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Every Friday, I post a series of unrelated questions meant to spark conversation in the comments. Answer one, answer all, respond to someone else’s reply, whatever you want. It’s casual. On to this week’s topics of discussion…
1. I was searching for a story in Time Magazine’s archives when I got sucked in—”Find Your Birthday Cover!” They had me at the exclamation point.
My birthday cover (July 30, 1979) featured an empty conference room. At first I thought it must have been a slow news week. But according to the cover story, I was born on the heels of “the most extraordinary week in the White House since Richard Nixon resigned in 1974.” I didn’t remember this chapter in American history.
What happened was this: With polls showing Americans had lost confidence in their country and their leader, President Jimmy Carter demanded the resignations of his top 34 Cabinet members and staff aides, then purged everyone he deemed disloyal or ineffective. This was meant to rejuvenate the Carter administration 15 months before the 1980 election. Carter would lose that campaign to Ronald Reagan by a wide electoral margin, 489-49. Maybe that’s why the great shakeup isn’t talked about much anymore.
For our purposes, the question is this: what was the big news story the week you were born? You can use Time’s cover search.
2. The remaking of what movie would anger you the most?
3. I try not to let little things get me worked up, but often times I fail. Like the time a local political candidate put his sign in our lawn without permission (I made quite a scene tearing it out of the ground and hurling it in the trash. Glad nobody has that on tape.) What relatively small and harmless action has recently enraged you?
4. There’s a good chance you’re reading this at your desk. I’ve joked (but been completely serious) about the hit we’d take if all companies banded together and stuck us on the wrong side of their firewalls. If your employer has a firewall, what’s the most bizarre site you’ve noticed is blocked?
Comments (133)
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1. Alaska’s first native-born governor
2. I don’t really watch a lot of movies so have no vested interest in any and whether they are re-made.
3. Drivers texting!!!! It seems like no big deal but they have no idea how obvious it is that they are texting before I even get near enough to see that’s what they are doing . They drive erratically while texting and in DC traffic that is a huge issue!
4. I work for the government so a lot is blocked. Can’t say any of it surprises me except why can I get to facebook but not any other social site?
posted by Hyacinth on 8-21-2009 at 8:17 am
1. When I was born (Feb 19, 1974), the big news was the ongoing Watergate investigation and the completion of the third Skylab mission.
2. Casablanca. Nobody better DARE even think of trying to update/improve upona classic. It cannot be done.
3. Funny this question should come along just now. A few seconds earlier, I had a desk-pounding fit over the fact that one of my clients did not take a credit on their invoice that has been sitting there for a year. It’s ultimately not a big deal but so extremely frustrating that a year’s worth of work apparently went down the tubes.
4. My employer has blocked sites for buying art prints because some prints might contain nudity.
posted by Mother Chat on 8-21-2009 at 8:17 am
1. Africa: A Political Jungle
President Carter is outraged over Soviet and Cuban interference in the internal affairs of African nations.
2.Big Lebowski or Harold and Maude
3. I keep getting thick packets of junk mail from The Arbor Day Foundation. What a waste of trees! It really gets me mad!
4. I’m a teacher so I don’t use a computer at work until after school. Then, I’m all business so I can finish my work. I don’t try to browse the internet at work. That being said, I have the bypass code for any blocked sites. The block is meant to limit student’s access not staff’s.
posted by ClevelandWhiteout on 8-21-2009 at 8:28 am
1. http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19851118,00.html that’s my cover. It seems that the biggest news of the week was a rising stock market and a new cigarette plant opening.
2. I would be upset if they remade Clash of the Titans. The movie as it is now would stay my favorite over any big budget flick they would put in its place.
3. I’m not the biggest conservation freak, but if someone leaves a light on in the house (roommates), I tend to have a volcanic explosion in my mind because I’m paying that bill. Sometimes they leave it on with good intentions, like a nightlight for someone if they’re out, but everything is perfectly visible without it.
4. I am not able to access certain parts of CNN.com, mainly the iReports. I think that’s somewhat strange.
posted by Steven on 8-21-2009 at 8:28 am
@hyacinth
your government is nice. Mine took away facebook, but i still have twitter!
posted by Steven on 8-21-2009 at 8:30 am
2. I live in a small apartment complex near Bologna Italy. There are less than 30 families that live here. The two buildings in this complex directly face eachother, so there is very little privacy. My neighbors are all from Southern Italy, which means they are loud, uneducated, and prefer not to work. Recently, three apartments full of people have decided to live their lives on their balconies and literally yell to eachother from balcony to balcony instead of going to eachother’s apartments. Its 36°C in the shade which makes it impossible to close the windows for a little peace, so my husband and I have come to learn just about everything in these people’s lives. I have resorted to coming up with reasons to stay with my inlaws on the weekends just so I can relax.
posted by Kate on 8-21-2009 at 8:37 am
Steven,
They are remaking the Clash of the Titans. Should be out in the next year or two. Sorry bud.
posted by Joel on 8-21-2009 at 8:38 am
1. The assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II
2. There are so many that have already had a horrible remake (Bad News Bears comes to mind) so i hesitate to actually mention one. One that i would have said a year ago would be The Karate Kid…but no, now they are doing a remake of it with Jadan Smith.
posted by amanda on 8-21-2009 at 8:39 am
1. Chancellor Kiesinger “The Mood of Germany” (Dec 4 1966)
2. Blade Runner
3. People who don’t hold doors open when you’re right behind them. Grrr.
4. The public library site…where evil lurks (?).
posted by AMR on 8-21-2009 at 8:41 am
1. July 17, 1973 Monroe Meets Mailer: Two Myths Converge
2. The Breakfast Club
3. Micromanagement… my boss suffers from random fits of it so you never know when it is going to hit.
4. About half of the Morning Cup o’ Links. How am I supposed to enjoy my coffee I ask you?
posted by Dana on 8-21-2009 at 8:43 am
Most bizarre site blocked here is Google. They have blocked Google Images at my school. Which really sucks. Also they blocked ask.com.
posted by Anthony on 8-21-2009 at 8:45 am
@Joel
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
posted by Steven on 8-21-2009 at 8:49 am
1. Superman’s 50th and \Losing the Drug War\- March 17, 1988
2. Grease. I hope it never happens but with Hollywood, anything is possible. (Couldn’t you picture a slew of Disney kids remaking one of the greatest movies of all time? It’s almost repulsive and might just give me nightmares.)
3. I have been driving all over Michigan recently and when I say all over I mean from one side to the other, up and down, back and forth…you get the picture. I cannot stand bad drivers. The people who nearly cause accidents because their blue-tooth conversation is more important than their life. Or the giant SUVs that ride your ass even though you’re going 85 and in the right lane. So irritating.
4. I am a poor, jobless college student. Booo
posted by Meghan on 8-21-2009 at 9:02 am
1. there’s a martini glass full of cocaine on my cover, it’s a story about the new dangerous drug
2. the Philidelphia Story
3. teenagers who talk at the theater
posted by AuntieEm on 8-21-2009 at 9:03 am
1. July 2, 1982 The Spoils of War, about the conflict in Lebanon. I had a nagging feeling that something along those lines was going to pop up.
3. One thing that bugs the heck out of me to no end is the mispronunciation of ochre as okra. We paint a lot of items yellow ochre where I work and anger rises up when I hear that production is being held up because we are painting okra.
posted by Josh on 8-21-2009 at 9:08 am
1. Andrew Lloyd Webber brings the Phantom of the Opera to Broadway. Slow news week?
2. I don’t know why this is the first that came to mind, but definitely “The Princess Bride”. It’s too perfect.
4. I’m government too, and the only website I have ever found blocked is Glamour magazine. Everything else is fair game. Weird.
posted by Reese on 8-21-2009 at 9:08 am
1. The world’s biggest company was AT&T Chairman Kappel was on the front cover (DOB 6/1/64)
2. Animal House. Just can’t be done.
3. People who don’t wash their hands after using the rest room. Gross!!
4. Most of the links from mental_floss…
posted by Anne on 8-21-2009 at 9:12 am
1. “Good” Cholesterol: Encouraging News for Your Heart, with a thumbnail of Arafat peering over the top of the heart.
2. fight club
3. When people at work throw cups with liquid in them in the garbage can. I take out the trash at the end of the day and I continuously tell them that trash bags are not meant to hold liquid and they may as well dump their drinks right on the floor. It takes 30 seconds to clean up spills with the Swiffer, but I get so incredibly angry every time it happens. Oh, and ice will become liquid after sitting in the trash for a while, FYI.
4. We only have intranet.
posted by laura on 8-21-2009 at 9:22 am
1. Mine was “Children Having Children: Teen Pregnancy in America” (12/9/85) Luckily, my mom was 32 when I was born.
2. The Odd Couple – It seems this one is just screaming for a remake; I hope they resist the urge.
3. Last week I went to get a hair cut about a half hour before close, they said about 20 minutes before they could get to me, I went out to grab a paper and when I came back they had closed 10 minutes early.
4. I used to work for the Labor Department. They blocked mapquest googlemaps and yahoo maps. I guess they didn’t want anyone planning their getaway.
posted by Mike O on 8-21-2009 at 9:32 am
1. Ford Under Fire (Gerald, that is)
2. Citizen Kane, especially if it was in colour
3. People not thanking me for holding the door open for them.
4. No firewall to speak of…
posted by Ranger J on 8-21-2009 at 9:32 am
1) Nice! “The 80’s Look” with Brooke Shields on it. (Feb 1981)
2) Jaws. I’m torn because I think they could do a really great version with all the tech they have today, but some of the big reasons the original is so great is because they *didn’t have much tech and had to create suspense and scares without it. Plus you can’t replace those actors!
3) Improper use of Reply All. You know who you are…
4) Certain squares of the Entertainment Weekly site.
posted by ab on 8-21-2009 at 9:33 am
1. All in the family debuts. Manson and 3 family members found gulity and Apollo 14 blasts off after NASA is grounded for 9 months after Apollo 13. All from January 1971.
2. It’s A Wonderful Life – Bad enough when Ted tried to colorize it.
Citizen Kane, Key Largo
3. People who use bad grammer in Emails. drvs meupthewll!! lol.
4. Guns and jokes. I get the guns, but what’s wrong with a little humor?
posted by Matt on 8-21-2009 at 9:35 am
1. Arkansas governor Orval Faubus closed all the high schools in Little Rock to avoid the federal order to integrate.
Looking at the other answers so far, can you blame me for assuming most of our readers are young?
4. I work at home, so nothing is blocked. But if something doesn’t work, I shift to my backup computer which the kids consider to be theirs… and remember I have blocked an awful lot of bookmarked sites.
posted by Miss Cellania on 8-21-2009 at 9:35 am
1. The Graduate: 1971 Now Where are the Jobs? DOB 5/25/71.
2. It’s a Wonderful Life
3. My husband took his socks off & left them in the family room – again!
4. I’m a small business owner. From time to time, we’ve blocked things like mySpace and entertainment sites, but nothing recently.
posted by Serena on 8-21-2009 at 9:46 am
1. “The Lance Affair.” Basically, Lance was Carter’s “Heckuva job, Brownie.” He was the head of the Office of Management and Budget, and did so many inept and visibly corrupt things that he needed to go just a year and a half into Carter’s now notoriously awful term.
2. This could be a big list, but I’ll go with any of the John Hughes movies. There are always rumors swirling that it’s coming for one of them, and now that Hughes is not alive to stop them, it might happen. Too bad.
3. My neighbor passive-aggressively shutting the common entry door. The entry carpet gets damp when it rains, so it smells in there if it stays damp. I try to help it dry, but I come out a few minutes later and the door is shut again.
4. Google translate. It’s labeled a “proxy/anonymizer.” That’s a pain.
posted by Dave on 8-21-2009 at 9:48 am
1. My Cover is a martini glass full of white powder with an olive and a straw titled: “HIGH ON COCAINE: A Drug With Status- And Menace”
2. Cool Hand Luke
3. When traffic is backed up on the highway and my exit is within sight and I can’t get to it because I’m waiting for traffic to move up to it and then some jerk with a sense of entitlement goes zooming past me on the shoulder up to the exit, like the rules that everyone in traffic are following don’t apply to them. Ugh. Makes me so mad!
posted by Martin Abrahams on 8-21-2009 at 9:48 am
1. The cover for my birthdate – July 5, 1982 — interviews George Shultz, Reagan’s new Secretary of State. I had a feeling it would be Reagan related…
2. I have to second It’s a Wonderful Life. Also, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
4. I work for a newspaper, so in the name of journalistic research, nothing is blocked. Woohoo!
posted by Tracie on 8-21-2009 at 10:02 am
1) My cover is simply Jimmy Connors “Storming the Courts”
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19750428,00.html
2) Gone With the Wind, Stand By Me, The Goonies.
3) I drive a small sedan. Nothing infuriates me more than when a large truck or SUV (I live in Texas – they LOVE big trucks here) intentionally bullies me on the road. Just because you’re in a bigger vehicle does not give you more traffic rights than the rest of us. And 18 wheelers. They are the WORST. I have been run off the road by 18 wheelers on more than one occasion.
4) Most typical sites (Myspace, Facebook, Twitter) are banned here, although we are allowed YouTube which was once blocked. One that kills me is Pandora. Why aren’t we allowed to listen to streaming music while we do mind-numbing work? Also, there was a time when NPR was blocked. I just about quit when I noticed, but it’s back up and running now!!
posted by Renis on 8-21-2009 at 10:07 am
1. Mexico’s Killer Quake! (looks pretty bad!)
2. I thought about the princess bride first but then there are so many other ones, like Petes Dragon or Christmas Vacation or the Labyrinth that simply cannot be changed. I heard they’re doing neverending story which just kills me!
3. This question has so many answers for me. People not using their turn signals is number one in driving. When people say tooken or label pictures online “Blank and I”
4. I just started this job a little while ago so I haven’t gotten to surf yet. I’m sure I’d get in trouble for being on this site as often as I am
posted by Shawn on 8-21-2009 at 10:07 am
1. China After Chairman Mao (Sep 20, 1976)
2. Harold And Maude and Casablanca are my top two “Hollywood better not touch it!” movies. To add something not previously mentioned into the mix, I’m going to go with A Clockwork Orange. It seems like the kind of thing that some insipid Hollywood troll would pitch as an “even edgier update” that would do nothing more than crank up the titilation and lose all the subtext.
3. I am a walking powder keg of irrational rage but I have to say that traffic jams caused by collective stupidity (those which do not have clear physical causes outside of the fluid dynamics of traffic getting buggered by people who don’t know how to merge or maintain the flow of traffic).
4. I’ve noticed that a number of informational sites on Paganism are blocked while pretty much any and all Christianity sites are good to go. I’ve considered a discrimination suit, but can’t be bothered just yet.
4.
posted by EMStoveken on 8-21-2009 at 10:08 am
1. February 17, 1979: Iran-Now the Power Play.
2. Reality Bites
3. Having car trouble and sales people trying to get every last penny out of you and being pushy and not just being up front and telling you what you need and don’t need.
4. I recently sent a site to my partner about animal cruelty committed by some pharmaceutical companies and it was blocked.
posted by Emma on 8-21-2009 at 10:09 am
1. Rediscovering America. There’s pictures of all sorts of old flags on the cover.
2. Most remakes annoy me.
3. People who come into a grocery store while on their phone, get in line to check out while still on their phone and ignore the person checking them out. It’s just rude. I can list so many more but I won’t.
posted by Christina on 8-21-2009 at 10:12 am
1) Vladimir Nabokov (05/20/1969)
2) Brazil or Repo Man.
3 & 4) Since I’m about to be laid off (Next Friday – Can’t wait!), I started to research grants for going back to school for the unemployed. I was really pissed off that my company has many of the sites with the information and forms blocked.
posted by Stuart on 8-21-2009 at 10:19 am
3. My motorcycle and my car share a reserved apartment parking space. When I occasionally come home to find another car snuggled up next to my bike, effectively penning it in, my reaction is (much) less than charitable. If they don’t respect a parked motorcycle, it stands to reason that they won’t respect one in motion.
posted by Thomas on 8-21-2009 at 10:22 am
1. Groucho!!!
2. Just about all of ‘em, but especially the third re-make of “The Maltese Falcon.”
3. People who slide through stop signs but come to a complete stop at yield signs. (That may just be a Kansas thing.)
4. I work at home.
posted by MonkeyHawk on 8-21-2009 at 10:23 am
1. Francis Keppel, Commissioner of Education.
2. There are so many, but I’d die inside if The Princess Bride were ever remade.
3. The local school put on the play Anne of Green Gables last fall, directed by an English teacher. Everyone mispronounced “Avonlea” and Rachel Lynde’s last name.
4. We have our own small business and haven’t blocked anything.
posted by Melinda on 8-21-2009 at 10:27 am
1. “Fighting Cocaine’s Grip”
2. I don’t think ANY movie should be re-made. Surely people haven’t completely run out of new movie ideas. I hate the thought of spending money on a movie that just came out 10 years ago.
3.Once a month my husband and I have people over for a bbq. EVERYTIME they leave I’m left with drink cans all over the house or in the trash when there’s a recycle bin next to the trash. They also put paper plates in the sink, as if I’m going to wash and re-use them.
4. Any site that requires Flash player is blocked. Which means almost everything.
posted by jamie on 8-21-2009 at 10:35 am
1. “Middle Class Blacks” – “Making it in America”
2. The Natural (I would have said Charlie & the chocolate factory but they already killed a small piece of my childhood)
3. Someone blocking the intersection AFTER their light turned red so I couldn’t get through.
4. Work at home now but when I was in the office Yahoo Maps was blocked… As a direct sales supervisor, I needed addresses often, when I asked them to un-block it, the company bought me a GPS. Go figure.
posted by Gregg C on 8-21-2009 at 10:38 am
1. Birthday cover: The new baby boom (Featuring expectant Actress Jacklyn Smith)
2. Planet of the Apes
3.
4. There is a CVS Pharmacy right across the street from my office. When I want digital prints I would love to upload them to CVS.com and pick them up in an hour. But my office blocks the cvs photo upload, so I copy my picture to a zip drive, walk across the street, put them in their computer, come back to my desk, go back in an hour. Great way to keep me productive!
posted by Witty Nickname on 8-21-2009 at 10:41 am
1.Attack of the Video Games (09/27/93). http://bit.ly/QhcMB
2.The Godfather
3.My security program decides it needs to update randomly, slows down everything else, and refuses to let me close it.
posted by Andrew on 8-21-2009 at 10:45 am
1. “Sex Busters” – Fighting Pornography.(A play on “Ghostbusters” I guess?)
2. Nothing really. I don’t care much if movies are remade.
3. My co-worker talking to another co-worker (its been going on for close to an hour)
4. I also work for the government so pretty much everything is blocked for some reason or another (but thankfully not mental_floss!)
posted by B on 8-21-2009 at 10:49 am
1. Terrorism at the 1972 Olympics
2. The Big Lebowski. The Dude would NOT abide.
3. Salespeople helping a customer who’s just phoned when I’ve been waiting in line and have finally made it to the check-out counter.
4. We have access to every newspaper in the world except my community’s left-wing weekly.
posted by Kikadee on 8-21-2009 at 10:50 am
1. Reagan’s running again! (2/6/84)
2.Gone w/ The Wind
3. People not using blinkers. Drives me nuts!
4. Most mental_floss links. Really is a bummer.
posted by Steph P on 8-21-2009 at 10:52 am
1) Big news the day I was born (local big news anyway) – The Edmund Fitzgerald sunk in Lake Superior.
2) I second the Breakfast Club, The Goonies and The Princess Bride.
3) Just this morning when I was putting invoices in AP, I noticed a company that does some food for us entered their own gratuity and sent us the bill. If I wasn’t being laid off in a couple of weeks, I would care.
4) At one time the company blocked the Staples website. I informed them that no staples = no staples (or any other office supply) and they quickly got that fixed.
posted by Amy on 8-21-2009 at 10:58 am
1. Abortion is the cover story, but it’s a special report edition about Germany moving towards reunification. July 14 1990
2. Dr. Strangelove. There’s no way that could work better.
3. A sticker popped off my laptop, those ones that say “Windows Vista Optimized” or “Intel Inside”, and got stuck to my palm. Kinda exploded.
4. Canned bacon vendor was the weirdest that was blocked, but the worst that was blocked had to be the Google results page – you could search, but you couldn’t see your results.
posted by George on 8-21-2009 at 11:18 am
1) the Pope pardoned the man who tried to shoot him
2) The Princess bride
3) A co-worker asking if I had done something she had emailed me that morning about when I had just sat down at my desk and hadn’t turned even gotten to checking my email yet.
4) I forget what the site is called but it sometimes linked fomr mentalfloss on the morning links and the firewall won’t let me view it because it is “tasteless”. I think that’s a matter of opinion….
posted by Laura on 8-21-2009 at 11:21 am
1. The TIME cover when I was born (Jan. 24, 1980) was about the “grain embargo” and featured a photo of a field of grain. Interesting…NOT.
2. The remake of Willy Wonka starring Johnny Depp already peeved me significantly, but I would really be upset if they did an updated, CGI version of Back to the Future.
3. I try to be a calm, reasonable person, but I am absolutely enraged when a fast-food worker screws up my drive-thru order and I don’t find out until I’m already all the way back at my office. That will piss me off for days!!
4. I’m lucky enough not to have a firewall here, but at my previous job, they even blocked the local library website. ???
posted by Alana on 8-21-2009 at 11:29 am
1. My cover (2/22/75) features a guy named Henry Jackson. Never heard of him before. He was a congressman who had just announced his candidacy for the 1976 election. Also there was a side banner on the cover about budget wars and recession worries. Also a story inside about Vietnam – ‘Darkness Without Exit’. Hmmm a lot of things haven’t changed much.
2. Can’t think of any remakings that would anger me really, so I’ll offer up something that I have been waiting years to see made into a movie/movies: Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern.
3. Things that anger me. A lot of these occur while I’m driving. The most frustrating for me are people who are obviously lost. If you are clueless, pull over and figure it out, but don’t drive 10 mph and stop and start in front of me when I am two blocks from home.
4. Can’t think of anything weird our firewall blocks. Then again, I’m a system admin and have the password to bypass it :-p
posted by Brandy on 8-21-2009 at 11:31 am
4. when i was in high school (about 10 years ago), hotmail was blocked because it had the word ‘hot’ in the url. every other email site was accessible.
posted by mor on 8-21-2009 at 11:47 am
My cover 8-1-88 is titled: Our Filthy Seas. With pollution forming clawlike hands to grab the dolphins swimming near by.
I have to second (or third) The Princess Bride and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
I get enraged by anti-abortion bumper stickers. It’s such a sensitive issue and I hate to see a \All life is sacred\ sticker next to a Jesus fish on the car in front of me. I don’t much care for bumper stickers that express opinions I agree with either. Let’s just keep the road neutral. No one’s opinion is going to be swayed by a sticker. (Although I do enjoy humorous ones or the rare instance when the driver cannot afford to repaint their car so they decide to redecorate the entire outside with stickers)
I work at a small business and I have never encountered anything blocked. That being said my boss has often asked me what metalfloss.com is since I frequent it so much.
posted by Shelby on 8-21-2009 at 11:49 am
1. Ayatulluh Khomeini – Man of the Year (?!) represents the first issue for my birthday in 1980.
posted by Allison on 8-21-2009 at 11:50 am
1. “The Ordeal of Political Wives” featuring pictures of Betty Ford, Pat Nixon, and Joan Kennedy. They really should run that again with the current crop of wives! (That, or offer it as a reader for new political wives).
2. Tie – Adventures in Babysitting – I just love the end where they smooch and you just know that she ended up going to college, he waited for her, they got married and had two kids. AND 16 Candles. Wait! This is my list of movies I didn’t want to end! Awwwww!
3. The trash collectors on our street were not detail-oriented. They would jump off the back of the compactor, pick up the can, toss the trash, and then toss the can along side the road. One day when they picked up, I hollered out the window, “Pick up the cans!” and ducked back down so they couldn’t see me (yes, passive-aggressive). They actually righted the trash cans before going on the rest of their route!
4. Please – one guy who was fired was downloading porn. I’m guessing pretty much everything is open.
posted by Kaden on 8-21-2009 at 12:01 pm
1) America’s Upbeat Mood. In spite of Orwell’s imagination, things looked pretty good in 1984.
2)Any of Mel Brooks movies…unless they were re-done by Brooks himself.
3)I spend a lot of time in hotels for work. (wow that sounded bad)…I tour nationally with a musical. It drives me nuts when the maids come in and completely re-arrange my stuff on the nightstand, desk, or coffee table.
posted by Mary on 8-21-2009 at 12:10 pm
4. The company where I work has an online store that is blocked. The explanation is that no one has ever requested the block be removed, which essentially means that none of the employees would buy their own product.
posted by loomis on 8-21-2009 at 12:11 pm
1. My cover story is how Nancy Regan’s role is growing almost as much as her husband’s.
2. I would hate it if there was a Gone With the Wind remake. And I second any John Hughes’ movies as well.
3. People who can’t just make the tiniest move to turn their blinkers on drive me mad. I also can’t stand the little cars who cut through lanes and cut people off just to get two cars ahead of me.
4. I find it weird that Holytaco.com is blocked. I love that site and of course the social networking sites are blocked too.
posted by Colene on 8-21-2009 at 12:13 pm
OOH! I thought of my number 3!
I nearly exploded when the Next Article / Last Article links went away, thanks for putting them back!
posted by Witty Nickname on 8-21-2009 at 12:14 pm
@MonkeyHawk
It’s a Delaware thing too. But these fools add onto it. In addition to the stop sign slide and complete stop yielding, they have the tendency to creep at stop lights. The light is red, but they’re inching up little by little until they’re basically in the intersection while the light is still green for others. OR…they’re behind you at the light, creeping up your backside like you’re doing something wrong by not moving and waiting patiently for the go-ahead.
posted by Steven on 8-21-2009 at 12:28 pm
1. Page not found
2. Wizard of Oz
3.N/A
4.N/A
posted by Sara in AL on 8-21-2009 at 12:37 pm
March 28, 1983-I couldn’t find March 30.
Tax evaison
posted by Sara in AL on 8-21-2009 at 12:43 pm
1) “Interest Rate Anguish” with a photo of the Federal Reserve Chairman, Paul Volcker looking stressed out smoking a cigar (March 1982)
3) At work, our front door remains locked and from my desk I can press a button to release the lock. My co-worker’s wife visits him for lunch at least once a week and she know the door is always locked. Instead of knocking she insists on yanking on the door to make her presence known. I just understand it and it unreasonably angers me.
4. Many of the links from Mental_Floss are blocked and what’s worse is the message I get when I’m blocked. Often times it says “Tasteless”, “Adult Content”, or “Malicious”. I highly doubt Miss C’s suggested links are THAT bad.
posted by K on 8-21-2009 at 12:51 pm
1. Jesse Jackson bio story
2. The Sting – nobody can replace Paul Newman
3. Cars that slam their brakes to slow down to 30 mph and pull onto the shoulder of the interstate as soon the first tiny raindrop hits their windshield. Its just rain people, you won’t drown inside your car…keep moving!
4. I can usually open about 2 of the morning links, so the rest I have to check once I get home, so I end up with afternoon links too!
I just realized how many of us have mentioned something about driving for #3. Ha!
posted by NukeGuy on 8-21-2009 at 1:06 pm
2. I read an article yesterday saying that Disney is thinking of re-making \Yellow Submarine\ in 3-D. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
posted by Laura on 8-21-2009 at 1:14 pm
1. October 1, 1992. “The Economy: Is there light at the end of the tunnel?”, 16 years later we’re still asking the same question.
2. Apocalypse Now
3. the sun visor in my car being down after my parents drive it
4. I am 16 and therefore happily unemployed bumming money off my parents, so no work and no firewalls
posted by Forest on 8-21-2009 at 1:23 pm
1) Butt Out! The war over smoking! But the greatest article is Afghanistan: An End in Sight? This was 1988.
2) Labyrinth.
3) SLOW DRIVERS. I get some serious road rage. That, and people who have no table manners.
4)They tried to block Facebook back in high school. That lasted about three seconds.
posted by Kieran on 8-21-2009 at 1:50 pm
1. I was born the day the pope was shot. 5/13/1981
2. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (also, to Kaden – I think I read that they were going to remake Adventures in Babysitting)
3. People who complain about the government, but don’t vote. If your not going to vote, then don’t open your mouth because you have made no attempts to elect who you think may be best for your point of view (whatever it may be).
4. My office blocks the web pages that list coupon codes for online retailers, under the catagory of “Shopping”, but it doesn’t block the retail stores. So you can shop online no problem, but you can’t save 10% by finding a coupon code via google!
posted by Mavis on 8-21-2009 at 1:57 pm
1. 8/22/81-the air traffic controllers strike
2. say anything (i will light someone afire)
3. someone leaving there dog tied to a parking meter along a main strip and goign to run errands.
4. williams sonoma’s website becuase they sell “alcohol supplies” facebook is blocked, but while that annoys me it isn’t surprising
posted by emily on 8-21-2009 at 2:05 pm
1. Wikipedia says that November 2, 1983 is the date that President Reagan signed a bill making Martin Luther King, Jr day a federal holiday.
2.Little Darlings–I read a terrible rumor that it would be remade with Disney stars in it. “Disney stars in it” seems to start the worst types of rumors.
3. I went to the store to pick up something real quick. There is a cart coral less that 10 feet away, yet I see 2 carts just left in random parking spots 5 feet away from the coral. I move them.
I make my purchase in the “self check out” line, the guy in front of me leaves his handbasket on the belt. Like it’s going to magically put itself back where it belongs. I assholigically make a big scene when I walk quickly past him, making sure that he saw that I was picking up after him.
ARRRRR PUT YOUR CARTS AWAY!!!
posted by holly on 8-21-2009 at 2:09 pm
1. The headline on the Vancouver Sun (my local paper) from the day I was born (Dec. 15, 1980) was detailing the continuing fallout from John Lennon’s murder.
2. Blow-Up from 1966 starring David Hemmings and Vanessa Redgrave. It’s a masterpiece that should have armed bodyguards to protect it from greedy hollywood types.
3. On my last garbage day, someone used my empty garbage can to dispose of their dog’s poop.
4. sesamestreet.org was blocked about two years ago. I tried to buy a shirt for a gift, and was told by IT that the video content hosted on the website was inappropriate. WHAT?!?
posted by Arcadia on 8-21-2009 at 2:19 pm
1. DOB: 08/31/80. Time cover: “Poland’s Angry Workers”. After a strike, an agreement was signed that created the Solidarity labor movement. According to Wikipedia, the date is now a holiday/observance : Day of Solidarity and Freedom. I am not Polish but have a giant crush on an older Polish woman I used to work with.
2. I agree with Mary about Mel Brooks. In particular, Spaceballs should not be remade. It is pure gold. In general, I think it’s a bad idea to remake comedies. Also, Field of Dreams.
3. When someone calls my house as a wrong number, and they just hang up without saying anything. Just a simple “sorry” is all I’m asking for. And many times they call right back and hang up again!
When radio dj’s talk over the beginning of a song. One of them explained that they have a timer that tells them how many seconds they have before the first word of the song. Don’t they realize that the music is just as important. I can’t count how many times I’ve yelled at the radio when some idiot yaps about some station promotion over the opening bells of AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells”. That’s what makes the song. I don’t listen to the radio much anymore.
posted by Kedar on 8-21-2009 at 2:20 pm
1. Nixon Rides the Waves (Aug.15,1969)
3. a. Ladies I work with seem not to know how to change toilet paper rolls in the bathroom. I think they believe in the tp fairy who magically changes them.
b. People (kids mostly) who use the handicapped entrance just because they are too lazy to open a door the old-fashioned way.
posted by Suzanne on 8-21-2009 at 2:23 pm
1. My cover story is about apartheid in South Africa and how much the US should be pressuring the country.
2. “The Sound of Music” isn’t my absolute favorite movie, but I think that if there were a remake of it, it would be pretty lame with none of the original feel.
3. I don’t usually get enraged over little things, but last week I went to a coffee house that has turned into a high-school hangout since I last visited. Hordes of kids were blocking the entrance outside, smoking. I had to practically climb over rails to get in.
4. I’m self-employed, so no blocks or firewalls for me!
posted by Anna on 8-21-2009 at 2:26 pm
1. My cover is about Yeltsin (Mar 29, 1993). Although I personally think the most interesting item is the article about David Koresh and his posse in their compound. You see, I was born and still live in Waco.
2. The Sound of Music. It is perfect already. They would feel the need to make the remake shorter, but then we would lose great plot.
3. I hate grammar mistakes. I’m sure that I make them, too, but some of them just really get on my nerves, like:
“Somebody left their soda on the counter.” NO! Somebody left HIS or HER soda on the counter.
4. Uh…Youtube? Sort of makes sense, I suppose. Although last year at my school, my debate partner and I were working on a case involving industrial hemp, and every site was blocked because it was considered “drugs”.
posted by band_nerd on 8-21-2009 at 2:36 pm
1. site was down, so I don’t know, but my sister was born on the day Apollo 13 returned to Earth. It took off on 4/13/70 and returned 4/17/70. My family didn’t even realize it until seeing the movie, when the date was on-screen.
2. I was pretty peeved when I saw Casablanca redone as Pam Anderson’s Barb Wire”. I’m pretty mad there’s a plan to redo Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Not cuz I liked that movie, but I liked the TV show so much, I fear their gonna ruin the franchise, plus, I’d be too curious not to see it.
3. Everytime I turn on FoxNews and here their propaganda masquerading as news.
4. I was pretty surprised when someone suggested playing a practical joke on a coworker and we found that Playboy wasn’t blocked.
posted by Jonny on 8-21-2009 at 2:52 pm
1. November 13, 1978 (birthday is 15th) – Local Cleveland politicians embarrasing themselves and the citizens of Cleveland……so what has changed?
2. Shawshank Redemption – Morgan and Tim could never be replaced in their roles, both ridiculously good efforts.
3. While being my own fault, I was infuriated when I hit my head in the basement running down the stairs. The wall ended up paying the price…stupid ceiling should have moved!
4. Truth and Rumors on SI.com. Suppose it is considered a blog and generally those are a no no here.
posted by JW on 8-21-2009 at 2:53 pm
1. Diplomacy in crisis – Hostages in Bogata (been there pretty city), Suspense in Iran, and Fiasco at the U.N.
2. Roman Holiday – it just would not be the same.
3. I hate it when the car in front of you is driving slowly and continues to cross the line but not fully change lanes so you can’t pass.
4. I used to work for the government and all emails with the word Hello in the subject line would be blocked.
posted by FrankieA on 8-21-2009 at 2:56 pm
Damn all you people are really young…very few people on here older than 30 huh?
1. Robert Kinter of NBC. Never heard of him. Cover 11-16-59 (birthday 11-22-1959. Quiz for all you smarties – what happened on my 4th birthday?)
2. It’s a Wonderful Life. Best movie ever.
3. Chewing with mouth open – including people smacking and popping their gum.
4. Too busy at work to check the internet(and yes I’m off today). Years ago while checking prices for my parents 50th anniversary, I did go to celebrity.com over lunch thinking it was the site for the cruises and was shocked by picture that came up. It was NOT the cruise line …
posted by Lisa on 8-21-2009 at 3:03 pm
1. Dana,
I’m July 17, too, but in 1990.
I like my cover. It’s about the next generation being overshadowed by baby boomers.
2. I think I’d be okay with it if they did a different spin, something based on the book, but I could never see a remake of the Maltese Falcon. IMBD says there may be a new Sunset Boulevard coming out, and that’s unsettling to me. As for newer films I couldn’t deal with Garden State or Mallrats (or any Kevin Smith, really) ever being redone.
posted by Erika on 8-21-2009 at 3:08 pm
1. Dec. 31st, 1984. An Old Master’s New Triumph: David Lean Directs “A Passage to India.”
I show my tender age when I say I’ve never even heard of that movie.
2. The Three Stooges movie that’s becoming a reality next year. Seriously, Jim Carrey as Curly?!?!
Remakes always seem to be either too edgy or, especially in the case of children’s movies, overly extreme, like the director was hyped up on caffine when producing it.
3. Some coworkers at my old job would sometimes blow me off for lunch, even after I chatted with them not too long before they walked right past my cube without saying anything. It really burned me, especially since I considered one of them — my next-door cube neightbor –a good friend.
4. My company blocks my favorite radio station’s web site, yet I can easily access Fail Blog.
posted by Vanessa on 8-21-2009 at 3:14 pm
3. Parents who insist that their kid is soooooo special and who expect me to have the same amount of enthusiasm as they do. yes, your child is going to learn how to play a band instrument, along with thousands of other kids in this area. No, he probably doesn’t know how to read music, but that is the teacher’s job to teach him. Get over it.
Kind of along the same lines: people who like to flaunt their ignorance. “I don’t know ANYTHING about music”, like it is something they are proud of.
as you can tell, I work in a music store.
i know that it is irrational, and probably insensitive, but it still irritates me. oh well, no one said that anger is a rational emotion.
you know, I actually kind of feel better now after reading others’ posts and getting this one off of my chest. Thanks all.
posted by the creature on 8-21-2009 at 3:16 pm
1) Aug 14, 1985 — “AIDS/The Growing Threat/What’s Being Done” (http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,14-08-1985,00.html) This way scary picture of the AIDS virus attacking a T cell. For some reason, this picture scares me.
2) Anchorman
3) When people pull up to the drive thru (I work in a bank) and don’t have their transaction ready. For the love of anything, the drive thru is for quick transactions, not for you to do your basic math! It’s exhausting and backs up the line/taxes the teller.
4) Just messing around, the other day I tried to pull up “Match.com” and “eharmony.com” to find that they’re both blocked. I guess there’s no match making at the bank!! :)
That and a few months ago someone put a “sex toy IQ” quiz link in the morning links. I clicked on it without thinking and it was def a website like “sex.com” or something. Obvi that was blocked.
Recaptcha! Navy Beagle :)
posted by OkieMelissa on 8-21-2009 at 3:35 pm
1. John Updike turns 50.
2. Breakfast at Tiffanys. Don’t touch it. Ever.
3. People at restaurants who feel the need to tell us all what’s going on in their lives.
posted by Lili on 8-21-2009 at 3:43 pm
1. Unemployment: The Biggest Worry (Feb 8 1982)
2. The remaking of The Karate Kid angers me greatly!
3. Passive-agressiveness
4. None! Woo-hoo!
posted by Milly on 8-21-2009 at 4:00 pm
2 and 3 apply to me, so here goes:
2. Please, please don’t remake 2001: A Space Odyssey, or A Clockwork Orange. Two pieces of Kubric perfection.
2. Infurating!…. we live in the front-facing unit of a triplex. In back of us is one unit, which is for rent, and a unit on top of that one. There is a “for rent” sign on the front lawn.
I put notices on the sign that say that the back unit is for rent… but I cannot believe the gall and rude behavior of passers-by, who have actually come up to our front door and windows and shouted inside “hey!! how much is this place! YOO HOO! Is this for rent? What’s the rent? HEY!”
People. Please. Rules of apartments and houses for rent:
1. Call the number on the sign.
2. Never, ever bother the people in any apartment or house, but especially those who DO NOT LIVE IN THE APARTMENT THAT IS FOR RENT.
2. Repeat above.
posted by Spencer on 8-21-2009 at 4:11 pm
oops, apologies for my bizarre numbering in the post above. So many 2’s!
posted by Spencer on 8-21-2009 at 4:12 pm
1. My birthday cover actually ran on the day I was born, May 10th, 1982: “The British Attack: Argentine Troops Defending the Falklands.”
2. My choice has, unfortunately, already been remade: “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”
3. I’m always ticked off by bad grammar and spelling, too, especially when it appears in, say, a news website (abc.com is a repeat offender) that’s supposed to be respectable and professional.
4. Fortunately, I’ve never had that problem.
posted by Jenn on 8-21-2009 at 4:15 pm
1. Giorgio Armani’s style (4/4/82). Checked the issue 9 months previous and it looks as though i was conceived during an equally uneventful week (cover article on new french president Francois Mitterrand).
2. So many great movies, so many already/soon to be butchered. Please leave Sunset BLVD, City Lights and The Jerk alone, just to name a few.
3. I work in a restaurant and one minor thing that just bothers the hell out of me is when i bring someone a glass of ice water and they ask me to bring them water with no ice. come on people. it will be water again in a few minutes. seriously.
posted by nate on 8-21-2009 at 5:06 pm
1. My cover was actually the day I was born- October 28, 1985: “Hijack Fallout.” It’s about Reagan’s declining approval rate. There’s also a sidebar saying “AIDS: not just a U.S. problem.”
2. Roman Holiday. According to IMDB, was a TV remake in 1987. Just please, please, don’t do it again.
3. App requests on Facebook. The intention is good, but the time it takes to weed through all 50 is very very annoying.
4. None.
posted by Katie on 8-21-2009 at 5:24 pm
I work at a planetarium at a major science center, and for a while we were blocked from (I kid you not) Space.com. I believe it fell in the “Streaming Media” category.
posted by Erin S. on 8-21-2009 at 5:31 pm
1. \Good News, Cheap Oil/Bad News, Cheap Oil\ (April 1986) Oil dropped to $10 a barrel (down from $26!!! How ever did we survive!)
2. Top Gun. For the love of all that is holy, please leave my favorite volleyball scene alone!
3. I cannot stand windshield wipers that make noise, any noise at all…
4. I haven’t worked here long enough to find one.
posted by Erin on 8-21-2009 at 5:35 pm
2. It would really really bother me if someone tried to remake Dr. Strangelove. First of all since it’s a Kubrick film, and second since Peter Sellers was in it. I don’t think it’d ever work to redo a Seller’s movie. The new Pink Panther movies are evidence of this.
posted by Hannah on 8-21-2009 at 5:37 pm
1. My birthday’s 8/11/83. The big story that week was “A Big Stick Approach: U.S. policy in Central America becomes tougher—and harder to sell”, and National Security Advisor William P. Clark was on the cover. It had something to do with the “uproar over Covert Aid.” I also found it amusing that another story in that issue was “The Dangers of Hobnobbery Journalism.” :)
2. Any Brat Pack movie. (Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and St. Elmo’s Fire in particular.) I would also be outraged at any attempt to remake “Clueless”.
3. I’m angered by the fact that Hollywood thinks it’s appropriate to remake “Dirty Dancing”. WHY??? I also get irritated anytime I have to walk past an Abercrombie & Fitch or Hollister store in a mall. I can’t stand those stores.
4. I work from home, but my work computer is tied to the network there; I don’t bother trying to find out what’s blocked because I’m on my personal laptop instead. :)
posted by Krie on 8-21-2009 at 5:44 pm
Oops, I meant my work computer is tied to the network at HQ.
recaptcha is just too funny not to share: education gonad
posted by Krie on 8-21-2009 at 5:45 pm
1. The war between Lebanon and Syria, have to say I didn’t know that much about since I was one day old when it occurred.
2.El Topo would be a strange one to remake, but I’m sure no one will.
3. I hate it when I am in a left turn lane and the person in front of me doesn’t pull into the intersection when the light turns green.
4. When I was in school I had a friend named Senajit and I went to Senajit.com and it blocked me and when we went to the site later at my house it was some sort of fish wholesaler, I wonder if it still is.
posted by David on 8-21-2009 at 5:51 pm
1. Mafia on Trial. I’m from Melbourne, Australia so I’m not really familiar with this.
2. Remaking Gone With the Wind or Casablanca would annoy me to no end. And what the hell is up with updating The Karate Kid? No, Mr Smith!
3. People who don’t indicate when driving until the last possible second! Grr. I’m currently living in Malaysia so people don’t tend to indicate until the last possible second, if at all.
posted by liz on 8-21-2009 at 6:40 pm
1. The big story seems to have been hype for the upcoming Vatican II thing: http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,06-10-1962,00.html … buried inside is news of an attempt on Castro’s life
2. Apocalypse Now … don’t think anyone could do it
3. Spamfollowers on twitter
4. Outside of my own blog, Google’s results are regularly blocked
posted by rogueclassicist on 8-21-2009 at 6:54 pm
1. American’s Everywhere about American’s traveling to Europe in massive numbers 7-25-83
2. Young Frankenstein, The Graduate, The Big Chill and I’m really upset about the rumor of a Dirty Dancing remake!
3. I really get mad when someone drinks the last cup of coffee and then doesn’t brew a new pot. Seriously, we are all in this together and we all need coffee
4. I don’t get to fully enjoy Mental Floss because of the stupid firewalls!
posted by K on 8-21-2009 at 7:05 pm
1. Pete Rose *hangs head in shame* and African violence, August 19th, 1985.
2. I am shocked and dismayed that this movie is not the most mentioned here: Monty Python and the (Quest for) the Holy Grail. If it were ever done with good, expensive cameras, no ad-libbing, good-looking actors and great sets, it would be an atrocity, horribly broken and The Ruination of Everything We Strange People Hold Dear.
3. Getting arrested for the first time ever, after breaking a teenager’s nose after watching him do a kick-flip over the hood of my Volvo, failing, and putting his skateboard wheel through my windshield. How was I to know that at 6′4″ and hanging around Microsoft secure parking, that he was only 16? And that his parents stood up for the little bast…jerk in court instead of being shamed and apologizing for not raising thier litter with some integrity.
4. Disapprovingrabbits dot com. No joke. A bunch of irritated rabbits that women spent so much time sharing back and forth, that instead of disciplining them, they blocked a site.
posted by HellHathNoFury on 8-21-2009 at 7:21 pm
1. Britain’s financial crisis (!) (11/24/67)
2. The Princess Bride
3. Phone solicitors
4. BoingBoing (like, what? do they think it’s a sex site?)
posted by PJ on 8-21-2009 at 7:34 pm
1. The Sky High Housing Market (Sep 13, 1977)
2. The Great Escape
3. people who have no concept of grammar
4. I haven’t noticed any bizarre sites that have been blocked, but I have noticed that any articles on CNN/NYTimes/et al that have keywords like facebook in them are blocked
posted by Chris on 8-21-2009 at 7:45 pm
1. Cloning Humans!!! And California burning (Cover 11/8/93, DOB 11/7/93)
2. I first thought about, “It Happened One Night” with Clark Gable. I’m surprised they haven’t remade it yet, hopefully, they don’t.
3. When Twilight fans yell at me when I criticize Twilight and say that I didn’t like it.
4. Well, my high school blocks FML. Which is fine because I’m more drawn to MLIA.
posted by Ellie on 8-21-2009 at 7:46 pm
@ Forest,
If you are 16 and bumnming money off your parents, is it really your car?!?
posted by Chris on 8-21-2009 at 7:53 pm
1. Something about shivering in america…I didn’t bother to look into it.
2. Definitely The Princess Bride.
3. Idiotic slow drivers and those that ride my bumper…I become a slow driver when someone does that. Also, I just started college online and I didn’t think I was very smart but after reading some of my classmates answers or lackthereof, I am compelled to ask my Instructor if he needs an asprin..And actually your attempt at making correct grammar was semi wrong. I am studying that right now and their is right, the overuse of his or hers or him and her / he or she, is the reason why people use they and their now. In the past it was always he being used and man, but women find that sexist so they and their is used now. Basically like this : wrong: The doctor often sees his patients during the week. Right: Doctors often see their patients during the week. This keeps it from looking like only men have the ability to be a doctor. In speach it is easier to say “Hey, someone left their drink here.” Instead of “Hey someone left his or her drink here.” It is still grammar correct regardless of which way you say it. No, I do not think for a moment I’m perfect in my own grammar, it is funny I had someone in class say this exactly : “I have never found a good reason to use proper gramer. I HATE GRAMER!!!!” I busted out laughing cause the next lesson was about grammar in online communication. It is very frustrating to see these younger people going to college that can’t seem to follow simple directions.
4. I do not work right now and the last place I did the owner didn’t know how to block anything much less actually use the computer, so we had a guy there that sat on his butt most of the time on social sites instead of working. Ticked me off.
recaptcha: for therapy hahaha
posted by Tas on 8-21-2009 at 8:10 pm
1. Doonesbury: Politics in the Funny papers
2. Hollywood is out of good ideas, just about every remake stinks!
3. Nothing enrages me, but I did get mad when my step- daughter took a broken brush out of the trash to brush her hair (thrown away WEEKS ago) when I bought her multiple hair brushes, she loses them. I about flipped my wig
4. They blocked facebook :) but I can see why with the security risks
posted by Sarah on 8-21-2009 at 8:31 pm
Lisa, I’m in my thirties, and I’m feeling old too!
To respond to your challenge, Kennedy was shot the day you turned four.
Recaptcha: “near dmz kills 19 loyal” (geez, I think there should be a work limit here!)
posted by Ranger J on 8-21-2009 at 8:47 pm
1. Something called ‘the wheel’ was invented, apparently it works well on this new stuff called “dirt”.
2. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The Eighth Dimension – why mess with perfection
3. When cops don’t use turn signals
4. I haven’t run into any blocked sites.
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 8-21-2009 at 9:00 pm
1. Vladimir Zhinovsky. From Russia, with Venom. July 11, 1994. My real birthday is on the sixteenth.
I feel ridiculously young.
3. I hate it when my friends get annoyed because I’m being polite. I hold doors open often. My friend said that it was “unusual” for a teen to be polite.
4. Youtube is blocked at my school. Along with social networking sites.
posted by Cindy on 8-21-2009 at 9:38 pm
1. Mine is a story asking if the new secretary of education can save our schools. Will free-market competition kill or cure the ailing U.S. public school system?
9/16/1991, my dad’s birthday and the day before mine.
reCAPCHA: times bozos
posted by Cait on 8-21-2009 at 9:44 pm
1. Julie Andrews. I was born during a slow news week
2. This is Spinal Tap
posted by Lee on 8-21-2009 at 10:54 pm
1. Monroe meets Mailer
2. The Godfather
3. The way the local Fox station has compressed the video for the Minnesota Vikings game. It’s obviously for widescreen TVs, but I have an old TV and I’m missing A LOT of the picture.
4. I haven’t even tried to see what websites are blocked. I’m just glad that Mental Floss is not among them!
posted by John on 8-21-2009 at 10:56 pm
1. “THE HOT NEW DIET PILL: Redux really seems to work. But is it too good to be true?” Wow, I feel so special now.
2. “Psycho.” The 1999 remake was terrible, so I’d expect a third version to be even worse.
4. My public school system has banned the NaNoWriMo website, saying it’s considered a “non-educational game”.
ReCAPTCHA: International signal
posted by Lauren on 8-22-2009 at 12:20 am
The remaking of what movie would anger you the most?
1.Open water
2.Blaire witch project
posted by bill sawyers on 8-22-2009 at 12:23 am
Jimmy Hoffa elected head of the Teamsters Union which then gets thrown out of the AFL-CIO. (November 1957
Casa Blanca
I can’t but Drixoral anymore
Can’t even check my g-mail at work
posted by Tex on 8-22-2009 at 12:39 am
1. Noriega caught smuggling 1,100 lb.s of Cocaine into Costa Rica
2. Anything by Mel Brooks.
3. The people who walk right past me at work to ask the male associate next to ask a question about my section. I’m sure they don’t mean to, but it still bugs me
4. The firewall at the local college has deemed Miss Cellania’s blog to be unfit for its students. Some seedy stuff in there.
posted by heather on 8-22-2009 at 1:31 am
They already butchered 2 of the best science fiction movies ever, War of the Worlds and The Day the Earth Stood Still.
posted by David on 8-22-2009 at 8:00 am
1. All about Watergate and Deep Throat and the fallout from that debacle.
2. Say Anything
3. As a foodservice worker, nothing drives me more insane than customers who let their kids run all over the place at my cafe, while they are placidly sipping coffee and smiling like a zombie. I’m not a babysitter!
4. I’m the employer, so no firewall here. However, my computer is so old and janky that I can’t watch videos or see Flash apps. Lame.
posted by Kay on 8-22-2009 at 9:00 am
1. the cold war- yes i am old!
2. the wizard of oz-my greatest fear is Johhny Depp as the scarecrow
3.The pizza place forgot the blue cheese dressing for the wings- 3 times in a row I really lost it
also people who dont merge until they get to the bottom of the ramp- 2nd on ‘reply to all’
4.pictures on google- lots of sites are blocked as ‘dating social’-what???
posted by karin on 8-22-2009 at 9:10 am
Ha! I’m the oldest yet. Time cover the week I was born (Jan. 4, 1943) featured Joseph Stalin as Man of the Year.
The Internet was available at work only the last several years I was employed and was not blocked. I worked at a newspaper and we needed it.
posted by Carol on 8-22-2009 at 9:25 am
1. Something was wrong with the site, so I couldn’t find it.
2. Miracle at Morgan’s Creek, in the 1940-something version it was ok, but if it was remade now, it would almost certainly be R rated. (And then I wouldn’t be able to see it!)
3. When teachers brag about their teaching skills in class. We’re already in your class, you don’t have to convince us! And another teacher thing, say, the class is walking down the hall, and we are talking softly amongst ourselves. The teacher somehow hears us talking, and yells, “NO TALKING!! THERE ARE OTHER CLASSES GOING ON!!!!!” I’m sure the other classes could hear the violent screaming at us to be quiet. I kind of defeats the purpose, don’t you think?
4. I don’t have a job (child labor laws and all that). At school, nothing was blocked, per se, but a maniacal teacher would be looking over your shoulder to see what sites you were on.
posted by Carly on 8-22-2009 at 12:40 pm
For 1. I found it! Master of the Universe: Having conquered the world’s computers, Bill Gates takes aim at banks, phone companies, even Hollywood. He’s in for the fight of his life.
posted by Carly on 8-22-2009 at 12:54 pm
My cover is “Heartland Rumor: Let’s Hear It for Lake Wobegon” but although I put in my correct birthday for some reason it first gave me the next week’s cover: “HERE THEY COME! Charles and Diana”. Maybe it deemed that headline more interesting. Sentient searches, that’s kind of scary.
posted by Rachel on 8-22-2009 at 1:42 pm
Oops, I guess it would be the one dated AFTER my birthday. Duh.
posted by Rachel on 8-22-2009 at 1:44 pm
1: something about America’s violence and a rise in crime “America the Violent”…the cover picture is weird. (8/27/93)
2: i can’t think of any movie that i would hate being remade..but the original is always better.
3: when popcorn doesn’t pop all the way it makes me sad. haha.
4: no job (i’m fifteen), but at school everything worth going on is blocked. the only thing not blocked is like email websites, but those were blocked for a while because they used to provide us with email addresses. and there are like really weird excuses why things are blocked, like “swedish pornography” and stuff like that.
i find it humorous.
posted by Julia on 8-22-2009 at 1:51 pm
4. I had a teacher who was gather sites for a cancer project he was going to have his kids do. The children’s cancer site was blocked because it was “pornographic.” I hope nobody thinks terminally ill kids are a turn on…
posted by Ethan on 8-22-2009 at 7:11 pm
1. No matter how much things change, they still stay the same – Middle East in Turmoil is the cover.
2. Deliverance, it wasn’t that good the first time and is only famous for dueling banjos and making Ned Beatty squeal like a pig.
3. People with a victim complex. They feel you owe them something because of some imaginary reason. No, you didn’t get the job because society has wronged you, it’s because you’ve had 10 jobs in the last 10 years and your reason for leaving these jobs was being “persacuted” by your boss. Learn to use spell-check and grow up!
4. Anything. We only have access to company websites, you can’t even do a google search! Want to send something to your personal e-mail from work? Not an option.
posted by Lorelei on 8-23-2009 at 9:43 am
2. Let the Right One In. It’s one of the best vampire movies in a while, alas, they are making a remake that will be released next year. The sad part is Let the Right One In came out late last year.
posted by Cecilia on 8-23-2009 at 12:58 pm
1. “Starting Over: Gorbachev turns his back on Lenin,” from the Feb. 19, 1990 issue.
2. Probably the remaking of Fight Club would anger me the most. Although I might just be saying that because I watched it last night. But there aren’t too many movies that are equal in caliber to their book counterparts, and Fight Club really hits the target in that respect.
posted by Alexsandra on 8-23-2009 at 2:44 pm
1. The Untold Story of Pan Am 103. I was expecting something about Clinton, but I was a week off. Oh well. :)
2. Don’t watch enough movies…
3. When people walk really slow in front of you and you’re in a hurry. Or when you’re carrying lots of stuff and there’s someone with nothing in their hands who doesn’t hold the door open for you.
4. Some Yahoo articles, like half the Mental_Floss links (sad!). And you can’t google Emily Dickinson. Or Charles Dickens.
posted by S on 8-23-2009 at 4:01 pm
1. Mine was called “Holy Alliance: How Reagan and the Pope conspired to assist Poland’s solidarity movement and hasten the demise of Communism” which I actually find amusing… I don’t know what they’re talking about but I’ve got this picture in my head of Pope Ratsinger in his funny hat, red shoes, and sunglasses (so he wouldn’t be recognized by ze Russians, obviously) :)
2. Oh lord there’s so many… I heard they were remaking Footloose with Zac Efron and I about blew a gasket, then I have to second Princess Bride, The Godfather, and Labyrinth, along with all the Jimmy Stewerts… And I think I would kill someone if they touched any Audrey Hepburn movie with a nine foot tripod. Like that picture with Paris Hilton dressed as Holly Golightly! Wanted to kill something.
3. I get irritated easily (as you may have noticed) but what I really hate is when people assume they’re smarter than you and they can’t hold their position. And I hate weenies who hate it when you make an argument personal. XD
4. There’s this great site for Edvard Munch that I can’t get to because it’s porn, apparently. I TOTALLY get turned on looking at 19th century impressionism.
posted by Layla on 8-23-2009 at 10:38 pm
1. God and the Bomb: Catholic Bishops debate nuclear morality (funnily enough I was raised Catholic). But my fav is the little flap in the corner: “The Andropov Era begins” – what an era that was!
2. The only one that sprang to mind was Clockwork Orange, although I suppose at least they could restore Burgess’s original ending
3. Lately it drove me nuts that co-workers were taking tissues from the box on my desk without asking – almost reached breaking point when I got to work (ironically after being off sick with a cold) and the box was sitting there empty. Then a friend referred me to passiveagressivenotes.com (URL is off the top of my head, may bear only fleeting resemblance to reality) and I realised I’m not alone!
4. I think, being in a library, we get to look at everything – information wants to be free, remember?
posted by Gwan on 8-23-2009 at 10:48 pm
#1 Rockefeller and Reagan for President and VP
#2 I woeld have to say that there are WAY too many versions of A Christmas Carol and I think that there are only a few worth watching
#3 Rude Customers that literally throw the money across the sales counter at you really irks me.
#4 no computers at work other than the cash register system.
posted by cindy on 8-24-2009 at 1:16 am
1. Mine was from the week of July 31, 1978. the cover story was a tweak of the Michaelangelo painting of God and Adam’s hand with a test tube in the middle. It was the week of the birth of the first test tube baby (it wasn’t me.)
2. A remake of Goonies would piss me off. Or the Breakfast Club. I can just see someone trying to make those “relevant” for a new era of teens.
posted by Nathan on 8-24-2009 at 1:33 am
1. “Computer Generation: A new breed of whiz kids” 5/4/82
2. The Princess Bride
3. see #4
4. Nothing I’ve come across is blocked really, but my super huge, Fortune 500 workplace refuses to upgrage from IE6, therefore severely limiting my surfing abilities. It gets worse everyday and I pitch a fit a least once a week over their stubborn refusal.
posted by Hawkeyegirl on 8-25-2009 at 10:00 am
1. Youth Crime – July 11, 1977
2. There are plenty of creative minds struggling to get their ideas out there. Studios shrug off fresh new stories because they think the general movie-going public is comprised predominantly of drooling morons who only respond to cliched jokes and tired, familiar ideas, which is why everything is a remake or a comic book. I don’t know, are they right? This could tie in with #3, maybe.
3. For some reason, people who try to sing along with songs when they don’t know all the words annoy me. They end up mumbling and looking awkward. Don’t sing if you don’t know the words!! I don’t know why this bugs me so much!!
4. I haven’t pushed the envelope too much, mostly I only go to Mental Floss and check my email, so I’m not sure what’s blocked.
posted by BMC on 8-25-2009 at 11:25 am