Word: actualities
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
According to your book, you don't consider what we're doing here - a phone interview - to be an actual conversation. Why is that? What makes a conversation a conversation? What we do when we sit down and talk, I think, is very ancient and essential. And that's why I restrict my definition of conversation to in-person exchanges. Obviously, what we're doing right now is a conversation, but it's of a certain kind. You don't get to see what I look like or what my body language is or what my facial expressions...
...desert island. Then you get into arguments about whether you can have whole catalogs of CDs or just one CD. Is it all of Beethoven, or just one string quartet? What happens is when you do a category like that, the discussion often deteriorates in a good way into actual substantive conversation. But it takes work to talk to a bore. And you have to save yourself at some point. I always say, Keep an empty glass - that's an old formula. If you're standing up, make sure your glass is near empty at all times. That can lead...
...Notice that nowhere in there did I use the word chatting. That's because, though the site's called ChatRoulette, there's little actual conversation. A typical interaction lasts less than a second before one or both of you races for the "Next" button. When I tried to actually chat with people - mainly to ask what they were looking for on the site - they either stared blankly or skipped ahead. It seems that the only way to get anyone to stop their endless scroll is to either a) be female (in my unscientific test, about 85% of the people...
...Chef finalist Kevin Gillespie had a shot this year, and season 3 winner Hung Huynh two years ago. Gillespie pulled out because he didn't have time to prepare, but Hung almost won the qualifer two years ago. Still, Top Chef and its ilk are roundly mocked by actual top chefs (no matter how many appear on the show as guest judges.) So why would culinary demigods like Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud and the great Paul Bocuse himself, who created this monstrosity, be so invested in what is basically just a bigger, more elaborate version of the show? (See pictures...
...recent White House meeting about job growth featured tense exchanges between Obama and both Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and Republican House minority leader John Boehner. There has already been much ugly speculation about the upcoming White House-hosted health care summit: whether it is an actual attempt at bipartisanship or some sort of trap spiked with the telegenic eloquence of the still likable President meant to embarrass Republicans. On the current trajectory, no politician will enter that room feeling too rosy about the other side's motives...