With the possible exception of Chelsea Clinton’s baby bump, no one is getting more press these days than Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century, which has lefties like Paul Krugman all in a lather. “Inequality is the new black!” they exclaim. “We’re going to win this mother!” Piketty’s basic pitch, delivered through…
Mr. Will writes the Constitution. Again.
When I was in college, I had an idea that was so profound that, even now, I find it hard to believe that I actually had it, but I did. The situation was this: back in the day, Oberlin College had a graduate school of theology, with a wonderful old library, of some 50,000 volumes….
“The Jeep’s Blues”—It’s no hustle
If you saw American Hustle you know the tune that starts and ends the film, “The Jeep’s Blues,” performed by the Duke Ellington orchestra. This is the tune that brings Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) together. I rather doubt that many seventies strippers and conmen were into fifties Ellington, but whatever….
Carlos Slim Helú? Who he?
Michael Barbaro has an intriguing story in the New York Times today on the finances of Jeb Bush (spoiler alert: they’re not pretty), but even more intriguing to me is the following: As a paid adviser to [failing Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers] in the summer of 2008, he met with Carlos Slim Helú, a…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “Laugh your ass off. When I get audited, I’ll get to keep the shell.” “Because I’m a happening terrapin, that’s why.” “I’ll go goddamn digital when I’m goddamn good and ready.” “Shells are strong, but knowledge is stronger.” “Because memory is the mother of all wisdom, mon frére.” “Because I’m 125 and…
Literature R Us Explained. Again.
Since I’ve added a new book to the site—Vorak of Kolnap—I thought I would indulge myself and give a bit of a guide to the site. I’ve done this before, so it it’s old hat to you, skip it. I started this site to promote my unpublished if not unpublishable fiction, but that old mutatis…
Great violins, like great wines, only get better with age. Or not
Kudos to Alice Robb at the New Republic for letting us in on the following: A paper1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers led by Claudia Fritz, an acoustics expert and professor at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, asked ten renowned violin soloists to select…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “Just act natural. But remember, they’re extremely turf conscious.” “They love a bargain, and they love their oolong.” “It turns out they are social animals. There were just no coffee shops on the veldt.” “Ix-nay on the ippo-hay jokes, s’il vous plaît.” “Come January, this place will be nothing but elephants.” “It…
David Ehle Trio with Walter Platt—“Blue Monk”
David Ehle, guitar, Mike Ball, bass, Jackie Robertson, drums. The Fenway Jazz Jam, December 27, 2011. Video taken by Jesse Waldman. More videos at Fenway Jazz Jam
Reiham Salam to neocons—“I’m just as dumb as you are! Really!”
Last week, Reihan Salam wrote a short column called “Why I Am Still a Neocon.” A lot of people sort of made fun of Reihan, pointing out, among other things, that nothing Reihan said made much sense, or had much of anything to do with any policies that might be described as “neocon.” They also…