The Off Topic Topic

[Eddie Teach]

Go even older school, and move it to Memphis. 

Too close to Cairo to have much impact.

Watch Lettow freak.

Haha. Anyway, he's Nipponese now.

[The Larch]

I think my neighbourhood might be gentryfying. Within the block I live there have recently opened: a hipster organic food store and bar; a wine store cum restaurant with queues and like 5 tables inside; another bare-bones Italian restaurant selling Italian gourmet food for take away; a weekly fresh Atlantic fish market with fish flown from Portugal; an Israeli-Lebanese coffee shop; a lesbian crepes/champagne bar; Bang-Olufsen boutique; and a pet clothes store.

Edit: forgot a French boulangerie with overpriced baguettes and tiny marmelade jars.

That's not gentrification, that's becoming posh.

[garbon]

Well that didn't take long. Just had my first British 'celeb' sighting. Saw Russell Tovey walking his French Bulldog.

[celedhring]

Trying to remember my first celeb sighting when I moved to the USA... must have been Piper Perabo at a vodka bar in Soho.

[Josquius]

Found this piece really interesting:
http://newsweekpakistan.com/uneasy-conversations/

That was really interesting. Thank you for sharing that. I have heard about the war in passing but know nothing about it. Considering how the creation of Pakistan went in 1947 I figured it was probably very nasty.

And allegedly America's role in it is also pretty nasty:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/books/review/the-blood-telegram-by-gary-j-bass.html?_r=0

I think my neighbourhood might be gentryfying. Within the block I live there have recently opened: a hipster organic food store and bar; a wine store cum restaurant with queues and like 5 tables inside; another bare-bones Italian restaurant selling Italian gourmet food for take away; a weekly fresh Atlantic fish market with fish flown from Portugal; an Israeli-Lebanese coffee shop; a lesbian crepes/champagne bar; Bang-Olufsen boutique; and a pet clothes store.

We've recently got a new sourdough bakery opening up in my area of London ()

Also in the news. Egypt's planning to build a new capital city:
http://cairobserver.com/post/113543612414/chasing-mirages-in-the-desert#.VQQuYI7ke4H

I thought Egypt was busy fighting economic collapse

[garbon]

Trying to remember my first celeb sighting when I moved to the USA... must have been Piper Perabo at a vodka bar in Soho.

The first I remember was one of the wayans brothers, then Alan Cumming.

[Eddie Teach]

I have never seen a celebrity in the flesh. Well, apart from concerts and sporting events.

[Tonitrus]

The closest thing to a celeb sighting I've ever had, in the flesh (if you don't count GWB on the campaign trail before becoming President), was pitcher Randy Johnson pumping gas at the same place I was back when he was a Seattle Mariner.

[Capetan Mihali]

I've seen Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and a couple of Knicks players.

EDIT:  And almost bumped into Sonia Sotomayor in downtown NY while she was browsing some crappy jewelry, right before her appointment.

[Ideologue]

I think my neighbourhood might be gentryfying. Within the block I live there have recently opened: a hipster organic food store and bar; a wine store cum restaurant with queues and like 5 tables inside; another bare-bones Italian restaurant selling Italian gourmet food for take away; a weekly fresh Atlantic fish market with fish flown from Portugal; an Israeli-Lebanese coffee shop; a lesbian crepes/champagne bar; Bang-Olufsen boutique; and a pet clothes store.

Edit: forgot a French boulangerie with overpriced baguettes and tiny marmelade jars.

That's not gentrification, that's becoming posh.

That's not becoming posh, that's flying in the face of seventy years of defense strategy that says not to geographically centralize high-value targets.

[Eddie Teach]

That's not becoming posh, that's flying in the face of seventy years of defense strategy that says not to geographically centralize high-value targets.

Those stores have no military value. 

[Ideologue]

The part that really bothers me is the "fish flown in from Portugal."  That's the decline and fall of the West in a sentence.  "Pet clothes" is pretty bad too.

[CountDeMoney]

pitcher Randy Johnson pumping gas at the same place I was back when he was a Seattle Mariner.

Bird murderer.   

[Tonitrus]

Pretty sure that had to be suicide.

[CountDeMoney]

Pretty sure that had to be suicide.

The bird had the right of way.  At the very least it was involuntary manslaughter.