Since reading the New York Times article “Between Truth and Lies, An Unprintable Ubiquity”, I have been absolutely deluged with references to the Harry Frankfurt’s newish book On Bullshit. Why is that? What are people trying to say? Perhaps my…
So. Your Humble Blogger saw Million Dollar Baby the other day. And the rest of this column is about the plot twist, and its representations elsewhere. So if you want to be surprised by the twist—and I was, more or…
I happened to read a very odd op-ed piece in the New York Times this morning. It’s called “Design for Living”, and it’s by Michael J. Behe of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. Mr. Behe is arguing…
When I saw this stupid op-comic piece in the Times the other day, I thought, that’s a stupid op-comic piece. But that clearly wasn’t enough. There’s an actual news article on the same idea, that it’s funny to think about…
Your Humble Blogger has often complained about reviews that are more about the wit of the reviewer than about the thing being reviewed. It’s the curse of Dorothy Parker; her stuff is clearly about her, but then she is actually…
On the whole, I think that the President of the United States should be able to choose the Cabinet he wants to govern with. Yes, the Senate should advise before it consents, but for me the bar for turfing a…
I do not like to use this Tohu Bohu as a griping zone just to call attention to those things in the world that I think are wrongheaded, but an article by Sharon Waxman called Onscreen, It’s the Season of…
The New York Times Magazine appears to have gone sort of nuts for toys this week. In addition to a disturbingly wonderful slide show of cutting-edge Japanese playgrounds, and another slideshow that’s less wonderful and more disturbing, what with the…
I’ve seen a few things recently on-line that are interesting, but about which I don’t have enough to write an essay. So: From the Language Log, Arnold Zwicky writes about Two and Threes, specifically about the figure of speech taken…
So. Your Humble Blogger saw The Incredibles, and enjoyed it immensely. Anything said below should be held in that context; I thought it was great, and pretty much if you think you’d like it, you will. For one thing, it’s…