Burrito Madness '09

OK, so my friend Colin got struck by an idea bolt in his mind grapes the other day. He wants to have a Denver burrito challenge where we eat a burrito every week from a different restaurant and rate them. At the end of our exhaustive list of burrito-serving venues, we'll declare a winner.

We'll use a 1-5 burrito scale to rate each tubular, tortilla-shrouded beast. Like so:

• Really good burrito:
• Not so good burrito:
• Best friggin' burrito ever:

You get the idea. There may also be short reviews involved if we're feeling verbose.

The team is currently composed of me, Colin, Anne B., and Mari S. Our first stop will be Illegal Pete's on 2/12. After that we'll be visiting (in no particular order):

• Chipotle
• Qdoba
• D'Corazon
• El Taco de Mexico
• Big City Burrito
• Wahoo's Fish Taco

Why is that burrito-sellers always emphasize that lesser-of-the-handheld-pseudo-Mexican-foodstuffs, the taco, in their names? Come on, muchachos, El Burrito de Mexico and Wahoo's Fish Burrito sound so much more appealing to this gringo's orejas.

Refreshingly deep analysis of Israeli / Palestinian conflict

This article, in the American Conservative of all places, is a refreshingly deep and sober analysis of the Israeli / Palestinian conflict. I'm not saying you should take everything it says on face value, but it does go into much more detail than any other coverage I've seen recently, and is written by a fairly reputable source (political science professor at the University of Chicago).

The other interesting thing is the conservative angle here, which is something along the lines of, "Conservatives like Israel. Israel's current strategy is not only bad for Palestinians, but also for its own long-term survival. So Israel should change course." This ends up being a fairly nuanced analysis as a result. It also avoids the conservative tendency to ignore the humanitarian tragedy component.

I tend to give well-written, non-conspiracy-nut pieces like this the benefit of the doubt until the mainstream and/or conventional wisdom crowd can answer with an equally deep, nuanced rebuttal that treats all parties involved as real, contemporary people with real, contemporary problems (as opposed to the "Muslins have always and will always be terrists!" line of thinking).

Cause and effect

Cause.

Effect.

There you have it. So if Palin visits your town, just put your mail on your mailbox. You just may live to get the reply.

Here's a handy graph to further illuminate the danger we all now face:

It's Debatable?

The Chicago Tribune has an article today about last night's Biden v. Palin smackdown. It's title is "The winner? It's debatable." But look how the article starts out:

They were in the same room Thursday night, but Joe Biden and Sarah Palin often seemed to be participating in separate debates. One debate dealt with issues. The other served as a platform for Palin's unique brand of Alaskan-bred populism and twangy asides.

Uh... Is it just me or is it a sad day in America when "issues" vs. "twangy asides" constitutes a toss-up in the Vice Presidential Debate? FAIL.

What Margaret Mead should have said

Everyone's heard this quote: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

She should have said this: "Never doubt that changing the world requires hard work, setback, frustration, and anger. Indeed, those forces applied over too long a time are the only thing that ever has."

Nowhere near as catchy, but she probably could have said it more eloquently.

Seriously though, she didn't mean your drum circle has to visualize world peace, people.

Goodbye George, we'll miss you

This is great. Choice quote: "Not every ejaculation deserves a name."

Bed Stuy, I love you but you're bringing me down

Only the first part of that really applies, but I had to finish the LCD Soundsystem reference. :)

Exhibit A: Bergemann in her birthday girl hat

Phew, back in Denver after a whirlwind tour of the Right Coast. Meetings in Boston followed by hanging w/ the C-Berg in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York. Big ups to Bergemann for showin' a guy a great time, and not even making him sleep in the streets at the end of the day!

Highlights:

1. Getting a citation for drinking beer on Crystal's stoop the first day I get there. Bad. Ass.
2. All the food! We had Mexican, Japanese, Indian, Polish, Cuban, Italian (OK, it was pizza, but it came free with the beer at the Crocodile Lounge, so shut up), Chinese, and cookie dough. Mmm... cookie dough.
3. New York. What a spectacular place. There's 25 things that are unique and great hidden on every city block. Gotta find 'em all!
4. People. Not only did John Harris come down and hang with us a bit (always a good time), but I also got to meet lots of Crystal's New York friends and one of Dan's high school friends. Good peeps to a (wo)man. As if that wasn't enough, Drew and John came down on Friday and made us drink an unintelligent amount. It's our ranch, and it's our home.
5. Crystal. One of the nicest, most fun, most willing to eat cookie dough in raw form girls I know. You rock, Bergemann.

Lowlights:

1. Getting a citation for drinking beer on Crystal's stoop. Which means it's now more problematic to drink beers on Crystal's stoop, which would be the worst tragedy ever to befall New York if 9/11 hadn't, you know, mainly happened there.
2. Not still being there.

Here's to August, a.k.a. the Triumphant Return.