The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio)

The Leaf Chronicle (Clarksville, Tennessee)

The Vindicator (Youngstown, Ohio)

The Log Cabin Democrat (Conway, Arkansas)

The Truth (Elkhart, Indiana)

“Citigroup banking analysts… called the capital plan ‘a game changer,’”
- CNNMoney, 10/14/08.

“Obama camp: McCain needs ‘game-changer’ at debate”
- The Hill, 10/15/08.

“McCain must create a game-changing moment without being negative.”
– New York Magazine, 10/15/08.

“It’s officially a game changer.”
- Apple iPhone TV commercial, 10/15/08.

“They didn’t do anything game-changing.”
– Analyst talking about Apple’s new laptops, Washington Post, 10/15/08.

Glassphalt is asphalt made with recycled glass. (Word first spotted here.) They’re paving roads with it in Brooklyn. Some quick research reveals we’ve been using it here since at least 1987. (Note the alternate spelling: Glasphalt.)

Writing in Adbusters, Douglas Haddow has one of the most thoughtful essays I’ve seen on the subject of hipsters. He concludes: “The hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture so detached and disconnected that it has stopped giving birth to anything new.”

Problems here. First, don’t waste ink on hipsters. Write about people who do stuff.

Second, Western civilization is going to be fine. Being hipster is an easy front. Behind them there are a lot of less vain young people getting work done, logging on, mixing-and-matching their own culture.

Third, hipsters aren’t a cultural movement as much as an economic tier. Rich kids ride fixies.

What do you think of the new Walmart logo?

This new logo accomplishes the impossible: It makes the old Wal-Mart logo look good!

It already looks dated and generic. People had the same complaint about the new Payless logo in 2006. Our creative director at work compared it to the Parmalat logo, but I think the Parmalat logo is better.

(Image from Walmartstores.com)

I hope the name “RFK Bridge” catches on as a the new name for the Triborough Bridge. The name change is becoming official this week, the 40th anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination.

The Triboro is New York City’s most complicated bridge. It’s actually three bridges that interlock in a fascinating interchange with two toll plazas. Here’s what it looks like on Google Maps…

View Larger Map

An actual e-mail conversation with a (non-white) coworker:

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On 3/12/08 4:15 PM, <coworker> wrote:

You tell me…

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

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On 3/12/08 4:29 PM, <daryl> wrote:

This is very close to being funny, but I can’t quite put my finger on why it isn’t. There’s something missing. It’s really a blog about yuppies, and most white people aren’t yuppies and not all yuppies are white.

I know what’s missing — we don’t have an up-to-date word for “yuppy” yet.

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On 3/12/08 4:30 PM, <coworker> wrote:

How’s “Hipster”?

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On 3/12/08 4:36 PM, <daryl> wrote:

Close, but hipster implies a level of coolness, youth and wealth that doesn’t match this list.

We’re missing an all-encompassing word for trendy-nerdy, college-educated, middle-class people.

I’m no good at naming things. Including this blog. Inspired by the cartoon below, I decided that History Eraser Button was a way better name for a blog than Brooklyn International Jetport, the name I had before. Change is good!

The homeless guys who hang out around Herald Square sometimes try to get your attention. I was walking on 34th Street today and one of them shouted:

“Excuse me! Buddy! Superdelegate!”

Somebody who went to school in Chicago told me recently about a game students there play using the CTA map. It’s simple: Which El station would you name your child after? Discuss. (Link to the map is here.)

This game could translate well in London, Paris and probably a few other major cities, but not New York where too many of the stations are named after numbered streets or obvious locations (“Union Square”).