After going bunjee jumping sometime around 1997, I had an idea for a company, "Manhattan Muggings" where thrillseekers would be given a bullet-proof vest and experience a faux mugging. And I guess by now NY has let its brand association with muggings lapse. Anyway, when I actually saw someone had started such a company a few years ago I was pretty pissed.
But, much better is this theme park in Mexico which allows you to pretend you are crossing the US-Mexico border illegally at night.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Madame Brittany, C'est Moi
I've never particularly identified with Britanny, but support her decision to be bald and beautiful.
Is shocking how many talking head shrinks have come out of the woodwork citing this as proof that she is disturbed and close to hitting rock bottom.
Is shocking how many talking head shrinks have come out of the woodwork citing this as proof that she is disturbed and close to hitting rock bottom.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Is it Still Schadenfreude If It Hurt Me Too?
Here's my old scrapbook of articles on the annual MLA convention (Modern Language Association, that is, supposedly the nation's largest convention, at 10,000 professors and grad students strong) and a few scared-straight articles on the market for humanities PhD's.
1. A classic MLA undercover with a focus on job seekers and plenty of boilerplate observations. A good warmup.
2. Here's one on the 2003 MLA convention from the Believer -- sharply observed, but suspiciously sympathetic.
3. Smug-on-Smug action. Some stylish potshots on the 2002 MLA convention from the NY Observer. Lead sentence: "The famous line about the MLA is that you’ve never seen a convention where people drink so much and fuck so little."
4. A Villiage Voice piece on grad student strikes from Anya Kamenetz, whose book "Generation Debt" vaporized her student loans along with her generational spokesperson privileges. Includes a nice tidbit from the pseudonymous Thomas H. Benton of Chronicle of Higher Ed fame: "Top undergraduates are arrogant; they lack perspective. They've been fawned over all their lives, and they think grad school is there to help them realize their potential, not to use them up and toss them out."
1. A classic MLA undercover with a focus on job seekers and plenty of boilerplate observations. A good warmup.
2. Here's one on the 2003 MLA convention from the Believer -- sharply observed, but suspiciously sympathetic.
3. Smug-on-Smug action. Some stylish potshots on the 2002 MLA convention from the NY Observer. Lead sentence: "The famous line about the MLA is that you’ve never seen a convention where people drink so much and fuck so little."
4. A Villiage Voice piece on grad student strikes from Anya Kamenetz, whose book "Generation Debt" vaporized her student loans along with her generational spokesperson privileges. Includes a nice tidbit from the pseudonymous Thomas H. Benton of Chronicle of Higher Ed fame: "Top undergraduates are arrogant; they lack perspective. They've been fawned over all their lives, and they think grad school is there to help them realize their potential, not to use them up and toss them out."
For Anyone Considering Grad School . . .
We present:the legendary Theodore Streleski, who after 19 years of graduate work, killed his advisor with a ball-peen hammer, and told the court that he found his act to be "logically and morally correct." I heard that for a while it was fashionable at Stanford to bring a ball-peen to your dissertation defense. Any news about this estimable tradition, please let me know.
2. On a cold and dreary November day at the U of Iowa, a recent Ph.D. graduate in Physics from Beijing, disgruntled because he had not won the $2,500 prize for outstanding doctoral thesis in 1991, and who felt his appeal of that decision was not being handled promptly or fairly, shot and killed five people, shot and paralyzed for life a clerical worker, and then killed himself . .
3. A University of Arkansas graduate student was found dead near an English professor in an apparent murder-suicide. He had been kicked out of the degree program one week earlier, after a decade of lackluster work.
4. Harvard's Jason Altom left behind 3 suicide notes, one to his parents, one to his graduate advisor Nobel laureate chemist Elias J. Corey, and one to the chemistry department chair.
5. Basilis (Vasilis) Xanthopoulos was a Greek theoretical physicist who made important contributions in Relativity and gravitational physics. Xanthopoulos and Stephanos Pnevmatikos were shot to death by a mad student, 32 year old Giorgos Petrodaskalakis.
6. Valery Fabrikant was a professor at the time he killed 3 other professors, but hey, close enough.
2. On a cold and dreary November day at the U of Iowa, a recent Ph.D. graduate in Physics from Beijing, disgruntled because he had not won the $2,500 prize for outstanding doctoral thesis in 1991, and who felt his appeal of that decision was not being handled promptly or fairly, shot and killed five people, shot and paralyzed for life a clerical worker, and then killed himself . .
3. A University of Arkansas graduate student was found dead near an English professor in an apparent murder-suicide. He had been kicked out of the degree program one week earlier, after a decade of lackluster work.
4. Harvard's Jason Altom left behind 3 suicide notes, one to his parents, one to his graduate advisor Nobel laureate chemist Elias J. Corey, and one to the chemistry department chair.
5. Basilis (Vasilis) Xanthopoulos was a Greek theoretical physicist who made important contributions in Relativity and gravitational physics. Xanthopoulos and Stephanos Pnevmatikos were shot to death by a mad student, 32 year old Giorgos Petrodaskalakis.
6. Valery Fabrikant was a professor at the time he killed 3 other professors, but hey, close enough.
Constitutional Propps
Vladimir Propp, that guy knew his way around a fairy tale.
Basically, Propp read a ton of fairy tales and came up with a taxonomy of 31 building blocks that they use -- like when the hero about to embark on a journey meets an old crazy person who gives him some kind of magical whosits.
I've been a fan of Propp's Morphology of the Folk Tale since I read it in grad school, and am pretty sure it had some kind of influence on one of my favorite books of all time, Roland Barthes' S/Z. I think Jospeph Campell must also have been at least indirectly influenced by Russian formalist narratology, since his Hero With a Thousand Faces uses a lot of similar moves, along with some new age hooey. George Lucas relied on Campell in writing his 318th draft of Star Wars, so when the crazy old guy is Obi Wan, and the mystical thingy is THE FORCE, the whole thing puts Propp at the beginning of a pretty kickass chain. Here's a nifty comparative chart of the different approaches.
Anyhoo, to get to the point, today while reading 10 or so cases for Con law, I was thinking how much we need a morphology of the Supreme Court decision. Maybe one already exists, though it seems more like any given scholar sprinkles a few into there work, but there's no sustained synthesis of this approach.
With my lack of experience, I'm just starting to see the standard moves and postures, but some of my favorites so far include:
- That second to last paragraph where the majority says, "Ok, we know this decision looks kind of broad, so some of you are probably already thinking of ways to take this apparent expansion for a spin. But we mean this one to be narrow, even though it doesn't look that way, so watch it."
- proleptic snark (a Scalia specialty), in which the majority opinion can't resist upstaging and dumping on the dissent.
More to follow. Observations from more experienced con law hands appreciated.
Basically, Propp read a ton of fairy tales and came up with a taxonomy of 31 building blocks that they use -- like when the hero about to embark on a journey meets an old crazy person who gives him some kind of magical whosits.
I've been a fan of Propp's Morphology of the Folk Tale since I read it in grad school, and am pretty sure it had some kind of influence on one of my favorite books of all time, Roland Barthes' S/Z. I think Jospeph Campell must also have been at least indirectly influenced by Russian formalist narratology, since his Hero With a Thousand Faces uses a lot of similar moves, along with some new age hooey. George Lucas relied on Campell in writing his 318th draft of Star Wars, so when the crazy old guy is Obi Wan, and the mystical thingy is THE FORCE, the whole thing puts Propp at the beginning of a pretty kickass chain. Here's a nifty comparative chart of the different approaches.
Anyhoo, to get to the point, today while reading 10 or so cases for Con law, I was thinking how much we need a morphology of the Supreme Court decision. Maybe one already exists, though it seems more like any given scholar sprinkles a few into there work, but there's no sustained synthesis of this approach.
With my lack of experience, I'm just starting to see the standard moves and postures, but some of my favorites so far include:
- That second to last paragraph where the majority says, "Ok, we know this decision looks kind of broad, so some of you are probably already thinking of ways to take this apparent expansion for a spin. But we mean this one to be narrow, even though it doesn't look that way, so watch it."
- proleptic snark (a Scalia specialty), in which the majority opinion can't resist upstaging and dumping on the dissent.
More to follow. Observations from more experienced con law hands appreciated.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Did Someone Say Eminent Domain?
A recent article in the Columbia Spec has it that after vehemently denying plans to invoke eminent domain to gain possession of the roughly half of the prospective Manhattanville campus area that it hasn't already bought, Columbia has announced that it might consider invoking eminent domain.
Here's looking forward to 14 more Lerner Halls, tilty ramps and all.
Here's looking forward to 14 more Lerner Halls, tilty ramps and all.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Your Wife Deserves this Diamond
Not law related, but hey.
Just read Renee Rose Shield's Diamond Stories and it rocked. Is basically an ethnography of NY's diamond district, it's history, development, rituals, and suchlike.
Here's a gem:
"The most striking symbol of [Non-Jewish traders'] accommodation is that no matter the ethnicity or nationality, the words that close a business transaction are always the Yiddish mazal und brucha or simply mazal [luck and blessing, or luck].
And for you ADR buffs, there's a tasty chapter on how the DDC uses arbitration to keep the industry working and maintain the trust that is so important when you're handing a $100,000 rock in an envelope over to a guy for no collateral.
I don't know from the colonizing gaze, but this is such a well-written and interesting book. Am tempted to have a look at some of the others, of which there are 40, in this "Anthropology of Contemporary Issues" series edited by Roger Sanjek. Let's hear it for Cornell UP and wily anthropologists everywhere.
And for those of you using the Butler stacks, I'll have it back tomorrow, which should put it back on the shelves just after finals.
As it happens, Barak Richman has a recent article on this topic in the June 2006 issue of Law and Social Inquiry.
Just read Renee Rose Shield's Diamond Stories and it rocked. Is basically an ethnography of NY's diamond district, it's history, development, rituals, and suchlike.
Here's a gem:
"The most striking symbol of [Non-Jewish traders'] accommodation is that no matter the ethnicity or nationality, the words that close a business transaction are always the Yiddish mazal und brucha or simply mazal [luck and blessing, or luck].
And for you ADR buffs, there's a tasty chapter on how the DDC uses arbitration to keep the industry working and maintain the trust that is so important when you're handing a $100,000 rock in an envelope over to a guy for no collateral.
I don't know from the colonizing gaze, but this is such a well-written and interesting book. Am tempted to have a look at some of the others, of which there are 40, in this "Anthropology of Contemporary Issues" series edited by Roger Sanjek. Let's hear it for Cornell UP and wily anthropologists everywhere.
And for those of you using the Butler stacks, I'll have it back tomorrow, which should put it back on the shelves just after finals.
As it happens, Barak Richman has a recent article on this topic in the June 2006 issue of Law and Social Inquiry.
Somebody Pinch Me, or Better Yet, Somebody Hire a Goon to Pitch Lye in my Face, and then Court Me
The story of everyone's favorite star-crossed lawyer, Burt Pugach, and the woman he loved, disloved, and tried to dissolve, Linda Riss, is coming to the big screen.
For those of you who haven't treated yourself to Franklin, Rabin, and Green's Tort Law and Alternatives, the story goes a little something like this: Pugach falls hard for Linda Riss, who finds him pretty unobjectionable, as personal injury lawyers go, which opinion changes when she finds out he has a wife and kid. She dumps him and gets engaged to some other guy (forgot who this guy was, but let's make him a public defender, for narrative ballast). At which point, Pugach does the only logical thing, he hires a thug to throw lye in her face. She goes blind, he goes to jail and, upon his release, does the only logical thing -- wins her back and marries her.
Is too bad the professional "pick-up" types were not around back in Pugach's day because I'd give plenty to get my hands on the Say-Anything speech that brought her around.
Looking forward to its arrival in NY. The only thing that could make me happier would be a Sorkin-Mamet-Stoppard team brought in to punch up the dialogue.
And I'm not the only one who's excited. The film got a name check in yesterday's New York Times article about Lisa Nowak as a prime example of lovers and the batshit crazy things they do. I guess there's some kind of fearful symmetry to the acid in face/astro-diaper, but it'll take someone savvier than me to do the full exegesis.
For those of you who haven't treated yourself to Franklin, Rabin, and Green's Tort Law and Alternatives, the story goes a little something like this: Pugach falls hard for Linda Riss, who finds him pretty unobjectionable, as personal injury lawyers go, which opinion changes when she finds out he has a wife and kid. She dumps him and gets engaged to some other guy (forgot who this guy was, but let's make him a public defender, for narrative ballast). At which point, Pugach does the only logical thing, he hires a thug to throw lye in her face. She goes blind, he goes to jail and, upon his release, does the only logical thing -- wins her back and marries her.
Is too bad the professional "pick-up" types were not around back in Pugach's day because I'd give plenty to get my hands on the Say-Anything speech that brought her around.
Looking forward to its arrival in NY. The only thing that could make me happier would be a Sorkin-Mamet-Stoppard team brought in to punch up the dialogue.
And I'm not the only one who's excited. The film got a name check in yesterday's New York Times article about Lisa Nowak as a prime example of lovers and the batshit crazy things they do. I guess there's some kind of fearful symmetry to the acid in face/astro-diaper, but it'll take someone savvier than me to do the full exegesis.
I'm an ex-con and I vote, except in 48 states, not so much
According to Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy by Christopher Uggen (pr: YOU-gun) and Jeff Manza, Americans are loosening up about felon disenfranchisement. but the status quo is still pretty shocking, or, in other words, utterly predictable.
The stats are in, and they are damning: 5.4 million Americans (1 out of 40 voters, 1 out of 4 black men) lack the right to vote.
Some highlights:
- 2 states put no restrictions on felons' voting rights -- Maine and Vermont
- 3 states take away all felons' voting rights permanently, unless their rights are specifically restored by the government -- Virginia, Kentucky, and Florida.
A few surprises:
- Maryland, what are you doing hanging out with Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, permanently taking away some felons' voting rights?
- Utah, looking all permissive over there with Oregon, restoring voting rights automatically upon release from prison.
Here's a handy map.
The stats are in, and they are damning: 5.4 million Americans (1 out of 40 voters, 1 out of 4 black men) lack the right to vote.
Some highlights:
- 2 states put no restrictions on felons' voting rights -- Maine and Vermont
- 3 states take away all felons' voting rights permanently, unless their rights are specifically restored by the government -- Virginia, Kentucky, and Florida.
A few surprises:
- Maryland, what are you doing hanging out with Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, permanently taking away some felons' voting rights?
- Utah, looking all permissive over there with Oregon, restoring voting rights automatically upon release from prison.
Here's a handy map.
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