OMG, OED ♥’s LOL.

FYI...

For the March 2011 release of OED Online, we have selected for publication a number of noteworthy initialisms—abbreviations consisting of the initial letters of a name or expression. Some of these—such as OMG [OMG int. (and n.) and adj.]: ‘Oh my God’ (or sometimes ‘gosh’, ‘goodness’, etc.) and LOL [LOL int. and n./2]: ‘laughing out loud’—are strongly associated with the language of electronic communications (email, texting, social networks, blogs, and so on). They join other entries of this sort: IMHO (‘in my humble opinion’) [IMHO at I n./1], TMI (‘too much information’) [TMI at T n.], and BFF (‘best friends forever’) [BFF at B n.], among others.

[ ... ]

The new sense added to heart v. in this update may be the first English usage to develop via the medium of T-shirts and bumper-stickers. It originated as a humorous reference to logos featuring a picture of a heart as a symbol for the verb love, like that of the famous ‘I ♥ NY’ tourism campaign. Our earliest quote for this use, from 1984, uses the verb in ‘I heart my dog’s head’, a jokey play on bumper stickers featuring a heart and a picture of the face of a particular breed of dog (expressing a person’s enthusiasm for, say, shih-tzus) which itself became a popular bumper sticker. From these beginnings, heart v. has gone on to live an existence in more traditional genres of literature as a colloquial synonym for ‘to love’.

WTF?

Whether you consider this a further debasement of the language or a much appreciated academic acceptance of changing conventions is a matter of personal choice, of course. In my heart of heart, I lean toward the first conclusion but then I keep reminding myself that I pledged long ago not to be one of those old men who bitched about the way it used to be and refuse to be irate or contrarian.

I will say that the Twitter-ization of communication does strike me as evidence of the increasing disintegration of levels of meaning, nuance and depth in human interaction and a condescension to a culture which prizes only the immediate and ignores, if not denies, history. The shining lights of the generation about to take over the world, for all their extraordinary accomplishments in many areas, appear to these tired old eyes to manifest brilliance without intellect.

And that is no LOL matter.

Dethroning the King: The Hostile Takeover of an American Icon.

I wrote a story about succession planning for a magazine called New Brewer earlier this month. Who takes over when the founder moves on (for whatever reason) is going to be a hot topic in the craft brewing world in this decade as the bright young men who created the earliest microbreweries and brewpubs will be hitting their fifties and later. I figured the story of how the brewers of Budweiser, the 150-year old enterprise run by the Busch family which was taken over in the summer of 2008 by InBev, an international corporation located in Belgium but controlled by Brazilians (in what was the largest all-cash acquisition in history) would provide me with some useful material.

What happened to Anheuser-Busch was more a tragic tale of hubris, strife and discord between a father and son and a provincial view of the world by people too long insulated from its realities, a tragicomedy in which poor succession planning was almost a footnote. The sins of the father, August Busch III, doomed the short reign of the son, August Busch IV, so thoroughly that what happened was inexorable. There was little in its pages to meet my particular needs (although I was able to get an appreciative guffaw from the owner of a St. Louis brewery who is currently in the process of working our a succession plan by assuring him that whatever he came up with could never be the worst such plan in the history of his home town  (where A-B is also headquartered) because that ship had definitely already sailed.

That said, Dethroning the King is a marvelous read and a fascinating look inside the dysfunctional world of a major corporate entity and author Julie MacIntosh is both a solid reporter (she covered the merger for the Financial Times and developed lots of contacts who were willing to talk) and a skilled storyteller. August III is clearly the villain, ousting his father in 1975 and then hanging on to overshadow and disrupt the short reign of his son when he took over in 2006. Under III (as he was nicknamed within the company) A-B ignored the international expansion that might have saved it for the family, including not purchasing, in 1989, the small Brazilian brewer which became the nucleus of InBev.

This is a great story, even if you care not a whit about the beer industry, and I recommend it highly. There is a movie in the works, I believe, or if not, there certainly should be.

"America's Mayor." Fast Eddie." By whatever name, Ed Rendell was a major force in Pennsylvania politics for more than three decades.

He is credited with bringing the city of Philadelphia from the brink of bankruptcy and changing its image and livability during his eight years as mayor, 1992-1999. His eight years as the 45th Governor of Pennsylvania (2002-2010), while sometimes a rocky road, stack up against those of any of his predecessors in terms of achievement. He was the chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1999-2001 and has been mentioned for various positions in both the Clinton and Obama administrations. And he made a different sort of history by being a regular (if not always astute) panelist on a local post-game cable show during the NFL season.

Bigger than life? It ain't a cliché if it's true.

The main story on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer today is a look back at Rendell's term in the state house, with the highly appropriate headline, "Stormy Tenure Ends." For a lot of people, including me, the headline on the second long Rendell piece, "After eight years as governor, Rendell remembered as Philly mayor," has even more resonance.

He says his days in politics are done. Chances are he'll be turning up on a TV near you before long; some rumors have him going to Fox as a token progressive, others think he'll be a "regular contributor" at MSNBC. Either way, the odds on his saying something outlandish on a regular basis are pretty good. Check out "The quotable governor," also in today's paper.

Tracking the man behind this Curtin.

For the first time in my life, I can now state with relative certainty where my Irish ancestors dwelled. The results of a DNA test I took months ago which I finally received show that, in the words of Australian Margaret Curtain, a Curtin family expert, "your family lines is from the Curtin Corner area -- where Kerry, Cork, and Limerick meet." It was that region or Cork, I'd figured for years, but it's nice to know. Also, that "Curtin's Corner" designation, aside from being pretty neat, reminds me of something.*

I think I've told the story before about my grandfather Denis Curtin and my inability to trace his life prior to his arrival on these shores. Knowing which part of the old country he came from is a major leap forward my my quest, but also probably the final dead end. Everything I know about Denis (he died when my father was 11 years old and seems not to have very active in his life; his wife, my grandmother, died shortly after my father's birth and he and his older sister were raised by relatives on a farm outside Kennett Square which is still in the family) indicates that he was one of four brothers, two of whom emigrated, or were shipped off, to Australia and one who came to the U.S. with him but later also moved to Australia. There appears to be no record of any Curtin family in Ireland in the proper time frame which had four sons, one of them named Denis and the other Jerry (probably Jeremiah), the name of the brother who came to this country with him.

The DNA stuff is fascinating. I have 33 and 17 exact matches in the two broadest categories which reflect really "distant" cousins, i.e., several hundred years in the past. In the two more informative markers, I have three matches which would indicate a common ancestor somewhere in the 300 year range. I can expand the search as well or take advantage of a new test (at some cost) which could pinpoint more recent connections. For all of these people, and about 50 more, I have email addresses if I want to make contact.

We'll see. For now, I have signed on (again, I was a member years ago) with The Curtin Clan and may join them at their annual gathering in Chicago next June.

*I really need to get this website up and running again; consider it a New Year's resolution.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1927.

Regular commenter/stalker-in-training Carl P directed my attention to the video below (he found it posted here, where you'll also find a bit more historical perspective on the filming itself)...



Cool, innit? I am particularly intrigued because, if things go as I was told they would, I will be receiving a copy of a Sherlockian journal by year's end in which a story I wrote last year for Ale Street News (a bimonthly tabloid magazine about beer and brewing, or "brewspaper") will appear. That too will be cool.

Also, Buddy liked the dog. 

Still alive after all these years.

Love this from Life, the Keith Richards autobiography which is getting rave reviews.

After Keith falls out of a tree in 2006 and incurs a life-threatening hematoma, he receives get-well wishes from world dignitaries, Tony Blair included: “Dear Keith, you’ve always been one of my heroes.” Keith does a double take: “England’s in the hands of somebody who I’m a hero of?”

He was hardly a role model, but, man, I'm glad he made it through.

"If Europe has one defining cultural characteristic, it is that it has none."

This is a very amusing overview of the way various European nationalities see one another. Plus maps!

Thanks to the tireless (i.e., unemployed) Carl P for his continued service toward keeping this blog alive. He knows not what he does...

Things to think about for those who bother to think at all.

Here's an interesting tidbit from this morning's Mike Allen's Politico Playbook, the mover-and-shaker email for the Washington press corps and the TV talking heads (yes, thee are the words of a partisan source but truth is where you find it):

A TOP DEM. STRATEGIST phoned while reading the Sunday papers to say that “Week in Review” was really “Bush in Review,” between David E. Sanger's cover piece about years of “seriously flawed” Afghanistan strategy; http://nyti.ms/9IR0Hr David Stockman's Op-Ed blaming the modern Republican Party for “serial financial bubbles”; http://nyti.ms/bNn416 and the lead editorial, about the “alarming” deficit: http://nyti.ms/cX9XSK “It was really about the legacy we're all dealing with right now.” 

Plus also, as we say on the internets, there's this a bit further down in that same email:

--Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek, “Raise My Taxes, Mr. President!”: “The Bush tax cuts remain the single largest cause of America's structural deficit-that is, the deficit not caused by the collapse in tax revenues when the economy goes into recession. … The simple fact is this: all the Bush tax cuts were unaffordable. They were an irresponsible act of hubris enacted during an economic boom. … We have in front of us a simple, easy way to bring America's fiscal house in order, reduce our dependence on foreign borrowing, restore U.S. credibility and power, and give us a stable revenue base from which to make key investments for future growth. All we need is for Congress to do what it does so well-nothing.” http://bit.ly/cOu4IR

Of course, we all know that the nation's problems rest solely on the fact that the current resident of the Oval Office is an imposter who is not even a citizen and may well not even be human at all and a secret plot by a handful of evil liberals to turn us into a fascist dictatorship (Yeah, I know; don't try to make sense of it), but still, maybe some of the Liberal Media Elite might want to pay some attention. If they do, of course, it will be in he said/she said mode so little light will be shed, but at least that beats around-the-clock coverage of the latest Palin bleat tweet or right-wing fantasy.

Congratulations to Fox News, by the way, for gaining the empty front row seat at White House briefings. The White House Press Association has thereby certified them as an actual news organization rather than a political propaganda machine and that must make them very proud...not to mention laugh hysterically.

Invert a dream and you have a nightmare.

This long, depressing article in Financial Times yesterday, you can be sure, will not be discussed by your favorite cable screamer, left or right. Or by any spokesperson for the administration or for the (dis)loyal opposition. Or pretty much any public figure this side of maybe, Paul Krugman. There are things you are not meant nobody wants you to know.

The whole piece is worth reading if you want to really understand what has happened in this country over the past two or three decades and see what the future holds for your children and grandchildren and maybe even for you personally. It is why I keep saying (and am mostly ignored) that it would be wise for my grandchildren and yours to be prepared to move to another country when they become adults.

As I said, read it all if you dare, but here's a brief segment which sums up the larger picture (the bold emphasis is mine):

In the last expansion, which started in January 2002 and ended in December 2007, the median US household income dropped by $2,000 – the first ever instance where most Americans were worse off at the end of a cycle than at the start. Worse is that the long era of stagnating incomes has been accompanied by something profoundly un-American: declining income mobility.

Alexis de Tocqueville, the great French chronicler of early America, was once misquoted as having said: “America is the best country in the world to be poor.” That is no longer the case. Nowadays in America, you have a smaller chance of swapping your lower income bracket for a higher one than in almost any other developed economy – even Britain on some measures. To invert the classic Horatio Alger stories, in today’s America if you are born in rags, you are likelier to stay in rags than in almost any corner of old Europe.

"The distinctive ethnic group that opened its doors to all."

Anyone who has known me over the years is likely aware of my deep disdain for WASP culture and the ways they (in my eyes) screwed a lot of things up. I have to say that this column in last Friday's New York Times has given me pause and caused me rethink and reevaluate that position. I haven't changed my mind quite yet, but my eyes have been opened to a broader perspective that I have not not previously considered.

Having one's assumptions challenged is a good thing.

"If you can control the conversation..."

We should also be very worried about efforts to undermine the free flow of information on the Internet.

Right now, a blog loads just as quickly as a corporate webpage. An email from your mother comes through just as smoothly as a bill notification from your bank. An independent bookstore can process your order as quickly as Barnes and Noble.

But top telecommunications companies have declared their interest in offering prioritized Internet service for companies who can pay for it. This could lead to the creation of a high--speed lane for wealthy corporations and transform the Internet from an open playing field into yet another place where powerful economic elites have a bigger megaphone than the rest of us.

Some of the same people who were instrumental in the Federalist Society's effort to change our legal system are now working to help corporations increase their control over the flow of information.

If you control the flow of information, you can control the conversation around important issues.

If you can control the conversation, you can change this country.

For those of us who live here on the internets, that's a key passage from a very important keynote speech that Sen. Al Franken gave to the Annual Convention of the American Constitutional Society on Thursday night.

Franken, that "awful comedian" that the righties fought so long and hard to defeat in favor of lightweight Norm Coleman, is one of the brightest lights in this very dim Congress of ours, strikingly more intelligent and thoughtful than most of his better known colleagues.

As I said, this was an important speech and you need to hear or read it all.

The other side of Obama's "race problem."

Also from Frank Rich's must-read column today:

Last week, after I wrote about the role race plays in some of the apocalyptic right-wing hysteria about the health care bill, a friend who is a prominent liberal Obama supporter sent me an e-mail flipping my point. He theorized that race also plays a role in “the often angry and intemperate talk” he has been hearing from “left-liberal friends for the past many months about what a failure and a disappointment” the president has been. In his view, “Obama never said anything, while running, to give anyone the idea” that he was other than a “deliberate, compromise-seeking bipartisan moderate.” My friend wondered if white liberals who voted for Obama expected a “sweeping Republicans-be-damned kind of agenda” in part — and he emphasized “in part!” — because “they expect a black guy to be intemperate, impetuous, impatient” rather than “measured, deliberate, patient.”

The enigma that is Obama.

Frank Rich this morning:

Depending on where you stand — or the given day — he is either an overintellectual, professorial wuss or a ruthless Chicago machine pol rivaling the original Boss Daley. He is either a socialist redistributing wealth to the undeserving poor or a tool of Wall Street’s Goldman Sachs elite. He is a terrorist-coddling, A.C.L.U.-tilting lawyer or a closet Cheneyite upholding the worst excesses of the Bush administration’s end run on the Constitution. He is a lightweight celebrity who’s clueless without a teleprompter or a Machiavellian mastermind who has ingeniously forged his Hawaiian birth certificate, covered up his ties to Islamic radicals and bamboozled the entire mainstream press. He is the reincarnation of J.F.K., L.B.J., F.D.R., Reagan, Hitler, Stalin, Adlai Stevenson or Nelson Mandela.

Priceless.

A dangerous moment.

As history is about to be made (see previous post), we are also going into an extremely dangerous time.

The wingnuts, unconscionably supported and facilitated by the remnants of what was once one of our major political parties, have ramped up the hatred and anger of the confused and misguided to almost unimaginable levels. The elements for a major tragedy are in place if one or many of that motley assortment choose to go completely over the edge.

Aside from the possible actions of the classic Loner, who is always with us, the time frame for really stupid reactions is probably no more than a week or two, a span beyond which the attention span of the mobs currently in the street has shown no evidence of extending.

Until then, I  assume the Secret Service is on total alert. They had better be.

History.

I may not be here to see it (or may not be able to understand it if I am here), but history is being made this weekend and in the days to follow.

Make no mistake about it, this will be one of those times which, as the nuns used to threaten (and as nuns perhaps helped make possible now), will go onto the permanent record. Because of what is happening in Washington now and in the hours ahead, America will be a better place and this moment will be seen as laying the groundwork for many changes to follow.

This is a turning point and those who are on the wrong side of history will pay the price.

Perhaps sooner than they might think, say this November?