Drew's View

The Great Zucchini

Eric Knaus is The Great Zucchini--the most popular, in-demand, and expensive entertainer you can hire for your child's birthday party in the Washington area.

On the floor in front of us, the kids -- 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds -- were convulsed in laughter. Literally. They were rolling on the carpeted floor, holding their tummies, mouths agape, little teeth jubilantly bared, squealing with abandon. In the vernacular of stand-up, the Great Zucchini was killing.

The show lasted 35 minutes, and when it was over, an initially skeptical Don Cox forked over a check without complaint. The fee was $300. It was the first of four shows the Great Zucchini would do that Saturday, each at the same price. The following day, there were four more. This was a typical weekend.

Do the math, if you can handle the results. This unmarried, 35-year-old community college dropout makes more than $100,000 a year, with a two-day workweek. Not bad for a complete idiot.

But he is much more than meets the eye. He's a troubled young man who is haunted by past traumas and current addictions. This is a long but fascinating article that starts as a puff piece about a party clown and turns into an intriguing and deep character study.

The Washington Post: The Peekaboo Paradox

Urban Exploration: Detroit's Beautiful, Horrible Decline

French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre have a photo essay on Time Magazine's website. They explore the formerly magnificent buildings of Detroit that are now abandoned, decaying, and empty. I am always fascinated by the exploration of urban decay, and this is a great example of the haunting images that can be found.

TIME: Detroit's Beautiful, Horrible Decline

Invest in the future, don't bailout the past.

Thomas Friedman hits the nail on the head with this editorial in the New York Times. I wish I had been as clear when I was trying to articulate my opinion on this to a friend the other day.

G.M. has become a giant wealth- destruction machine — possibly the biggest in history — and it is time that it and Chrysler were put into bankruptcy so they can truly start over under new management with new labor agreements and new visions. When it comes to helping companies, precious public money should focus on start-ups, not bailouts.

New York Times: Start Up the Risk-Takers

The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Diamond Heist

WIRED magazine has pre-published an article from its upcoming April 2009 issue documenting the possible story behind the world's largest diamond heist. Much of the story comes from interviews with the ringleader of the heist, so the credibility could be questions, but the story reads like a great heist movie, complete with crazy characters, twists and double-crossing, and foiling a complex security system.

In February 2003, Notarbartolo was arrested for heading a ring of Italian thieves. They were accused of breaking into a vault two floors beneath the Antwerp Diamond Center and making off with at least $100 million worth of loose diamonds, gold, jewelry, and other spoils. The vault was thought to be impenetrable. It was protected by 10 layers of security, including infrared heat detectors, Doppler radar, a magnetic field, a seismic sensor, and a lock with 100 million possible combinations. The robbery was called the heist of the century, and even now the police can't explain exactly how it was done.

WIRED Magazine: The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Diamond Heist

Amnesia

A strange and haunting story in the New York Times about a young woman who suffered a dissociative fugue, a rare form of amnesia that causes people to forget their identity, suddenly and without warning, and can last from a few hours to years.

“I went from going for a run to being in the ambulance,” the woman said several months later in describing her ordeal. “It was like 10 minutes had passed. But it was almost three weeks.”

On Aug. 28, a Thursday, a 23-year-old schoolteacher from Hamilton Heights named Hannah Emily Upp went for a jog along Riverside Drive. That jog is the last thing that Ms. Upp says she remembers before the deckhands rescued her from the waters of New York Harbor on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 16.

Now she has managed to piece together some of what happened during that time, but much of it will forever remain a mystery. A Life, Interrupted.

Eye Candy for News Junkies

I am a total news junky. I like to get my news online, but sometimes there is just no substitute for the real newspaper.

I especially like to see what various papers from around the world are reporting, and have long subscribed to email alerts from many of them. But now I have found a better solution. NEWScan shows the front pages of over a dozen daily newspapers, and the images are big enough that you can read all the headlines. A quick scroll to the right allows you to get a feel for what is front page news around the world. This will be a new part of my daily routine.

(via Kottke)

Give your iPhone feedback to Apple

I continue to be amazed at the incredible volume of people who read my post on The Case for MMS on the iPhone. What started out as a rant has become the most-read entry I have ever posted. Based on the fact that most of the readers of that post are new visitors to my blog (who find it via search engines), it seems there are lots of people who share my frustration.

I continue to get lots of emails and comments from readers who want Apple and AT&T to fix the terrible user experience using MMS on the iPhone in the US. Keep those messages coming! In addition, you can provide your feedback directly to Apple via the iPhone Feedback Form. Tell them too!