I've been on the blogging equivalent of radio silence for several weeks now, waiting for my handlers to issue the code for me to go on active status. Last weekend was it: Vice President Dick Cheney shooting a 78 year-old man in the face with a shotgun. That was my signal. (Or, close enough: it… Continue reading Terrorism Means Never Having to Say Your Sorry
Author: Mark Sample
Puzzling over the flight home
How many passengers on a transatlantic flight play Sudoku? Apparently all of them. Another observation from the flight...One of the in-flight movies was The Dukes of Hazzard. I assume this movie was supposed to appeal somehow to the retro-seeking, nostalgia-desperate Gen Xers like myself, who spent many Friday nights in the eighties watching The Dukes… Continue reading Puzzling over the flight home
Guernica, through a child’s eye
The Museo Reina Sofia is Spain's modern art museum, and my son and I went there yesterday to see one thing and one thing only: Picasso's Guernica, depicting the brutal aerial bombardment of the Basque city Guernica by the Fascists during the Spanish Civil War. Showing the painting to my son was an antidote to… Continue reading Guernica, through a child’s eye
Two Old Women Eating from a Bowl, Goya (1821-1823)
Two Old Women Eating from a Bowl, Goya (Larger Image) Posted to Flickr by samplereality. Yesterday, while my wife was digging through national archives in Spain, my son and I went to the Prado, one of the great art museums of the world. This was my third trip to the Prado, and every time, I… Continue reading Two Old Women Eating from a Bowl, Goya (1821-1823)
Niko and Quijote
Niko and Quijote (Larger Image) Posted to Flickr by samplereality. Don Quijote was on our street again, much to my son's delight. I snapped this photo as my son was dropping some change into the "statue's" chute. Moments later, Don Quijote was galloping in place and my son was in awe. I was surprised to… Continue reading Niko and Quijote
MTO Database from Amazon
I'll take a break from my travel blogging to mention Applefritter's astonishing article Data Mining 101: Finding Subversives with Amazon Wishlists. Individuals' public Amazon "wishlists" are, collectively, essentially a gigantic aggregate of data, waiting to be mined, and in this post, Tom Owad details how he used the wishlists to track the reading preferences of… Continue reading MTO Database from Amazon
Lo Mejor de Elmo
After much grave, serious debate and heart-wrenching soul-searching, we finally bought Lo Mejor de Elmo from the media megastore FNAC in Madrid. This was a major decision. Our son has watched maybe ten minutes of television in his whole life. And we plan to keep it that way. But Elmo is so tempting. Despite never… Continue reading Lo Mejor de Elmo
Don Quijote “Statue”
Or "Donkey-te" as my son says. This is another street performer on Calle Postas in Madrid. Drop a few coins in the chute and he bounces on "Rocinante" or jousts at imaginary windmills (i.e. pedestrians). My son goes crazy everytime he sees Donkey-te, and he woke up in the middle of the night last night… Continue reading Don Quijote “Statue”
Street Performers in Madrid
This street performer on Calle Postas (Larger Image) is another attraction on our leisurely strolls through the crowds in Madrid. Impossibly tall, frozen until a child drops change in her vase, the "statue" reminded me of the haunting interactive fiction piece Galatea.
Christmastime Crowds in Madrid
The holiday season in Madrid is still full swing and doesn't wind down until after Kings' Day, January 6th. Spanish streets are always teeming with people, and even more so in Christmastime. And I don't mean simply crowded. I mean crowded in the fullest sense of the word: packed with crowds. From Puerta del Sol… Continue reading Christmastime Crowds in Madrid
Live Blogging at the MLA
I half-heartedly had wanted to live blog the MLA convention last week, but it just didn't happen. The last time I live blogged was the 2004 presidential debate, and I guess, in comparison, the MLA just wasn't worth the effort. That, and the fact that less than 24 hours after my own MLA presentation I… Continue reading Live Blogging at the MLA
I’m sorry. 9/11? I’m responsible. It was me, I did it.
In his press conference this morning, President Bush was asked about the New York Times' recent revelation that the NSA was operating a covert surveillance program that monitored hundreds of Americans' phone calls and emails without any court supervision or warrants. Bush responded: My personal opinion is it was a shameful act for someone to… Continue reading I’m sorry. 9/11? I’m responsible. It was me, I did it.
A lost World Trade Center poem
I recently found a poem I had written years and years ago, in July 1992, which I had absolutely, totally forgotten about. I wrote it in an undergraduate creative writing course with the astounding poet James Reiss. I'm not sure why, but Reiss generally liked my stuff. For an undergrad, I guess it was okay… Continue reading A lost World Trade Center poem
Remembering Shock and Awe et al.
I was going through a desk drawer yesterday and I found a wrinkled piece of scrap paper, which goes back to the spring of 2003. It was the early days of the Iraq War, and I had jotted down some phrases which I was hearing over and over again on the radio and tv. Looking… Continue reading Remembering Shock and Awe et al.
Career Killing Blogs
Slate has a new article on academics who blog, Attack of the Career-Killing Blogs - When academics post online, do they risk their jobs? by Robert S. Boynton. The article mentions the infamous (among a very small circle of academic bloggers) Chronicle article, Bloggers Need Not Apply, which essentially argues that academics who have their… Continue reading Career Killing Blogs