or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
March 16, 2005
Stuff
1. Check out Watching America, a site that translates overseas news stories about America into English. Extremely useful. (Via Bob Harris.)
2. I've been re-reading pieces by Bernard Chazelle, a political writer who apparently does some math on the side. (He's also kind enough to occasionally comment here.)
So if you haven't seen them already, I recommend "Why the Children in Iraq Make No Sound When They Fall," "What Anti-Americanism is Really All About," and "Bush's Desolate Imperium."
3. Via Dennis Perrin, here's a personal remembrance of Susan Sontag that makes me incredibly glad I don't know anyone like her and her friends.
4. Billmon has another dueling quotes post, about this extremely unpleasant Los Angeles Times article.
5. Helena Cobban of Just World News has some informed thoughts about Lebanon, with useful comments by Jonathan Edelstein among others.
6. Andrew Schamess of Semitism.net has returned from the West Bank, where he went to work with the Jewish American Medical Project. Andrew writes about the trip (in order) here, here, here, here, here, here and here. His mother Stephanie was there and has her own account of part of it here.
Posted at March 16, 2005 11:43 AM | TrackBackSaying that Chazelle "does some math on the side" is a bit like saying Feynman "dabbled in Physics". His work in Computational Geometry is widely known, for example his work with Edelsbrunner on optimal-time segment intersection.
Not that I should be surprised; you are, after all, the guy who thinks of Einstein as "Doc Brown's dog in Back to the Future."
I've actually got mixed feelings about soldiers filming their wars. It's clearly sick on one level-- but nevertheless, isn't it good to have carnage in the public eye?
The few apolitical friends I have mentioned the gore in "Fahrenheit 9/11" as one of the most striking parts of the movie. The article that's linked to above mentions strong responses by nonsoldiers-- Pfc. McCullough's wife "didn't realize there was so much [violence]"-- in WAR!
Isn't it important to let as many people as possible see how horrific it really is over there? That violence and destruction, and the like violence and destruction to come, determined my opposition to the war.
Posted by: Matthew Sullivan at March 16, 2005 04:26 PM
