Malcolm Gladwell has a piece in the current New Yorker discussing fat, french fries, and Ray Kroc’s role in defining the American fry. He also makes fascinating points about real vs. perceived fat content, what the deal is with Olestra, and how McDonald’s could tweak their formulas to great public health benefit. Well worth your time.

Find out with the Gay-O-Meter.

According to http://slashdot.orgSlashdot, this is the most retro home page ever.

Have you ever noticed how much some men resemble a certain country artist as they age? (Also this week’s winner of the longest-domain-name prize.)

Frightened of the New World Order, but unsure exactly how to register your displeasure? Need that special something for your Secret Pal in the militia? I’ve found just the thing.

My friend Mike said that, a long time ago. I suspect he’d enjoy, then, Helena Echlin’s Letter from Yale. You might, too, unless “The ode must traverse the problem of solipsism before it can approach participating in the unity which is no longer accessible.” makes sense to you. (In which case I urge counseling.)

ABC reports an, um, interesting theme park has opened in Gruta, Lithuania. Book your trip now!

Chris assures me that this is not in fact illegal, at least in Alabama.

There’s a firm out there selling personal luxury submarines. Unless this is a monstrous hoax, these guys are actually offering subs (though not built on spec — I don’t think they’ve got inventory) from small 2, 4, or 6 passenger boats to 20-, 36-, and 65-meter undersea yachts. The 65-meter Phoenix was designed for a client who didn’t buy; it awaits a buyer for a cool $78 million. For that, though, you get 5 state rooms and a boat capable of remaining submerged (down to 1,000 feet) for up to 3 weeks at a time. No word yet on the torpedo option.

Those pesky goons over at the The Spark are at it again. Gender Test uses your answers and the (in)accuracy of its ultimate guess to improve its data pool. Kind of neat. Also, it purports to show that one gender is slightly better than the other at recognizing whether or not clams are alive.

Er, right.

Eugene Mirman sings. Oh dear sweet Lord.

My right-winger friends love to talk about how biased the media is, which I guess explains the complete love-in over the whole Lewinski/impeachment deal a while back. Of course, it’s not that simple. As case in point, I direct you to a piece in Salon today about the very selective media coverage of the Clinton’s gift fiasco. There’s plenty of very interesting data that never made it to print, largely because a whiff of scandal sells papers. For instance:

• No, HIllary didn’t register anywhere.
• Contrary to most of reports, the $190,000 haul is actually the accumulation of several years’ worth of stuff, not the result of a loophole-exception gift frenzy.
• No, Senatorial gift guidelines don’t play into this at all.
• No, the didn’t take items belonging to the White House.

This feeding frenzy is good food for thought the next time someone babbles about “the liberal media.”

There’s just not much I can say that would improve on it: Charlotte’s Goat.

Betcha think this is a funny webmaster screwup, eh? Think again.

Why do my own ranting about the aggressive stupidity of most big-budget American Cinema when the SF Chronicle’s Jon Carroll will do it for me?

Or, at least, you know you know something. One of the things you now know is where AskJeeves gets its answers. Go on, show off a little. You know you want to.