this is fyf

Madonna: "I absolutely loathe hydrangeas".

This you could just play all day on a loop, couldn't you?  Just to get those eyes you might want to visit her new townhouse with an armload of the flowers.

Via

Submit to FYF for Valentine's!

In keeping with our reputation for being service-y, FYF extends the opportunity to all readers to submit a classified ad in commemoration of St. Valentine, to be posted on his day. "Wanted"s, "Now Hiring"'s and "M4M 4 ____" (or W4W's)all accepted (also anonymous letters to crushes, haikus, etc.).

Civilization Progress Report: In Joan Rivers we trust

This week's report comes at a serendipitous time: On the heels of Mayor Bloomberg's annual State of the City speech. And while we all have opinions and would love to hoot, holler, hack, and hiss in response to his speech...honestly, why bother? Other people will be doing the boring brainwork for you and as they do that, focus on more pressing matters, like which odd trinkets ladies can use to provocatively obscure their no-no zones, as Amanda Palmer encourages them to do, for the sake of feminism...after the break [except I moved it above the break because I fucking love it - r.].

• Amanda Palmer's new album, Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under is out tomorrow and in celebration you should learn about what "Map of Tasmania" refers to. [BuzzFeed]

FYF Sweet treat of the day.

A little blurry, but then so is our Monday.

Civilization Progress Report: "And this is why India can't have nice things."

Picture via Random Specific

After I got home from work last night, my mom called me and we got to discussing the Commonwealth Games, which, according to Wikipedia, is just like the Olympics, only America's not invited to the party. Which makes sense, I suppose, as America doesn't make a past-time out of activities like rugby and netball. Late 2009, the Indian capital of New Delhi embarked on a bold urban renewal project in order to prepare for its turn at hosting the games this year. But since no one could really get their act together in the nearly eight months that ensued, preparations for the games crumbled into an incomplete mess of half-finished venues and swarms of mosquitoes carrying dengue fever. This is giving officials from other countries cold feet about moving forward. But as someone who's fallen in love with a country whose labor force is always striking for one reason or another, I merely remarked to my mom, "And this is why India can't have nice things,"¹ and we defected to more relevant topics like calorie-counting. Which is essentially to say, dear readers, that this week we learned well why no particular slice of the world--except for Lucy Lawless' native New Zealand--deserves nice things at all.

• So, yes, more details re: how slow-to-stalled Commonwealth Games-related construction is accelerating the spread of dengue fever throughout Delhi. [WSJ]

• FASTER THAN A FACEBOOK STATUS Not-at-all flailing auto manufacturer GM encourages all drivers to simultaneously update their Facebook statuses while gunning the gas pedal. [Consumerist]

Civilization Progress Report: Breaking! Gay people have to be gay in order to work (gaily) in the gay media!

There is this whole thing up at Queerty asking us, "Do you have to be gay to work in the gay media?" and it's like, why bother reading the 492 or how many ever words that ensue because ultimately yes, you have to be gay to work in the gay media. But by quickly skimming Out's homepage, you'll find one Joshua David Stein, a straight guy - married even! And then you'll reason that such questions don't really matter, because magazines are doomed and most people in that trade will become pretty outmoded after the digital transition finishes making mincemeat out of print, and (more terrifyingly, journalism). Which is to say, Queerty's "investigation" was total comment-hungry non-news. But you know what's non-non-news? The news briefs that make up the flimsy architecture of this week's Civilization Progress Report!

• TWIST! The true surprise ending of Christopher Nolan's Inception that it was able to catapult one of its thesps to just-above-C-list status after he came out. [Us Magazine]

• Scientific evidence shows that bans preventing gay couples from adopting kids is bogus. [NYT]

• Anne Rice took to Facebook to denounce her Christianity. Related: I recently took to Facebook to denounce my sanity. [BuzzFeed]

 

Daffodils are getting redundant, right?

If you heard that the hellebores are going wild in Washington Heights, you might get excited, pause, and then ask, "Hey!  What's a hellebore?"  Then you would find out that it's a sort of flower.  And you'd sigh.  Then you'd be told that it was poisonous, and you'd be intrigued.  Upon hearing that it was used to cure the daughters of King Midas from being "touched by madness and found running naked through the streets screaming"?  You'd probably want whatever they had before the hellebore because of your fondness for the naked running and street screaming.