94% chance Obama wins

This week's statistical exercise was to calculate the chance that Obama will win more than 50% of the popular vote on November 4th as a function of economic growth (or lack thereof) and the fact that the Republicans have been in office for two terms. The result: 94% chance he wins!

You can probably think of a few relevant variables that have been left out. Like racism. But unfortunately we can't test that because it's never happened before. There are some 'studies' that claim to show black candidates face a 10-15% handicap, but none of these are generalizeable to a national election.

So I remain cautiously optimistic.

Presidential Debates + Gin Club

Even though the debate kind of sucked in that it was all boring and shit, the gin club aspect was AMAZING. Learned so many new things. And then Australian pubs--just because. I'm sure there will be pictures at some point. But now bed.

Can't wait for the vice-presidential debates!

And the winner is...

Only five of you voted in my poll of where I should live, and one of them was me. Since I don't know how many people read this blog, I can't say exactly what the rate of voter participation was, but let's just say it was EXECRABLE.

I try to give the people democracy, but they don’t want it. So much for that. From now on this blog will be run like the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Anyway, on to the (illegitimate) results. It was a tie for first place between the West Village and Chelsea, with Chinatown in second place and Hell’s Kitchen a distant last. The tie is actually quite convenient because it expands the range of choices.

Well that was a fun exercise. Now I just need to find an actual apartment…

Juana Molina

Good things come from Argentina.



Check out Un dia

New Jenny Lewis

Promises good things.



Skip to 1:09.

It's worse than back hair

This amused me.

There it goes again

The blue screen of death

gives me no respect.

Damn you, Lenovo.

Where should I move?

YOU have the power to decide*! Complete the survey on the right.

*But not really.

Make new friends, but keep the old

We don't remember much of what came before, but now the slate is clean and this time we'll better document things.

Wedding Weekend

The Union of PaM has been described elsewhere. But here's a (partially censored) photographic version.

Good priest.
Bad priest.
Good girls.
Bad girls.
Good author.
Bad author.
Good place to sleep.
Bad place to sleep.

But for two people it was only good.

S'more, please

Trying something new...

The verdict...

Stuffing our faces...

In Russia, for Love

Brighton Beach is a neighborhood of Moscow that has been inadvertently placed in a remote corner of Brooklyn. So of course P and M chose it as the place to celebrate their last days of independence, together.

We rolled up in a bling-bling limo...


...to find that the venue, Tatiana, defied words. We of course chose to interpret it ironically--but we were the only ones.

The food:
The entertainment:
A happy patron:
The bachelor and bachelorette took it all--every last drop of sweet, sweet vodka--in stride, but that is not a story for the internets.


A traditional Mongolian throat-singing blessing was performed:


As well as poetry and dancing:


And the night even ended with a little dip in the ocean, under a full moon