I just finished watching the documentary Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus by marine biologist and filmmaker Randy Olson. As it turns out, less than 50% of Americans believe in evolution. The most vocal opponents come from the Intelligent Design camp, organized chiefly by the Discovery Institute, who basically believe in a modernized form…
Read MoreApparently, Memphis is about halfway between Texas and Philaedelphia. Also, apparently, I am the hostess with the mostest. This week my apartment runneth over with friends on their way from one of those places to the other. So, please forgive my absence on this blog for the next couple of days. I’ll be back on…
Read MoreIn one of the more shameless displays of media exploitation I’ve seen in a while, Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv last Friday published the prayer note that Barack Obama left at the Western Wall (also known as the Kotel or the Wailing Wall) on his recent trip to Jerusalem. Reportedly, the prayer note was stolen by a…
Read MoreThere’s an opinion peice in the recent issue of conservative magazine The National Review by John Derbyshire entitled “Talking to the Plumber: The IQ Gap,” in which Derbyshire argues that Americans are uneasy with the “inequality of smarts” in this country… and even more uneasy with the way that inequality in intelligence corresponds with other…
Read MoreLast year, I had a running series on this blog that I called The Quotable South. It was about one-part PSA (below-the-Mason/Dixon information campaign) and two-parts personal therapy (as I had just returned down South after 6 years in the Northeast). Anyway, a good friend of mine and semi-regular contributor to this blog, Dr. Trott…
Read MoreI’m going to say it: The Dark Knight did not impress. Yes, of course, I thought Heath Ledger’s turn as the fledgling Joker was an impressive performance. (And, yes, of course it’s a tragedy that Heath Ledger is no longer with us.) I know I’m going to sound a bit like a broken record here,…
Read MoreLast Christmas, on this blog, I posted a list of books that one should NOT give as gifts because, I speculated, the recipient is likely to misinterpret the meaning behind the gift. You were all very helpful in filling out that list, providing your own examples of the oft-embarrassing dissonance between the intended meaning of…
Read MoreHere’s another installment in the story of my two nieces– “Monkey” and “Templeton” (not their real names, of course)– who continue to say the damndest things. (You can read the first installment here.) The Family J recently returned from a beach vacation in Florida. I wasn’t able to go (proof again that academics don’t really…
Read MoreMany years ago, when I was in the full throes of my pomo-lit phase, I read John Barth’s 1955 novel The Floating Opera, which was one of those books that serendipitously landed in my lap at just the right time. John Barth is a little bit of a Philip-Roth-Lite, I think. He’s funny and smart…
Read MoreRecently, I’ve been thinking a lot about the power, and lack thereof, of shame. As regular readers of this blog already know, I’m currently working on a manuscript in defense of human rights via a reconstituted humanism (what I’m calling a “weak humanism“). Yesterday, I was flipping through a book I read several years ago…
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