Dennis O'Toole
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Highlights

"The Perfect Cartoon," by Chon Day, via Bob Mankoff

11/30/2011

0 Comments

 
This took me a sec, even though I'd seen it before.  It's nice forgetting a punchline.  Makes it a new joke all over again. 

Anyway, click the link.  It's awesome. 
0 Comments

Pankaj Mishra v. Niall Ferguson

11/29/2011

0 Comments

 
I very much enjoyed Pankaj Mishra's review of Niall Ferguson's Civilization: The West and the Rest.  By 'review,' I mean 'a thorough and relentless intellectual ass-kicking.'

Well, Ferguson did not like the article quite as much as I did.  He wrote in to the London Review of Books to demand an apology.  His specific beef was the charge of racism-- not said outright but pretty much implied by Mishra's review.  Ferguson's letter seems to return a few good blows, but Mishra's reply is just as thorough and hostile as his review (and is also contained in the link in this paragraph).


Their exhange did not smooth things over.  Ferguson wrote back and was like, "David Daokui Li is hardly an ‘obscure scholar’. He is one of China’s leading economists."  SNAP.  Point Ferguson!  Mishra took a drag off his cigarette [assumed] and quipped, "Yeah buddy, some readers of Civilisation {sic, English spelling} may still want to see the actual paper that apparently singlehandedly discredits a major work of scholarship."  OH NO HE DIDN'T.  (Full disclosure:  oh no, he didn't say "Yeah buddy." I added that for fun's sake.  And again, both Ferguson's letter and Mishra's response are in the link in this paragraph.)

And now?  Ferguson is threatening to sue for libel.

I don't have a dog in the fight, I should admit.  I've never read any Ferguson books, so, despite the vibe I have that I would not like them, I can't really say who is right about the book.  Though I have a guess... 

0 Comments

Oh, sports

11/26/2011

0 Comments

 
The Shame of College Sports, by Taylor Branch.

Football High, a documentary from Frontline.


0 Comments

Standing at the Station, by Ty Segall

11/26/2011

0 Comments

 
0 Comments

Promised Land, by Christoph Niemann

11/26/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
0 Comments

    Author

    Media Filter

    Recommendations.


    Things I've have read, watched, or listened to that I think are cool, funny, smart, etc. 


    Archives

    June 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.