Would the driver of a dark-blue van with aluminum ladders attached to the roof and the letters ELM painted on its sides please report to the Phoenix office, so I can smack you in the face with a nine-pound hammer.

I was just driving to work this morning on the Pike in the second-from-the-left lane somewhere around Newton — doing about 60 — and this big blue vehicle labeled ELM starts drifting into my lane from the right at a fairly high rate of speed. So I honk; just a short toot, assuming it's just another fool on his cell phone, but does he drift back to the right? No, he accelerates and pulls into my lane, which is tantamount to steering into the side of my car.

Fortunately even my clumsy little Toyota was capable of responding to my deft emergency evasive maneuvers, and after a bit of zigging and zagging and judicious alternating applications of brakes, gas, and side-view mirror, I got out of his way.

Without trying, I caught up to the bastard at the Allston tolls, but he was still weaving and speeding and, I was unable to get his license number — or read the address under the ELM. Thus this jerk avoided being identified more precisely.

I do hope his boss (who no doubt paid a lot for that tuck) is a hip guy who reads the Phlog. Failing that, I can only hope that his next high-speed lane wander takes him into the path of one of those classless Cadillac SUVs driven by someone reading a text message. Or a state cop.

3/25/2008 1:19:24 PM by Clif Garboden | Comments [0] |  

Ok, so we know Client-9's chosen lady-of-the-night in Room 871 was 5'5". And brunette.

But! Did she, like so many of these Emperor's Clubbers, also have an MA to her credit? Or an MFA? Maybe even just an senior honor's thesis? Does that count? Do any of these 'hos carry a PhD? Spitzer liked them to be discreet, and, blech, he liked it "dangerous." So did he also like a smarty-pants?

Whores with Master's degrees: strange. MTV, please find them and do a True Life about this new and interesting subculture.

3/12/2008 12:11:12 PM by Sharon Steel | Comments [0] |  

The Associated Press reported today that Salvia divinorum, the next marijuana!,  is being targeted by lawmakers for its parallels to pot. But while the plant is similarly inexpensive and easy to get, salvia is nothing like marijuana.

 

For starters, the drug is highly psychoactive, and users’ responses can range from uncontrollable laughter to profoundly altered states—states centered around childhood memory recall, strong sensations of motion, and distorted and overlapping realities.

 

It’s name means “diviner’s sage.” One online seller leaves no question why, boasting that the plant “induces out of body experiences, astral projection, divination, and enhances spiritual development”.

 

And so far, it’s 100% legal.

 

Similar to it s closer counterpart LSD, a drug which inspired Mark McCloud’s blotter art, The Grateful Dead, and Ken Kesey, Salvia has already inspired decades of artists, musicians, and writers.

 

Luke Brown, an artist in residence in BC Canada, said his “medicine journeys seem to guide and be guided by the colorful symmetries and living surfaces of his art.”

1200 Micrograms, a psychedelic trance act from Ibiza, calls the plant “the most powerful since the discovery of LSD” in their song “Salvia Divinorum.” They got their band name from a reference to a very high dose of the drug.

 

Ethnobotanist Dale Pendell says he reads pharmacology as it “intersects with the direct experience of [his own] human psychoactive use.” In his 1995 book“Phamako/Poeia—Plants Powers, Poisons, and Herbcraft”, which won the 1996 Firecracker Alternative Book Award, Pendell recounts his personal experiences with Salvia, calling it “the sneaky one. We caught all the others, but we couldn't catch this one-- this one was too subtle. We've been after this plant for almost five hundred years."

Eight states have already placed restrictions on salvia. 16 others are considering a ban.

Not for long, Pendell. Not for long.

--Elizabeth Flock

3/11/2008 2:47:31 PM by Ian Sands | Comments [0] |  

Ellee spread the word over on Slop earlier (complete with a fantastically crafted illustration - Ellee, you are a Photoshop genius), but Pat Lyons*, over at the NYT's Lede blog, considers a entirely different aspect to the story:

"The father of the child is variously reported to be 18 or 19 years of age, and she is 16. We don’t know exactly where they were 12 weeks ago, and frankly don’t want to — but prosecutors might. In Louisiana, where they both live, the age of consent is 17, and what obviously must have gone on between them might qualify as criminal carnal knowledge of a juvenile in that state — either a felony or misdemeanor, depending on just how old he is.

In California, where she stays while the show is being shot, the age of consent is 18, and the relevant charge would be unlawful sexual intercourse, a misdemeanor."

Yikes. We know who we would not like to be right now.

Read Lyons's full blog entry here.

*Apologies to Pat for originally/incorrectly identifying the author of the post as Mike Nizza!

12/19/2007 7:50:33 PM by Carly Carioli | Comments [0] |