Monthly Archives: December 2008

GARFIELD AS AN EXISTENTIAL STATEMENT.

GARFIELD AS AN EXISTENTIAL STATEMENT. Annalisa gave Nick a book for Christmas, GARFIELD MINUS GARFIELD, which is based on this website. The site publishes Garfield comics from which Garfield has been removed. Without the cynicism and avowed laziness provided by … Continue reading

Posted in Literature | 1 Comment

PEANUTS AND THE NEW GENERATION.

PEANUTS AND THE NEW GENERATION. The PEANUTS comic strip had a huge impact on my generation. I used to claim that while one could argue about different artists or writers, PEANUTS was one body of work that would survive for … Continue reading

Posted in Literature | Leave a comment

ANOTHER YEAR WITHOUT BEING CHARGED BY AN ELEPHANT.

ANOTHER YEAR WITHOUT BEING CHARGED BY AN ELEPHANT. This is a time for reviewing the past year. Dick and Chris Weisfelder sent us a holiday letter describing how their vehicle was charged by an enraged mother elephant who, fortunately, changed … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

PREDICTING BLACK SWANS AT THE BEGINNING OF 2008.

PREDICTING BLACK SWANS AT THE BEGINNING OF 2008. I first posted on Nassim Taleb’s concept of black swans in September 2007 (Shakespeare was the subject of the post). The “Buttonwood” feature in the Economist for December 22, 2007 wrote about … Continue reading

Posted in Economics | Leave a comment

A CHAMPION FAILS TO BREAK THE FRUITCAKE RECORD.

A CHAMPION FAILS TO BREAK THE FRUITCAKE RECORD. I have posted previously about the champion eater Takeru Kobayashi. The New York Post reports that Kobayashi has failed at an attempt to break the world record for eating fruitcake. The record, … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

LOCATING THE CHAINS.

LOCATING THE CHAINS. I have always thought that there is an arbitrariness to bringing out the chains at a football game to determine whether the team with the ball has picked up the ten yards necessary for the first down. … Continue reading

Posted in Football, Sports | 3 Comments

NO LIVES ARE ORDINARY.

NO LIVES ARE ORDINARY. The DVD for 49 UP has an interview by Roger Ebert with Michael Apted, the director of THE UP SERIES, in which Apted quotes the wife of one of the characters in THE UP SERIES. Apted … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

A SUDDEN STROKE OF KINDNESS.

A SUDDEN STROKE OF KINDNESS. Two years ago at Christmas, I posted on how moved I am by the characters in Dickens who are generous and kind (and for that reason are sometimes dismissed by the critics as mere plot … Continue reading

Posted in Literature | 1 Comment

WHO WANTS TO BE A CELEBRITY?

WHO WANTS TO BE A CELEBRITY? By the end of 49 UP, the last episode so far in THE UP SERIES, most of the people on the program had expressed openly that being on the program had been painful. It … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

THE EXTRA CHARACTER IN THE UP SERIES.

THE EXTRA CHARACTER IN THE UP SERIES. THE UP SERIES from the beginning, in 1963, was avowedly about the effects of the British class system. (There were only a couple middle-class children and only four girls chosen at the beginning—the … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment