January 2012
4 posts
If they made movies like these, I would have... →
There’s no chance that I’m going to ever sit down and spend the two hours necessary to watch Drive or The Hangover, but if they had actually been remakes, I might have enjoyed seeing the originals.
(Actually neither of these movies would have made the cut. James Dean couldn’t ever act, and Jerry Lewis movies have ever done anything for me. Inception, on the other hand, looks...
Reboot
It has been too long that I have ignored this place. I will commence writing again. Welcome back, me.
December 2011
1 post
Taking note: Marshall McLuhan's "Reading Style" →
November 2011
1 post
October 2011
4 posts
“The loss of a left worth engaging hurts the country, not because that left will...”
– Occupy Wall Street’s Empty Anger | First Things (via ayjay)
In posting the quote above, Alan Jacobs commented:
I agree with this analysis completely. I sympathize with, and feel, the anger behind #OWS, but with every day that passes the various acts of “occupation” seem emptier, more pointless....
more than 95 theses: a likely story →
Below, Alan Jacobs writes movingly and compellingly about the anti-Shakespeareans’ misunderstanding about what defines Shakespeare. It’s lovely, really, his short essay here.
I need to correct only one thing. Jacobs describes the shocking twist/climax at the end of The Winter’s Tale, and he asks “is there a moment in theater more complexly glorious than this?” It is...
Pictures of the Dead →
Shared by Jeffrey Windsor
This is a piece written by an old friend of mine, and it is beautiful and deserves to be shared.
There is something I don’t think I have ever talked about on my blog: I…
July 2011
7 posts
The Purpose-Driven Lie →
Shared by Rachel
Rick Warren makes me sick.
Via David Atkins at Hullabaloo:
Yesterday famed “Christian” pastor Rick Warren, wealthy author and megachurch leader, tweeted the following:
HALF…
The Chart That Should Accompany All Discussions of... →
The Age of Mechanical Reproduction - The Morning... →
07/08/11 PHD comic: 'Our Thesis' →
Shared by Jeffrey Windsor
Ouch. Close to home, this one.
Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com
title: “Our Thesis” - originally…
reading as therapy by timothy aubry -... →
I have just written you a long letter →
Shared by Jeffrey Windsor
I think I may send along a note like this regarding the chapter I’m working on. But somehow, I don’t think it will be quite so cherished as this letter was to the editors…
Plot Device →
A very clever little film, made with a budget of under $10k (and then maybe $20k in loaned equipment). Worth the ten minutes to watch—and stick around for the throwaway scene after the credits. (Plus a bonus “what the heck” in the middle.)
(via cameronmoll)
May 2011
8 posts
PhinisheD - Writing up a storyboard to avoid... →
What Umberto Eco hasn’t read →
Itty-Bitty True Miracles of Service pt.2 →
Shared by Jeffrey Windsor
My Mormon friends ought to laugh at this, but so ought all my friends-who-don’t-happen-to-be-Mormon. So there you go.
This is the second in a series. First…
Angry Birds theme, covered by Pomplamoose →
Angry Birds is still the top paid app in the App Store. And Pomplamoose is still twee and adorable. (via ★glass) Tags: Angry Birds iPhone apps music Pomplamoose remix video
Lab Notes: I Spent 42 Hours Last Month on the... →
Lab notes is a regular feature in which I report on my efforts to make my life more remarkable.
A Minimalist Metric
The above image is of a sheet that hangs behind my desk at MIT….
The Teapot
wwnorton:
That morning I heard water being poured into a teapot. The sound was an ordinary, daily, cluffy sound. But all at once, I knew you loved me. An unheard-of thing, love audible in water falling.
—Robert Bly, from Talking Into the Ear of a Donkey
“Cluffy” is now the official word of the week.
Reading Shakespeare by Robert Giroux | The New... →
I love these kind of back and forth exchanged, the snippier the better
Parenting: "Eden Style" →
The Expulsion From the Garden
Engraving by Gustave Dore (1832-1883/French) (Cool, isn’t it? Bigger version here)
My home is a lot like the Garden of Eden. Except the…
March 2011
6 posts
Floating soccer pitch →
Shared by Jeffrey Windsor
Watching this will be the best use of the next five minutes of your day. Seriously.
Much of the village on the Thai island of Koh Panyee is actually floating; the island…
“A few weeks ago, with a small footnote by way of introduction, The New York...”
– The End Of Bookstores | The New Republic
“One of the things I love about writing fiction is how I can play with time,...”
– The Millions : No More Model Airplanes: Essential Writing about Writing
I don’t know about “essential,” and this piece commits the annoying oversimplification that assumes the only writing is creative writing, but there are still a couple of books (and, indeed, ideas) here...
“Every time the brain connects the visual cortex to other regions where text...”
– THE BLURB #21: This Is Your Brain—on Books, On Screens - The Rumpus.net
“Brain and text make a chummy pair. When we read words we know, we get them in a...”
– THE BLURB #21: This Is Your Brain—on Books, On Screens - The Rumpus.net
“UNIX system utilities are a sort of Lego construction set for word-smiths. Pipes...”
– The Elements Of Style: UNIX As Literature
February 2011
1 post
Pickles - February 6, 2011 →
January 2011
2 posts
US military suicide →
This is an amazing statement: For the second year in a row, the U.S. military has lost more troops to suicide than it has to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tags: military suicide USA …
December 2010
9 posts
Why you should abandon your New Year’s resolutions... →
If you wanted to design a psychological strategy expressly for the purposes of inducing stress and anxiety, culminating in despondency and failure, you couldn’t do much better than traditional New…
Colbert: Jesus Is a Liberal Democrat →
Shared by Jeffrey Windsor
He should have skipped the x-ray and xbox jokes, but the rest is pretty spot-on.
Pretty funny (and on target), as always, from Stephen Colbert. The best line, however:…
"Ohio State lists 458 people in its athletic... →
“ Ohio State lists 458 people in its athletic department. Included are the athletic director (who’s also a vice president of the university), four people with the title senior associate athletic…
The Joy of Lists →
The Art of Interruption →
Steve Martin on his failed presentation at the Y.
What Else Would $60 Billion Buy? →
The real value of the Bush-era tax cuts for the top 2%. A favorite: “Free college, including room and board, for about half of all full-time students, at both four- and two-year colleges.”
Destination: LAPTOPISTAN →
“At home, the slightest change in light is enough of an excuse to get up, walk around, clip my nails or head into the kitchen. Though home offices seem like the perfect work environment, their…
My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather... →
“Here’s a passage from a youngish writer named Alice Gregory, taken from a recent essay on Gary Shteyngart’s dystopic novel ‘Super Sad True Love Story’ in the literary journal n+1: ‘It’s hard not to…
November 2010
3 posts
Cook the books →
Cook the books: Cookbook writers seem to be wrong at predicting how long it will take to prepare a meal. Chris Kimball, editor of Cook’s Illustrated, a favorite, got to the heart of it: …
Pickles - November 2, 2010 →
David Foster Wallace on voting →
David Foster Wallace:In reality, there is no such thing as not voting; you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard’s vote.
“Up, Simba:…
October 2010
3 posts
10/27/10 PHD comic: 'Procrascorrelation' →
Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com
title: “Procrascorrelation” - originally published 10/27/2010 For the latest news in PHD…
10/11/10 PHD comic: 'Survey says...' →
Shared by Jeffrey Windsor
Well, um, well. Dang.
Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com
title: “Survey says…” - originally…
09/29/10 PHD comic: 'Snooze' →
Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com
title: “Snooze” - originally published 9/29/2010 For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK…
August 2010
3 posts
Pickles - August 16, 2010 →