Bloomberg wins with the fewest votes since 1917

Another lukewarm election just like the primary earlier this fall. What does it mean for an elected official who wins with such a small percentage of the population voting? And even more, what does it mean for the candidate that loses…

A Master of Experiments, A.J. Jacobs is at it again

A.J. Jacobs, author of several bestselling books, is a quiet, unassuming man. So unassuming that I didn’t even realize he was standing next me in the elevator as I went to meet him.

It’s surprising after reading his work, in which he portrays himself as quite the character, especially in his new book, The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment. The book is a collection of short essays each depicting his life as he tries different methods of living. In one section of the book, Jacobs practices “radical honesty,” readily telling everyone around him exactly what’s on his mind. In another, he tries to live by George Washington’s rules.

But on this Tuesday evening, Jacobs, an editor-at-large for Esquire magazine, sat slouched in front of a room of eager journalism students wearing a baggy, blue button-down shirt, which he nervously tucked into his jeans.

“My wife has total control over my clothes,” explains Jacobs. She has his wardrobe organized into three groups: home-only clothes, home or work clothes, and clothes that require permission.

“I don’t usually like to wear the clothes I have to ask for permission to wear anyway,” he says. “They are too tight.”

Jacobs says his wife, Julie, who he has been married to for ten years, usually has the last word over what he does, including his experiments.

“She usually lets me do whatever experiments I want, but in the end she does have veto power,” he says. Which is probably a good thing considering she often becomes a character in his writing. He likes to use her as a straight man to his antics, but he says he exaggerates the contrast a bit.

In his second book, A Year of Living Biblically, Julie is forced to put up with several outdated rules outlined in the bible, including one where he is not allowed to sit in a chair where a menstruating woman has sat.

“She sat in all of the chairs in the apartment,” he explains. “I had to stand in my own apartment for the rest of the year.”

The Brown University graduate started his experiments when he was working as a journalist at Entertainment Weekly in the late 90’s. He says the experiments are the only way he felt he could write about himself in the first person.

“My life is just too normal,” he explains.”I didn’t have drug-dealing parents or anything.”

One of his first undertakings was published in Entertainment Weekly and is also in The Guinea Pig Diaries. In it, he tries to find out what it’s like to be famous, posing as a real celebrity at the Oscars. An experience that he says was very surreal.

However, most of the other experiments are a bit more serious. Jacobs says his experiment with rational thinking, which he also says was one of his favorites, has been the experiment that has affected his life the most.

“I found out how quirky the brain really is,” he says. “And I realized how many of my decisions are based on laziness and inertia.”

He says he still tries to think as rationally as possible even though the experiment has long been over.

Another enterprise he says really changed the way he thought was his venture into the life of a beautiful woman, though it didn’t start out being an experiment. He originally just wanted to get his beautiful babysitter a boyfriend, so he set up, with her permission, an online dating profile for her which he maintained.

“I gained a lot of insight about my gender,” says Jacobs. “I saw a very different side of men and sometimes it was the sleazy side.”

But not all of the experiments he conducted were life changing in a good way. During his experiment with the radical honesty movement, he learned how bad speaking your mind could actually be.

“I had to do a lot of apologizing after that experiment,” says Jacobs. “The only good kind of radical honest is positive radical honesty.”

As his experiments have progressed, Jacobs has started to focus much more on the self-help aspect of his ventures. He says at the core, his experiments are really about improving himself as a person.

But many of his critics say the experiments are just a gimmick used to sell books. His books has been lumped in with many other current authors who do what critics such as Elizabeth Kolbert call “stunts.”

Jacobs doesn’t like being called a gimmick but does admit that part of the point of writing about these experiments is to sell books.

“Any writer wants to sell his work,” says Jacobs.

Although Jacobs includes a lot of discussion about his marriage and his relationship with friends and relatives, he says there is one topic that he tries to stay away from. His kids. Jacobs has three boys: Jasper, 5, and twins, Zane and Lucas, 3.

“I don’t want them to get caught up in my experiments,” he explains. “Their lives are private.”

Even though The Guinea Pig Diaries was just released, Jacobs isn’t taking a break from his experiments. His next project is to live a year as the healthiest man possible, and he has already started dieting, exercising, and meditating.

“I’m feeling healthier already,” says Jacobs. But he still has some worries about the new project. “If I die before the year is up that would just be an embarrassment!”

Love in the City

This is a cute article in the New York Times about how far people travel for relationships in the city. Living in different neighborhoods can really put a damper on romance.

Public transportation can make a trip to see a significant other quite a trek

A View of Grand Central

Forty-second Street and Park Avenue is a place full of hustle and bustle. Men rush along the street to office buildings and meetings without so much as a glance around. On the street, life moves at a brisk, hurried pace, but it also moves on each individual’s own time. The businessmen walking down the street have control over their time.

These things change upon entering Grand Central Station. Time takes on its own meaning. Business men, wearing suits and ties, slow down or sped up as their enter, completely dependent on the schedules of trains and the aura of the station.

Standing in the center of the main concourse, an ominous, but elegant space, time is the one thing on everyone’s mind and tongue.

“What time is it?”

“What time does the train come in?”

“What time does the train leave?”

“Do you have a timetable?”

“We have time. What do we do while we wait?”

A large round clock with four faces sits atop the center kiosk. From almost any angle in the open, echoic room, the clock is visible. Below the clock, on the round countertop sits piles upon piles of timetables. Those who don’t already have them memorized stand idly round reading them over, glancing up at the clock every so often.

A man stands anxiously several feet away from the central kiosk, a guitar at his feet, wearing a canvas jacket and glasses. He stands idle but is constantly searching the room, waiting. After several minutes, the wait becomes unbearable and he picks up the guitar and walks aimlessly away.

A voice comes over the announcement system to tell of a train about to leave. Immediately, several of those who had been idling in the concourse pick up their bags and hurry away to an unseen track. Their movements dictated by a voice with no face, a train timetable, and the clock.

Time is the name of the game in Grand Central, the preoccupation of everyone inside.

No One at the Polls

The New York City primaries and the subsequent runoffs had some of the lowest turnouts in history. No one in the city is paying attention to local politics. Why?

Click here to read the New York Times article.

300th Consecutive Sellout at Memorial Stadium

The Huskers have sold out Memorial Stadium for the 300th time in a row today for the game against Louisiana-Lafayette. The record begain in 1962 when Bob Deavany was in his first year coaching what had been a losing team for the 8 years before. He eventually led the Huskers to back-to-back championships and began the legacy that is now known as Husker football. It is a great record to hold because it shows more about Husker fans than the football team itself.  Just as Steve Hanway pointed out on Big Red Network:

One of the most remarkable things about Nebraska’s 300-game consecutive home sellout streak is that the first game in that streak was a loss to Missouri. When you consider that a team’s success on the field is often the sole determinant of how much people will support a team, it’s rather remarkable that after Nebraska fans saw their team lose to Missouri for the seventh year in a row, they still came back and bought every ticket available for the next home game. When you look at the history of Nebraska football, it is the losses as much as the wins that have been major milestones in the program’s history.

To read more check this out.

My Entry into Road Journalism

Map of Nebraska

My first piece of road journalism was written about 11 years ago. I was 10 years old and about to embark on a long journey across my home state of Nebraska. I had done my research before the trip and picked a route that I felt maximized the experience for everyone in my traveling party. Our destination was Gregory, South Dakota, a small town just north of the border of Nebraska.

As my travel partners and I hit the open road, I held the map in my hand, my notebook and camera stored safely in my bag. I was too young to drive so I was the official navigator. It was my responsibility that my dad, the driver, knew when and where to turn throughout the five day trip.

We were going to South Dakota to visit my aunt and uncle for the Fourth of July. My aunt had rented out a lodge near her home and invited all of our immediate relatives to join them for the annual festivities. My parents had decided to make it a family vacation. I had decided to make it my writing debut.

I had tried to keep a travel log on past trips but found that I spent so much time enjoying myself that I forgot to write about it. This time though, I pledged to myself to actually write about what I did and saw on our journey across the state so that I would remember it.

My dad had asked me to help him plot our course to Gregory. We were planning to leave several days early in order to make sure we hit as many tourist sites as possible on our drive. We spent days poring over maps of Nebraska, looking for interesting places to stop and finding ways to make sure our rout took us near them.

Finally, we had the perfect route. We were going to take Nebraska Highway 2 right through the center of the state. Along the way we would stop at the Happy Jack chalk mines, Fort Hartsuff (one of Custer’s forts), Halsey National Forest (the largest manmade forest in the world), and the Sand Hills (not actually made of sand). The whole time I wrote about what we were doing.

After spending time with family for the Fourth of July, it was time to head back home. When planning the trip, my dad and I had planned a different route home so that we could maximize the things we saw on our journey. This time we stopped at the Ashfall Fossil bed (skeletons of rhinos killed by the ash of a volcano in Idaho) and took a tour of the flour mill in Neligh (water-powered).

Finally the trip was over and I did some final touch ups on my travel log. When I finally thought it was ready to be seen, I showed it to my dad who, as any dad would, said it was wonderful and proudly showed it to family and friends. It was one of my proudest moments up to that point in my life. I was a writer.

I will never forget that trip. The things I saw, the places I experienced, the fun I had with my family, all of that was written into my travel journal and ingrained in my memory.

It was the start, for me, of a longtime interest in traveling and in documenting those experiences. Every family vacation after that, I wrote a journal of what we did and where we went and what I saw.

It’s part of why I wanted to become a journalist. I wanted to experience the world around me and then turn around and write about it.

It’s also part of why I moved to New York City. Here is a place where there is constantly something new to discover. I feel like I am always finding new places to explore and write about.

For me, my life is defined by the experiences and adventures I have been able to have and to write about. It is what I hope to continue to do.

A Tribute to Me

Check out the tribute video on the Brooklyn Paper website dedicated entirely to me!

Housing Project Issues split District

Check out this article in the Gotham Gazette written by my friend Dana Farrington. In the predominantly low-income, Hispanic area, housing projects are a big issue.

Housing Project Splits Bushwick District

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Music for the Birds

Check out this great video and music created from a picture of birds on a wire.

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.