If you're a Curbed fan you probably saw these when they were posted, but I'm still catching up with my reading, so please forgive my tardiness in blogging about the Astoria fast-food conspiracy. If it's indeed a plot by the Greeks to reclaim their turf and replace seedy chain restaurants with seedy tavernas, I'm all for it and I'll be on the next N train out there.

(Edit: The below excerpt speculates that the Greek community wants to keep out "a certain ethnic group that really loves fried foods," but in my case I just want to keep out the fast-food industry. No need to read anything more into my post.)

Wanted to tell you about whats going down up on the Ditmars area in Astoria. First of all, Burger King closed without any explanation, which was really odd because it was popular (busy).

THEN..... McDonalds burned down in a "mysterious" 3-alarm Fire.

THIRD.... KFC "lost its lease".......how does a billion dollar international company lose its lease?

All of these places had been operating for years. And you can't blame gentrification; there are still lots of nasty-ass shops on the 31st street where these places are. One dude who tried to raise the rent on the medical office space he owned has had to eat about 14 months of vacancy.

The upshot of this is that there are now no fast food joints near the Ditmars station. Been hearing some wispers that it's some sort of Greek conspiracy to keep out a certain ethnic group that really loves fried foods.

At the ripe old age of almost-29, I've finally been called for my first jury duty... as a standby. I can't wait! If I get to serve, I'm gonna go all Henry Fonda on these guys and make their lives miserable.

One internet cliche I never tire of is the "vintage postcard" site. I know that after a while it's hard to tell the Route 66 roadside motels from the 19th-century faux-classical state buildings, but that doesn't stop me from picking a few I like and ogling them admiringly for as long as I feel like. I found CardCow yesterday while Googling for something else, and I've kept the page open in the background ever since, waiting for a good opportunity to blog about it.

I haven't read the Anonymous Lawyer blog all that thoroughly yet (I realize by the size of the archive that it's been around a long time, but I've been sucking at keeping up with blogs over the past year). I've worked in some lower-echelon law jobs and have harbored an on-again-off-again desire to go to l-school (including a pathetic attempt at taking the LSAT), so I'm sure I'll find this endlessly engrossing.

MY OCTOBER 2005 FUCKING TEN

1) referring to october as "rocktober"
2) dylan documentary yadda yadda
3) drowning in a sea of MATH (as i prepare for the GRE, less than a month away, HFS OMG WTF LOL)
4) holes (the movie based on the louis sachar book)
5) the national geographic channel's hippos: the dark side (they're killers, you know!)
6) new york state apples, in season (i.e. RIGHT NOW)
7) this great spiced belgian ale called la chouffe
8) singing nuns
9) dorothy kilgallen (specifically for her outstanding work on what's my line?)
10) 2% milk (in coffee and cereal)

Would you have been a nazi? Here's how I fared on this OKCupid test.

The Expatriate Achtung! You are 15% brainwashworthy, 40% antitolerant, and 23% blindly patriotic

Congratulations! You are not susceptible to brainwashing, your values and cares extend beyond the borders of your own country, and your Blind Patriotism does not reach unhealthy levels. If you had been German in the 30s, you would've left the country. One bad scenario -- as I hypothetically project you back in time -- is that you just wouldn't have cared one way or the other about Nazism. Maybe politics don't interest you enough. But the fact that you took this test means they probably do. I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt. Did you know that many of the smartest Germans departed prior to the beginning of World War II, because they knew some evil shit was brewing? Brain Drain. Many of them were scientists. It is very possible you could have been one of them. Conclusion: born and raised in Germany in the early 1930's, you would not have been a Nazi. The Would You Have Been A Nazi? Test