Tuesday, November 15, 2005

David Brooks on Bobo
At least he's honest:
I loathed both books at first reading, but they both explained how little we can rationally know about the world around us and how much we have to rely on habits, traditions, and intuition. I've been exemplifying our ignorance on a daily basis ever since. [italics mine]
Marston finds more Bobosity. In light of the Marston post consider this. Then cry.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Weird
I was at the gym today watching closed-captioned CNN, when Wolf Blitzer brought Ken Mehlman on the air and had an exchange that went something like this:

Wolf: Here's the Washington Times with an article about the poor outlook for the Republican party.
Ken: Well, that's just the left-wing Washington Times. [emphasis added]
Wolf: Ok, it's the left-wing Washington Times. Moving on...

Did anyone else see this or was I hallucinating?

UPDATE: I found the transcript and the exchange was a bit more complicated:
BLITZER: Look at this headline that was in today's -- right over there -- in today's "Washington Times." "Bush 'sank' GOP in Virginia." (INAUDIBLE) David Albo, who says, "We know that George Bush is just killing us. His popularity just brought the ticket down. There's no other way to explain it."

This from a Republican.

MEHLMAN: That left wing "Washington Times." I'm kidding.

BLITZER: A left wing "Washington Times" with a headline like that.

MEHLMAN: Look, the fact is, one thing we know about the Virginia election, . . . .
It's still an odd way to dodge the question, although I wouldn't expect less from Ken, who in a sane world wouldn't be invited on TV to comment on current events.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Life in a British Orchestra
Jessica Duchen has an interesting article on the rank-and-file players of British orchestras, which are some of the hardest working orchestras in the world.