March 2004 Archives

Yahoo! News - Legendary Broadcaster Alistair Cooke Dies

LONDON - Alistair Cooke, the broadcaster who epitomized highbrow television as host of "Masterpiece Theatre" and whose "Letter from America" was a radio fixture in Britain for 58 years, has died, the British Broadcasting Corp. said Tuesday. He was 95.

I grew up watching Alistair Cooke introduce Masterpiece Theatre, the one program on television that my parents invariably watched. His polish and assurance set the tone for the television program, lending a patina of English refinement and sophistication to the BBC retreads that followed. (Don't get me wrong, I love BBC retreads.) It has been years since I actually saw Alistair Cooke on television, but reading of his death marks the passing of another of the institutions of my childhood.

"Pfuhl was one of those hopelessly, immutably conceited men, obstinately sure of themselves as only Germans are, because only Germans could base their self-confidence on an abstract idea — on science, that is, the supposed posession of absolute truth. A Frenchman's conceit springs from his belief that mentally and physically he is irresistably fascinating to both men and women. The Englishman's self-assurance comes from being a citizen of the best-organized kingdom in the world, and because as an Englishman he always knows what is the correct thing to do, and that everything he does as an Englishman is undoubtedly right. An Italian is conceited because he is excitable and easily forgets himself and other people. A Russian is conceited because he knows nothing and does not want to know anything, since he does not believe that it is possible to know anything completely. A conceited German is the worst of them all, the most stubborn and unattractive, because he imagines that he possesses the truth in science — a thing of his own invention but which for him is absolute truth." Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, tr. Rosemary Edmunds (Penguin, 1982), pp. 757-58.

I like the Girl Scouts precisely because they have not been trapped into the narrow sectarianism of the Boy Scouts. Now I learn that there is a new rival organization that seeks to indoctrinate young girls with "Christian values" along with the s'mores. I like the Girl Scouts even more than I did before. Good thing, too, since in a few more years I may have one in the family.

Jeffrey Tayler holds forth on Bad Peace Corps Writing, and cites Tolstoy as one of his influences. I was particularly struck by Tayler's comment that it is never really possible to "go native," and that writers who claim to have done so invariably strike an inauthentic note. Such pretensions have the misfortune of blinding an author to what is most interesting about another culture — difference.

It has been a long time since I have read a novel with the emotional punch of War and Peace. Natasha Rostova is about to make the mistake of her young life by throwing herself away on the worthless (and married) Anatole Kuragin, and it is heartrending.

Divers - Ah! vous dirai-je, maman

"Ah! vous dirai-je, maman
Ce qui cause mon tourment?
Papa veut que je raisonne
Comme une grande personne
Moi je sais que les bonbons
Valent mieux que la raison.

"Ah! vous dirai-je, maman
Ce qui cause mon tourment?
Papa veut que je retienne
Les verbes La Laurentienne
Mois je dis que les bonbons
Valent mieux que les leçons."

Oh, if I could tell you mother,
How I suffer like no other,
Father wants me to reason,
Like a big person,
Me, I know that chocolate,
Is better than boring thought,

Oh, if I could tell you mother,
How I suffer like no other,
Daddy wants me to retain
Verbs Laurentian
Me I know that candies good,
Please me more than study could.

Yahoo! News - Famous British Wills Available Online

"When William Shakespeare bequeathed his "second-best bed" to his wife nearly 400 years ago, a scribe dipped his quill pen in ink and scratched the bard's last wishes on parchment.

"Now the public can see the playwright's final will and testament on a computer screen with the click of a mouse."

Ah! vous dirai-je, maman.

"Ah! vous dirai-je, maman,
Ce qui cause mon tourment!
Depuis que j'ai vu Silvandre,
Me regarder d'un oeil tendre,
Mon coeur dit à chaque instant :
Peut-on vivre sans amant?"

Oh, if I could tell you mother,
How I suffer like no other,
Since I have seen Silvander,
Gaze on me with an eye so tender,
My heart asks when each moment's over
Can one live without a lover?

As I work my way through War and Peace, I am struck by the degree to which Russian novels were ignored during my formal education. I think I read one Russian Novel -- Turgenev's Father and Sons -- for a class during my entire time in high school, college, and graduate school. That novel I read for a history class, not a literature class. The omission of Russian literature from the curriculum seems even more surprising considering that at the time, the Soviet Union still posed the greatest single international political and military challenge to the United States.

How It Works: Be Your Own Barista, With a Programmable Helper

"Unlike the $40 drip coffee maker, which requires a bit of work to get from bean to cup, superautomatics grind the beans, tamp the grounds, brew the coffee with hot water under pressure and provide steam to foam the milk. They even dump out the coffee grounds."

Some things a man prefers to do for himself.

A Samuel Johnson Trove Goes to Harvard's Library

"The collection holds the only known copy with untrimmed pages of the first edition of Dr. Johnson's 1755 dictionary, the first in the English language. It also contains corrected proofs of James Boswell's biography of Johnson as well as a number of letters exchanged between the two men. And it opens a window into Johnson's exclusive literary club of authors and scholars that included Boswell, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, and his friend the actor and producer David Garrick."

Although largely vanished from popular consciousness, the brilliant career of Samuel Johnson continues to fascination scholars of the eighteenth century -- a fascination reflected in Harvard's exultation over the acquisition of this collection. One thing the article does not explain, however, is why Lady Eccles chose Harvard. One would have thought, for instance, that an English university might have been more appropriate. Perhaps she wanted to help Harvard compensate for the fact that Yale has most of Boswell's papers.

Classrooms Use Chess to Instill Skills for Life (washingtonpost.com)

"Mehler, a lawyer and former teacher, is the founder and director of the U.S. Chess Center, which for the past dozen years has introduced chess to children to help them improve their academic and social skills."

As a member of the U.S. Chess Center for the past couple of years, I was delighted to see the Center on the front page of the Post. I do not know if learning how to play better Chess has done anything for my cognitive skills, but it has been a lot of fun.

I tried Queer Eye Chef Ted Allen's steak au poivre recipe tonight, with great success. I did not make the twice baked potato, however; my arteries have their limit. I opted instead for a simple baked potato and some sauteed snow peas. Dinner was two Samoas Girl Scout cookies; I just couldn't say no to the cookie table outside Giant Food.

I hope that when my daughter gets older, she will go to bed earlier!

Scripting News: 3/12/2004

"Second perspective-alterer. Yesterday on All Things Considered, a very young thoughtful and sweet analyst, Mikel Jollett, explained slowly and carefully why rap music is a way for us old folk to look inside ourselves and find our parents and grandparents, disapproving of us as we now disapprove of the younger generation's music."

I guess we were listening to the same program. It"s a reminder that NPR is the best broadcast has to offer.

Scripting News: 3/12/2004

"I don't buy the arguments that people in hetero marriages lose anything by gays marrying. That's like saying that because someone reads a book somehow your reading a book means less."

HealtheTech offers tips for measuring portion sizes.

The Washington Post reports an erosion of support for the war in Iraq among military families who feel the President launched the war under false pretenses.

I cooked Djej Emshmel -- chicken with preserved lemons and olives -- tonight, and I was quite pleased at how it came out. I need to work on the presentation, but the taste was delicious.

Choosing one's reading more carefully is a sign of getting old. When I was growing up, I simply seized on anything that looked interesting. As I grow older, I am not only unable to find as much time to read, but I am also acutely aware that I will never be able to read everything I would like to.

Morocco has a Linux Project.

Yahoo! News - Study: Blogging Still Infrequent

The impression out there is that a lot of the blog activity is very feverish," said Lee Rainie, the Pew project's director. "That's not the case. For most bloggers, it's not an all-consuming, all-the-time kind of experience."

:: net.law.blog - Internet Tools for Lawyers

"For most lawyers, blogs would be a fiasco, possibly even dangerous. On the other hand, for a few lawyers, they could be perfect."