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☆ I’m Begging You: No Christmas Lights Yet!
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-23 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Every year, one of my neighbors puts out his Christmas lights early. Like, really early. This year he started on Nov. 14, two weeks before Thanksgiving. The festive lights I can deal with, because I don’t sleep on the side of the house where the swirling Aurora Borealis arabesques would keep me up all night.

☆ Britain Should Keep Its Hands Off Halloween
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

They have ornate thousand-year-old cathedrals, not the Brand X cathedrals you see in the States. They have ominous, eye-popping castles where kings were brutally murdered—sometimes by their own wives. They have steak-and-kidney pies and cream teas and the Tower of London and Monty Python. But now they want Halloween. English friends say that Halloween has “really taken off” in the U.K. since I last visited in 2017.

Persons: —, Monty Python Organizations: London Locations: England, States

☆ An American Phillies Fan in Paris
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-28 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

When I got to Paris two weeks ago, I was seriously jet-lagged. So I started staying up late watching Phillies games on Major League Baseball’s streaming service. It was fun. It filled me with joie de vivre. So much so that even after the jet lag began to dissipate I continued my nocturnal revels.

Persons: joie Organizations: Phillies, Major League Locations: Paris

☆ Adapting to a World Where Adapters Run Amok
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-02 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Illustration: Mark MatchoI was very excited to get working on my new laptop, but then realized that I could not easily transfer files from my old computer because the new device did not have a USB port allowing access to my external hard drive. Seemingly, old-fashioned USB ports are technologically retrograde and stupid, and only a Luddite like me would expect a sleek new laptop to include one.

Persons: Matcho

☆ New Research On Mice Will Make Cats’ Jobs Harder
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/cats-may-object-to-the-latest-research-on-mice-bd59241e

Persons: Dow Jones

☆ How About More VIP Treatment In Unusual Places?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Last week The Wall Street Journal ran a story about how VIP passes are radically remaking the music festival business. Fed up with getting banged around and having beer spilled all over them by the Great Unwashed, concertgoers are willing to pay $400 for one-day festival passes so that they can be close to the stage, have access to bathrooms with no lines, enter and exit the venue effortlessly and just generally avoid rubbing shoulders with the down-market hoi polloi.

Persons: concertgoers Organizations: Street Journal

☆ Indiana Jones—and the Mets—Strike Out
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/indiana-jonesand-the-metsstrike-out-af722829

Persons: Dow Jones Locations: indiana

☆ Orcas Now Hate Our Boats, and That’s Just a Start
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/orcas-now-hate-our-boats-and-thats-just-a-start-a7bebf2b

Persons: Dow Jones

☆ How About if We Don’t Make AI All That Intelligent?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Illustration: Mark MatchoThese days everyone is worried that artificial intelligence will allow machines to take over the world because computers will be so much smarter than us. Armed with powerful tools that we foolishly gave them, machines will have the ability to shut down power grids, disrupt air-traffic control systems or send the stock market into a free fall. They will be able to rig football games, close the Panama Canal, sabotage military operations, perhaps even start wars.

Persons: Matcho Locations: Panama

☆ Let’s Try ‘Return to Work’ Without the Stunts
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Illustration: Mark MatchoEmployers are still having trouble getting employees to come back to the office, and when employees do return, they are not always happy. So companies are resorting to cunning rapport-building strategies to get employees to enjoy each other’s company more.

Organizations: Matcho Employers

☆ The Many Reasons Not to Own a Dog
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

For as long as I can remember, friends and family members have been encouraging me to get a dog. I think they want me to get a dog mostly so that I will have mastered the arcane skills needed to walk their dogs while they are on vacation. But I was not put on this planet to walk dogs, and this is a situation that is never going to change. The couple of weeks I spend frolicking with them is more than enough to satisfy my annual cynophilic needs,” I explain. “I don’t need a dog 52 weeks out of the year.

☆ What to Do While Your Electric Car Refuels
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The growing ranks of electric vehicles are beginning to change the way gas stations think about their customers. People fueling up their cars have historically spent only five or six minutes at a station on average, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal—but it takes at least 25 minutes to charge an EV. Retail opportunities until now have been limited. No matter how alluring the minimart attached to the station, basically drivers are in and they’re out. They might buy coffee or a candy bar or lottery tickets, but that’s about it.

☆ More Movies About Shoes Are on the Way
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Next week, Amazon will release “Air,” the untold story of how the Air Jordan sneaker came into existence. It stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who also directed it. Right after that comes “ BlackBerry ,” a Canadian biopic about the smartphone that changed the world and then went away.

☆ Lay Off Chatbots. They Have (Artificial) Feelings, Too.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Since being introduced on a wide basis, chatbots have been subjected to nonstop ridicule. Yes, they can be tricked into giving dumb or inaccurate answers. Sure, when asked their opinions about war, criminal justice and disease, they sometimes get just plain weird. But chatbots may have feelings too—or anyway, artificial approximations. Regardless, I think that there is something mean-spirited and unfair about the way chatbots are being manipulated into sounding foolish or untrustworthy.

☆ The Public Has a Lot of Apologizing to Do
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Recently The Wall Street Journal ran an article about companies that send personal apologies to customers. Companies are made up of people, and people sometimes admit that they are wrong. As children learn, confessing to misdeeds is cathartic and healing. It’s not just that it makes your parents or nannies feel better. It makes you feel better about yourself.

☆ How Can We Make Accounting Cool?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

In the past two years, as The Wall Street Journal recently reported, 300,000 accountants and auditors have left the profession, many on the dead run. The situation is so dire that American firms are now desperately recruiting accountants from overseas. In other words, there is an accounting deficit. The reason for the mass exodus of “bean counters” from the profession may have a lot to do with the very existence of that derisive term. If you look up the definition of “bean counter” you’ll read that accountants are shy, persnickety fussbudgets who are obsessed with trivial details.

☆ It’s Not Every Day That You Run Into a Coyote
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Recently, while walking my son’s dog in a wooded area near his home in southern Colorado, I turned around to see a large animal staring at us. Collarless, too big to be a household pet, it had an expression on its face that I didn’t like. Neither did the dog. Because there are lots of pushy bears and territorial mountain lions around there, and because I had read that Colorado recently reintroduced certain endangered species to the state, and because I have always been much stronger on flora than fauna, I initially concluded that the animal was a wolf.

☆ If Only My Spam Emails Were All True
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Every so often I check my spam folder to see if emails from friends or professional contacts somehow got intercepted and rejected by the spam filter. This requires a fast descent into a netherworld of obvious scams and preposterous come-ons, many involving sex. If by chance the come-ons in my spam folder were actually legitimate, my life would improve dramatically and immediately. I’d love if somebody would send me a dirt-cheap device that prevents annoying dogs from barking. And I would dearly love to improve my dexterity, credit rating and dental health.

☆ Could Twitter Polls Decide More Than Elon Musk’s Job?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

When Elon Musk said that he would step down as Twitter CEO if an online poll of Twitter users asked him to go, a lot of people thought it was just another stunt. Like taking over Twitter in the first place. But either way, why stop there? Whether the poll proves to be a stunt or not, Musk has ushered in the potentially more widespread use of a wonderful new tool. If things work out perfectly and everyone cooperates, we can finally start making headway toward turning this into a really swell, seamlessly running society.

☆ Broccoli in Space? What a Revolting Thought
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Joe Queenan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Incredibly brilliant planetary scientists and astrobiologists at the University of California, Riverside, have discovered that the methyl bromide gases emitted by broccoli—one of the most repellent foods known to mankind—could be pivotal in discovering whether life exists on other planets. I don’t want to go into all the highly technical details here, but apparently the toxins ejected from certain organisms on this planet—including, but not limited to, the uncompromisingly revolting cruciferous vegetable known as broccoli—are the result of a process called methylation. If evidence of methylation were ever detected on distant planets like Mars or Jupiter, it would mean that life of some sort existed there. For where broccoli flourishes, other life-forms cannot be far behind. Not that this is necessarily a good thing.

☆ (video) 20 cele mai bune filme care au luat Oscarul din 2000 încoace. În acest an, premiile vor fi acordate în aprilie
▼ + stars: | 2021-01-22 | by ( Onixmedia Srl | ) diez.md time to read: +8 min

(video) 20 cele mai bune filme care au luat Oscarul din 2000 încoace. Marele general roman Maximus a condus din nou legiunile spre victorie pe câmpul de luptă. Invidios pe Maximus, moștenitorul tronului, Commodus, ordonă execuția sa și a familie sale. Înfruntând niște încercări, care i-ar fi pus la pământ pe alții, Nash revine la viață și în activitate datorită ajutorului soției sale, Alicia. În laboratorul guvernamental ascuns de securitate în care lucrează, singuratica Elisa este prinsă într-o viață izolată.

Persons: Ma, Ridley Scott, Maximus, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, John Forbes Nash . Chipeșul, Nash, Alicia, Roxie Hart, Roxie, Velma Kelly . Roxie, Sauron, Aragorn, Maggie Fitzgerald, Frankie Dunn, Billy Costigan, Queenan, Costigan, Frank Costello, Joel, Ethan Coen, Cormac Mccarthy, Jamal Malik, Jamal, George al VI - lea, Lionel Longue, George Valentin, Riggan Thomson, Michael Keaton, Elisa Organizations: Pulitzer, Broadway, Boston Globe Locations: Chicago, Gondor, Minas Tirith, L.A ., Los Angeles, american, indian Mumbai, Irak, localnic, America, coreean

☆ (video) Toate lungmetrajele care au câștigat Oscarul la categoria cel mai bun film, din 2000 încoace
▼ + stars: | 2020-01-20 | by ( Onixmedia Srl | ) diez.md time to read: +8 min

(video) Toate lungmetrajele care au câștigat Oscarul la categoria cel mai bun film, din 2000 încoaceA rămas mai puțin de o lună până la cea de-a 92-a ceremonie a premiilor Oscar. Dacă ați vizionat deja toate filmele nominalizate într-o categorie sau alta, atunci echipa #diez vă propune o listă cu toate lungmetrajele care au câștigat Oscarul la categoria cel mai bun film, din 2000 încoace. Marele general roman Maximus a condus din nou legiunile spre victorie pe câmpul de luptă. Înfruntând niște încercări, care i-ar fi pus la pământ pe alții, Nash revine la viață și în activitate datorită ajutorului soției sale, Alicia. În laboratorul guvernamental ascuns de securitate în care lucrează, singuratica Elisa este prinsă într-o viață izolată.

Persons: Ridley Scott, Maximus, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, John Forbes Nash . Chipeșul, Nash, Alicia, Roxie Hart, Roxie, Velma Kelly . Roxie, Sauron, Aragorn, Maggie Fitzgerald, Frankie Dunn, Billy Costigan, Queenan, Costigan, Frank Costello, Joel, Ethan Coen, Cormac Mccarthy, Jamal Malik, Jamal, George al VI - lea, Lionel Longue, George Valentin, Riggan Thomson, Michael Keaton, Elisa Organizations: Pulitzer, Broadway, Boston Globe Locations: Hollywood, Chicago, Gondor, Minas Tirith, L.A ., Los Angeles, american, indian Mumbai, Irak, localnic, America

☆ (video) De ziua maestrului. Zece filme ale lui Martin Scorsese care merită revăzute
▼ + stars: | 2019-11-18 | by ( Onixmedia Srl | ) diez.md time to read: +6 min

Zece filme ale lui Martin Scorsese care merită revăzutePe 17 noiembrie, Martin Charles Scorsese a împlinit 77 de ani. Scorsese este un regizor de film, scriitor și producător de film american, fondator al World Cinema Foundation. Chiar și așa, echipa #diez îți recomandă 10 filme ale regizorului care trebuiesc văzute sau revăzute. #Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore3 nominalizări și un premiu Oscar 19752 nominalizări Globul de Aur 1975o nominalizare la Festivalul Internațional de Film de la Cannes6 nominalizări și 4 premii BAFTA 1975„Este filmul care îi aduce consacrarea lui Martin Scorsese. # Silenceo nominalizare Oscar 2017„Silence” este povestea a doi misionari portughezi care pornesc într-o călătorie periculoasă în Japonia secolului al XVII-lea în căutarea mentorului lor dispărut şi pentru a răspândi creştinismul.

Persons: Martin Scorsese, Martin Charles Scorsese, Scorsese, Oscar, Palme, Travis Bickle, Michael Henry, Alice Doesn’t, Alice, Claude Beylie, Cannes Rupert Pupkin, Jerry, Nikos Kazantzakis, Willem Dafoe, Iisus, Isus, Henry Hill, Jimmy Conway, Tommy, Vito ., Henry, Nicky Santoro, Ace, Ginger McKenna, Howard Hughes, Katharine Hebburn, Ava Gardner, Hughes, Juan Trippe, Noah Dietrich, Owen Brewster, Billy Costigan, Queenan, Costigan, Frank Costello Organizations: World Cinema Foundation, BAFTA, Pan American Locations: american, Cannes, Vietnam, New York, Veneția, Hollywood, Japonia, credinţă

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