George Will

Harvard president pays high price for his hypothesis

Why is it that conservative columnists are always such superior writers compared to their counterparts on the left? I find that generally I disagree with their opinions more often than I agree, but the mastery of language and tone exhibited by someone like George Will makes his column worth reading whatever your political leanings may be. Here’s an excellent example from his most recent column about the president of Harvard who is currently undergoing a public skewering for some recent comments :

“Is this the fruit of feminism? A woman at the peak of the academic pyramid becomes theatrically flurried by an unwelcome idea and, like a Victorian maiden exposed to male coarseness, suffers the vapors and collapses on the drawing room carpet in a heap of crinolines until revived by smelling salts and the offending brute’s contrition.”

Will’s comments on the bizarre world of academia seem to me to be right on target from my admittedly limited experience in that realm. The connection he then tries to draw between this line of reasoning and George Bush’s recent speech though, seems tenuous at best, and completely spurious at worst.

CNN.com – Two dead, two hurt in Jeep plant shooting – Jan 27, 2005

CNN.com – Two dead, two hurt in Jeep plant shooting – Jan 27, 2005

“Police also said he had strapped a stuffed animal to the back of his neck.”

Whaaa?!

Student Work – Historical Figures / page1.tif

Student Work – Historical Figures / page1.tif

I stumbled on this doing some research for my “Comics for Teens” class that I teach on Tuesday nights. This student work is a comics biography from one of Tom Hart’s classes in NYC. I had seen this published in an SPX anthology a few years back and thought it was the best thing in there, but had no idea where it came from.

With an opening line like “Yo, Peep this shit! It’s the muthafuckin story of Davey Crockett!” it’s gotta be good.

Hollywood: Bereft of ideas

I went to the movies this weekend an saw the much-lauded Sideways. The film itself was mildly amusing in a trite NPR-esque way, but what really struck me were the previews. Thankfully there were only three, but as a group they exhibited a stunning lack of originality.

Two of the three were of the “wacky ethnic mismatch comedy” variety. I don’t remember the names of either of them but one featured that guy from “That 70s Show” as the son-in-law of Bernie Mac. The other had Sandra Bullock (sp?) and some black actress I didn’t know as FBI agent partners.

See, the joke is that one person is black and the other is white. Get it?

This leads to all sort of amusing but innocuous ethnic misunderstandings. My theory is that white people go to see these things to assure ourselves that we’re “open-minded,” and black people go to make fun of white people. I guess I should look on the bright side and be thankful that at least we as a culture have moved beyond the 80s version of this plot: the “wacky species mismatch comedy”…you know, like “Turner and Hooch,” and that other movie that’s exactly the same movie but with the loathesome Jim Belushi instead of Tom Hanks.

Oh, yeah… The other preview was just a remake of “The Longest Yard.” Great idea.

I should have gone with my gut instinct and seen the Spongebob movie.

Adopt-a-bear

Forsyth County > Animal Control > Adoption Photos > Animal Detail Report

This animal is under the “dogs” section of the Forsyth County animal shelter website, but there’s no foolin’ me. That’s clearly a baby brown bear.