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- ARE PEOPLE LESS VIOLENT? (COMMENT). (2)
- Dick Weisfelder: My prior comment was just in the context of sports. Whether or not from Pinker, I have seen the...
- erik: It seems doubtful that human nature has changed. The most likely explanation would be that modern culture gives...
- 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.
- ARE PEOPLE LESS VIOLENT? (COMMENT). (2)
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Monthly Archives: December 2008
‘GIVE ME THE CHILD UNTIL HE IS SEVEN AND I WILL GIVE YOU THE MAN.”
“GIVE ME THE CHILD UNTIL HE IS SEVEN AND I WILL GIVE YOU THE MAN.” I posted here that I think I have the same self that I had fifty years ago when I was 16 . If pressed, I … Continue reading
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THE UP SERIES.
THE UP SERIES. Mary Jane and I have been watching the UP SERIES (SEVEN UP, 7 PLUS SEVEN. 21 UP, 28 UP, 35 UP, 42 UP, 49 UP). The UP SERIES took fourteen seven year olds in 1964, interviewed them, … Continue reading
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A DANISH CHRISTMAS FROM MANY YEARS AGO.
A DANISH CHRISTMAS FROM MANY YEARS AGO. My mother told me about the Danish Christmas parties that she remembered from when she was a little girl (she was born in 1907). The candles on the tree were lit (there was … Continue reading
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THINKING LIKE A LAWYER: WHAT COULD GO WRONG? (COMMENT).
THINKING LIKE A LAWYER: WHAT COULD GO WRONG? (COMMENT). Annalisa commented here that if lawyers spend a lot of their time thinking about risks and unlikely events, maybe she should have considered law school. When I was thinking of going … Continue reading
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LEARNING THE ALPHABET BEFORE USING THE DICTIONARY.
LEARNING THE ALPHABET BEFORE USING THE DICTIONARY. James Gleick has an article in the December 18 New York Review of Books which reviews THE FIRST ENGLISH DICTIONARY, 1604 by Robert Cawdrey, which has now been republished. Cawdrey included instructions for … Continue reading
Posted in History, Literature
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WRITING KING LEAR.
WRITING KING LEAR. Another thought about a writer’s life. This one has been with me for over forty years. When we were reading KING LEAR, Professor Glenn O’Malley commented that many critics think that LEAR is so harrowing that Shakespeare … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Shakespeare
1 Comment
HOUSMAN, WILDE AND CAVAFY.
HOUSMAN, WILDE AND CAVAFY. I am not sure, despite the passages I quoted yesterday, that Daniel Mendelsohn believes that Cavafy led a mediocre life or that any great poet could. Just two weeks earlier, in a review (also in the … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
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WAS CAVAFY A GREAT POET?
WAS CAVAFY A GREAT POET? I have always thought so. Daniel Mendelson says that the best of Cavafy’s work is “as good as great poetry gets.” Here is a link to “The God Abandons Antony.” Here is “Ithaca” (or “Ithaka”): … Continue reading
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CAN A GREAT POET HAVE A MEDIOCRE LIFE?
CAN A GREAT POET HAVE A MEDIOCRE LIFE? I think the answer is no. In this essay in the New York Review of Books, it appears that Daniel Mendelsohn thinks that Constantine Cavafy was a great poet who had a … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
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“ANIMAL SPIRITS”(COMMENT).
“ANIMAL SPIRITS” (COMMENT). Annalisa and Nick have each expressed the view in comments here that markets are emotionally driven so that media comments can feed on themselves. Talk about how bad the economy is going to be has the same … Continue reading