Tolstoy begins Anna Karenina with "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." According to a Cornell University study, Twitter, divides itself into "two walled-off nations: happy people and unhappy people." Sadly, the study doesn't examine whether happy tweeters send out the same tweets while the unhappy tweeters send out unique tweets.
Big boy blogger Andrew Sullivan keeps track of those who want the United States to waste more blood and treasure in the Middle East here and here and here. Am I the only one who hears Pete Seeger singing, "When will they ever learn?"
On the bright side, researchers may have found Atlantis in Spain.
I think that I'm trying to avoid thinking about budget cuts, D-Step testing, and nuclear meltdowns
Showing posts with label Some Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax along with Some Cabbages and Kings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Some Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax along with Some Cabbages and Kings. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Random Things I Learned This Week
Benedict Arnold was born in 1741, and agreeing to play for another basketball team is akin to switching allegiances in the middle of a war, at least to owners of NBA franchises.
We live in a time that is closer to 2050 than the moon landing or Woodstock. I think that means Bob Dylan's The Times They Are a-Changin' is both accurate and old. I'm just old.
Wonder Woman must still have cultural cachet if Slate, Fox News, The New York Times, and The Washington Post all covering it. A review of issue #600 which features the change can be found here.
College students don't study as much as they used to. People, with or without consternation, search for answers here and here.
Americans eat 20 percent of the world's frog legs, and soon the U.S. is likely to overtake France and Belgium as the world's largest consumer of frog legs.
We live in a time that is closer to 2050 than the moon landing or Woodstock. I think that means Bob Dylan's The Times They Are a-Changin' is both accurate and old. I'm just old.
Wonder Woman must still have cultural cachet if Slate, Fox News, The New York Times, and The Washington Post all covering it. A review of issue #600 which features the change can be found here.
College students don't study as much as they used to. People, with or without consternation, search for answers here and here.
Americans eat 20 percent of the world's frog legs, and soon the U.S. is likely to overtake France and Belgium as the world's largest consumer of frog legs.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Some Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax along with Some Cabbages and Kings
Last Night, HBO premiered Treme, a new series set in New Orleans after Katrina. The series is produced by the same people who produced The Wire, one of the best television series ever. It also features some of the same stars including Wendell Pierce.
This new series may not reach the level of The Wire, but I started wonder if students and teachers twenty or thirty years from now will have "must have viewed" lists like we have "must have read lists." I don't believe books are going extinct, but their impact on culture may not be as great as it was for previous generations. So, will everyone look at Tony Soprano or Greg House as the epitome of contemporary tragic heroes? Will Mad Men be the example that one uses for verisimilitude or Saving Grace the standard for internal conflict? And finally in the spirit of asking too many weird questions, what would the canon contain? Everyone agrees that people read a Shakespeare play or three along with Eliot's, Frost's, and Whitman's poetry for example; what are the ten films or TV programs that would go on the list? (My apologies for only including the dead white males on the literature list.)
This new series may not reach the level of The Wire, but I started wonder if students and teachers twenty or thirty years from now will have "must have viewed" lists like we have "must have read lists." I don't believe books are going extinct, but their impact on culture may not be as great as it was for previous generations. So, will everyone look at Tony Soprano or Greg House as the epitome of contemporary tragic heroes? Will Mad Men be the example that one uses for verisimilitude or Saving Grace the standard for internal conflict? And finally in the spirit of asking too many weird questions, what would the canon contain? Everyone agrees that people read a Shakespeare play or three along with Eliot's, Frost's, and Whitman's poetry for example; what are the ten films or TV programs that would go on the list? (My apologies for only including the dead white males on the literature list.)
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