In the recent film “The Prestige” (based on the Christopher Priest novel of the same name), the narrator explains the structure of a standard magic trick. Every illusion, we are told, has three parts: First, there is the setup, or the “pledge,” in which the magician shows us something that appears ordinary but is probably…
Read MoreI just saw “The Last King of Scotland”, the film about Idi Amin (starring Forrest Whittaker). Although I think that Whittaker’s performance was impressive, I am slightly disturbed by a recent trend in filmmaking that portrays “African conflicts” in a reductively “nativist” kind of way. Here’s my problem– in the recent films I have seen…
Read MoreI love medical mysteries. About a year ago, I saw a “Dateline NBC” show on people who have a strange condition called Body Integrity Image Disorder (BIID) or apotemnophilia (from the Greek αποτέμνειν, “to cut off” and φιλία, “to love”). It is characterized by an overwhelming desire to amputate one or more healthy limbs or…
Read MoreHere are the mutliple options I was considering for opening this post. (I couldn’t decide, so they’re all here):“The universe is a funny, funny, thing….” “Ever since Odysseus, we’ve all been heading back home in some way or another…” “I always wondered how it would feel to actually come ’round full circle…” Whatever… the news…
Read MoreIn Eduardo Mendieta’s recent review of Nicholas Adams’ philosophical text Habermas and Theology, Mendieta begins with the following: “Adjoining two nouns in the title of a book is like writing a blank check to “cash.” One better know who is receiving the check and one better make sure to have sufficient funds when it gets…
Read MoreNormally, I complain about the ubiquitous misuse of the term “deconstruction.” I find that, more often than not, when people say “deconstruction” they actually mean “destruction,” but they also want to show that they went to college. (See the “deconstructed” fashions hyped on Project Runway, for example, which are just ensembles of shredded or otherwise…
Read More…because I’m scheduled to play in the Rose Bowl. I love this time of year. It’s “Bowl Season” for college football fans– great teams matched up in memorable games, heaps of pomp and tradition, endless battles over cryptic BCS rankings–and if you’re a fan, as I have been all my life, it just doesn’t get…
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