This week my three favorite podcasters mentioned three of my favorite NYC delicacies:

Knishes,Papaya King hot dogs, and ME!!

(1) The NYC delicacy to which Peter alluded is a knish, not a blini or a blintz. This reminds me that Mel Brooks fondly describes his friend Dick Cavett as, “spectacularly gentile”. What does this make our treasured Mr. Robinson? Wondrously white-bread? Made-o-mayo?

(2) The Papaya King hot dog to which Mr. Long refers is the standard against which I judge all others. Anthony Bourdin (a ying to Cavett's yang if ever there were one), agrees saying "The best hot dog is at Papaya King on East 86th Street. Be sure to enjoy it with a frothy delicious papaya drink—and if you put ketchup on your dog I will *#@%ing kill you."

(3) Yes, I am the e-marketer to which Mr. Long referred. Yes, I can see everything that you do online. (That means you, creepy.) No, Rob's wedding dresses and Peter's boy's underwear ain't nothin' compared to what I have on Lileks. (hint: closet full of clown-suits)

Thanks. The Vatican was just issued a citation by EPA. Failed to purchase white carbon offsets.

The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if the left hasn't been dumbing down education and the discourse in the mainstream media on purpose for the last 30 or so years.

Explains why Google - with a name (and ticker symbol) that sounds like a cooing baby is up 14% YTD.  http://goo.gl/OUKqF

I'm a longtime Rockaway surfer and I just lost my lunch.  Thanks for bringing this to my attention... I guess. I was in the water a few times in just before Christmas and thought it felt sharky.:) Now for the fish story...

A few years ago I was visiting some friends on Martha's Vineyard. The island's angle and location in the lee of Nantucket means that there is rarely good surf, but the fates were with me that weekend and for once, I hadn't hauled my longboard up north in vain. 

I enjoyed three-hour solitary "sesh" (surf session) just off of Katama beach and paddled in for the day. Later that afternoon we got word from a local pilot that a large great white had been cruising yards away the entire time. The swell persisted into the next day and I paddled out to the same spot again... for about 30 seconds. Then I paddled in. Then I got up my nerve again and paddled out, caught one wave and surfed it in to the beach looking back over my shoulder the entire way. I repeated this sequence for an hour until the swell died. :)

Love it. 

If so then Prof. Rahe and all of the other optimists did us a great disservice.

NoCeasar. 

I love the avatar. 

To paraphrase the late great Breitbart... we should not run retirement aged guys with funny names and helmet-hair against a matinee idol.

I admit that the batch of Republican candidates was poor, but whose fault was that? Ours. We need to demand more of our candidates.

We should push young prospects to run instead of taking the safer route of waiting until 2016.Do you think that Rubio/Ryan or Ryan/Rubio would have fared better or worse against President Obama last night? How about Nikki Haley?

We also wasted much time, treasure and attention on primary candidates who never had a chance (Newt, Ron Paul) or should have been oppo researched out (Cain) before they dragged our brand down.

All our fault. Now what are we going to do about it?

Flop: One more thing. Maybe it is worse.

Could it be possible that the polls were indeed over-sampled for Dems and then the dems were smart enough to focus their GOTV where it counted until the the turnout matched - or exceeded the polls?

Flop:

I want to agree with you and I'll go further and say that it would almost hurt less if we hadn't believed our own fantasies about the polls. It would almost hurt less if Romney trailed in the polls the entire campaign and we believed the polls to be correct. At least we could have managed our expectations and - who knows - encouraged Romney to change course and/or managers. 

Carver and Billy:

To paraphrase the late great Andrew Breitbart... we should not run retirement aged guys with funny names and helmet-hair against a matinee idol.

I admit that the batch of Republican candidates was poor, but whose fault was that? Ours. We need to demand more of our candidates.

We should push young prospects to run instead of taking the safer route of waiting until 2012.Do you think that Rubio/Ryan or Ryan/Rubio would have fared better or worse against President Obama last night? How about Nikki Haley?

We also wasted much time, treasure and attention on primary candidates who never had a chance (Newt, Ron Paul) or should have been oppo researched out (Cain) before they dragged our brand down.

All our fault. Now what are we going to do about it?

Amen. 

The prevent defense rarely works - especially when you aren't leading. I'm not sure why the Romney camp decided to not attack in debates 2 and 3. Similarly, Ryan should have mocked Biden for the clown that he is. I felt all our momentum sag that night and I perceived the left to have breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Check out the "contextual" advertising banner in the right column of this screenshot of this thread from some poor manufacturer of "bike to work pants" that just wasted $0.0001.

Obama bike!

The velo-drones installed bike lanes here in Brooklyn. They are unnecessary and dangerous.

I rode to school every day in the 80s without special lanes and developed a healthy respect for cars and great reflexes. Bike lanes lull riders into a false sense of security that green paint on the pavement will save them from cab drivers who see as well as they smell.

Now I drive my kids to school and if I drift  into the bike lane while reaching into the back to hit one of them, I get a dirty look from a fixed-wheel-hipster and a ticket from a cop who'll retire to Southampton at 40. These stops always make me nervous. The gun under my seat is licensed, but the BigGulp in my cupholder isn't.

During summer's crushing humidity and winter's freezing rain the lanes are so empty that you can set a toddler down in one for an hour, which is apparently a violation of some unrelated statutes.

The lanes are environmentally unfriendly. You don't know greenhouse gas until you draft behind Rachel Maddow. It'l make you cry like a indian in an ad council commercial.

I've been working from home in Boerum Hill for the last few days where we suffered little to no impact.  (We lost cable and Internet for 3 hours. I know, I know... I've been in contact with FEMA and Bono and Clooney are confirmed for the telethon. Don't tell Mayor Bloomberg, but I've been using BigGulp cups to catch leaks from my roof too!)

Did you fellow tri-staters notice that the Mayor endorsed President Obama because of he is stronger on global warming. What as silly little man he is. The Village Voice (of all sources) debunked ideas that global warming caused Sandy and that it was an an unprecedented storm by publishing this great recap of the hurricane of 1938. http://bit.ly/XT35AW