Some Shakespeare quartos now available online.

Some Shakespeare quartos now available online. Some of the Bard’s plays, as their original readers saw them!

2004-09-13 01:00:39

Is it just me or are many getting sick of bloggers accounting themselves experts in typography just because they can use Microsoft Word?

Seriously, the blog space is getting full of people stating with self-sppointed authority that the Bush Guard memos must be forgeries merely because they can knock off a fairly similar-looking document using Word’s standard Times New Roman font. Good for them. Do they know that this typeface has been available since the 1930s? that IBM typewriters have, for the past 50 years, been capable of proportional font sizing and superscript for common abbreviations (like ‘th’)?

The documents may well be fakes… but it’s nothing that can get settled using those particular litmus tests.

I suppose it comes down to what people know versus what they think they know. So you can use Word… fine. That doesn’t make you an expert. If things were that blindlingly easy my presence in Jersey City on 9/11/01 would make me an expert in terrorism and structural engineering. A lot of people out there need to grab a nice cup of STFU.

Something about the new Time cover looks oddly familiar.

Something about the new Time cover looks oddly familiar. Hmm, are they implying that illegals are sneaking into the USA by a wide open back door?!?

The mystery of Britney Spears’ breasts!

The mystery of Britney Spears’ breasts! So many size changes you’d think she had mercury implants or something!

Plastic surgery tips from Jocelyn Wildenstein.

Plastic surgery tips from Jocelyn Wildenstein. “Bring in a clipping from National Geographic”… priceless!

Cheney: never mind the record deficits and unemployment figures, the economy is doing fine — just look at eBay!

Cheney: never mind the record deficits and unemployment figures, the economy is doing fine — just look at eBay! In related news the US economy is apprently now powered mostly by knockoffs, old junk and porn.

10 ways Dubya screwed New York.

10 ways Dubya screwed New York. No wonder the only local glad to see him there was a billionaire.

Fortress New York.

Fortress New York. It’s the blueprint of future living in the United States… welcome to America’s “Police Age”.

John Gilmore doesn’t think he should have to show ID in airports. The government disagrees. Now the government doesn’t want to show its arguments as to why people should have to show ID.

John Gilmore doesn’t think he should have to show ID in airports. The government disagrees. Now the government doesn’t want to show its arguments as to why people should have to show ID. I’m sorry, but my irony detector just asploded.

Barlow: the RNC coincidentally saw an increase in the quantity and quality of cocaine available in New York City.

Barlow: the RNC coincidentally saw an increase in the quantity and quality of cocaine available in New York City. Cocaine and Dubya in a related story? Impossible!