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- HOW BANKS PREPARED FOR A U.S. DEFAULT. (2)
- GREECE’S ADVANTAGE IN THE CHICKEN GAME. (2)
- Nick: That makes sense. It reminds me of the stories Pater Familias would tell me about how in Boston the person with...
- Dick Weisfelder: Greece seems to me to be playing a game that Karl Deutsch called “underdog.” While one...
- FOOTBALL PLAYERS DELIBERATELY CAUSING CONCUSSIONS? (3)
- Nick: It was my understanding that boxing gloves were to protect the puncher’s hands and not the...
- Dick Weisfelder: Remember the Roman arenas? Bare knuckled boxing? Such injuries were taken as natural and accepted in...
- Mary Jane Schaefer: This isn’t about football. Or even sportsmanship. Well, it is about sportsmanship. But what...
- A 25 % CHANCE OF A EURO DEFAULT? (1)
- Nick: The fact that this has gone on for so long is pretty perplexing. The Economist is referring back to articles it...
- DECIDING WHAT KIND OF PATIENT YOU ARE. (1)
- Dick Weisfelder: One can be very open to new technology, but also risk averse. The recent debates about how to...
- THE EUROZONE—A CHICKEN GAME WHERE EVERY MEMBER CAN BLOW IT UP? (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: This is not a matter of chicken. These are all turkeys.
- PLAYING WITH MATCHES NEAR A GASOLINE TANK. (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: Why would the French care? As long as they take down Britain?
- NORWAY’S CHRISTMAS BUTTER SHORTAGE. (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: Christmas with a butter cookie shortage–in Scandinavia. This isn’t even Scrooge. This...
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Monthly Archives: November 2007
NANOWRIMO.
NANOWRIMO. Today, November 30, is the end of NANOWRIMO, National Novel Writing Month, which takes place every November.The event has its own website. The challenge, if you accept it, is to write a 50,000 word novel, starting on November 1 … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
2 Comments
SLEEPING THROUGH THE WINTER.
SLEEPING THROUGH THE WINTER. Winter is almost here. I experience a yearning every winter to stay inside and in bed. Graham Robb writes here that until the twentieth century peasants in many parts of Russia and France shut themselves away … Continue reading
Posted in History
4 Comments
VARIETIES OF FRENCH BREAD.
VARIETIES OF FRENCH BREAD. I think of French bread as the best in the world. P.N. Furbank in the review I posted on yesterday says this about French bread in the late nineteenth century: “Country bread was uneatable. In some … Continue reading
Posted in History
3 Comments
SHEPHERDS ON STILTS.
SHEPHERDS ON STILTS. The review I posted on yesterday has a wonderful photograph of a half dozen shepherds on stilts in a patch of heath in the Landes in about 1900. The stilts have a third leg for support, and … Continue reading
“ALL ROME LEADS TO ROADS.”
“ALL ROME LEADS TO ROADS.” That was Mary Jane’s comment when I read her the news articles (here and here) about the display in Vienna for one day (November 26) of a copy made in the thirteenth century of a … Continue reading
UPDATE—“MICROACCENTS” IN FRANCE.
UPDATE—“MICROACCENTS IN FRANCE.” I posted here about a review of Graham Robb’s THE DISCOVERY OF FRANCE which pointed out the hundreds of subdialects in France at the time of the French Revolution. P.N. Furbank has a review of Robb’s book … Continue reading
Posted in History
3 Comments
CLASSIC, ROMANTIC AND STANDUP.
CLASSIC, ROMANTIC AND STANDUP. The argument as to whether a comedian should be like Jerry Seinfeld and observe ordinary people or should explore human nature by portraying the unusual is like the argument in literature and art between classic and … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Uncategorized
1 Comment
STANDUP, PUSH-PIN AND ART–THE MORE THE MERRIER.
STANDUP, PUSH-PIN AND ART–THE MORE THE MERRIER. How do I feel about Ron Rosenbaum’s article that I posted on yesterday, which argues against Jerry Seinfeld’s kind of standup comedy? I guess it should be clear that I take a somewhat … Continue reading
Posted in art, Literature, Theater
1 Comment
STANDUP—“CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN MASCULINITY.”
STANDUP—“CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN MASCULINITY.” Ron Rosenbaum, the author of the essay I posted on today, has a friend, Adrian Shapiro, who has an idea for “a book about standup comedy—contemporary American masculinity.” I suppose the book would have no place for … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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REBELLIOUS STANDUP COMEDIANS.
REBELLIOUS STANDUP COMEDIANS. This article reflects a dividing line in literature. art and theater as well as in standup comedy. Many feel that art should be subversive of the status quo, and that entertainment or the pursuit of beauty is … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
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