As I get older, various hobbies have an appeal. If I had more land, beekeeping might be of interest although there is the danger that over time it might transform me into some sort of character.
You wander around long enough with a net over your head and your relatives may want to throw a net over your head.
Sunday, September 05, 2010
Yes, I Am Jealous
So Many Books gets some card catalogs.
Just seeing a card catalog brings back memories of the many inadvertent "finds" while searching for another book. We lost a great deal when those left our lives.
Just seeing a card catalog brings back memories of the many inadvertent "finds" while searching for another book. We lost a great deal when those left our lives.
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Music Break
- Franco Corelli sings "Nessun Dorma."
- Hank Williams Jr. with "All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down."
- Randy Newman with "I Think It's Going to Rain Today."
- The trailer for "The Red Violin."
A Gap
"He didn't have to manage. He just told people what to do."
I paused for several seconds, waiting to see if he was going to elaborate, then realized that he believed what he'd just said.
I was talking to a world-renowned historian and biographer about a leader that he'd studied for years. By the time I interviewed this author, large amounts of material about how the leader's subordinates had played various bureaucratic games to work around their boss, manipulate his directions, and anticipate his opinions had crossed my desk.
And now this unquestionably intelligent man was telling me that didn't happen. I could tell that this was not a case in which he had considered but discounted the positions of other historians and, indeed, associates of the leader. This was a case in which he had not considered the possibility at all.
It was, with all due respect, one of the stupidest comments I've ever heard. It has stayed with me for years. Looking back, I wonder, "What major component of a leader's performance have I failed to notice?"
Melancholy Grandeur and Baseball
Writing in First Things, David B. Hart explores the perfect game. An excerpt:
No other game, moreover, is so mercilessly impossible to play well or affords so immense a scope for inevitable failure. We all know that a hitter who succeeds in only one third of his at-bats is considered remarkable, and that one who succeeds only fractionally more often is considered a prodigy of nature. Now here, certainly, is a portrait of the hapless human spirit in all its melancholy grandeur, and of the human will in all its hopeless but incessant aspiration: fleeting glory as the rarely ripening fruit of overwhelming and chronic defeat. It is this pervasive sadness that makes baseball’s moments of bliss so piercing; this encircling gloom that sheds such iridescent beauty on those impossible triumphs over devastating odds so amazing when accomplished by one of the game’s gods (Mays running down that ridiculously long fly at the Polo Grounds in the 1954 World Series, Ted Williams going deep in his very last appearance at the plate); and so heartbreakingly poignant when accomplished by a journeyman whose entire playing career will be marked by only one such instant of transcendence (Ron Swoboda’s diving catch off Brooks Robinson’s bat in the 1969 Series).
No other game, moreover, is so mercilessly impossible to play well or affords so immense a scope for inevitable failure. We all know that a hitter who succeeds in only one third of his at-bats is considered remarkable, and that one who succeeds only fractionally more often is considered a prodigy of nature. Now here, certainly, is a portrait of the hapless human spirit in all its melancholy grandeur, and of the human will in all its hopeless but incessant aspiration: fleeting glory as the rarely ripening fruit of overwhelming and chronic defeat. It is this pervasive sadness that makes baseball’s moments of bliss so piercing; this encircling gloom that sheds such iridescent beauty on those impossible triumphs over devastating odds so amazing when accomplished by one of the game’s gods (Mays running down that ridiculously long fly at the Polo Grounds in the 1954 World Series, Ted Williams going deep in his very last appearance at the plate); and so heartbreakingly poignant when accomplished by a journeyman whose entire playing career will be marked by only one such instant of transcendence (Ron Swoboda’s diving catch off Brooks Robinson’s bat in the 1969 Series).
Miscellaneous and Fast
- Just another day at the bullfight.
- Portfolio: Airport dining options.
- Because so many of you want a Street Fighter World Warrior t-shirt.
- John Yoo: Do we need fewer law schools?
- Adfreak: Girl plays in traffic as part of safety campaign.
- But they are sooo objective: The Washington Examiner story on the press .
- James Surowiecki: A crisis in customer service.
- Andrew Ferguson on a flattering voicemail.
- Fast Company: The most influential celebrities on Twitter.
Being Europeanized
This article from Der Spiegel reminds me of a remark by an Hispanic acquaintance who was a diversity officer for a famous American university.
He believed many of the Anglo faculty members secretly wished they were British. I think he was onto something.
He believed many of the Anglo faculty members secretly wished they were British. I think he was onto something.
Quote of the Day
When I was a small boy growing up in Kansas, a friend of mine and I went fishing and as we sat there in the warmth of a summer afternoon on a riverbank we talked about what we wanted to do when we grew up. I told him that I wanted to be a real major-league baseball player, a genuine professional like Honus Wagner. My friend said that he'd like to be President of the United States. Neither of us got our wish.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Friday, September 03, 2010
Steyn Counters Allegations of Islamophobia
Three Canadian Muslim critics of Mark Steyn engage the author in an impromptu debate:
[HT: Idea Anaconda]
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