Brand New Cadillac

A video of The Clash's cover of Vince Taylor's 1958 song Brand New Cadillac. Although many bands have covered this tune, for me the Clash's version is the one that by far rocks out the most. It just has a Friday feel to it if you know what I mean.

Webtribution

What the heck is "Webtribution" you say? Just by the word you may intuit that it is some form of cyber-revenge and that it isn't pleasant and you are right. Simply put, it's vengeance, or payback if you will, via the internet. Behind a monitor and keyboard people do things to rectify perceived slights, be they real or not, that they wouldn't dream of doing in person. From this WSJ article comes the following passage.

"Psychologists actually have a term for this: the "online disinhibition effect." They divide this type of behavior into two categories: "benign disinhibition" (which is what happens when someone says something private they might not have shared publicly with many people offline) and "toxic disinhibition" (expressing rudeness, anger, criticism or hate)."

The article doesn't say anything you might not already know or might not have surmised if you spend any time online in social network settings or on opinionated blogs, but it does give some interesting examples and encapsulates this phenomenon in a way which makes you think.

A stroke of good fortune

For them at least. From the blog Ananova comes the story of two destitute brothers, living in a cave outside of Budapest, who stand to inherit a fortune. This is the kind of thing almost everyone secretly wishes for at least once in life.

Beaujolais Nouveau

I have never been a big fan of Beaujolais Nouveau. It's a little too light and fruit-juicy (is that even a word?) for my taste, but it's that time again and it can be a fun wine. The craze has faded and the brightly colored, splashy labels have been reined in a bit, but in this article the duo at the WSJ are pleased to report that the Beaujolais Nouveau is getting back to its roots -- affordable, fun and fresh. Here they give their recommendations. It can be a good wine to bring around during holiday time, especially if you know the people you are bringing it to prefer a lighter red.

Is this irony?

Here is the headline of an article in the NYT business section, "Significant Risks to U.S. Bank Stocks Exist: Citigroup." Let's see, Citigroup is a U.S. Bank, Citigroup's stock has been risky for quite a while now ($4.06 at the time of this post), Citigroup had to be bailed out to the tune of 45 billion U.S. taxpayer dollars which it has not paid back yet. I know that it is their analysts job to make these pronouncements but I just find it a tad ironic that a bank which has had issues with its stock price for a prolonged period of time is commenting on other banks stock prices.

Who really is the writer?

A closer look at "ghost" writers and their world. This WSJ article looks at what the role is of the often overlooked "aide" who helps shape, write or even birth a celebrity book or memoir. How much involvement do they really have and how much money or credit do they get? I can assure you, there is no ghost writer on this blog even though sometimes it feels a little haunted and I get very little credit and even less money

Deirdres Samba

For the first day of December, a recording by Swedish songstress Anne-Lie Rydé of the song Deirdres Samba with some accompanying still footage. The original tune was written by the Brazilian Chico Buarque de Hollanda. This is by far my favorite version of this song. Rydé builds the song into her own crescendo of emotion from beginning to end and it fits her powerful, lilting voice perfectly.