Not objecting by any means to the new fad, I have always loved those instruments and have thought they deserve wider appreciation. I just wonder what spurred it. I have theories (surprise): A rejection of the super-saturated tones of electric guitars; a down economy making the gear requirements attending electric guitars unaffordable; a growing sense that there are a lot of douchebags playing electric guitar. But those may be my own experiences, none of which have prevented me from investing scarce moolah into a decent amp and a few guitars for my own jollies.

What’s funny — and the pic demonstrates this — is that instrument companies are designing ukes, banjos and mandolins with guitar stylings. I like it, but I want to explain it!!!

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Gordon Cederholm, 45, of Milwaukie has lived with HIV for 25 years and said he was skeptical about using marijuana as medicine when he got his Oregon card less than a year ago.

“At first, I thought: What does being a pothead have to do with it?’” he said. “I didn’t know the benefits in marijuana. Now, I find that I’m a better person when I smoke.”

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Turned out to be spam. But it was a nice thought.

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Found as an ad in my RSS reader.

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Just found out from The Gawker: Bo Diddley died of heart failure at the age of 79 yesterday. The Gawker post embeds a great 50s performance by Diddley of Willie Dixon’s classic “You Can’t Judge a Book by Looking at the Cover.”

NPR has more.

Tags: bodiddley, rock music, musicians

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For the new folks, a little history on this blog: In May 2007, Editor & Publisher ran a story about job cuts. (The story is no longer online, which is why I now copy stories into posts.) I talked about that story with other journalists. With nonjournalists. I blogged about it. But it seemed there was more — or should have been more. So I started a list of buyouts and layoffs at U.S. newspapers. (See the 2007 list.) All numbers come from people within the organization (Secret squirrel sources are always welcome!) or published reports. In December, I used Paper Cuts as an opportunity to learn how to create the map mashup — written using JavaScript and XML.

As with a regular Google Map, when a user clicks on a site marker (those upside down tear dop shaped icons), an information balloon pops up, this time with a link to a specific newspaper company and news about their financial status. For example, clicking the site marker for Portland, OR, I found this out:

Because Smith relies upon newspaper accounts to track the damage (kinda like Iraq Body Count), there are a lot of unknowns about staff numbers. And as Matt points out, the graph so far has not tracked information from the alternative press, which has been contradicting wildly over the past decade. Nonetheless, Erica has done a great thing here, demonstrating how to use available information tools in an easily accessible and readable format. Info literacy at its best! Students in writing, marketing, journalism and business classes might find this useful in their research, too.

Tags: papercuts, information literacy, newspaper industry, lay offs, google maps

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A craigslist ad that brings the Muppets into the lands of the furries:

Some time ago, I found an original full head rubber Miss Piggy mask, circa 1977, complete with a full head of long blond hair. I am looking for a tall, sexy BBW, preferably over 300 pounds, to wear this mask to bed. She should also be open to playing with plastic wrap and liquid latex. Blonde is best, I suppose, but not necessary. Who knows – for the right woman I might just get a green rubber suit and a Kermit mask.

The accompanying images are interestingly modified. To put not too fine a point on it.

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Hat tip to MightyGodKing.

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