Marion's Open Salon Blog
Marion Stein
- Location
- New York, New York
- Birthday
- January 01
- Bio
- I no longer get this place. Time was, your post came up, and people had a chance to see it. Now, no one is going to unless you tell them to or something. This is depressing. I still post here from time to time, but the best place to see my stuff is over at my REAL blog, http://www.marionstein.net. Drop by sometime. A lot to see there. Comments welcome. Come on over and say hello.
MY RECENT POSTS
- Courtesy. It Works!
June 13, 2013 12:18PM - Awwr Matey! Ending TV Piracy
June 03, 2013 12:43PM - 5 Steps Amazon Could Take to
Improve Reader Experience
May 20, 2013 02:39PM - The Office -- Escape from
Scranton
May 18, 2013 12:20PM - Why Modern Family is the
Bestest Sit Com and a Fake
May 09, 2013 12:33PM
MY RECENT COMMENTS
- “catmus -- It's already
against Amazon's terms of
service to
review your own
book.…”
May 20, 2013 08:40PM - “@old new lefty -- That
was pretty much my
better-half's take
on
it.”
May 05, 2013 10:24PM - “Had a similar experience
on safari in Kenya. When we
first
saw lions, it was
just…”
May 05, 2013 10:22PM - “@Spencer -- There are
thousands of books being
uploaded to
Kindle every hour.
How…”
March 11, 2013 10:14AM - “Whistle Berries -- I'm
sorry that you haven't
been
successful, and have
wasted a…”
March 11, 2013 10:12AM
Marion Stein's Links
Courtesy. It Works!
Per a recent CNN blog: In response to customer complaints, Whole Foods is enforcing an English only policy during work time on employees, in – of all places – 47% Hispanic New Mexico.
Whole Foods is known for being staunchly anti-union, so this is no surprise,… Read full post »
Awwr Matey! Ending TV Piracy
Stumbled across an article in Forbes from back in April, referring to a New York Times columnist’s confessing to illegally using someone else’s HBO-Go password to watch the premiere of Game of Thrones. GOT is known as the
… Read full post »5 Steps Amazon Could Take to Improve Reader Experience
The quality or lack thereof in self-published e-books has been the topic of many a forum thread over at the Amazon sites, and many other places on the web. Customers have complained about lack of editing, and general shoddy quality, including bad formatting. When anyone can… Read full post »
The Office -- Escape from Scranton
When the American version of The Office first appeared, it was condescending in a Hollywood way, written by people who may have once, briefly, worked in a setting similar to Dunder-Mifflin, but always believed they were destined for better things, and got the hell out as soon… Read full post »
Why Modern Family is the Bestest Sit Com and a Fake
So my question… Read full post »
Dumbest NY Times Column of the Year
In a column that manages to be sensationalistic, disjointed and incoherent, Frank Bruni discovers the shocking information that there seems to be a double-standard for women and men when it comes to sexual activity.
He writes about the Amanda Knox case and how her perceived licentiousness led… Read full post »
Smash - Opening Night - Now Sucking Slightly Less
Ezra Pound????? The musical? Was that supposed to be an inside joke between Julia and Tom, and maybe the deadpan delivery got in the way? Or, is this show really being written by idiots who just filled in Ezra Pound having no idea about all… Read full post »
Guilio Cesare at the Met: They used to do WHAT to boys?
We decided to see Giulio Cesare because we liked the publicity photo of Natalie Dessay with the Louise Brooks’ bob. Despite our misgivings about the Vegas Rigoletto, the Bollywood Cesare looked like fun.
It was around this time last year we saw Dessay in La Traviata, and fell in love… Read full post »
The Service Even Savvy Authors Would Pay For
Part I – Nobody wants to read the great novel you wrote:
Without going into a whole history of digital self-publishing, let’s just admit the current situation sucks. Sure there are now self-published e-books regularly featured in The New York Times Sunday Book Review combined e-/… Read full post »
Activism, Fictional Deaf Kids, and a Real-World Need
The Switched at Birth all-ASL-episode, Uprising, is rightly getting a lot of kudos. As a fan of the show, I found it brilliant. It showed the various characters being exactly who they are in a crisis – Melody trying to temper her own idealism with pragmatism,… Read full post »
Scalia on The Voting Rights Act and "Racial Entitlement"
From The New York Times, 2/27/13 -- A central provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 may be in peril, judging from tough questioning on Wednesday from the Supreme Court’s more conservative members.
If the court overturns the provision, nine states, mostly in the… Read full post »
Smash - Season Two -- Too Boring to Hate Watch
The days of hate-watching are over. First season Smash may have been dumb, but it was, at least occasionally, interesting.
It’s not that I don’t hate the new season. I do, but it’s no longer entertaining, and whereas before I could sort of tune-out the stupid, or groan… Read full post »
Earthbound Angels in Need of Decent Wages
In 2005, after electing not to treat his final bout with cancer, my father was able to get “home hospice” services. Like most elderly in the US who have insurance, he had “managed care.” He was encouraged to have an home health aide (HHA) in the house to… Read full post »
I Can Fix Him -- New Twists on a Very Old Formula
Once upon a time there was a princess. She was beautiful but lonely. Men were intimidated by her, and women envious. She was pure and virginal. Strange circumstances bring her to a remote castle. A mysterious man visits her at night and they become lovers but she… Read full post »
The Americans -- The Stink of Rotting Fish Eggs
Where's My Free Stuff
Barack Obama &nb… Read full post »
Idiots At the Opera, Act II
So as I mentioned in a previous post, my media-naranja y yo have become mid-life opera fans. So far this season we’ve seen three productions at the Met.
Let’s start with Carmen, which my husband refers to as
… Read full post »Ground Game Debriefed
I drove home from Reading PA on Wednesday after spending over a month as a “fellow” in the Obama campaign. “Fellow” is a made up title for people who come to a battleground state to volunteer
… Read full post »Another Reason Obama May Be Doing Better Than You Think
Just wanted to point you to an article from last June in the Daily Kos exploring how the rise in cell phones may be effecting telephone polling. The theory is that because it’s more difficult to reach people who don’t have landlines, and because these people are often the… Read full post »
Joining the Circus -- Volunteering in a Battle Ground State
Back in September, before the first debate, things were looking good for the President, but the voter suppression stuff was worrisome especially in Pennsylvania. I kept seeing a clip of that sleaze-ball Republican legislator saying that voter identification would win the state for Romney. H… Read full post »
Why Doesn't Google/YouTube Just Take It Down?
So there’s this extremely offensive-to-Muslims 14 minute video and riots are breaking out and people have been killed in parts of the world where (1) people don’t have the same understanding of “free speech” that we have in the US, (2) may be misinformed about free speech i… Read full post »
A Dog's Own Story
The boys liked to roughhouse, pull my tail or show me a biscuit and take it away, but they were my boys and I loved them.
The Daddy kept his distance. He almost never had a good word to say, but he was the pack leader and I loved… Read full post »
GOP: People Who Earn Salaries Are Taking the Easy Way Out
Republican spokes-curmudgeon John Sununu does it again. What a feisty old crock. His M.O. seems to be to bait the reporters by questioning their allegiances and implying they're in the tank for Obama when they ask him other than fawning questions. This doesn't completely work. That is,… Read full post »
Rich to Middle Class -- No More Free Ride You Lazy Bums
Today’s guest blog post has been submitted by a “friend” writing under the nom de plume, Mr. Richie Moneybags Rich:
Once upon a time, back in the 1920′s, there was a lot of new stuff, telephones, movies. A
… Read full post »The Story of an Ending -- And Why I'm Giving It Away
Just looking at the most recent Goodreads review of my novella, The Death Trip, the reviewer deals directly with the ending, which readers either seem to love or hate. She vigorously defended it, coming close
… Read full post »
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