A dear friend of mine, Shyama Rose (prounounced “shawm-ah”), is a nascent-yet-accomplished upcoming fashion designer in Seattle, and (soon) New York City. I’d like to highlight this piece of hers because I cannot fathom how such a striking, quality design could be put-together by hand, and by someone without traditional Fashion School training. Some people just have a knack (and an eye) for good design, and she’s one of them:

This isn’t her first time working with leather, and nowadays, people stop her on the street asking her where she got her unique jacket, and after telling them she made it herself, she gets commissioned to create new bespoke pieces right then and there. It’s really amazing what raw talent, inspiration, and a little perspiration can do for you. It’s worked wonders for her. Shyama Rose, upcoming fashion designer, I commend you.

Not your traditional lab coat – the anti-shazzzam

You can get in touch with Shyama at shyama (at) gmail (dot) com.

Organizer #1: What about different food options for the luncheon, (thoughtful pause) what about kosher food?
Organizer #2: Good idea, but how will we be able to tell who wants to eat kosher?
University staff: We could just make black armbands with the Star of David on them. (collective gasps in the room) What?

–Columbia University

I don’t think I’ve ever drunk champagne before breakfast before. With breakfast on several occasions, but never ‘before before’.

-Fred Varjak

Holly Golightly: Did I tell you how divinely and utterly happy I am? 
Fred: Yes.

Holly Golightly: I’ll tell you one thing, Fred, darling… I’d marry you for your money in a minute. Would you marry me for my money? 
Fred: In a minute. 
Holly Golightly: I guess it’s pretty lucky neither of us is rich.
Fred: Yeah.

Came upon this in some random photo album on Facebook while wasting time: the coolest vest ever.  Okay.  Maybe it would be cooler if it was Luigi (from Super Mario Bros.) instead of a pirate.  Still, good attempt:

[Kramer lying on couch, reading.]

Jerry: Are you reading my VCR manual?
Kramer: Well, we can’t all be reading the classics, Professor High Brow.

Psychologists wonder why people are endowed with the ability to learn the part of Hamlet or understand calculus when neither skill was of much use to mankind in the primitive conditions where his intellect was shaped. [...] The solution: we use our intellects not to solve practical problems but to outwit eachother. Deceiving people, detesting deceit, understanding people’s motives, manipulating people–these are what the intellect is used for.

Perhaps Bernard Madoff, as the glorious product of human evolution that he is, should be praised for having outwitted others to the tune of billions of dollars.

Street art, NYC:

Via Kanye West.

This is the most mind-blowing track I’ve heard all year:

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It’s off Nas and DJ Green Lantern’s The Nigger Tape. (Mixtape download link here.)

Thank you Bernard Madoff.

Now all of my mother’s half-brained friends who mindlessly watch ABC’sThe View are going to think that hedge fund managers are shady. Your newsworthy fraud is now so widely-discussed that Elizabeth Hasselbeck has felt the need to weigh in. Great PR for the industry.

NEW YORK—In what many are calling the most comprehensive study of its kind, Staten Island historians Robert Wilburn and Charles Tinsley have successfully traced the lines of the infamous Wu-Tang Clan all the way back to 1993 A.D.

“During its height, the Wu-Tang Clan acquired a great deal of wealth and notoriety,” Wilburn said. “One need only look at Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s dental records to get a sense of the incredible treasures they possessed.”

Staten Island Historians Piece Together Genealogy Of Wu-Tang Clan – The Onion

This is awesome.

I, for one, welcome our new Bloomberg overlord.

Obama roasts McCain:

McCain roasts Obama:

Recent looks from The Sartorialist: