figure by taking pills to make their boobs bigger. whatever happened to the nice, innocent ads they used to run in those publications asking questions like "if i use a tampon, will i still be a virgin?"

for all you gen x-ers who feel like taking a trip down memory lane, there's yesterdayland. i think the idea of being nostalgic about the '80s is getting just a little played out, but it is still fun to remember all those after-school specials and whatnot. what amazes me is just how much some people remember.

as much as this was an interesting article about a former skinny model turned plus-size one, the times is just so phony. i mean, here they are saying that this woman is now living a normal healthy lifestyle and is a size 12 and weighs a slender looking 155 pounds. never mind that size 12 is considered plus-size! that's all well and good but would they ever consider using her as a model in a fashion spread instead of a skinny heroin fiend? i mean, i think jane magazine is the most guilty of all. they're constanly saying how skinny models suck and how you should be a real woman and eat what you want and all that, but all their fashion pages are still filled with the most un-real people i've ever seen. a few months ago they tried to be a little daring and featured models with deformities, like a scar on the face or what have you. but where any overweight? i think not. so maybe instead of just publishing articles about how most american women are a size 14 but the fashion world still wants to show photos of skin and bones, actually take a stand and show some of the evidence!

even though ironminds has been headed this way for some time, i just read today that at the end of august they're shutting down. though from what i read on the web site it doesn't seem too permanent. and ironminds is having a big party to celebrate. maybe i should go since i never made it to any of those readings i had wanted to see.

i refused to let the rain ruin my weekend and even though i wasn't basking in any rays, i had a good time nonetheless. friday night, after walking up and down the aisles of blockbuster too many times and seeing nothing, i found goodfellas hidden in a corner. it kind of amused me how similar to the sopranos parts of it was. especially the cast. i counted at least three who are in both the movie and the show. saturday wasn't so fun. i went back and forth to the mechanic three times and my air conditioning still isn't fixed. but they promised me i'd be ice cold when i pick it up tomorrow night. yeah, and $430 poorer. bastards. but i got out of my funk by buying some new stuff for our apartment at bed, bath and beyond, including a much needed bookcase and one of those cool bag holders that you stick on the inside of the cabinet. such a handy thing. sunday i enjoyed watching a friend's play, which was part of the fringe festival that started this weekend. really good. if anyone's interested, it's called headcase, and it's playing at the new city theater or something like that. right next to coyote ugly. basically a 25-year-old girl's therapy session. lots of humor. lots of truth. plus my friend wrote it. go see it. on our way back to joisey, the roomies and i stopped at petco and finally added nine new roommates to our place. tropical fish! now to think of names. any suggestions?. we managed to set it up and clean up in time to welcome gail's friend beth for the evening. she's home for the month from the peace corps. yeah, and i edit copy to amuse men for a living. but we filled her in on two years of sex and the city and she happily watched the finale with us. all i have to say is what kind of a girl actually opens the box when she sees it sitting there? she knows what it is. does she have to be so nosy? don't you want some sort of surprise? aiden's just too good for her, damn it.

here's another one of those editorials about the quarter-life crisis, the it syndrome of the year. but she does have a few points that ring true in my mind, including wanting to be back in school partly because you want to look like one of those studious girls in the computer lab working on her thesis. if i could figure out what i wanted a degree in, and how to pay for it without being in debt for the rest of my life, i'd be in grad school in a second. i've been thinking lately that it would be really cool to do research on pre-school kids. you know, find out what they really think about, why they do certain things, why they play with certain toys, and what that means for when they grow up. i took a class like that freshman year where we got to sit behind a one-way glass and observe kids playing. really interesting. but what would i categorize that as? psychology? family studies? early childhood development? i bet there are too many science classes that go along with that though, which is definitely not for me. if anyone has any ideas or any schools (preferably out west!) that have some such program, let me know. oh yeah, the article was via linnea.

the rain has finally arrive. there is a g-d!

will all my friends working at newspapers soon be out of a job? media borgs!. thanks, brian.

i stayed up past my bedtime last night to finish bonfire of the vanities and if anyone hasn't read it yet, click on the link above and buy it today. racial conflict! adultery! park avenue! politics! wall street! i seriously got so wrapped up in it that every morning when i walked out of the path station and glanced at the headlines of the post and the daily news, i half expected to see the latest on sherman mccoy. i can't decide which i liked more though, bonfire or a man in full, which i also highly recommend. up next: the human stain.

i love when the weather becomes the lead story on every news broadcast, front-page news in every paper and all people can talk about on the street. it makes weathermen feel so important and heroic, even though they're just reporting information they have no control over. and it's good to know that heat waves make it a year-round thing and us new yorkers don't have to wait till the winter when the rush is hearing story after story about the big blizzard that is about to hit. everyone floods the grocery stores and hardware stores stocking up on bottled water, milk and shovels. (that was just to make you guys feel a little bit cooler.) i mean, people get such a rush out of weather advisoriesand the alerts that flash across the bottom of the screen. "get your flashlights ready, pull out the candles, drink lots of fluids!" gives you such a sense of unity.

i went to a screening last night of curse of the jade scorpion, woody allen's latest. funnier than some of his other recent films, i laughed out loud many times, but i just can't stand helen hunt. she plays the same character in every film, which only leads me to believe she can't really act. plus, the story got a little stale toward the end and i was ready for it to be over. and i still think there's a piece missing to the story, which i won't divulge until more people have seen it but let's just see they needed to explain the motive a little more. but fun music and a small part by the princess bride's wallace shawn made it more worthwhile.

last night michele and i braved the heat (yes, we're dumb) to watch casablanca on the pier in hoboken. besides having people in much larger chairs sitting in front of us partially obstructing our view, and being very uncomfortable in the oven-like climate, it was great to see such a classic on the big screen. and a lot easier to find a place to sit than at bryant park. here's lookin' at you, kid.

i would have paid money to see ryan interviewing eight-year-old girls about overheating at an aaron carter concert.

there's nothing i like more on a sunny summer day than sitting outside and slurping down a good margarita, and now i can choose from the 20 best places in nyc. if anyone is curious about how strong some of them are, ask a certain friend of mine about the slushie-like ones at rodeo bar. so tasty you don't even know there's alcohol in it till you hit the floor.

i already have a deep hatred for alex trebek—i can't stand his obnoxious air, as if he actually knows all the answers the contestants don't—but last night sealed the deal. you see, they're rerunning the college tournament and i've been noticing all week his disgusting sexual comments. he made these weird eyes when a guy said he's living with two girl roommates, and he expressed interest in participating in another guy's nude life drawing class. last night he even compared himself to some type of animal that mates every seven years. but what really got me was last night, this one contestant said she's a huge fan of the wwf. she said something to the effect of you can find her every monday night in front of the tv shouting things such as, "use the chair, rock!" the audience chuckled. then alex said, "you do have a boyfriend, don't you?" now i could definitely be reading this the wrong way, since like i said i already can't stand the man and i've also said in the past that i'm way too pc for my own good, but does that not sound as if he was asking her if she's a lesbian? because she likes pro-wrestling? what the f? if anyone has a better answer, please let me know. michele seems to think it's not actually alex coming up with his new line of comments, but that it's really the writers in hopes to attract a younger audience. who knew that us younger viewers would watch more jeopardy if we knew the host is down with the sexual innuendos?

though he didn't make their hot list, there's a big phat picture of rhett miller in the new issue of rolling stone. such a rock star.

rock on catherine for being number 20 on a list of the world's 100 best real people websites. just don't forget to thank the little people!

apparently there's not a whole lot in the news these days to comment on so people are still talking about sundays times crossword puzzle. it seems the gay references in the puzzle are more than just the homonames. i kind of chuckled at the "re-lubricating" clue when i was doing the puzzle, but i didn't really think much of it.

a pretty disturbing story in the voice about immigrant workers in a kosher factory in brooklyn. twelve-hour days, no paid vacation, no sick leave, no health insurance and no compassion for workers who fall on the job, permanently injuring their. and no justice even after they strike. g-d, i love this country.

now you can wine and dinewhere carrie and crew go. the only one i can say i'm chic enough to have been to is 11 madison park, which is where carrie learned about natasha and big. and i'm still dying to taste those cupcakes at magnolia bakery. we've gotten them every now and again at work for people's b-days, but i don't know how much longer my will power will hold out.

more from the times magazine: a short piece by my former professor ben yagoda all about pointing. and this interview with the creators of wet, hot american summer, which i may be going to see tonight to fuel my camp obsession even though it didnt' get such great reviews. oh, and while we're on the subject of the magazine, i should hold onto the story about getting a deal on a new car since everything that could possibly happen to a car happened to mine this weekend. including a busted air conditioning which i already had fixed last weekend.

so i finally got to check out the long anticipated new headline news with their flashy new set and appeal to younger viewers. but must they fill more than half the screen with headlines, weather, sports scores, etc.? you can hardly see the news anchor. and maybe it was that it was because it was like the first day of school again or something, but all the anchors seemed to be really nervous and well, not very good. so many of the women were overemphasizing that annoying news anchor speak they must have to practice in comm classes, making it even more hard to take. i mean, how excited can you get about "economy class disease"?

rip mr. belvedere.

i finally saw remember the titans this weekend, which was really pretty good. definitely a feel-good disney movie, but entertaining enough. and come on, it's denzel!

my boy's a drunk. ben affleck checked into rehabthis weekend for alcoholism. and i had only heard he oftened sniffed the white stuff in a basement of a bar a friend of mine used to work at.

by the way, i finally archived my shite. you can click on the little "old stuff" icon to your left to read all the oldies but goodies.

i've been gone for a while, which is what closing weeks will do to you. so the first correction listed in the ny times corrections cracked me up because when i did sunday's crossword puzzle i made no connection between "homonames" and "these people are really gay," but apparently other people did.

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