Archive | April, 2009

Michael Caine

30 April 2009

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Michael Caine is quintessential Sixties cool, and I love him (and the National Health glasses he wore in The Ipcress File). Here’s a brief but interesting interview from New York magazine. Included is John Wayne’s acting advice, and why famous people should never wear suede shoes.

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Expert Opinon: Flu Virus (So Far)

29 April 2009

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The excellent UK science magazine New Scientist has published an expert opinion on the “swine flu” virus that emerged recently in Mexico. It’s not long, and well worth reading, particularly if you’re a little freaked out. My take-away was optimistic–the currently terrifying death rate may return to a more normal range after more cases are [...]

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You gotta listen to this…

25 April 2009

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…You Tube vid. It’s a woman named Susan Boyle, on Britain’s version of “American Idol.” Quite inspiring, as I lay here wondering whether this cold is actually swine flu.

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In Heaven Everything Is Fine

22 April 2009

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I’ve blogged about Peter Ivers before, the musician and provocateur who cut a legendary figure at late-60s Harvard, and was a confidant of Doug Kenney. I’d run across Peter in my reading every so often, and always suspected that there was an interesting story there. Now I know for sure thanks to a new bio, [...]

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Photos from Occupied France

18 April 2009

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These color photos taken from the time of France’s occupation by the Nazis really struck me. Not because they show things that are terribly remarkable–precisely the opposite. Photos like these transform a much-mythologized period into a reality we can relate to. History should be an empathic enterprise, where the facts of the past are turned [...]

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An “overopinionated and underinformed little book”

17 April 2009

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I knew there was a reason I disliked The Elements of Style. This professor tells me why. I once had a girlfriend with a similar attitude; it was like making love to Strunk and White without the frisson of a three-way. Though she never came out and said it, I suspect she believed I was [...]

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The Joy of Squirrel

17 April 2009

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A friend of mine at a party said that she had an old Joy of Cooking which showed how to prepare squirrel. I must’ve had a disbelieving expression (prosecco makes my face slack) because she just sent me the page, which is below. Click to enlarge. I love the squirrel’s little closed eyes; it looks [...]

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Introducing…Owl Jolson!

16 April 2009

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Quite randomly I ran across this old cartoon, which I love. I spent large chunks of my childhood watching old movies and cartoons, which made me old-fashioned while I was still new. Not the easiest way to be in our day and age, but full of peculiar joys and secret treasure. …and yes, I do [...]

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