SPIN Magazine did Rock N’ Roll fans a solid, and put every issue from their back catalog – dating back to the first issue in May, 1985 that featured Madonna on the cover – on Google Books.

At some point I’m going to go way down the rabbit hole with this. Chuck Klosterman features, here I come. In the meantime, check out ten covers from what I think we can all agree was the golden age of SPIN – the 1990s.

1990 – Depeche Mode, July

1991 – Sinead O’Connor, November

1992 – Chris Cornell, September

1993 – Evan Dando & Adrienne Shelly, April

1994 – Kurt Cobain, June

1995 – Pearl Jam, January

1996 – Rage Against The Machine, October

1997 – Ani Difranco, August

1998 – Marilyn Manson, February

1999 – Beck, December

Like a dip potluck. Or a B.Y.O.D.

That right there is an artistic shot of Five Layer Mexican dip. It seems pretty great.

Send suggestions for the Dip Festival.

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100 H/Tees to my man @AsilentFlute for sending this to me, because it is just so great.

One time I covered first base, and I caught the ball and tagged the base all in one motion. I said, “OOH, I just made a touchdown.”

Depressed about the prevailing of evil last night? Suggesting cockamamie like: the Phillies should have pulled Pedro with an 0-2 count on Matsui in third? Well, it gets worse.

Before you go into your no-good Yankee-loving boss’s office and try to shatter him by asserting that rooting for that organization lowers him as a businessman, you should unfortunately know that the Yankees haven’t been operating under the commonly failed business practices that some of us assumed all along.

David Goldman, of CNNMoney.com and loyal Red Sox fan, reluctantly reports this morning that the Yankees ran one of the most efficient operations in the league this year:

Adding up the dollars and cents. Applying a Society of Baseball Research metric, the Yankees were actually more efficient with their payroll this past season than were the hapless cross-town Mets, Cleveland Indians and basement-dwelling Washington Nationals.

The World Champs were only slightly less thrifty with their salaries than the Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, and Kansas City Royals, all of whom missed the playoffs.

By those calculations, the Yankees paid $3.2 million per “marginal victory.” That’s nearly twice as efficient as the Mets, who only won 70 games despite their $149 million payroll and paid $5.8 million per marginal victory.

In addition, a rough estimate of the team’s revenue in 2009 shows the Yankees cashed in on their success more than any other team. Multiply the number of people coming to games by the average ticket price ($73),and the Yankees took in about $270 million this season, or $69 million more than they shelled out for their payroll.

Sigh. However, if you’re a New Yorker and a Yankee hater – the pinnacle of the unbiased majority in this debate, right? – take solace in an undeniable fact. What primarily helped the Yankees develop this business model are the ticket, food, and merch sales contained within that billion dollar stadium. And, if the stadium doesn’t get built, the Yankees wouldn’t be able to leverage the astronomical price mark up of those items. And if the government subsidies for the stadium that came down don’t, then the stadium don’t get built. Whether you’re a Yankee fan or not, if you’re a New Yorker you’re unwillingly paying down that grant money, and in turn fueling the stadium funds that helped pay player salaries and the luxury taxes attached to those salaries.

And, as Goldman points out, it’s a sad reality and it’s working – but on paper, in no less evil of a fashion than before.

Yankees got their money’s worth (CNN)

Standard, right? Celebrity, seemingly insurmountable cause, arduous charitable task such as running. It’s all very nice in a sort of conventional way.

Norton refuses to be conventional…

He’s bringing along these dudes. Genuine Maasai warriors to run the race with him on Sunday – that’s two of them with Norton running last week in Central Park. Those sneakers bare a stark contrast to their usual running footwear…

David Blaine and Alanis Morrisette are also part of the team. I guess that’s cool.

Get more info, and check out the organization’s web-based fundraising effort at their website Maasaimarathon.com

The bacon beer has finally arrived in Brooklyn. For those who were anxiously awaiting it’s arrival (me), hope you saved up a small fortune. Grub Street reports:

We just about lost it when we heard Brooklyn Brewery brew master Garrett Oliver was working on a beer made from Benton’s Country Smokehouse bacon, and now it’s a reality. The catch is: You’ll have to pay $350 for a taste of Reinschweinsgebot, as Oliver is calling it.

$350 to get a taste!!

The beer is part of a pairing dinner at Per Se on September 18 at 7 p.m.

That sentence is just an unfortunate sentence to read.

If you agree with me that $350 is a little steep, fret not, I have the solution…

Posted via email from mike hayes’s posterous