VH1's Top 50 Hip-Hop
 

Where is Slick Rick in this list of yours? And what about Doug E. Fresh?

Just how much suckin’ up should I do?
 

If you really liked the place, sent thank you notes to everyone you interviewed with and the office manager who set it up. Type them all - this is business, not social.

And proofread the crap out of them. While I do not think sending a professional thank you note ever hurts, and that it helps enough of the time to make it worthwhile, typos are killer.

reality nuts
 

Not when you pick the participants, place them in controlled environments and manipulate them to achieve certain story lines.

TM

reality nuts
 

No, that would then be a Michael Moore "documentary"

not7yS

Dead or Alive
 

So you're saying that you only like his old stuff? I hate to say it, but I agree with you there. Everything he did after "The Joshua Tree" was too comercial.

Livestock in the Office
 

To answer your question in the first paragraph, you should ask the office manager to require that all dogs brought in by partners are trained as ratters.

Just how much suckin’ up should I do?
 

I have to admit, as someone who has done A LOT of interviewing (mostly summer associate candidates, but a few laterals), the only thing I've ever done with thank-you letters is show them to my fellow associates so we can giggle over them. Sometimes my secretary and I laugh over them too. They have never influenced me to change a negative recommendation to a positive one, and a few were so ridiculous in their attempts to "connect on a personal level" with me that I changed previously positive recommendations.

But maybe that's just b/c I'm a bitch. Apparently some people actually like gettin them. Better make sure there are no typos though.

Just how much suckin’ up should I do?
 

Here's my problem with 'em: I fill out the evaluation the same day I do the interview. Otherwise the form gets burried on my desk, or I forget to fill it out for some other reason. Hell, I usually forget about the applicant altogether within 3 hours (until I'm told "so and so accepted our offer," may prompt my mind to recall the person).

So, if I get a thank-you note a week later, my rec. is gone, and I'm not going to track it down to say the his/her ettiquette is so refined that em wrote me a note. Besides, the Man, not me, is making the decision in the end.

Just how much suckin’ up should I do?
 

On the plus side, this means that a truly embarrassing thank-you note can't hurt the sender with you.

Just how much suckin’ up should I do?
 

For a lateral, it's important to send along a note.

Often, the people with whom you interview are seriously considering you and you might do business with them whether or not they offer you a position or you accept it.

If you made a real, personal connection, send a brief email the day of your interview and and then send a letter along as well.

reality nuts
 

You're just upset because everyone's favorite lunatic came off looking like a bitter, stupid, callous old man.

Moore: "How many guns do you own?"

Heston: [More than any rational person would require.]

Moore: "You live in a multi-million dollar home surrounded by security."

Heston: "That's right."

Moore: "Have you ever had an incident where someone has broken in?"

Heston: "Never."

Moore: "Have you ever needed to defend yourself?"

Heston: "No."

Moore: "Then why do you have all these guns?"

Heston: "Because the Constitution gives me the right to."

Me: "Oh." (What a brilliant pick for spokesman.)

TM

Just how much suckin’ up should I do?
 

I disagree. At my old firm someone was hired who sent me a thank-you note saying that em was "thrilled" to meet me. I don't remember anything we discussed that could be described as "thrilling" so I was uncomfortable whenever I passed that freak in the hallway or stood next to em in the unirnals--especially because I am not sure em was a man.

Eventually the weirdness and tension got to be too much, so I had to start a rumor that em was stealing office supplies and got em arrested.

Now I don't read thank you notes anymore.

reality nuts
 

I think that whole experience being caught in a net and strung up on poles on Planet of the Apes must've really scared the hell out of him. Perhaps that explains the survivalist-nutbag ammo-hoarding?

p(and if that's not a sound basis for a constitutional argument, I don't know what is)j

Reality TV casting call
 

I saw this blurb this morning,
Given who is producing this, I fear that they're going to make the contestants repaint using their tongues or something, but on the other hand, this could be cool.

reality nuts
 

Why is that a stupid answer? If you think that people shouldn't have guns, then get enough support and change the constitution--it has been done before. If he wanted to take his millions and buy more whiskey than he could possibly drink, would you have a problem with that? So what if he wants to buy guns, that is his right. It may not be smart, but neither is eating fried foods, yet we don't try to tell those people that they have no right to do it because what they are doing is stupid.

I think trying to pass laws that abridge the 2d amendment are more dangerous than Heston's guns. If we buy the principle that a bare majority can pass laws that make an end-run around the constitution for "safety" or "security" then what is to keep the gov from trying to abridge the 1st amendment? The 4th amendment?

This country is about individual freedoms not majority rules.

reality nuts
 

He did come across pretty bad. Of course what are you supposed to think of someone who goes and holds a ralley in a city that has just had a tragedy, and actually chuckles about the fact the Mayor told him not to come.

I didn't think much of him when he did that. Just because you have the right to do something doesn't mean you need to do it.

And of course he didn't know about the little girl who had been shot in the other city when he went to visit. He just went there randomly, suuuure.

What a moron.


Did ya see the movie CtD? They did a pretty nice job of making him look dumb. Not that that is surprising, given the whole point of the movie.

reality nuts
 

Cool. A hidden, unsupported, and snide assertion. You HAVE been watching Moore.

reality nuts
 

There are lots of dumb people here, that doesn't surprise me. And I did see the movie, it was funny and raised some interesting points, but he does draw conclusions that I wouldn't, necessarilly, have drawn and he did play very fast and loose with the facts.

-The "missle" factory in Columbine that he claims makes weapons and ties it to Kosovo, actually makes satellites.

-Heston didn't give that Speach a few days after the Columbine killing, it was actually a year later.

He was also criticised in Roger & Me for flubbing facts. I think there are good enough arguments to make against guns without having to resort to distortions and falsehoods to get your point across though.

I didn't grow up hunting, like Moore, and I don't think I would know how to use a gun properly unless those Rambo movies are accurate protrayals of proper gun technique. So I don't want to own 50 guns--it's a waste of money--but I support the NRA because I think standing for the constitutional issue is more important than what they stand for. I liken it to allowing the march in Skokie Illinois.

reality nuts
 

No, I'm bitter because they gave the "Best Documentary" Oscar to this fat, flippant bastard who digitally alters speeches and stages events to make his point.

If you like to help repair this travesty, go here .

not7yS

reality nuts
 

I'm hoping all of this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the USA PATRIOT Act, but the Second Amendment doesn't protect Heston's right to buy guys since he's not in a militia. I understand that the NRA has tried to read that inconvenient text out of the Second Amendment, but it's still in there. If you disagree, I suggest we take it up on the Politics Board.

reality nuts
 

1) Yes, I was referring to PATRIOT Act.

2) Ty, it is not "there". "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, [<-- comma = preamble] the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. " [<--enabling clause that doesn't mention militias]

3) I agree that this is better left to the politics bd.

reality nuts
 

People who buy into Moore also firmly believe that Stone is the only one who really knows how JFK got shot. Don't confuse them with facts.

reality nuts
 

I'm very disappointed that this site is not about Forest Gump.

reality nuts
 

I don't think it was particularly hidden. Nor is it an assertion, it is an opinion.

It was however snide.

I haven't made an argument one way or the other for gun control in this conversation, don't plan on getting into it in fact. And one would have to be foolish to not watch Moore's work with a critical eye, it was clear what his bias was and what his intention was.

That doesn't stop the work from being a useful starting point for conversation.

It also doesn't stop someone from looking like an ass. Admittedly, as I already said, given Moore's intent it isn't surprising he made him look that way and probably set out to do so.

Edited to say:

However the links you posted Slave do cause a real problem with using his film as a useful starting point for conversation. In fact it does make one wonder why he won an academy award. I agree reading this stuff that it is absolutely improper to play with information and film in the way in which they say he did here. So, I take back my snide opinion Bilmore.

reality nuts
 

Moore is the worst kind of evil - he's a smart, calculating, lying kind of evil. That's worse than stupid evil any day - because he will fool so many otherwise intelligent people into holding as truth, in the back of their minds, the basic ideas that he had to edit so distortedly to present.

reality nuts
 

You are right, and this stuff makes me feel sick he had the audacity to call it a documentary. It wasn't a documentary, it wasn't even an opinion piece. It was a distortion.

I'm glad I watched it, gladder I noted I had done so here and that you folks told me what was going on with it. I am normally given to doing research after I view something I find interesting and I probably would have gotten around to it, but meanwhile there I was suggesting people view this film without any kind of warning as to the way it was done.

Thank You Notes
 

Sorry, late.

I always send handwritten thank you notes on plain, classic stationary the same day as the interview - then I can be fairly certain they will get the note the following day - any later than that and you're already forgotten. I also copy it if I really like it and store it for the next time I need to come up with the words to fill another one because I hate composing the damn things (now, never - opened own firm this month). However, if I were Mr. Lex, I would type it on nice paper instead of forcing them to decipher the secret code that is his handwriting. I would also use a different size/color paper than 8.5x11 so it doesn't look like another boring cover letter - and it doesn't look like you ripped off your office bond.

The problem I had most recently is when interviewing with 2 people, do they each get a note or one note for both - and if only one note, how can you be sure they both see it and does the most important one get listed first or the one that set up the interview, if different? I figured for 2 they can each get a note, but for more than that, a combo note will suffice - thoughts?

-T(On guns: we have lots here, but I'm not a fan)L

reality nuts
 

Good luck with that.

TM

The Great News Swindle
 

Well, Moore is par for the course. FoxNews is approaching a John Birch meeting, the NYTimes op ed page looks more like a bitter professors' bitchfest, the Post and Daily News will only cover the most intense carnage with no regard to the underlying story, the Wash Post is only interested in sinking politicians to feather its own rep, MSNBC is turning right to steal from Fox, Sy Hersch thinks everybody's a criminal and we're still going to lose the battle of Baghdad, Anne Coulter fancies herself the next Phylis Schlafly, Paul Krugman hates tax cuts but offers no alternative, Bob Herbert is still angry we won the fucking war, Peter Jennings wants to be known as the American talking head of record with the internationalist perspective... seems to me nobody save CNN actually just reports anything anymore. We're coming to a point where everybody will soon be a journalist/editorial/fictionalist. This may not be a bad thing if it stuck to just the media, but the govt has begun to realize that perception makes reality. In 20 years, we may not be sure what the fuck is going on anywhere - we'll have to sift through 80 different websites and then read Reuters, BBC and watch CNN and then come to our own conclusions. Wait a minute... I already do that. Fuck. The swindle's already on and here I am lamenting the obvious. Fuck me. In this regard, taking Moore to task for twisting facts and being dishonest is like handing out speeding tickets at a Nascar event. He's just doing what news entertainment professionals do.

reality nuts
 

Now, you know why I was less than enthusiastic about the rec.

it's sad really because he used to have interesting things to say, though I have always preferred American Dream over Roger & Me.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/1870249.jpg

I have two questions:

(1) Is that a putter?!!

(2) Does the next picture in this sequence show a headless spaniel?


That may not even be a golf ball. What sport is this????

reality nuts
 

I don't have a dog in this fight, as I've seen neither the movie nor the website, and I don't particularly care, but Roger Ebert pointed out that Moore has attempted to answer the critics on his website with affidavits etc., and his critics are now answering the answer etc. And now it's down to dueling blogs, which is what passes for public discourse these days. So if you're interested in knowing whether Moore has answers to these accusations, they're all publicly available, though I'm too lazy to find the URL for you.

In other movie news, "Spider-Man" was a huge disappointment. I'll let you know in about six months whether "Chicago" is any good.

My Current Favorite Idiot
 

Ever seen Sean Hannity speak? I could write endlessly about the myriad reasons this genetic defect is better suited to garbage removal than any sort of discourse, let alone debate. However, I'll leave anyone who's interested to watch his show and let him prove my point again and again.

He's the sort of person who makes those of us with Irish blood cringe because we know there are people sitting around the tube smirking and saying "Dear, remember when I told you the Irish were best suited for manual labor? Well come here and look at this fellow - he's exactly what I meant." Hannity's the sort of person who makes me understand why WASPs tried like hell not to let us into their golf clubs. And what's worse is he makes me sympathize with them.

S(He takes us back two generations at least)D

Define "Anything"
 

I guess then you haven't read Eason Jordan's op-ed in the WSJ detailing how CNN kept mum about Iraq atrocities for over a decade.

Or perhaps you have, and this news whitewash is what you mean by reporting "anything"

not7yS

reality nuts
 

Good Lord. Moore may be guilting of being misleading and I don't know why they hell he was even considered for an Oscar (in fact, I don't know why people care enough to try to get it taken away). I figured the movie was like all his other work: an opinion piece where he sneak-attacks people who are unprepared to answer some pretty tough questions. He rarely gives his opponent (and that's what they are, no question) the ability to respond. But I see this all the time in the media nowadays.

Anyway, intelligent people are not fooled by Moore. Intelligent people have formed their opinions on guns already. If you think that I'm any more in favor of a ban on assault and automatic weapons and most handguns after watching the movie, all he's done is fool you.

So, enough with the "evil" rhetoric. Save it for someone who actually fits the description.

TM

reality nuts
 

Who let you off the "Lawyers With Kids" board?

T. (feeling your pain) S.

reality nuts
 

Yeah, I am looking at his site actually, have been for a little while now since I apparently am not having a productive work day.

Spider man was a disappointment, but I enjoyed Chicago.

I still enjoyed Moore's film, I blame myself for not watching it even more critically. But I also think it is absurd it is being lauded as a documentary.

Define "Anything"
 

Dude, when people's lives are at risk, what CNN did is acceptable. Be a little pragmatic on this one.

In the sewer of media crimes in the past few years, CNN's is pretty fucking small.

Nina Simone, R.I.P.
 

In other news, legendary and incomparable jazz great Nina Simone died today at the age of 70.

not7yS

Nina Simone, R.I.P.
 

Damn. That really sucks.