From the popular-culture-meets-material-culture files, Tom Vanderbilt writes about the burgeoning trade in self-storage units in the U.S. in today's edition of Slate.
What this translates into, apart from one hell of a lot of stationary bikes kept behind padlocked metal doors, is an industry that now exceeds the revenues of Hollywood (and doesn't have to deal with Tom Cruise). One in 11 American households, according to a recent survey, owns self-storage space—an increase of some 75 percent from 1995. Most operators of self-storage facilities report 90 percent occupancy, with average stints among its renters of 15 months. Last year alone saw a 24 percent spike in the number of self-storage units on the market.
How did self storage, or "mini storage," as it's sometimes called, become such an enormous enterprise? And what on earth are people keeping in there?
In a word? Junk! I've dealt with the accumulation of multiple lifetimes when my father remarried several years ago. Dad and my stepmom had sizeable collections of furniture, art, and things that annoyingly clutter any stable shelf in a household. Merging two households into one would seem to most folk a problem requiring cleaning, selling, and organizing what's left. They opted for the new American course of "putting in storage," including two storage units and a garage that can no longer accomodate a car. And every time I'm summoned to help the elders resort and relabel (which they do often, but never get rid of it), I feel a bit like a reluctant archaeologist (not my field of expertise, nor my liking).
Enough of my rants. It's been a bad week.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Monday, July 11, 2005
American Gothic Returns to the Corn Fields
The little house behind the big picture.
Big news from the wilds of Iowa. The famous American Gothic painting by Grant Wood will travel to Cedar Rapids from the Art Institute of Chicago this fall, as reported in the Chicago Tribune last weekend.
Their faces won't betray it, but the farm couple in "American Gothic" are getting a rare chance to visit their hometown this fall, a leave granted in light of their 75 years together.
Almost since its completion, the painting has been owned by the Art Institute of Chicago, which paid artist Grant Wood $300 for it in late 1930, after it won third place in a juried show there. The work was an immediate sensation and remains a signature holding of the museum. And its dour duo, the man with his hay fork, the woman in her prim apron, are among pop culture's more recognized and mercilessly parodied images.
The institute rarely lends the piece, because it is fragile and its absence would disappoint so many visitors.
"It's one of our `destination' pictures," said Judith Barter, curator of American art.
But in early September, its destination will be Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Wood's boyhood home will get to see "American Gothic" from Sept. 10 to Dec. 4, when the painting will star in a major exhibition of his works in the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.
You'll find the American Gothic House down near the Missouri border in Eldon, Iowa - and I've been there (on a summer trip in which copious amounts of fireworks were purchased in the Show Me The Money state). A picture and brief description can be found here. It's surprisingly off the beaten path, with about a half dozen signs in Eldon sending you on detour-laden trip to a dusty road, and a sharp corner with a rusting metal barn, across from which is the house - much smaller than the painting makes it look - and a historical marker. So, the TAA gets double braggings rights, having seen the painting in person, and the house.
Consequences of Wealth in China
A good article from the front page of today's LA Times discusses the unintended consequences of China's rapidly-expanding economy: psychological pressure on young professionals to succeed and and consume more goods.
Experts say the very forces that provide unprecedented opportunity for young people in the new China are also delivering unprecedented stress, particularly though not exclusively in urban areas. Common among young Chinese is a feeling that they're living in a once-in-a-few-centuries era when dynasties topple and individual fortunes are made — and that they're missing out.
"The whole society is impatient, especially the young people," said Zhou Xiaozheng, a professor of sociology at People's University in Beijing. "President Hu Jintao said recently we Chinese must be modest and cautious and avoid arrogance. Of course, that means we're none of these things."
Though pressure to do well is evident almost everywhere in the world, experts say it's greater in China in part because people here think the nation has arrived late to the global economic party and needs to make up for lost time. Catching up economically with rich neighbors such as Japan and South Korea is seen as a way of "regaining" China's rightful place on the international stage.
Insecurity among young professionals, often manifest in frenzied job-hopping, is fueled by media coverage of the super-rich, such as online-game mogul Chen Tianqiao, worth an estimated $1.05 billion at age 31. Or Huang Guangyu, founder of electronic retailer GoMe, estimated to be worth $1.3 billion at 35. Or thirtysomething Ding Lei of Internet portal NetEase, at $668 million.
By most measures, Wang Sujun is doing well. The 32-year-old has a master's degree from Peking University, China's Harvard, and a prestigious job with Beijing Mobile, a major telecommunications company. He says he's happily married and in March welcomed the arrival of a healthy daughter, Zizuo. In a country where the average annual salary is less than $1,000, he's making more than 11 times that much.
But Wang doesn't feel successful.
"Life is so stressful, I feel enormous pressure on my shoulders all the time," he said, his words tumbling out in a series of rapid bursts. "If I could only do better somehow, I might become rich and happy."
When he meets with his three best friends, they talk about what they need to be more successful. Wang wants more money, and he worries that his peers have better jobs, nicer apartments, fancier cars.
Experts say the very forces that provide unprecedented opportunity for young people in the new China are also delivering unprecedented stress, particularly though not exclusively in urban areas. Common among young Chinese is a feeling that they're living in a once-in-a-few-centuries era when dynasties topple and individual fortunes are made — and that they're missing out.
"The whole society is impatient, especially the young people," said Zhou Xiaozheng, a professor of sociology at People's University in Beijing. "President Hu Jintao said recently we Chinese must be modest and cautious and avoid arrogance. Of course, that means we're none of these things."
Though pressure to do well is evident almost everywhere in the world, experts say it's greater in China in part because people here think the nation has arrived late to the global economic party and needs to make up for lost time. Catching up economically with rich neighbors such as Japan and South Korea is seen as a way of "regaining" China's rightful place on the international stage.
Insecurity among young professionals, often manifest in frenzied job-hopping, is fueled by media coverage of the super-rich, such as online-game mogul Chen Tianqiao, worth an estimated $1.05 billion at age 31. Or Huang Guangyu, founder of electronic retailer GoMe, estimated to be worth $1.3 billion at 35. Or thirtysomething Ding Lei of Internet portal NetEase, at $668 million.
By most measures, Wang Sujun is doing well. The 32-year-old has a master's degree from Peking University, China's Harvard, and a prestigious job with Beijing Mobile, a major telecommunications company. He says he's happily married and in March welcomed the arrival of a healthy daughter, Zizuo. In a country where the average annual salary is less than $1,000, he's making more than 11 times that much.
But Wang doesn't feel successful.
"Life is so stressful, I feel enormous pressure on my shoulders all the time," he said, his words tumbling out in a series of rapid bursts. "If I could only do better somehow, I might become rich and happy."
When he meets with his three best friends, they talk about what they need to be more successful. Wang wants more money, and he worries that his peers have better jobs, nicer apartments, fancier cars.
Friday, July 08, 2005
Friday Afternoon Burnout
Another workweek ends on a slightly dour note - the test-takers at the Little College were thoroughly enervating this week, and a time series analysis of their placement scores would probably show a linear (negative) relationship between time of the month and their respective scores, based on previous experience.
But on a more happy note, LA Alternative Press has published its Best Of Alternative LA List for perusal and debate. Two of the better alternatives are close to my heart:
The Best Alternative to TalkingSit Down and Shut Up
Los Angeles has long been plagued by a relentless virus called verbal diarrhea. The symptoms are as follows: aimless babble, continuous celebrity chatter, smooth speech and pet-induced gibberish. The virulent infection has spread so fast, few Angelenos realize they are constantly showered with hogwash and spewing baloney. There is one temporary treatment available for this syntactic sickness, but it requires the sick to check into “silence clinics.” They spend a day, week, month or longer on a silent retreat, where they eat, meditate, do yoga and other spiritual practices of choice without uttering a word. Upon discharge, people are known to have sharpened senses and clearer minds. It’s up to you to bring an end to this epidemic by treating yourself to a silent retreat. Otherwise, verbal diarrhea will spread throughout the rest of California, the United States and after that nothing will stop it. (Jasmin Persch)
And this one hit a bit too close to home (remember the Vermin on the Mount reading in Chinatown next weekend!):
Best Alternative to Westside Bars for 30+-Year-Old Heavy Drinkers
The “Real” Chinatown If you’re lucky enough to get past the age of 30, and you drink, you suddenly begin searching for more convenient, safer places to do so. If you live on the Eastside, sometimes that trek out to Hollywood or Santa Monica can get dicey, especially if you put a load on. Chinatown then (the real Chinatown, not the one bought and paid for out in the San Gabriel Valley), is a great location because of six major factors:
1) Three bars within feet-and stumbling-distance of each other.
2) Close, and usually free parking in lots.
3) No cops.
4) Quick freeway access: the Pasadena/Harbor/Golden State are a block away.
5) No trouble from any “elements.”
6 ) All bartenders, doormen, and owners are mellow with zero-attitude.
In that main plaza area, between Broadway and Hill, you have Grand Star Jazz Club, Mountain Bar, and Hop Louie. Park in back off of College St.—the only trouble you’ll have is the same homeless dude who’s been in that lot forever asking you for a cigarette. Yeah, sometimes you think about giving him a good smack, but he’s harmless. (Jim Marquez)
But on a more happy note, LA Alternative Press has published its Best Of Alternative LA List for perusal and debate. Two of the better alternatives are close to my heart:
The Best Alternative to TalkingSit Down and Shut Up
Los Angeles has long been plagued by a relentless virus called verbal diarrhea. The symptoms are as follows: aimless babble, continuous celebrity chatter, smooth speech and pet-induced gibberish. The virulent infection has spread so fast, few Angelenos realize they are constantly showered with hogwash and spewing baloney. There is one temporary treatment available for this syntactic sickness, but it requires the sick to check into “silence clinics.” They spend a day, week, month or longer on a silent retreat, where they eat, meditate, do yoga and other spiritual practices of choice without uttering a word. Upon discharge, people are known to have sharpened senses and clearer minds. It’s up to you to bring an end to this epidemic by treating yourself to a silent retreat. Otherwise, verbal diarrhea will spread throughout the rest of California, the United States and after that nothing will stop it. (Jasmin Persch)
And this one hit a bit too close to home (remember the Vermin on the Mount reading in Chinatown next weekend!):
Best Alternative to Westside Bars for 30+-Year-Old Heavy Drinkers
The “Real” Chinatown If you’re lucky enough to get past the age of 30, and you drink, you suddenly begin searching for more convenient, safer places to do so. If you live on the Eastside, sometimes that trek out to Hollywood or Santa Monica can get dicey, especially if you put a load on. Chinatown then (the real Chinatown, not the one bought and paid for out in the San Gabriel Valley), is a great location because of six major factors:
1) Three bars within feet-and stumbling-distance of each other.
2) Close, and usually free parking in lots.
3) No cops.
4) Quick freeway access: the Pasadena/Harbor/Golden State are a block away.
5) No trouble from any “elements.”
6 ) All bartenders, doormen, and owners are mellow with zero-attitude.
In that main plaza area, between Broadway and Hill, you have Grand Star Jazz Club, Mountain Bar, and Hop Louie. Park in back off of College St.—the only trouble you’ll have is the same homeless dude who’s been in that lot forever asking you for a cigarette. Yeah, sometimes you think about giving him a good smack, but he’s harmless. (Jim Marquez)
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Bombing Updates
London Bombings Fallout on the Market
Like most of you, I'm still trying to keep up on the aftermath of today's London bombings while juggling a heavy load at the office, but I couldn't help noticing that on Slate Daniel Gross comments on what financial markets might make of this trauma (given that about >90% of economics is psychology - especially on the trading floor).
Talking about a market session in the middle of it is like writing the story about a baseball game in the fourth inning. And the scale of the 7/7 attacks is much smaller and in many ways fundamentally different than the 9/11 attacks; trading never stopped on the London exchanges and New York trading opened on schedule. Still, it's worth noting that the early market reaction to the London bombings shows some striking similarities to the reaction to Sept. 11.
Markets have a lot of muscle memory. And when traders and investors react to crises that crop up, they instinctively and perhaps subconsciously fall back on knowledge and experience. Just as generals always fight the last war, traders grappling with a coordinated terrorist attack on a global financial center to a degree are trading the last event. Today, in the markets in London and New York, we're seeing the lessons of the post-9/11 investment fallout being applied in real time.
Talking about a market session in the middle of it is like writing the story about a baseball game in the fourth inning. And the scale of the 7/7 attacks is much smaller and in many ways fundamentally different than the 9/11 attacks; trading never stopped on the London exchanges and New York trading opened on schedule. Still, it's worth noting that the early market reaction to the London bombings shows some striking similarities to the reaction to Sept. 11.
Markets have a lot of muscle memory. And when traders and investors react to crises that crop up, they instinctively and perhaps subconsciously fall back on knowledge and experience. Just as generals always fight the last war, traders grappling with a coordinated terrorist attack on a global financial center to a degree are trading the last event. Today, in the markets in London and New York, we're seeing the lessons of the post-9/11 investment fallout being applied in real time.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Win Friends on a Jury
The Times auto section contains the hilarious details of traffic collision case settled out of court in 2003 for a reported $6 million involving a young Paris Hilton-wannabe and an off-duty police officer in Palmdale. Guess who was talking on the cell phone? Obstensibly, the article was about the doubling of cell phone use by drivers in the US since 2000, and limits on auto liability insurance stemming from distracted motorists. But, the details are too good to pass up:
Although the teenager denied using a cellphone at the time of the accident, her phone records showed that she was on a call at the approximate time of the crash."
She said she hung up before the accident," said Hugh J. Grant, the attorney for the young defendant. "The jury didn't believe her."
Indeed, the jury delivered a stunning award: $7.3 million for the officer.
Who was going to pay for this and why did the jury give so much? Many cases involving death or permanent disability result in less compensation to victims. Even many drunk driving cases result in lower awards. But this was no ordinary case.
"It was an angry jury," recalled R. Rex Parris, the Lancaster attorney who represented the police officer.
"It was a very unusual case with some very unusual injury allegations," Grant said.
What inflamed the jury? Was it the cellphone? The fact that the injured defendant was a police officer? The behavior of the defendant?
The teenager "showed up with a $1,000 Louis Vuitton purse and $1,000 spike heels," Parris said. "I just wanted the jury to see the purse again. She didn't want to show it. I asked her if she had the cellphone with her. When she pulled it out, the power was on. She had come to court with a cellphone turned on. The jury was kind of incensed by the whole thing."
Although the teenager denied using a cellphone at the time of the accident, her phone records showed that she was on a call at the approximate time of the crash."
She said she hung up before the accident," said Hugh J. Grant, the attorney for the young defendant. "The jury didn't believe her."
Indeed, the jury delivered a stunning award: $7.3 million for the officer.
Who was going to pay for this and why did the jury give so much? Many cases involving death or permanent disability result in less compensation to victims. Even many drunk driving cases result in lower awards. But this was no ordinary case.
"It was an angry jury," recalled R. Rex Parris, the Lancaster attorney who represented the police officer.
"It was a very unusual case with some very unusual injury allegations," Grant said.
What inflamed the jury? Was it the cellphone? The fact that the injured defendant was a police officer? The behavior of the defendant?
The teenager "showed up with a $1,000 Louis Vuitton purse and $1,000 spike heels," Parris said. "I just wanted the jury to see the purse again. She didn't want to show it. I asked her if she had the cellphone with her. When she pulled it out, the power was on. She had come to court with a cellphone turned on. The jury was kind of incensed by the whole thing."
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Upcoming LA-Lit Events
I've been out of action for couple months (more on that sometime in the future), but to return to true angry form, I'll be dropping in at a couple LA Lit events in the coming weeks.
First, this Saturday Skylight Books will host a panel of countervailing feminist narratives:
Time: Saturday, July 9, 2005 5:00 PM
MEGHAN DAUM, JANET FITCH, KATE GALE, NINA REVOYR, SUSAN STRAIGHT and LESLIE SCHWARTZ (moderator)
Beyond Chick-Lit: Busting the stereotypes and publishing limitations of women who write.This remarkable panel of women novelists will discuss the ways in which their literature is challenged by the act of publishing -- why book marketers feel they have to put women writers into categories like Chick-Lit (for which there is no male equivalent), race, sexual orientation, etc because they believe that unless they do, they cannot sell literature by women. They will also discuss how this affects their writing lives and what can be done to change stereotypes about women writers.
And remember, if you hang around Los Feliz Village afterwards you can catch lounge singing icons Marty and Elayne at the Dresden just one block away.
Second, the estimable Mr. Ruland has announced the next Vermin on the Mount reading at the Mountain Bar in Chinatown on Saturday, July 16. Presenters will be Jacob Forman, Lizz Huerta, Wendy Molyneux and Daniel Olivas. Be there.
First, this Saturday Skylight Books will host a panel of countervailing feminist narratives:
Time: Saturday, July 9, 2005 5:00 PM
MEGHAN DAUM, JANET FITCH, KATE GALE, NINA REVOYR, SUSAN STRAIGHT and LESLIE SCHWARTZ (moderator)
Beyond Chick-Lit: Busting the stereotypes and publishing limitations of women who write.This remarkable panel of women novelists will discuss the ways in which their literature is challenged by the act of publishing -- why book marketers feel they have to put women writers into categories like Chick-Lit (for which there is no male equivalent), race, sexual orientation, etc because they believe that unless they do, they cannot sell literature by women. They will also discuss how this affects their writing lives and what can be done to change stereotypes about women writers.
And remember, if you hang around Los Feliz Village afterwards you can catch lounge singing icons Marty and Elayne at the Dresden just one block away.
Second, the estimable Mr. Ruland has announced the next Vermin on the Mount reading at the Mountain Bar in Chinatown on Saturday, July 16. Presenters will be Jacob Forman, Lizz Huerta, Wendy Molyneux and Daniel Olivas. Be there.
Liars, Cheats, Spies, and Birders
If you don't have access to the Los Angeles Times, check out today's front page Column One article on birders falling prey to post-9-11 paranoia. It's quite a shock over morning coffee:
Over the last four decades, bird-watchers have flocked to the four manufactured islands of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, where at least 350 different species have been spotted. "It's probably the single most popular birding site in the mid-Atlantic," said Brinkley, who edits the journal North American Birds.
But nowadays it isn't as easy or simple for birders like Brinkley to do what they love. At popular birding sites across the country, they are facing stricter regulations — in some cases being required to hire a police escort — as authorities beef up national security.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Americans have been subject to increased government restrictions and scrutiny at airports and elsewhere. That bird-watchers have become a target is somewhat surprising, since all they do is "walk quietly through the woods," as Brinkley put it.
But those woods are often around military bases, wastewater management plants and dams — places where government authorities fear that terrorists, disguised as birders, could lurk or strike.
And the equipment they carry — binoculars, telescopes and cameras — can make birders look suspicious at first glance. That has been the case at Wisconsin's Jones Island, a peninsula in Milwaukee Harbor about 100 yards from a Coast Guard station and a Navy Reserve station.
Since they have "sophisticated gear and [are] looking at things not normally photographed by the common citizen in this area, they may be stopped and asked a few questions," said Lt. Jamie Rickerson, chief of port operations at the Coast Guard station's Marine Safety office.
Now, I personally know some birders, and they are about as likely a group of terrorists as one might find at a Popular Mechanics reading group. They are also, I might add, much smarter than the minor-league Platos who came up with this policy.
Over the last four decades, bird-watchers have flocked to the four manufactured islands of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, where at least 350 different species have been spotted. "It's probably the single most popular birding site in the mid-Atlantic," said Brinkley, who edits the journal North American Birds.
But nowadays it isn't as easy or simple for birders like Brinkley to do what they love. At popular birding sites across the country, they are facing stricter regulations — in some cases being required to hire a police escort — as authorities beef up national security.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Americans have been subject to increased government restrictions and scrutiny at airports and elsewhere. That bird-watchers have become a target is somewhat surprising, since all they do is "walk quietly through the woods," as Brinkley put it.
But those woods are often around military bases, wastewater management plants and dams — places where government authorities fear that terrorists, disguised as birders, could lurk or strike.
And the equipment they carry — binoculars, telescopes and cameras — can make birders look suspicious at first glance. That has been the case at Wisconsin's Jones Island, a peninsula in Milwaukee Harbor about 100 yards from a Coast Guard station and a Navy Reserve station.
Since they have "sophisticated gear and [are] looking at things not normally photographed by the common citizen in this area, they may be stopped and asked a few questions," said Lt. Jamie Rickerson, chief of port operations at the Coast Guard station's Marine Safety office.
Now, I personally know some birders, and they are about as likely a group of terrorists as one might find at a Popular Mechanics reading group. They are also, I might add, much smarter than the minor-league Platos who came up with this policy.
Friday, April 29, 2005
Fuzzy Math and the WSJ
If you are in the mood for a data-reality-check, read Jonathan Chait's commentary in today's LA Times on the slick relativism found in the pages of the Wall Street Journal.
A Wall Street Journal editorial this week cites a recent IRS study detailing which income groups pay what level of taxes. The editors note with satisfaction that the highest-earning 0.1% of the population paid 5.06% of the federal tax burden in 1979, and was paying 9.52% as of a couple of years ago.
To the Journal editors, this proves that "the overall tax burden grew more progressive from 1979 to 1999." The editorial goes on to note that any move to raise taxes on the rich would be deeply unfair because those poor folks "already bear an outsized share of the American tax burden."
It is certainly true that the richest 0.1% are paying a higher share of the national tax burden. Is that because they're getting socked by the tax code? No, it's because the very rich are earning a far bigger proportion of the national income. In 1979, the highest-earning 0.1% took home about 3% of the national income, and paid about 5% of the taxes. In 1999, they earned about 10% of the national income and paid about 11% of the taxes.
In fact, the tax rate borne by the very rich has plummeted. In 1979, the top 0.1% paid, on average, 32% of their income in taxes. Today, they pay less than 23%. So what's happening is that the top 0.1% are paying a higher share of the tax burden because their share of the national income is rising faster than their tax rates are falling. The Journal editorial board sees this state of affairs as class warfare against the rich.
And as long as you're visiting, check out Bill Maher's piece on GOP rage. Realizing you have a problem is the first step to recovery.
A Wall Street Journal editorial this week cites a recent IRS study detailing which income groups pay what level of taxes. The editors note with satisfaction that the highest-earning 0.1% of the population paid 5.06% of the federal tax burden in 1979, and was paying 9.52% as of a couple of years ago.
To the Journal editors, this proves that "the overall tax burden grew more progressive from 1979 to 1999." The editorial goes on to note that any move to raise taxes on the rich would be deeply unfair because those poor folks "already bear an outsized share of the American tax burden."
It is certainly true that the richest 0.1% are paying a higher share of the national tax burden. Is that because they're getting socked by the tax code? No, it's because the very rich are earning a far bigger proportion of the national income. In 1979, the highest-earning 0.1% took home about 3% of the national income, and paid about 5% of the taxes. In 1999, they earned about 10% of the national income and paid about 11% of the taxes.
In fact, the tax rate borne by the very rich has plummeted. In 1979, the top 0.1% paid, on average, 32% of their income in taxes. Today, they pay less than 23%. So what's happening is that the top 0.1% are paying a higher share of the tax burden because their share of the national income is rising faster than their tax rates are falling. The Journal editorial board sees this state of affairs as class warfare against the rich.
And as long as you're visiting, check out Bill Maher's piece on GOP rage. Realizing you have a problem is the first step to recovery.
Burger Town
Everyone knows about certain cities and their favorite fast foods: Philly and hoagies, Chicago and hot dogs, etc. But long-term readers of TAA will remember that most of the burger chains in the U.S. began in SoCal (White Castle sliders don't quite classify as burgers in my book). Local blog LAist returns to the fatty favorite of Los Angeles and asks for frenzied feedback.
But a burger is a state of mind, a craving, a bite of Americana right up there with apple pie. And burgers can get dressed up for all sorts of occasions: hoe-down style with BBQ sauce and some onion straws, dressed to impress with designer cheese and pricey wedges of smoky bacon, or down and dirty slathered in chili. It's easy to become a burger elitist or connoisseur; we become devotees to one neighborhood diner, joint or stand, or, we treat the burger like a gourmet meal, and sample the beef-and-buns at high-end restaurants. And while we know it's pretty tough to beat an old fashioned home-grilled backyard BBQ burger, there are some choices in LA. We'll tell you what we like, and then it's your turn.
Top pick? Obviously, In-N-Out. Who wouldn't like a place with a completely hidden menu savored by locals?
But a burger is a state of mind, a craving, a bite of Americana right up there with apple pie. And burgers can get dressed up for all sorts of occasions: hoe-down style with BBQ sauce and some onion straws, dressed to impress with designer cheese and pricey wedges of smoky bacon, or down and dirty slathered in chili. It's easy to become a burger elitist or connoisseur; we become devotees to one neighborhood diner, joint or stand, or, we treat the burger like a gourmet meal, and sample the beef-and-buns at high-end restaurants. And while we know it's pretty tough to beat an old fashioned home-grilled backyard BBQ burger, there are some choices in LA. We'll tell you what we like, and then it's your turn.
Top pick? Obviously, In-N-Out. Who wouldn't like a place with a completely hidden menu savored by locals?
Live Vermin
What do you call a group of vermin reading literature? Jim Ruland, L.A.'s legendary host for the reading series Vermin on the Mount, is now up-and-running online. If memory serves me, Jim said the next readings should take place in July.
Our fangs are fullsome, yes, but not as venomous as they once were. Although we aren't above the occassional lazy swipe at an easy target, we don't intend to subject you to vituperative outbursts about stuff we don't like, or foam-flecked fulminations about things we love. You will, however, find Vermin-related updates, amusements, and other earnest distractions.
Our fangs are fullsome, yes, but not as venomous as they once were. Although we aren't above the occassional lazy swipe at an easy target, we don't intend to subject you to vituperative outbursts about stuff we don't like, or foam-flecked fulminations about things we love. You will, however, find Vermin-related updates, amusements, and other earnest distractions.
Monday, April 25, 2005
LA Times Festival of Books 2005
Some weeks, the blogging commentary just comes forth without effort, and other weeks are marked by barren landscapes of thought and activity. The past two weeks have been filled with much activity, and little to show for it on this site. Nonetheless, my period of (in)activity was topped this past weekend by the 10th Annual LA Times Festival of Books, now one of the largest bibliophile festivals on the west coast, and associated happenings.
A few comments and observations are in order:
I've organized and chaired more than a few panels at professional meetings in the U.S. and abroad, so I have some experience about what makes for a good moderator, and a poor one. Next year, if you are selected to chair a panel, please keep in mind the following:
A) Time is important - make sure a panelist doesn't hog the microphone, it's a panel, not a presentation.
B) A Q&A Session is one structured around brief questions from the audience, and succinct answers from panelists. It is not, and should not, be a "Speech and Answer" session, giving airhead windbags a moment of theatrical elevation at the expense of everyone else in the room.
C) Control the discussion by taking the middle road: Most of those in the audience are not industry "insiders," so they won't get obscure jokes or references, nor are they complete dimwits - this is a book festival, not a NASCAR race. Have panelists briefly explain concepts or historic events that might not be familiar to everyone in the audience, and keep the discussion away from esoterica.
Last comment: Getting tickets for this is a pain! While free at participating TicketMaster locations in SoCal, repeat festival goers know that in order to get into the larger events (i.e., cosmological writers and/or celebrities) you have to camp out in line far in advance of the noon release. This year I arrived at the Pasadena spot at 11:45 am and finally picked up my tix at 2:15 pm! The experience would not have been as traumatic if senior citizen "Ruth" and her friends standing immediately behind me had not complained incessantly about the most mundane minutia for the entire 2 1/2 hours. Finding parking in Westwood on a Saturday and Sunday was a breeze compared to that experience.
Now for the observations. First, it was thankfully cooler this year, and we were spared from a chance of Saturday afternoon rain on the UCLA campus. Saturday morning I went to the "Writers in Exile" panel, primarily to see Chris Abani, who has written a wonderful first novel Graceland, but the feel in the room and at the signing afterward was that many came to see Ved Mehta, a well-known writer and former staff writer at The New Yorker (and another victim of Tina Brown's tenure). The afternoon was capped with another great fiction panel, "First Fiction: Finding a Voice" featuring Lisa Glatt and Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (another Iowa grad). Lisa regaled us with a hilarious account of going out to dinner with a fellow student at Sarah Lawrence who was "obviously insance" but lacking any other friends Lisa continued to have dinner with her unbalanced fellow MFA student in the name of companionship, if not sanity. And when the moderator Mark Rozzo (first fiction editor at the LATRB) reminded everyone to turn off their cell phones, Lisa was the first to jump off her chair and do so (usually, this request is directed at member of the audience, not the panel).
Saturday night Jim Ruland hosted yet another memorable gathering of irreverent writers and poets at the Mountain Bar in Chinatown for Vermin on the Mount, an occasional reading series, this time co-sponsored by Swink Magazine. I think it was the best by far, with a respectable crowd. Julianne Flynn read from her work-in-progress novel Buzzkill, and let us see the face behind the legs on her lit blog. She has posted several pictures of the evening for those of you who might want to see "proof" that there is a thriving literature community in Los Angeles. And Mark Sarvas, who detailed happenings at the Festival of Books on a real-time basis at The Elegant Variation read from his novel under construction.
Sunday I popped in at a couple panels on Hollywood (last year I focused on Crime and Mystery writers, this year, the other sordid aspect of LA) and finished with "A Sense of Place: The Liturature of Cities" featuring Marc Cooper, who has just completed a work on Las Vegas. But, in a final gesture of bureaucratic irony, the moderator's gavel was given to Thomas Curwen, the LAT editor of the Outdoor Section, on a panel of writer and researchers who focus on cities and urban areas. Go figure.
Still, highly enjoyable and rewarding. Make the effort to go next year - just don't get stuck next to Ruth in line.
A few comments and observations are in order:
I've organized and chaired more than a few panels at professional meetings in the U.S. and abroad, so I have some experience about what makes for a good moderator, and a poor one. Next year, if you are selected to chair a panel, please keep in mind the following:
A) Time is important - make sure a panelist doesn't hog the microphone, it's a panel, not a presentation.
B) A Q&A Session is one structured around brief questions from the audience, and succinct answers from panelists. It is not, and should not, be a "Speech and Answer" session, giving airhead windbags a moment of theatrical elevation at the expense of everyone else in the room.
C) Control the discussion by taking the middle road: Most of those in the audience are not industry "insiders," so they won't get obscure jokes or references, nor are they complete dimwits - this is a book festival, not a NASCAR race. Have panelists briefly explain concepts or historic events that might not be familiar to everyone in the audience, and keep the discussion away from esoterica.
Last comment: Getting tickets for this is a pain! While free at participating TicketMaster locations in SoCal, repeat festival goers know that in order to get into the larger events (i.e., cosmological writers and/or celebrities) you have to camp out in line far in advance of the noon release. This year I arrived at the Pasadena spot at 11:45 am and finally picked up my tix at 2:15 pm! The experience would not have been as traumatic if senior citizen "Ruth" and her friends standing immediately behind me had not complained incessantly about the most mundane minutia for the entire 2 1/2 hours. Finding parking in Westwood on a Saturday and Sunday was a breeze compared to that experience.
Now for the observations. First, it was thankfully cooler this year, and we were spared from a chance of Saturday afternoon rain on the UCLA campus. Saturday morning I went to the "Writers in Exile" panel, primarily to see Chris Abani, who has written a wonderful first novel Graceland, but the feel in the room and at the signing afterward was that many came to see Ved Mehta, a well-known writer and former staff writer at The New Yorker (and another victim of Tina Brown's tenure). The afternoon was capped with another great fiction panel, "First Fiction: Finding a Voice" featuring Lisa Glatt and Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (another Iowa grad). Lisa regaled us with a hilarious account of going out to dinner with a fellow student at Sarah Lawrence who was "obviously insance" but lacking any other friends Lisa continued to have dinner with her unbalanced fellow MFA student in the name of companionship, if not sanity. And when the moderator Mark Rozzo (first fiction editor at the LATRB) reminded everyone to turn off their cell phones, Lisa was the first to jump off her chair and do so (usually, this request is directed at member of the audience, not the panel).
Saturday night Jim Ruland hosted yet another memorable gathering of irreverent writers and poets at the Mountain Bar in Chinatown for Vermin on the Mount, an occasional reading series, this time co-sponsored by Swink Magazine. I think it was the best by far, with a respectable crowd. Julianne Flynn read from her work-in-progress novel Buzzkill, and let us see the face behind the legs on her lit blog. She has posted several pictures of the evening for those of you who might want to see "proof" that there is a thriving literature community in Los Angeles. And Mark Sarvas, who detailed happenings at the Festival of Books on a real-time basis at The Elegant Variation read from his novel under construction.
Sunday I popped in at a couple panels on Hollywood (last year I focused on Crime and Mystery writers, this year, the other sordid aspect of LA) and finished with "A Sense of Place: The Liturature of Cities" featuring Marc Cooper, who has just completed a work on Las Vegas. But, in a final gesture of bureaucratic irony, the moderator's gavel was given to Thomas Curwen, the LAT editor of the Outdoor Section, on a panel of writer and researchers who focus on cities and urban areas. Go figure.
Still, highly enjoyable and rewarding. Make the effort to go next year - just don't get stuck next to Ruth in line.
Friday, April 15, 2005
Paleolithic Porno
From Arts and Letters Daily we came across this article on pornographic sculptures found recently in some German archaeological sites. The bottom line? Archaeologists - go get a life.
New pornographic figurines from the Stone Age have been discovered in Germany. But researchers can't agree on what the 7,000-year-old sculptures mean. Were our ancestors uninhibited sex fiends, or was reproduction strictly controlled to improve mobility? An increasing number of finds seem to indicate the Stone Age was an orgy of sexual imagination.
New pornographic figurines from the Stone Age have been discovered in Germany. But researchers can't agree on what the 7,000-year-old sculptures mean. Were our ancestors uninhibited sex fiends, or was reproduction strictly controlled to improve mobility? An increasing number of finds seem to indicate the Stone Age was an orgy of sexual imagination.
Revisiting the Tax Gap on Tax Day
For you international readers, today is the deadline in the U.S. for filing individual income taxes with the federal government (and most state governments). Unlike many countries, the U.S. tax system is mired in a bog of multiple tax forms, write-offs, and regulations, requiring even individuals with little tax calculation to spend hours completing forms in accordance with annual changes in the tax code (for a not-so-fun trip through bureaucracy Americana, visit the Internal Revenue Service and download some forms). But, on top of this, we also have a pronounced shortfall in expected tax revenues - especially business taxes - at the same time that commerce spokespersons becry the lack of a "favorable" business climate in one of the world's most open market economies. This week's snapshot from the Economic Policy Institute contains the sordid details.
The latest research from the Internal Revenue Service puts the amount of taxes owed but not paid "voluntarily and timely"--also known as the "tax gap"--at $353 billion, or about 15% of total taxes owed. The U.S. tax system depends in great part on voluntary compliance. The extent of such compliance in the United States compares well with other countries, but this asset is in danger of being squandered by inadequate tax enforcement. Failure to enforce the law encourages greater evasion, and increased evasion puts a greater burden on enforcement, contributing to a vicious circle that increases the tax gap.
The latest research from the Internal Revenue Service puts the amount of taxes owed but not paid "voluntarily and timely"--also known as the "tax gap"--at $353 billion, or about 15% of total taxes owed. The U.S. tax system depends in great part on voluntary compliance. The extent of such compliance in the United States compares well with other countries, but this asset is in danger of being squandered by inadequate tax enforcement. Failure to enforce the law encourages greater evasion, and increased evasion puts a greater burden on enforcement, contributing to a vicious circle that increases the tax gap.
How to Write Real Good
Today's Chronicle has an amusing article on the shortcomings of grammar-checking in Microsoft products. Those enamored with technological crutches and mental crib-sheets should take a look, and then go back to their dictionaries. On the other hand, the grammar police are slowly losing the battle - just listen for the lack of adverbs next time you tune into the radio or watch the boob tube.
If you've ever used Microsoft Word, chances are you've seen that jagged green line appear beneath something you've written -- scolding you for drafting a fragmented sentence, maybe, or for slipping into the passive voice. That's Microsoft's grammar-checking technology at work.
If you've ever used Microsoft Word, chances are you've seen that jagged green line appear beneath something you've written -- scolding you for drafting a fragmented sentence, maybe, or for slipping into the passive voice. That's Microsoft's grammar-checking technology at work.
But how much good does the grammar checker actually do? Precious little, according to Sandeep Krishnamurthy, an associate professor of marketing and e-commerce at the University of Washington. After experimenting with the tool, Mr. Krishnamurthy concluded that it cannot identify many basic grammatical faux pas -- like errors in capitalization, punctuation, and verb tense.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Another Literary Passing
I'm still reeling from the passing of Saul Bellow (Mark Sarvas has a good roundup of coverage at The Elegant Variation), and then read this hour that Frank Conroy, former head of the UI Writer's Workshop, has died in Iowa City. From my old newspaper:
Head of Writers' Workshop dies
Frank Conroy, head of the acclaimed University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop since 1987, died at his home today. He was 69.
In August 2004, Conroy, of Iowa City, announced he would end his 18-year tenure one year later, citing health problems and a desire to pursue other goals, such as teaching and writing. He had been battling colon cancer and last summer said he was symptom free.
Conroy is the author of “Stop-Time,” a 1967 memoir nominated for the National Book Award, “Body & Soul,” “Dogs Bark, but the Caravan Rolls On,” and his latest, "Time and Tide." His essays and shorts stories have appeared in several magazines, such as The New Yorker, Esquire and GQ.
In a press release from the University of Iowa, author Chris Offutt, a visiting faculty member who was Conroy's student in the workshop, said "Frank had a great influence on every student fortunate enough to study with him, but his biggest impact was on American literature. He not only took his job seriously, but he provided unflagging support for young writers. Many of his former students have gone on to distinguished careers."
Conroy was also an accomplished jazz pianist won a Grammy Award in 1986 and was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Government.
UI’s Writers’ Workshop was founded in 1936 and is the first of its kind in the nation. It has produced writers such as Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham, Jane Smiley and John Irving. Marilynne Robinson, a workshop faculty member, won a Pulitzer Tuesday.
More Fossil Record Follies
Today's NYT reports on a recent Homo erectus find which might show evidence of social behavior, specifically, the care of indigent elderly. Other finds show more conclusive evidence in later hominid remains - this is much earlier than previously thought. The phys anthro crowd has always been guilty of reading too much into the fossil record (partly due to the dearth of evidence in their specialty, and partly due to the gung-ho personality of many rock hounds), but this article raised the following observation: Since hominids, by their physical nature, seem to have needed social protection and survival skills (i.e., reduced canines, lack of insulating body hair, reduced physical strength in comparison to other primates, early evidence of tool use and fire which require instruction from generation to generation, etc), why should we be surprised if an early H. erectus seemed to have lived for at least two years on old age sans dentition? At least read the article - then you decide.
The well-preserved skull belonged to a male Homo erectus about 40 years old. All his teeth, except the left canine, were missing. The empty tooth sockets had been filled in by a regrowth of bone, the scientists said, indicating that the man had been toothless for at least two years before he died at what was then an old age. (The discoverers call him the "old man.")
The well-preserved skull belonged to a male Homo erectus about 40 years old. All his teeth, except the left canine, were missing. The empty tooth sockets had been filled in by a regrowth of bone, the scientists said, indicating that the man had been toothless for at least two years before he died at what was then an old age. (The discoverers call him the "old man.")
In a report in today's issue of the journal Nature, the discovery team said the 1.77-million-year-old skull "raises questions about alternative subsistence strategies in early Homo."
Specifically, how could the man have survived that long, unable to chew the food of a mainly meat-eating society?
In interviews and the current issue of National Geographic, the paleoanthropologists said caring companions might have helped the toothless man in finding soft plant food and hammering raw meat with stone tools so he could "gum" his dinner. If so, they said, this was evidence of a kind of compassion that had been absent in the ancestral fossil record before the Neanderthals 60,000 years ago.
Monday, April 04, 2005
Update
My apologies to the global readers of The Angry Anthropologist. Last week I was busy with some deadlines (with more to come), hence, posts were few and curt. I'll try better this week to keep up-to-date with news topics worthy of an anthropological perspective and commentary. And, as always, thanks for visiting.
-Formosus in Pasadena, CA.
-Formosus in Pasadena, CA.
Nursing Discovers Culture
Today's LA Times reports on a dissertation research project focusing on modesty among Jewish women, and its impact on seeking medical care:
Caryn Andrews had been in search of a dissertation topic when a member of her synagogue happened to pose a question: "Do you think religious Jews would be less likely to go for a mammogram?"
Intrigued, Andrews, a doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, pondered the question with her rabbi, Susan Grossman, at Beth Shalom in Columbia, Md. "She suggested that I couldn't look at religion; I had to look at modesty," Andrews says.
It was a crucial distinction in a faith in which healing oneself and others is a requirement, but one that can often be difficult because of some forms of modesty practiced in the Jewish community.
A dissertation topic was born.
The concept of modesty and its role in Jewish culture led Andrews, an oncology nurse practitioner at Northwest Hospital Center in Randallstown, Md., to research whether modesty among Jewish women might discourage them from receiving breast cancer screenings.
Andrews hopes that her findings and further studies will have an effect on the administration of healthcare in any community where rules of modesty may pose obstacles to mammography, other forms of preventive healthcare and treatment.
My reactions over morning coffee were twofold. One, congratulations on perceiving the role of culture in shaping medical decisions - it's been done for decades by others, especially in the field of medical anthropology (Caveat: Yours truly has been a blind reviewer for Medical Anthropology Quarterly). Two, reading along I had hoped that the study would involve more than a relatively small sample of interviews and creation of a psychometric scale (a methodological crutch in many medical-behavioral studies), but then, I was wrong:
In interviews with 40 women, Andrews also gleaned the many dimensions of the role played by modesty in their lives, from the clothing they wore to the books they read.
The result, Andrews says, was the development of a "modesty scale that provides evidence that modesty can be measured."
Caryn Andrews had been in search of a dissertation topic when a member of her synagogue happened to pose a question: "Do you think religious Jews would be less likely to go for a mammogram?"
Intrigued, Andrews, a doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, pondered the question with her rabbi, Susan Grossman, at Beth Shalom in Columbia, Md. "She suggested that I couldn't look at religion; I had to look at modesty," Andrews says.
It was a crucial distinction in a faith in which healing oneself and others is a requirement, but one that can often be difficult because of some forms of modesty practiced in the Jewish community.
A dissertation topic was born.
The concept of modesty and its role in Jewish culture led Andrews, an oncology nurse practitioner at Northwest Hospital Center in Randallstown, Md., to research whether modesty among Jewish women might discourage them from receiving breast cancer screenings.
Andrews hopes that her findings and further studies will have an effect on the administration of healthcare in any community where rules of modesty may pose obstacles to mammography, other forms of preventive healthcare and treatment.
My reactions over morning coffee were twofold. One, congratulations on perceiving the role of culture in shaping medical decisions - it's been done for decades by others, especially in the field of medical anthropology (Caveat: Yours truly has been a blind reviewer for Medical Anthropology Quarterly). Two, reading along I had hoped that the study would involve more than a relatively small sample of interviews and creation of a psychometric scale (a methodological crutch in many medical-behavioral studies), but then, I was wrong:
In interviews with 40 women, Andrews also gleaned the many dimensions of the role played by modesty in their lives, from the clothing they wore to the books they read.
The result, Andrews says, was the development of a "modesty scale that provides evidence that modesty can be measured."
How to Trek Without Really Trying
Want to experience the natural wonders of the Central American rain forest with an eye to ecological correctness? Don't want to give up all the amenities of civilization? You can do so at Francis Ford Coppola's eco-lodge in Belize, covered extensively in Sunday's NYT:
Because this moment was created by Mr. Coppola - director, producer, writer, winemaker and hotelier - it feels slightly unreal, but in the nicest possible way. In my experience, this sort of outing has been synonymous with slogging, sleeping on the ground and feeling like a contestant in a reality show. In order to see the Himalayas, for example, I once trekked for eight days in August with two guides and four ponies - chugging water that reeked of iodine and breakfasting on raw apples. And when I went to Camiguin, a volcanic island in the Philippines, the only time I wasn't slicked in grease and sweat was when I was paddling in a reef with sea snakes.
But here at Blancaneaux and at Mr. Coppola's other Central American properties - Turtle Inn, in the village of Placencia on the coast of Belize, and La Lancha, on Lake Petén Itzá in Guatemala - travelers who might have been backpackers in another era can enter an authentic but sensually gratifying version of the third world stage-managed by a master. The feeling at Blancaneaux Lodge and at La Lancha, which I also visited, is that of being at a private club for experienced travelers hip to the notion of exploring, preserving and celebrating the indigenous culture without sacrificing laundry service and a wine list.
With handmade textiles, furniture and folk art collected by Mr. Coppola and his wife, Eleanor, across Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, guest quarters are free of telephones and, of course, TV's or DVD players (though Internet access is available at the front desks). International cellphones don't work, and you'll have to stand in line to use the house telephone - not that anyone seems to mind. You're free to tune in to the scratching sounds of thatch-colored lizards or the ticking of woodpeckers or to the screams of howler monkeys staking out their territory in the dead of night.
But it's the charm factor that puts Mr. Coppola's resorts over the top. When I wake at sunrise, craving sustenance, I press the switch on an intercom by my bed; it's concealed by a conch shell that promptly lights up. Room service arrives 10 minutes later. (Later, Mr. Coppola tells me via e-mail that the device, which he calls the shellphone, "was an idea I had for years. I love its eccentricity.")
Part of the allure of visiting remote vacation destinations is the journey and sacrifice (albeit small) of the traveler: it is the "re-creation" of something that existed before, seen as unsullied, pure, untouched. Room service doesn't seem to me to be part of that wonder. It reminds me too much of a tale recounted by American mountaineers in the Himalayas. Apparently, you could tell the British climbers from the Americans before they emerged from their tents after a good night's sleep: the British instructed their Sherpa guides to bring them hot tea while still snuggled in their sleeping bags.
Off the Media Radar
From the "off the English-language media radar" files, we learn that two of the largest Chinese-language dailies in the U.S. find something positive in the acrimonious debate over the late Terri Schiavo. Courtesy of the Pacific News Service:
Many mainstream media have described the controversy over the Terri Schiavo case as "grotesque," "awful" and "divisive." However, two of the largest Chinese American dailies in the United States -- Sing Tao Daily and the World Journal -- find a positive note in the controversy, mostly the singularly American response to an undoubtedly difficult issue.
World Journal editor-in-chief Yu Ru Chen writes that the resolution of the case and the public's response show that "the democratic process is deeply rooted in people's hearts." The World Journal recalls how the controversy wound its way through contending branches of government, noting that the Bush administration "used its majority advantage in Congress" to "single-handedly enact a law to move Schiavo's jurisdiction to a federal court" after a Florida court refused to order the replacement of her feeding tube.
Despite the outcry over states' rights that the move set off, "using this legislative method to give the right to the courts to decide" showed that the executive "still respects" the judiciary branch. "This is America's proudest political capital," says the World Journal.
Many mainstream media have described the controversy over the Terri Schiavo case as "grotesque," "awful" and "divisive." However, two of the largest Chinese American dailies in the United States -- Sing Tao Daily and the World Journal -- find a positive note in the controversy, mostly the singularly American response to an undoubtedly difficult issue.
World Journal editor-in-chief Yu Ru Chen writes that the resolution of the case and the public's response show that "the democratic process is deeply rooted in people's hearts." The World Journal recalls how the controversy wound its way through contending branches of government, noting that the Bush administration "used its majority advantage in Congress" to "single-handedly enact a law to move Schiavo's jurisdiction to a federal court" after a Florida court refused to order the replacement of her feeding tube.
Despite the outcry over states' rights that the move set off, "using this legislative method to give the right to the courts to decide" showed that the executive "still respects" the judiciary branch. "This is America's proudest political capital," says the World Journal.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
The End of Dutch Relativism?
Just how far can cultural relativism go? The Dutch have been famous for their tolerance and acceptance of diparate populations in the Netherlands, but after a series of infamous killings, fissures have emerged in Dutch popular opinion. The Pacific News Service has an article on one recent development that those interested in contemporary "culture wars" should put in the files.
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands--After a 19-year-old man of Moroccan descent was run down and killed in January by a Dutch woman driver trying to recover her stolen purse, mourners blamed Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk for the death.
Gathered at a makeshift memorial here earlier this winter, the mourners said Verdonk's tough immigration reforms have increased Dutch xenophobia against Muslims, spurring the woman's violent reaction against the alleged thief.
Yet some voices here say that it is, ironically, the famous Dutch tolerance -- euthanasia, gay marriage and soft-drug use are allowed here -- that may have laid the foundation for current ethnic tensions.
"The problem is we have been tolerant of the intolerant, and now we are paying the bill," says Bart Jan Spruyt, director of the conservative Edmund Burke Foundation in The Hague.
In a nation of 16 million, 1 million residents are Muslim. But according to Spruyt, cultural relativism has reigned so long that there has been little, if any, push to integrate immigrants from Morocco and Turkey into Dutch society.
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands--After a 19-year-old man of Moroccan descent was run down and killed in January by a Dutch woman driver trying to recover her stolen purse, mourners blamed Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk for the death.
Gathered at a makeshift memorial here earlier this winter, the mourners said Verdonk's tough immigration reforms have increased Dutch xenophobia against Muslims, spurring the woman's violent reaction against the alleged thief.
Yet some voices here say that it is, ironically, the famous Dutch tolerance -- euthanasia, gay marriage and soft-drug use are allowed here -- that may have laid the foundation for current ethnic tensions.
"The problem is we have been tolerant of the intolerant, and now we are paying the bill," says Bart Jan Spruyt, director of the conservative Edmund Burke Foundation in The Hague.
In a nation of 16 million, 1 million residents are Muslim. But according to Spruyt, cultural relativism has reigned so long that there has been little, if any, push to integrate immigrants from Morocco and Turkey into Dutch society.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Woof!
No, this is not serious news, nor anthropological, in any normal sense of the term. But it is very, very funny on a Monday morning.
HOBART, Ind. (AP) -- While there's nothing special about U.S. Postal Service workers being terrorized by dogs, the size of one here is raising eyebrows.
HOBART, Ind. (AP) -- While there's nothing special about U.S. Postal Service workers being terrorized by dogs, the size of one here is raising eyebrows.
Mail carriers said they were recently unable to deliver mail to homes along a section of Guyer Street in this northwestern Indiana city because of a 4.5-pound Chihuahua named Bobo.
"The little Chihuahua was 10-foot tall when he was on the street," said Florence Page of the Hobart Humane Society, which picked up the dog twice for running loose. "It's kind of comical, you know, but after a while it's not any more."
Hobart police officer Ron Schalk said he had no option but to cite Seber for allowing the dog to run loose."The biggest thing I was concerned with is there were a lot of residents that week who couldn't get their mail," he said. "The little Chihuahua was running around being aggressive and trying to bite people's ankles."
Monday, March 21, 2005
POTUS Reading Lists
Richard Norton Smith, conservative biographer and historian, writes about the reading interests of presidents past and present in the upcoming Weekly Standard. Now his spin is that what presidents read before occupying the White House doesn't translate into a "better" chief executive, his example being James Madison's mismanaged war record. But, when placed against the old portraits on the walls, GBII seems woefully sophomoric:
Like John Quincy Adams, Bush reads the Bible every morning on rising (alternating scripture with the inspirational writings of Oswald Chambers, the Scottish-born chaplain who died in 1917 at the age of 42). Bush, like Adams, emulates his mother more than his presidential father. There the similarities end. The second Adams wrote English with one hand while translating Greek with the other, and complained that his official duties deprived him of the companionship of old friends Cicero and Tacitus. As a former professor of oratory at Harvard, Adams was openly contemptuous of the unlettered Andrew Jackson. He was appalled to learn in 1833 that his beloved alma mater intended to bestow an honorary degree on the Tennessee frontiersman who personified the triumph of western democracy, "a barbarian who could not write a sentence of grammar and could hardly spell his own name."
Like John Quincy Adams, Bush reads the Bible every morning on rising (alternating scripture with the inspirational writings of Oswald Chambers, the Scottish-born chaplain who died in 1917 at the age of 42). Bush, like Adams, emulates his mother more than his presidential father. There the similarities end. The second Adams wrote English with one hand while translating Greek with the other, and complained that his official duties deprived him of the companionship of old friends Cicero and Tacitus. As a former professor of oratory at Harvard, Adams was openly contemptuous of the unlettered Andrew Jackson. He was appalled to learn in 1833 that his beloved alma mater intended to bestow an honorary degree on the Tennessee frontiersman who personified the triumph of western democracy, "a barbarian who could not write a sentence of grammar and could hardly spell his own name."
The Woes of a Best-Selling Author
The NYT reports that Dan Brown, author of best-selling phenomenon, "The Da Vinci Code," has gone into post-celebrity hiding, shocked at the fame - and money - his book has garnered. I can't say I have much sympathy with Mr. Brown, most authors struggle to make a living at the profession, often relegated to the midlist if they pass the rejection pile (for a noteworthy comparison, read this first-person account). So you write a book, go on the PR circus, and get beter than excellent results: Why are you fighting against the results of your efforts? (Or, in a more colloquial vein, "what where you thinking?")
He has given almost no interviews over the last year, immersing himself instead in researching and writing the follow-up to "The Da Vinci Code," which will again feature Robert Langdon, the familiar Harvard religious scholar, and will be set in Washington and focus on the secretive world of the Freemasons.
He has given almost no interviews over the last year, immersing himself instead in researching and writing the follow-up to "The Da Vinci Code," which will again feature Robert Langdon, the familiar Harvard religious scholar, and will be set in Washington and focus on the secretive world of the Freemasons.
"I have no idea how real celebrities handle their fame," Mr. Brown, 40, said last week in a rare written response to questions submitted to him by e-mail message. "I'm just a guy who wrote a book, and it still can turn into a circus at times when I go out in public."
His retreat from the public eye comes as expectations for his next novel grow bigger every day, as do sales of "The Da Vinci Code," a thriller that long ago morphed from a best seller into a cultural phenomenon.
Since its release on March 18, 2003, "The Da Vinci Code," Mr. Brown's fourth novel, has sold roughly 25 million copies in 44 languages around the world, including nearly 10 million hardcover copies in the North America. That is 10 times the average sales of industry titans like John Grisham and Nora Roberts, making the book one of the fastest-selling adult novels of all time. While most books move into paperback within a year of their original publication in hardcover, Mr. Brown's publisher, Doubleday, still has not scheduled a paperback release of "The Da Vinci Code."
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
The Fancy Loos of LA
(For our British readers, who appreciate this sort of thing.) More weird news from LA today that seems germane to our fair region. A gas station owner in West Covina has found fame beyond affordable gas and packaged convenience foods. For the past 13 years his station has become reknown for its opulent lavatory, which is unheard of in the states (or elsewhere, for that matter).
Moghadan, 55, of San Dimas, decided to go beyond the basics. He asked his brother, architectural designer Nassar Moghadan of Hemet, to concoct something that motorists wouldn't forget.
Their creation is definitely a step above your average gas station restroom — some might say a little over the top. The walls are drenched in rich earth tones and blue stone tiles, giving the room a vaguely Tuscan — or maybe Vegas — feel. Although a few other gas stations have tried to class up their lavatories, Harryman and others said such creations were still highly unusual.
Over the last dozen years, Moghadan said, he has averaged 20 compliments a day about his facilities. "I have customers from Palm Springs and Las Vegas who make a point of stopping here. Some even bring in relatives to show them the bathroom," he said.
Moghadan, 55, of San Dimas, decided to go beyond the basics. He asked his brother, architectural designer Nassar Moghadan of Hemet, to concoct something that motorists wouldn't forget.
Their creation is definitely a step above your average gas station restroom — some might say a little over the top. The walls are drenched in rich earth tones and blue stone tiles, giving the room a vaguely Tuscan — or maybe Vegas — feel. Although a few other gas stations have tried to class up their lavatories, Harryman and others said such creations were still highly unusual.
Over the last dozen years, Moghadan said, he has averaged 20 compliments a day about his facilities. "I have customers from Palm Springs and Las Vegas who make a point of stopping here. Some even bring in relatives to show them the bathroom," he said.
More Microsoft Gimmicks
Privacy? Microsoft? These two terms mix like water and oil. From MarketingVox.com:
After having introduced a series of also-ran technologies in the search engine market, Microsoft this morning said it planned to release a technology that neither Google nor Yahoo can yet offer: the ability for advertisers to filter the people exposed to their search ads by demographic information. Marketers will be able to target one ad to men, another to women, and use additional information such as age and location. Microsoft has been tracking this information for years through its various sites, including MSN, Hotmail and others, keeping a vast database on tens of millions of individuals, each assigned a user ID Microsofties refer to as a GUID, or global user ID. Past internal Microsoft plans to use the GUID have been shelved due to fears privacy advocates would set about characterizing the technology as a dangerous and invasive use of personal information.
Microsoft said it plans to offer advertisers break-outs of which types of audience members clicked on ads, versus merely saw them, allowing marketers to further refine creative and media choices. In the future, the company may be able to offer media on its non-search sites linked through the GUID to past search behavior, providing a form of simplistic behavioral targeting.
The initial demographic selection technology will roll out with Microsoft's much-heralded adCenter paid search advertising auction system to be initially tested in the next six months in just the tiny markets of France and Singapore. Microsoft's deal with Yahoo for its general search site is set to end a year after that time.
After having introduced a series of also-ran technologies in the search engine market, Microsoft this morning said it planned to release a technology that neither Google nor Yahoo can yet offer: the ability for advertisers to filter the people exposed to their search ads by demographic information. Marketers will be able to target one ad to men, another to women, and use additional information such as age and location. Microsoft has been tracking this information for years through its various sites, including MSN, Hotmail and others, keeping a vast database on tens of millions of individuals, each assigned a user ID Microsofties refer to as a GUID, or global user ID. Past internal Microsoft plans to use the GUID have been shelved due to fears privacy advocates would set about characterizing the technology as a dangerous and invasive use of personal information.
Microsoft said it plans to offer advertisers break-outs of which types of audience members clicked on ads, versus merely saw them, allowing marketers to further refine creative and media choices. In the future, the company may be able to offer media on its non-search sites linked through the GUID to past search behavior, providing a form of simplistic behavioral targeting.
The initial demographic selection technology will roll out with Microsoft's much-heralded adCenter paid search advertising auction system to be initially tested in the next six months in just the tiny markets of France and Singapore. Microsoft's deal with Yahoo for its general search site is set to end a year after that time.
Rats!
The latest London Review of Books is now online, and contains a review of Robert Sullivan's Rats: A Year with New York’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants. The good news is that the LRB elected to review a book about an important public health problem in any large, urban city - and vermin can make even the most resolute readers slightly queasy. The bad news is that it was reviewed by Sean Wilsey, an editor at McSweeney's, so that the Anglophile readership of the LRB is subjected to the auto-confessional literary machination of the New American Baroque, like this:
Most of the live rats I’ve seen have been in the subway. Train workers call them ‘track rabbits’. Sullivan describes a subway station near Madison Square Garden:
Recently, a track worker called Manuel, who moonlights as a handyman, helped Daphne and me paint what would soon become our child’s room. Manuel painted in silence, until I asked if he ever encountered rats in the tunnels. ‘I see them all the time! They’re big, and they’re brave. They scare me. The other night I was spreading concrete when I looked up and there was one about a foot long, staring at me. When I waved my shovel at him he stood up on his hind legs and snarled.’
‘What did you do?’
‘I decided to go on a break.’
Most of the live rats I’ve seen have been in the subway. Train workers call them ‘track rabbits’. Sullivan describes a subway station near Madison Square Garden:
People come down from the streets and throw the food that they have not eaten onto the tracks, along with newspapers and soda bottles . . . The rats eat freely from the waste and sit at the side of the little streams of creamy brown sewery water that flows between the rails. They sip the water the way rats do, either with their front paws or by scooping it up with their incisors.
‘What did you do?’
‘I decided to go on a break.’
Women in Islam
Salon has a great interview with journalist Asra Nomani about her pilgramage to Mecca as documented in her recent book and her thoughts about women in Islam:
In her new book "Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam," Asra Nomani, formerly a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and an international correspondent for Salon, embarks on a demanding spiritual and physical quest to make peace with her Islamic identity and her place as a woman within the faith. Joined by three generations of her family -- including her newborn son, Shibli -- she journeys to Mecca to complete the hajj, the great pilgrimage required of all Muslims once in their lives.
In her new book "Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam," Asra Nomani, formerly a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and an international correspondent for Salon, embarks on a demanding spiritual and physical quest to make peace with her Islamic identity and her place as a woman within the faith. Joined by three generations of her family -- including her newborn son, Shibli -- she journeys to Mecca to complete the hajj, the great pilgrimage required of all Muslims once in their lives.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Humanity Trifecta
Seems the posts today fall into three nice categories: The good; the bad, and now the ugly:
Bernard J. Ebbers, the former chief executive of WorldCom, was found guilty today on all nine counts of orchestrating a record $11 billion fraud that bankrupted his company.
Bernard J. Ebbers, the former chief executive of WorldCom, was found guilty today on all nine counts of orchestrating a record $11 billion fraud that bankrupted his company.
Mr. Ebbers, 63, was convicted of securities fraud, conspiracy and seven counts of filing false reports with regulators. He now faces up to life in prison, with the convictions collectively carrying a maximum penalty of 85 years in jail. Sentencing was set for June 13. He remains free on bail.
Weapons of the Weak, Annoyed, and Angry
Glad to see anthropologist James Scott quoted in today's NYT article on the small, annoying things in life. But don't think that foot-dragging "weapons of the weak" was popularly accepted among all researchers when it came out in the 1970s. Small daily skirmishes with new power structures make bring some "relief" to the afflicted, but many researchers agree that such resistance without a coordinated political outlet will not structurally change the existing status quo.
Life can involve big hardships, like being fired or smashing up your car. There is only so much you can do about them. But far more prevalent - and perhaps in the long run just as insidious - are life's many little annoyances.
Life can involve big hardships, like being fired or smashing up your car. There is only so much you can do about them. But far more prevalent - and perhaps in the long run just as insidious - are life's many little annoyances.
These, you can do something about.
To examine the little weapons people use for everyday survival is to be given a free guidebook on getting by, created by the millions who feel that they must. It is a case study in human inventiveness, with occasional juvenile and petty passages, and the originators of these tips are happy to share them.
"They're an integral part of how people cope," said Prof. James C. Scott, who teaches anthropology and political science at Yale University, and the author of "Weapons of the Weak," about the feigned ignorance, foot-dragging and other techniques Malaysian peasants used to avoid cooperating with the arrival of new technology in the 1970's. "All societies have them, but they're successful only to the extent that they avoid open confrontation."
Languages Around the World
A bit late, but the Guardian reviewed Nicholas Oster's Empires of the World: A Language History of the World, which should make interesting reading for the linguistic set. At least he gets the anthropological angle correct: language (and tool use) are probably the defining characteristic of our species, and therefore, humanity en sensu lato.
In defence of the centrality of language in human history, Ostler argues that it is language that enables people to form communities and to share a common history: indeed, by the very act of the old teaching the young to speak, language is also central to the establishment and reproduction of tradition. He describes very well how languages reflect and articulate the cultures and histories of different communities: indeed, unless you speak the vernacular, it is impossible properly to understand another people. From his rich picture of why major languages have waxed and waned, it is clear that there is no single model: on the contrary, while Ostler does his best to categorise and conceptualise, there are in fact almost as many models as there are languages. For all the hubris about the rise of English and how it will rule the world's tongues for ever, it is sobering to reflect on why languages that in their day seemed utterly irresistible in their dominance and prestige, spoken across large regions of the world for thousands of years, were eventually eclipsed.
In defence of the centrality of language in human history, Ostler argues that it is language that enables people to form communities and to share a common history: indeed, by the very act of the old teaching the young to speak, language is also central to the establishment and reproduction of tradition. He describes very well how languages reflect and articulate the cultures and histories of different communities: indeed, unless you speak the vernacular, it is impossible properly to understand another people. From his rich picture of why major languages have waxed and waned, it is clear that there is no single model: on the contrary, while Ostler does his best to categorise and conceptualise, there are in fact almost as many models as there are languages. For all the hubris about the rise of English and how it will rule the world's tongues for ever, it is sobering to reflect on why languages that in their day seemed utterly irresistible in their dominance and prestige, spoken across large regions of the world for thousands of years, were eventually eclipsed.
Monday, March 14, 2005
Changing Jobs
Stephanie Hollmichel at So Many Books has an interview with MBA-ex-business exec Adam Fawer, whose first novel Improbable was published last month by HarperCollins. It includes his take on moving from the business world into writing, and fond memories of his friend Stephanie Williams.
You Write, Girl
International Women's Day was March 8, but a week later we learn who has been selected for Britain's Orange Prize in literature, via the Guardian.
Now in its 10th year, the Orange Prize is the UK's only annual book award for fiction written by a woman. Established in 1996 with the aim of celebrating and promoting fiction by female authors throughout the world, it is open to any woman of any nationality or age writing in English. The winner receives a cheque for £30,000.
And the Long List is:
Now in its 10th year, the Orange Prize is the UK's only annual book award for fiction written by a woman. Established in 1996 with the aim of celebrating and promoting fiction by female authors throughout the world, it is open to any woman of any nationality or age writing in English. The winner receives a cheque for £30,000.
And the Long List is:
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday)
The Great Stink by Clare Clark (Viking)
Escape Routes for Beginners by Kira Cochrane (Simon & Schuster)
Billie Morgan by Joolz Denby (Serpent's Tail)
The Zigzag Way by Anita Desai (Chatto & Windus)
Hickey Tatty by Christine Dwyer (New Island)
It So Happens by Patricia Ferguson (Solidus)
Away From You by Melanie Finn (Penguin)
Old Filth by Jane Gardam (Chatto & Windus)
The Mysteries of Glass by Sue Gee (Review)
Nelson's Daughter by Miranda Hearn (Sceptre)
Ursula, Under by Ingrid Hill (Jonathan Cape)
The Mammoth Cheese by Sheri Holman (Virago)
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka (Viking)
Black Dirt by Nell Leyshon (Picador)
The Remedy by Michelle Lovric (Virago)
Liars and Saints by Maile Meloy (John Murray)
The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates (Fourth Estate)
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (Serpent's Tail)
The River by Tricia Wastvedt (Viking)Blog On
A cursory read of the morning news led to two articles on different aspects of blogging: the personal (Ayelet Waldman confessing to "living outloud" on the net in Salon); and the social (a conference of liberal bloggers in the NYT).
Friday, March 11, 2005
Taking the SAT - Read The Following
Hey, high school kids, while you're sweating out the new SAT test in the coming weeks, you might want to read the following about your future job prospects in the "new economy" that rewards education, hard work, and intelligence (sic):
Long-term unemployment, defined as joblessness for six months or more, is at record rates. But there's an additional twist: An unusually large share of those chronically out of work are, like Gillespie, college graduates.
The increasing inability of educated workers to quickly return to the workforce reflects dramatic shifts in the economy, experts say. Even as overall hiring is picking up and economic growth remains strong, industries are transforming at a rapid pace as they adjust to intense competition, technological change and other pressures.
That means skilled jobs can quickly become obsolete, while others are outsourced. Educated workers are increasingly subject to the job insecurities and disruptions usually plaguing blue-collar laborers, but various factors make it even harder for some educated workers to get back into the workforce quickly. Though a college education is still one of a worker's best assets, it's no guarantee that a worker's skills will match demands of a shifting job market.
The advantages of a college degree "are being erased," said Marcus Courtenay, president of a branch of the Communications Workers of America that represents technology employees in the Seattle area. "The same thing that happened to non- college-educated employees during the last recession is now happening to college-educated employees."
Even with better-than-expected job growth, 373,000 people with college degrees quit job hunting and dropped out of the labor force last month, the Labor Department reported Friday.
The number of long-term unemployed who are college graduates has nearly tripled since the bursting of the tech bubble in 2000, statistics show. Nearly 1 in 5 of the long-term jobless are college graduates. If a degree holder loses a job, that worker is now more likely than a high school dropout to be chronically unemployed.
That change is occurring as it is getting harder for all jobless to get back into the workforce.
Long-term unemployment, defined as joblessness for six months or more, is at record rates. But there's an additional twist: An unusually large share of those chronically out of work are, like Gillespie, college graduates.
The increasing inability of educated workers to quickly return to the workforce reflects dramatic shifts in the economy, experts say. Even as overall hiring is picking up and economic growth remains strong, industries are transforming at a rapid pace as they adjust to intense competition, technological change and other pressures.
That means skilled jobs can quickly become obsolete, while others are outsourced. Educated workers are increasingly subject to the job insecurities and disruptions usually plaguing blue-collar laborers, but various factors make it even harder for some educated workers to get back into the workforce quickly. Though a college education is still one of a worker's best assets, it's no guarantee that a worker's skills will match demands of a shifting job market.
The advantages of a college degree "are being erased," said Marcus Courtenay, president of a branch of the Communications Workers of America that represents technology employees in the Seattle area. "The same thing that happened to non- college-educated employees during the last recession is now happening to college-educated employees."
Even with better-than-expected job growth, 373,000 people with college degrees quit job hunting and dropped out of the labor force last month, the Labor Department reported Friday.
The number of long-term unemployed who are college graduates has nearly tripled since the bursting of the tech bubble in 2000, statistics show. Nearly 1 in 5 of the long-term jobless are college graduates. If a degree holder loses a job, that worker is now more likely than a high school dropout to be chronically unemployed.
That change is occurring as it is getting harder for all jobless to get back into the workforce.
Friday Laugh Factory
Thanks to Kevin Drum over at the Washington Monthly, who posted this hilarious article yesterday, which I've only just read. It deserves to be read in its entirety:
WE ARE ALL JUST ATOMS IN A GAS....My thermodynamics professor at Caltech — who has gone on to bigger and better things since awarding me a C+ in his class 28 years ago — once regaled us with the following example of nerd humor:
The fundamental unit of study in electrodynamics is the photON, and the fundamental unit of study in atomic physics is the electrON. So I guess that means the fundamental unit of study in the social sciences is the persON.
That's some big yucks there, folks. I bring this up because, against all odds, it turns out that Prof. Goodstein may have been more insightful than he imagined. Apparently a breed of researchers who call themselves "econophysicists" have been studying income inequality and have come to the following conclusion:
They found that while the income distribution among the super-wealthy — about 3 per cent of the population — does follow Pareto's law, incomes for the remaining 97 per cent fitted a different curve — one that also describes the spread of energies of atoms in a gas.
....While economists' models traditionally regard humans as rational beings who always make intelligent decisions, econophysicists argue that in large systems the behaviour of each individual is influenced by so many factors that the net result is random, so it makes sense to treat people like atoms in a gas.
Indeed, treating 97% of the population like atoms in a gas bears a disturbing resemblance to orthodox Republican economics, doesn't it? (Admit it. You were waiting for the political spin on this, weren't you?) In fact, as macroeconomist Makoto Nirei puts it, the gas model "seems to me not like an economic exchange process, but more like a burglar process. People randomly meet and one just beats up the other and takes their money."
Nirei seems to think this is a defect of the model, but I'm not so sure. After watching the bankruptcy bill wend its way through Congress, I suspect this might actually be the reason the model seems to describe reality so well.
POSTSCRIPT FOR THE HUMOR IMPAIRED: I'm kidding. Sort of.
A Social Basis for Innovation
Arts Journal points us today to an online article from the Economist about companies harnessing their customers for new product ideas. Is this really new? When Scott Adam's "Dilbert" strip about corporate culture began syndication, he put his email between panels, allowing fans to send in their own experiences, creating a database of ideas that probably has years to go. And cognitive scientists have known for years that some mental tasks (say, naval navigation) are better accomplished as social activities.
LAST November, engineers in the healthcare division of General Electric unveiled something called the “LightSpeed VCT”, a scanner that can create a startlingly good three-dimensional image of a beating heart. This spring Staples, an American office-supplies retailer, will stock its shelves with a gadget called a “wordlock”, a padlock that uses words instead of numbers. In Munich, meanwhile, engineers at BMW have begun prototyping telematics (combining computing and telecoms) and online services for a new generation of luxury cars. The connection? In each case, the firm's customers have played a big part GE, BMW or the leading role (Staples) in designing the product.
LAST November, engineers in the healthcare division of General Electric unveiled something called the “LightSpeed VCT”, a scanner that can create a startlingly good three-dimensional image of a beating heart. This spring Staples, an American office-supplies retailer, will stock its shelves with a gadget called a “wordlock”, a padlock that uses words instead of numbers. In Munich, meanwhile, engineers at BMW have begun prototyping telematics (combining computing and telecoms) and online services for a new generation of luxury cars. The connection? In each case, the firm's customers have played a big part GE, BMW or the leading role (Staples) in designing the product.
How does innovation happen? The familiar story involves boffins in academic institutes and R&D labs. But lately, corporate practice has begun to challenge this old-fashioned notion. Open-source software development is already well-known. Less so is the fact that Bell, an American bicycle-helmet maker, has collected hundreds of ideas for new products from its customers, and is putting several of them into production. Or that Electronic Arts, a maker of computer games, ships programming tools to its customers, posts their modifications online and works their creations into new games. And so on. Not only is the customer king: now he is market-research head, chief and product-development manager, too.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
The Doctor Is Back
Attention old Dr. Who fans - the BBC series is back after a 15-year hiatus, but for many critics, the results are less-than-spectacular:
It is unfair to review a restaurant on opening night, but an event as important as the return of Doctor Who after a hiatus of 15 years (not counting the ill-fated 1996 US TV movie co-production, to which BBC executives have the same regard Stalin had for Trotsky) is of such importance to millions of fans around the world that instant judgments are required.
The good Doctor is most definitely back... and many traditionalists are going to greet this radical new version with utter dismay.
Let's start with the negatives - and there are many. This is Who for the attention deficit disorder generation. The wonderfully slow build-up of tension that was a hallmark of the series at its finest - think of the Hand of Fear creeping towards Sarah Jane! - was entirely absent from episode one, entitled Rose.
It is unfair to review a restaurant on opening night, but an event as important as the return of Doctor Who after a hiatus of 15 years (not counting the ill-fated 1996 US TV movie co-production, to which BBC executives have the same regard Stalin had for Trotsky) is of such importance to millions of fans around the world that instant judgments are required.
The good Doctor is most definitely back... and many traditionalists are going to greet this radical new version with utter dismay.
Let's start with the negatives - and there are many. This is Who for the attention deficit disorder generation. The wonderfully slow build-up of tension that was a hallmark of the series at its finest - think of the Hand of Fear creeping towards Sarah Jane! - was entirely absent from episode one, entitled Rose.
Touch Is Everything
The March 7 issue of the New Yorker has a small article by Tad Friend on two innovations in the pen industry (alas, not online - see pp.32-33). The one that caught my eye was on the Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, and her seemingly new take on the important market of author signings:
Then, Margaret Atwood, the Canadian novelist, announced that she had invented a device that allows an author to remain at home while autographing books in faraway bookstores - a solution to the prennial problem of highbrow writers being mobbed by screaming fans. Her contraption is a kind of two-way video hookup with a robotic pen arm. An author can sit at the kitchen table in her pajamas and make a personalized inscription on an electronic screen, while, in a distant mall, the robotic pen replicates the message on the title page of a fan's propped-up book. Atwood came up with the idea last spring, during an expensive and exhausting three-week publicity tour for her novel "Oryx and Crake." She says that the invention, which will be manufactured by a new company called Unotchit ("You no touch it"), will increase both the safety of the writer-reader interaction - "My germs and my bio-material won't be in the same place as your germs and your bio-material" - and its profundity: "I'm more likely to be gazing deeply into your eyes as I'm signing on the screen."
Atwood seems to have forgotten that for many readers attending author signings, it's not just the "experience" of communicating with the author that is attractive, it is also getting a personalized book that has been touched - meaning signed - by the author. Interpersonal connection requires a bit of proximity and non-verbal communication: businesses invested heavily in video teleconferencing as an economical means to enhance corporate communication, but found that it still pays to have staff go out and meet accounts, shake hands, chat, and make sales calls. That human touch, especially with physical objects, imparts what anthropologists call "contagious magic," whereby the act of touching an object imparts some "being" or "essence" of an individual in that artifact. Much of the antiques trade is based this concept: the provenance of an antique showing it was owned and used by George Washington makes it much more valuable than a similar antique produced at the same time without such a connection. (And the ideological justification for the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy is the ritual of "laying on of hands" from Jesus, to Peter, to Paul, and all other subsequent popes and church elders.) Atwood can argue about her "bio-material" not touching her books for sale, but it will also lessen the experience for many readers, and potential customers. Perhaps she should rethink why book signings became so popular in the first place, and a critical aspect to most literary marketing campaigns.
Then, Margaret Atwood, the Canadian novelist, announced that she had invented a device that allows an author to remain at home while autographing books in faraway bookstores - a solution to the prennial problem of highbrow writers being mobbed by screaming fans. Her contraption is a kind of two-way video hookup with a robotic pen arm. An author can sit at the kitchen table in her pajamas and make a personalized inscription on an electronic screen, while, in a distant mall, the robotic pen replicates the message on the title page of a fan's propped-up book. Atwood came up with the idea last spring, during an expensive and exhausting three-week publicity tour for her novel "Oryx and Crake." She says that the invention, which will be manufactured by a new company called Unotchit ("You no touch it"), will increase both the safety of the writer-reader interaction - "My germs and my bio-material won't be in the same place as your germs and your bio-material" - and its profundity: "I'm more likely to be gazing deeply into your eyes as I'm signing on the screen."
Atwood seems to have forgotten that for many readers attending author signings, it's not just the "experience" of communicating with the author that is attractive, it is also getting a personalized book that has been touched - meaning signed - by the author. Interpersonal connection requires a bit of proximity and non-verbal communication: businesses invested heavily in video teleconferencing as an economical means to enhance corporate communication, but found that it still pays to have staff go out and meet accounts, shake hands, chat, and make sales calls. That human touch, especially with physical objects, imparts what anthropologists call "contagious magic," whereby the act of touching an object imparts some "being" or "essence" of an individual in that artifact. Much of the antiques trade is based this concept: the provenance of an antique showing it was owned and used by George Washington makes it much more valuable than a similar antique produced at the same time without such a connection. (And the ideological justification for the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy is the ritual of "laying on of hands" from Jesus, to Peter, to Paul, and all other subsequent popes and church elders.) Atwood can argue about her "bio-material" not touching her books for sale, but it will also lessen the experience for many readers, and potential customers. Perhaps she should rethink why book signings became so popular in the first place, and a critical aspect to most literary marketing campaigns.
Longer Hours, Threat of Unemployment - Welcome to IT
The NYT reports on Silicon Valley game programmers who are rethinking their place in the modern workplace. Long hours to complete projects, loss of benefits, and threats to relocate their careers overseas have raised the ire of employees, and caused some to ponder the effects of unionization. One Director of HR was quoted as saying that overtime pay will take employees, "out of a culture that emphasizes entrepreneurialism and ownership and into a clock-watching mentality," but the game industry itself is no longer the risk-rewarding entrepreneurial zone that needed bright and energetic programmers:
With few exceptions, industry executives and employees agree, crunching is part of a video game's life cycle - often a very painful part. Workers say they put in 60, 70, even 80 hours a week, with no days off, throwing themselves body and mind into the long march and in many cases fueled by caffeine or even stronger stimulants.
With few exceptions, industry executives and employees agree, crunching is part of a video game's life cycle - often a very painful part. Workers say they put in 60, 70, even 80 hours a week, with no days off, throwing themselves body and mind into the long march and in many cases fueled by caffeine or even stronger stimulants.
"It's soul crushing," said a senior executive at a small public video game company who has spent 10 years in the business. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said he had watched developers become increasingly disillusioned. "This is much more of a mass-market industry."
Such toil is not unique to the video game industry. Lawyers crunch on the eve of a trial, as do investment bankers in the midst of a deal. But lawyers and bankers tend to be better compensated for their efforts than $70,000-a-year game programmers.
Game developers, though, once worked in relatively small companies and took enormous pride in the products they created. Now, amid a consolidation that has put the video game business in the hands of a few big public companies like Electronic Arts and Activision, and in which best-selling titles can cost $10 million to $20 million to create, many developers say they feel like cogs in someone else's machine.
Monday, March 07, 2005
It's The Calories, Stupid!
Salon has a feature article on the food industry and the USDA's fears over trans fat. But again, the problem isn't what Americans are eating (the French love fatty foods and liters of red wine), but how much they are eating. Next time you order that burger and fries, remember that when your parents were young the "regular" size fries and drinks they consumed are now labeled "small," implying "less filling" and "less cost efficient," putting customers on the road to super-sized meals and waistlines.
However, nutritionists are not really worried about lesser levels of trans fat. "It's a bizarre labeling quirk," Nestle says. "If you don't eat too much of it, it doesn't matter much. It's not a poison." I guess I can put the Quaker Oats Chewy Granola bars back in my cupboard.
However, nutritionists are not really worried about lesser levels of trans fat. "It's a bizarre labeling quirk," Nestle says. "If you don't eat too much of it, it doesn't matter much. It's not a poison." I guess I can put the Quaker Oats Chewy Granola bars back in my cupboard.
More troubling to Nestle is the twisted way that the fight against trans fat gives food companies something to do in the obesity epidemic that won't interfere with their bottom line, while the American waistline only grows bigger. She maintains that in a business that depends on cheap government-subsidized staples such as corn and soybeans, the food companies are under constant pressure to get customers to stuff more and more into their mouths.
"The real root of the problem is Wall Street," Nestle says. "You've got a situation in which every company is trying to grow and there's only so much people can eat." While valiantly working to take trans fat out of their food products -- and advertise that fact -- companies can look as though they're doing their part to improve Americans' health without cutting into profits: "In a sense, it's a bone thrown to the food industry: Here's something you can do to clean up your act that won't put you out of business," she says.
And the government neatly avoids antagonizing the food industry by never saying you shouldn't eat what they're selling. Imagine federal dietary standards that said, "Stop eating Big Macs, Doritos and Oreos," Simon, of the Center for Informed Food Choices, has written. "Those are recommendations that most Americans could understand, but not ones we are likely to hear."
Post 9-11 Literature
The same issue of the Times today also has a piece on post 9-11 literature, the better samples of which are just beginning to reach the market. But, to tell the truth, the AA was a bit surprised - I had thought that Joyce Carol Oates would have had the galleys corrected and resubmitted several months after the tragedy.
The events of Sept. 11 found their way into a variety of media immediately after the attacks. Country musicians released flag-waving songs within weeks, and other musical tributes, poems, plays, documentaries and nonfiction books soon followed, including Bruce Springsteen's elegy "The Rising" and Michael Moore's incendiary film "Fahrenheit 9/11."
The events of Sept. 11 found their way into a variety of media immediately after the attacks. Country musicians released flag-waving songs within weeks, and other musical tributes, poems, plays, documentaries and nonfiction books soon followed, including Bruce Springsteen's elegy "The Rising" and Michael Moore's incendiary film "Fahrenheit 9/11."
And while the attacks have already found a place in a handful of mysteries, spy novels and other works of mass-market fiction, only now are books being published that some literary critics are saying take the substantial risks needed to give them staying power.
The delay of more than three years reflects both the logistics of producing a bound volume of a lengthy manuscript and the more subtle, complex process of creating a novel.
"Some art forms, like poems or the drawings of Art Spiegelman, lend themselves to a more immediate treatment of an event like 9/11," said James Shapiro, a professor of English at Columbia University who has taught the "great books" curriculum there. "But a novel really has to do more. A novelist has to sustain a story that feels right to people who actually lived through the event, who have a sense of what really happened. It has to be more than just a recounting of the event."
By no means is that an easy task, of course. Joyce Carol Oates, the author and critic whose recent short story "The Mutants" dealt with a woman trapped in her Lower Manhattan apartment on 9/11, said novels might not be the art form best able to address the events of that day.
"This does seem to be about the right time for these novels to be coming out," Ms. Oates said. "But the greatest art form to deal with this might be film, because it can capture the hallucinatory nature of the long hours of that siege."
But Do They Read The Articles?
The NYT reports on a new magazine niche: publications for the super-wealthy. Following the trend-setting lead of the rich is nothing new, Thorstein Veblen wrote about it 116 years ago in The Theory of The Leisure Class, and coined the phrase "conspicuous consumption" in the process.
In an ever more fragmented media world, the rich are becoming their own niche. They may be diverse connoisseurs of fashion, yachting or jewelry, but they share one important trait: a seemingly bottomless supply of disposable income.
In an ever more fragmented media world, the rich are becoming their own niche. They may be diverse connoisseurs of fashion, yachting or jewelry, but they share one important trait: a seemingly bottomless supply of disposable income.
Not everyone in the magazine industry is convinced that this new market is as real as its promoters like to believe. Maer Roshan, editor in chief of Radar, a magazine that is being reintroduced in May and aimed not at the luxury crowd but at contemporary urban culture, said he saw the luxury magazines as escape hatches for a country weary of a post-9/11 reality.
"We're in a war and it's not exactly a boom time economy," he said. But the luxury magazines "have ceded reality, so what's left for them but to build their own fantasy worlds?"
Friday, March 04, 2005
Dueling Events in Pasadena Tonight
Lastly, I wanted to put this at the top of today's posts. For those in or around the Crown City, Pasadena will be hosting two cultural events tonight, leaving me conflicted about which to choose. Most of the arts and cultural institutions are open and free tonight from 6-10 PM to celebrate the annual Arts Night Pasadena. But at the same time, Walter Mosley is speaking at Caltech's Beckman Auditorium at 8 PM - also free.
Moby Dick in 9-1/2 Seconds
Missed this yesterday, but the CIA is now using a California-based company to scan and diagram sentences from electronic documents, turning chatter into structured data for further analysis. But how will they code for "Uhh," "Hmm," and "Doh," if they show up?
Attensity, based in Palo Alto, Calif., and financed in part by In-Q-Tel, the C.I.A.'s investment arm, has developed a method to parse electronic documents almost instantly, and diagram all of the sentences inside. ("Moby-Dick," for instance, took all of nine and a half seconds.) By labeling subjects and verbs and other parts of speech, Attensity's software gives the documents a definable structure, a way to fit into a database. And that helps turn day-to-day chatter into information that is relevant and usable.
Attensity, based in Palo Alto, Calif., and financed in part by In-Q-Tel, the C.I.A.'s investment arm, has developed a method to parse electronic documents almost instantly, and diagram all of the sentences inside. ("Moby-Dick," for instance, took all of nine and a half seconds.) By labeling subjects and verbs and other parts of speech, Attensity's software gives the documents a definable structure, a way to fit into a database. And that helps turn day-to-day chatter into information that is relevant and usable.
"They take the language that people use every day and compile it in a way that a machine can use," Mr. Patience said. "And that allows people to start using this tremendous amount of intelligence which has gone untapped."
Tsunami Aid and Asian-Americans
The Pacific-News Service reports on a new poll showing linkages across Asian-American communities in California in response to the Dec. 26 tsunami. There are some interesting implication from this preliminary poll, namely, that linguistic barriers among Asian groups might not be a barrier to creating a new form of identity politics in California. Please take a look.
Asian Californians account for about 1 percent of the U.S. population, yet were responsible for more than 15 percent of overall donations. According to the poll, an estimated $200 million has come from the California Asian population out of the $1.2 billion in nationwide donations.
Most, like Patel, didn't know anyone affected by the disaster. According to the poll, only 8 percent of Asian Californians reported knowing someone directly impacted by the tsunami. Despite this, two out of three still donated to the relief effort.
"We have some evidence here that we may be seeing Asian groups coming together," says Sergio Bendixen, president of Bendixen and Associates, the firm that conducted the poll.
The poll surveyed 606 Asian Americans in California, both immigrant and U.S.-born, and 100 Indonesian Americans. It was conducted in six languages, between Feb. 8 and Feb. 18. Eighty-five percent of the people interviewed chose to speak in their native languages.
"Within a week of the tsunami catastrophe it was clear to us from conversations with our Asian media partners that Asian media was taking a leadership role in mobilizing relief," says Sandy Close, executive director of New California Media.
The nonprofit organization has created an exchange between hundreds of ethnic media outlets producing news in numerous languages across the country. Close partnered with interTrend Communications and various California foundations to conduct the poll after noticing the overwhelming call to action in many Asian papers following the tsunami.
Chinese-language, Vietnamese-language and Korean-language news outlets, among others, were urging readers to give to relief effort organizations, as well as donating funds themselves.
"This struck us as something, as a story that needed to be explored and told," Close says.
Asian Californians account for about 1 percent of the U.S. population, yet were responsible for more than 15 percent of overall donations. According to the poll, an estimated $200 million has come from the California Asian population out of the $1.2 billion in nationwide donations.
Most, like Patel, didn't know anyone affected by the disaster. According to the poll, only 8 percent of Asian Californians reported knowing someone directly impacted by the tsunami. Despite this, two out of three still donated to the relief effort.
"We have some evidence here that we may be seeing Asian groups coming together," says Sergio Bendixen, president of Bendixen and Associates, the firm that conducted the poll.
The poll surveyed 606 Asian Americans in California, both immigrant and U.S.-born, and 100 Indonesian Americans. It was conducted in six languages, between Feb. 8 and Feb. 18. Eighty-five percent of the people interviewed chose to speak in their native languages.
"Within a week of the tsunami catastrophe it was clear to us from conversations with our Asian media partners that Asian media was taking a leadership role in mobilizing relief," says Sandy Close, executive director of New California Media.
The nonprofit organization has created an exchange between hundreds of ethnic media outlets producing news in numerous languages across the country. Close partnered with interTrend Communications and various California foundations to conduct the poll after noticing the overwhelming call to action in many Asian papers following the tsunami.
Chinese-language, Vietnamese-language and Korean-language news outlets, among others, were urging readers to give to relief effort organizations, as well as donating funds themselves.
"This struck us as something, as a story that needed to be explored and told," Close says.
Neutral Restrooms
For those interested in gender politics and American social spaces, today's NYT has an interesting article on the problems faced by transgendered restroom users.
Ms. Dennis is one of 250 or so members of People in Search of Safe Restrooms, a group founded here three years ago. It reflects a small but active movement, mostly on college campuses but also in a few cities, in which the bathroom, that prosaic fixture of past battles against racial segregation and for the rights of the disabled, has become an emotional and at times deeply personal symbol of a cultural and political divide.
Ms. Dennis is one of 250 or so members of People in Search of Safe Restrooms, a group founded here three years ago. It reflects a small but active movement, mostly on college campuses but also in a few cities, in which the bathroom, that prosaic fixture of past battles against racial segregation and for the rights of the disabled, has become an emotional and at times deeply personal symbol of a cultural and political divide.
In fact, bathrooms have become a cultural "fault line," said Mary Anne Case, a law professor at the University of Chicago, where the Queer Action Campaign for Gender-Neutral Bathrooms recently got 10 single-use restrooms on campus designated gender neutral.
"Very few spaces in our society remain divided by sex," Professor Case said. "There's marriage and there's toilets, and very little else."
To young transgender people, especially college students, the issue has particular resonance.
The Doomsayers
Ur-symbolic anthropologist Clifford Geertz reviews the latest offerings by Jared Diamond and Richard Posner (which focus on disaster and social collapse) in the latest New York Review of Books. Leave it to the researcher with years of ethnographic experience to point out the shortcomings of encapsulated portraits of culture, leading to simplistic explanations of human behavior.
What is most striking about both Diamond's and Posner's views of human behavior is how sociologically thin and how lacking in psychological depth they are. Neither the one, who seems to regard societies as collective persons, minded super-beings intending, deciding, acting, choosing, nor the other, for whom there are only goal-seeking individuals, perceiving and calculating rational actors not always rational, has very much to say about the social and cultural contexts in which their disasters unfold. Either heedless and profligate populations "blunder" or "stumble" their way into self-destruction or strategizing utility maximizers fail to appreciate the true dimensions of the problems they face. What happens to them happens in locales and settings, not in culturally and politically configurated life-worlds—singular situations, immediate occasions, particular circumstances.
What is most striking about both Diamond's and Posner's views of human behavior is how sociologically thin and how lacking in psychological depth they are. Neither the one, who seems to regard societies as collective persons, minded super-beings intending, deciding, acting, choosing, nor the other, for whom there are only goal-seeking individuals, perceiving and calculating rational actors not always rational, has very much to say about the social and cultural contexts in which their disasters unfold. Either heedless and profligate populations "blunder" or "stumble" their way into self-destruction or strategizing utility maximizers fail to appreciate the true dimensions of the problems they face. What happens to them happens in locales and settings, not in culturally and politically configurated life-worlds—singular situations, immediate occasions, particular circumstances.
But it is within such life-worlds, situations, occasions, circumstances, that calamity, when it occurs, takes intelligible shape, and it is that shape that determines both the response to it and the effects that it has. However "natural," "physical," or "material" they may be, and however unpredictable or unintended, collapse and catastrophe are, like coups and recessions, riots and religious movements, social events.
Thursday, March 03, 2005
And This Is News?
The NYT it running a front page article on a new poll showing that Bush II's policy priorities are out-of-step with most Americans. Some surprise. Perhaps the pollsters should go back and query the voters who backed a second administration believing that there was a connection between Osama Bin Laden and that Iraq had WMD (and, as an aside, perhaps the poli sci crowd can now redefine "dummy variable" in voter models). Given the increasing volume of conservative dissonance, W appears to be burning his political-capital candle at both ends, and four months after marginally winning the general election is on the verge of becoming a lame duck with several years to go:
Americans say President Bush does not share the priorities of most of the country on either domestic or foreign issues, are increasingly resistant to his proposal to revamp Social Security and say they are uneasy with Mr. Bush's ability to make the right decisions about the retirement program, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
The poll underscores just how little headway Mr. Bush has made in his effort to build popular support as his proposal for overhauling Social Security struggles to gain footing in Congress. At the same time, there has been an increase in respondents who say that efforts to restore order in Iraq are going well, even as an overwhelming number of Americans say Mr. Bush has no clear plan for getting out of Iraq.
Americans say President Bush does not share the priorities of most of the country on either domestic or foreign issues, are increasingly resistant to his proposal to revamp Social Security and say they are uneasy with Mr. Bush's ability to make the right decisions about the retirement program, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
The poll underscores just how little headway Mr. Bush has made in his effort to build popular support as his proposal for overhauling Social Security struggles to gain footing in Congress. At the same time, there has been an increase in respondents who say that efforts to restore order in Iraq are going well, even as an overwhelming number of Americans say Mr. Bush has no clear plan for getting out of Iraq.
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
McCrum Interview
Thanks to a heads up from Moorish Girl I found today's Robert Birnbaum interview with British author Robert McCrum in The Morning News. McCrum is a great talent, but Birnbaum awkwardly breaks the first rule of interviewing: Know your subject. Note the following:
RB: And you have had two children. And a weekly deadline with the Observer, which is a newspaper or a magazine?
RMcC: It has nothing to do with the Guardian, although we are in the same building and we are owned by the Guardian. And when you ring up the switch board they say, “Guardian-Observer.”
RB: I have never seen a hard copy.
RMcC: Well, it’s a Sunday paper and its entire raison d’être is that it comes out on Sunday and always has done. We say we are the original Sunday because we have been coming out on Sundays since 1791. A long time. So the paper has a long tradition. It’s quite Wodehousian in the sense that it appeals to a very mixed bag of readers. You can’t classify it as left or right. It’s independent in instinct and discretion. Vaguely libertarian. Vaguely left wing, at times. But equally quite capable of taking what you might think is a right-wing position. It was weirdly pro-Iraq [war].
RB: Where does it stand now?
RMcC: It’s modified its position a bit. It’s had a long tradition of literary journalism. Orwell worked for it. Cyril Connolly worked for it, Julian Barnes—it’s had some very good people over the years, and so it’s a place that one can feel very at home.
McCrum is the literary editor of an old, established publication with 200+ years of history and Birnbaum hasn't yet laid his hands on an issue? Nor, apparently, did he at least research whether it was magazine, broadsheet, or tabloid (important distictions in UK print media). Even in Pasadena I can lay my hands on a copy - it comes in on Mondays or Tuesdays at the Bungalow News on Colorado Blvd. and costs $6.00 USD. Show a bit more journalistic elbow-grease next time.
RB: And you have had two children. And a weekly deadline with the Observer, which is a newspaper or a magazine?
RMcC: It has nothing to do with the Guardian, although we are in the same building and we are owned by the Guardian. And when you ring up the switch board they say, “Guardian-Observer.”
RB: I have never seen a hard copy.
RMcC: Well, it’s a Sunday paper and its entire raison d’être is that it comes out on Sunday and always has done. We say we are the original Sunday because we have been coming out on Sundays since 1791. A long time. So the paper has a long tradition. It’s quite Wodehousian in the sense that it appeals to a very mixed bag of readers. You can’t classify it as left or right. It’s independent in instinct and discretion. Vaguely libertarian. Vaguely left wing, at times. But equally quite capable of taking what you might think is a right-wing position. It was weirdly pro-Iraq [war].
RB: Where does it stand now?
RMcC: It’s modified its position a bit. It’s had a long tradition of literary journalism. Orwell worked for it. Cyril Connolly worked for it, Julian Barnes—it’s had some very good people over the years, and so it’s a place that one can feel very at home.
McCrum is the literary editor of an old, established publication with 200+ years of history and Birnbaum hasn't yet laid his hands on an issue? Nor, apparently, did he at least research whether it was magazine, broadsheet, or tabloid (important distictions in UK print media). Even in Pasadena I can lay my hands on a copy - it comes in on Mondays or Tuesdays at the Bungalow News on Colorado Blvd. and costs $6.00 USD. Show a bit more journalistic elbow-grease next time.
The News from Uruguay
Today is the inauguration of Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez, a supposedly "leftist" politician. Since it's rare to see news or commentary about Bolivia, Paraguay, or Uruguay, Latin Americanists should give some kudos to the editors of the LA Times opinion page, who printed a piece in today's edition arguing against lumping all progressive LA administrations into an undistinguished whole:
The differences among governments in Latin America are instructive. To merely lump it all together as leftism sweeping the region can easily blind outsiders — including U.S. officials — to nuances that matter a great deal.
There is a world of difference, for example, between Lula and Chavez. The former comes from a party that defied Brazil's military dictatorship; the latter was a lieutenant colonel who once attempted a military coup, and now he relies on the armed forces to rule Venezuela.
The differences among governments in Latin America are instructive. To merely lump it all together as leftism sweeping the region can easily blind outsiders — including U.S. officials — to nuances that matter a great deal.
There is a world of difference, for example, between Lula and Chavez. The former comes from a party that defied Brazil's military dictatorship; the latter was a lieutenant colonel who once attempted a military coup, and now he relies on the armed forces to rule Venezuela.
"Neo-conned"
Prior to the election, I wrote that the priorities of the Bush II administration were a far cry from the halcyon days of the much-touted Reagan administration, replacing old conservative values with a new "reality-free" approach (i.e., imaginary WMD, imaginary budgets) advanced by the ascendant neoconservative movement. The old guard has taken note, and at an increasing pace we hear from conservatives who are becoming more vociferous in their opposition to the current administration.
I was not too surprised, then, to come across a commentary in today's CounterPunch by Paul Craig Roberts, whose conservative credentials are impeccable: a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page, and Contributing Editor of National Review. His views of the Bush WH aren't too friendly:
A venal and self-important Washington establishment combined with a globalized corporate mentality have brought an end to America's rising living standards. America's days as a superpower are rapidly coming to an end. Isolated by the nationalistic unilateralism of the neoconservatives who control the Bush administration, the US can expect no sympathy or help from former allies and rising new powers.
I was not too surprised, then, to come across a commentary in today's CounterPunch by Paul Craig Roberts, whose conservative credentials are impeccable: a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page, and Contributing Editor of National Review. His views of the Bush WH aren't too friendly:
A venal and self-important Washington establishment combined with a globalized corporate mentality have brought an end to America's rising living standards. America's days as a superpower are rapidly coming to an end. Isolated by the nationalistic unilateralism of the neoconservatives who control the Bush administration, the US can expect no sympathy or help from former allies and rising new powers.
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