thomas friedman on the coalition (or lack thereof) (nyt op-ed)
"The Saudi ruling family would love to cooperate by handing over its police files on the 15 Saudis involved in the hijackings, but that would be a violation of its sovereignty, and, well, you know how much the Saudis respect sovereignty — like when the Saudi Embassy in Washington rushed all of Osama bin Laden's relatives out of America after Sept. 11 on a private Saudi jet, before they could be properly questioned by the F.B.I."

Friedman is on a roll.
(Friday, October 26, 2001)

joel meyerowitz at ground zero (boston.com)
"From these chunks of metal here," Meyerowitz continued, pointing to a mound of smoking ruins in the foreground, "to those guys making sparks over there" - a pair of welders slicing into the hotel's fractured facade - "to the Woolworth Building in the background, which is glowing in the autumn sunshine. You stand here, and it's hard not to be fascinated.

"It's not perverse, I think," he said, "to focus not on the horror but to marvel at what's here. Look at how that building stood up! Is this not astonishingly beautiful?"
(Wednesday, October 24, 2001)

freitag!
their shop is pretty cool; you can sort through every unique bag they have, so you can make sure you're getting the colors you want.

i have a yellow-on-blue "hawaii five-o" bag that i got as barter. it was, i find now, way overpriced.
(Thursday, October 18, 2001)

fly the flag free!
"Over the past weeks we've received inquiries from customers about the possibility of embroidering the American flag on Lands' End merchandise. We do have this capability and, in response to these inquiries, we have decided to offer this service without charge on the items shown below."
(Friday, October 12, 2001)

brillo!
this is the happiest page on the web.
(Thursday, October 11, 2001)

propaganda now comes from all sides at once (nyt)
"The most obvious and frustrating problem with recent television coverage — the absence of pictures, with American cameras unable to reach into Taliban-controlled parts of Afghanistan — has obscured a more profound transformation. Instead of a monolithic American point of view, the audience today is receiving a global perspective, seeing news from the BBC and from Al Jazeera, the Arab television station that first carried the bin Laden and Al Qaeda tapes."
(Wednesday, October 10, 2001)

republicans don't want federalization of airport security (nyt op-ed)
"Congressional Republican leaders have declared themselves dead set against any proposal to federalize airport security, on the grounds that it would create a new federal bureaucracy — they have even denounced federalization as 'socialism.' And they have reportedly told the Bush administration that they would prefer no airport security bill to one that creates any new federal functions."

Can someone please tell me how these idiots keep getting elected? Or this another case of having the government we deserve?
(Wednesday, October 10, 2001)

saved by a squeegee (nyt)
"They faced a wall, stenciled with the number '50.' That particular elevator bank did not serve the 50th floor, so there was no need for an opening. To escape, they would have to make one themselves.

"Mr. Demczur felt the wall. Sheetrock. Having worked in construction in his early days as a Polish immigrant, he knew that it could be cut with a sharp knife.

"No one had a knife."

Another heroic, amazing story from the Twin Towers.
(Tuesday, October 9, 2001)

osama pr= dubya pr? (nyt)
"Perversely mirroring the president's division of the world into those who stood with America in rejecting terrorism and those who stood against her, Mr. bin Laden, too, divided people into the 'faithful' who side with him, and those who oppose him, the 'infidels.' What seemed a deliberate mockery of Mr. Bush's appeal made some in Washington uneasy. 'I'm a little disturbed that his press people may be as good as ours,' one official lamented."

Yet another underestimation of Osama. The way we're going, we're going to walk into the worst situation this country has seen since Vietnam. If we haven't already (see: Florida, two anthrax deaths in).
(Tuesday, October 9, 2001)

a democratic remembrance (nyt)
"The exhibition's organizers say that they are taking at least one image from anyone who brings samples in and that their main goal is to represent as broad a spectrum of experience as possible. Once selected, the images are scanned, digitally printed and clipped to wires strung along the walls, displayed anonymously without labels or captions. Copies of the images, which are printed on the spot, can be purchased for $25 each. Proceeds are going to the Children's Aid Society 911 Fund."

116 Prince Street, NYC
(Tuesday, October 9, 2001)

i am going home
this explodingdog drawing seems pretty appropos (sp?).
(Tuesday, October 2, 2001)

reporter shoved in front of car while wearing islamic garb (seattle p-i)
"I was standing on the corner of Broadway and Pike Street, waiting for the light to change so I could cross, when a young man shoved me in front of a moving vehicle. Fortunately, the driver stopped in time. I faced the guy who pushed me, but all he said was 'I guess I tripped and just didn't see you. Sorry.' He looked over my shoulder while talking to me. He almost sounded bored."

People, this is ludicrous. What ever happened to freedom and liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
(Monday, October 1, 2001)

reimaging dubya (washington post)
"[Magazine writer David Carr said,] 'There's been a collective decision to re-image the president, and the media is fully cooperating. Journalists are very anxious to help him construct a wartime presidency, because we may be at war and he's the only president we have. When you have people with agendas serving as your eyes and ears, I just don't think you're necessarily getting the truth. It's just a more patriotic version of spin.'

"[White House spokesman Ari] Fleischer responds that 'the American people are too smart' to be spun."

They aren't, and Ari knows it. That's why he was busy telling us that Air Force One was a target, when it was discovered later that in fact it was not.
(Monday, October 1, 2001)