carefully selected garbage

Market Share

2009-06-07T10:51:00.004-04:00

Headed to the farmer's market this morning to pick up some food for the week. We love the market not only because it allows us to get fresh, locally grown produce, eggs, and meats, but because the market, so much more than a large grocery store, fosters a feeling of community.

While she was looking at some mushrooms, my wife was able to talk to the woman who farms them, get advice on the best way to prepare them, and chat generally about food, farming, and the beautiful day. Much more personal than the interactions you get at the supermarket. "If it's not on aisle three, we don't have it."

But there's more than just food going on at the market. There are people taking photos, people playing music. People are catching up over coffee while the kids dance or pet one of the many dogs that are enjoying a walk in the sun.

In a city where we're all too often pushing past each other to cram onto a train, trying not to make eye contact and wishing we were somewhere else, it's nice to see people smiling and sharing a sunny summer morning.

And, to top it all off, our menu for the week looks fantastic.

Cue the sauce

2009-06-02T19:39:00.003-04:00

Pork short ribs, green beans, and sweet potato fries. Could've stood to cook for a few more hours, but I was too hungry. Not pictured: Glass of lemonade.

Soundtrack: Bill Monroe
Secret ingredient: 2oz Woodford Reserve, taken directly

True story

2009-05-28T11:34:00.001-04:00

We made our way to the pear trees that grew
Back behind Grandma and Grandaddy’s house
To pick what we could so mom and my aunts
Would bake a fresh pie to eat after lunch.

Grandma made homemade vanilla ice-cream
Which sent Grandaddy to Mr. Berkman’s
Across the road from the old cotton gin
Because there never was enough rock salt.

Up that tree I was on top of the world,
Ten years old looking out over the fields
And the horse pasture next to the old barn,
When wasps stung me square between the shoulders.

I tried not to cry when I ran inside,
But I’m afraid my eyes gave me away.
Still, nothing beats the healing power of
The love those women baked into that pie.

Cadillac Sky - Born Lonesome

2009-05-26T14:30:00.002-04:00

(h/t Garden & Gun)

The Good Life

2009-04-04T14:53:00.004-04:00

"The issue is how we define the good life. Are the unlimited acquisition of material possessions and ever-higher use of energy the ultimate definition of the good life? How is this going to be sustainable on a global basis?

I don't think the answers will come easily. They certainly will not come wihtin the term of any one president. This is a debate that has to start within the country that, in a sense, has set the worldwide standard for material attainments and which, in the current global era, has to ask itself whether that standard is compatible, literally, with continued global survival."

- Zbigniew Brzezinski, American and the World, p.244.

Let my people go

2009-02-24T08:40:00.005-05:00

Digging ourselves out of the current economic crisis will require more than injecting capital into banks, and more than overhauling the financial regulatory system. Both are necessary, to be sure, but we should take the opportunity to negotiate sustainable improvements to global trade regulations that would free the flow of not only goods, but human capital.

The current economic downturn has revived calls for economic protectionism, despite the proven benefits of global trade. The $787 billion economic stimulus bill signed by President Obama last week contains a "buy America" provision requiring federal stimulus money to favor domestic suppliers, regardless of their ability to provide the best products and services at a competitive price, and threatening to set off a chain reaction whereby countries across the globe pass similar protectionist regulations, thereby threatening our ability to do business in the global market.

Cooler heads prevailed, thankfully, and the provision was qualified with language such that the regulation be "applied in a manner consistent with United States obligations under international agreements." If there is ever a time to revert of economic isolationism, a global financial crisis is certainly not it.

Unfortunately, we still seem to be looking in the wrong direction in one area of global trade. The Wall Street Journal reported last weekend that the stimulus bill imposes disincentives for companies to hire foreign workers. This is a move in the wrong direction.

Instead of placing obstacles in the way of US firms hiring international workers, we should be using the incentive of increased numbers of H1-B visas to arrange agreements with other nations to ease restrictions on American workers coming to their countries, creating a smoother and more regular flow of people across the globe. Freeing the flow of human capital promises significant economic and national security advantages as well.

Economic Advantages

Broadens the pool of available talent for struggling companies.

Increases productivity by increasing competition for top jobs.

Broadens the pool of economic opportunities available to American workers.

Increases number of young workers in the US, reducing the strain of future entitlement spending as the native population ages.

National Security Advantages

Increases number of foreign workers in the US, resulting in an increase in financial and cultural remittances to foreign countries and strengthening ties between the US and the world.

Offers a rational solution to undocumented immigration from the South.

Increased the number of Americans working abroad, creating bonds of friendship and cultural respect that improve America's image abroad.

These are but of few of the potential advantages for improving global economics and security. Global trade liberalization has seen millions of people across the world lifted out of poverty. It has resulted in better living conditions, and better health care across the world. But for too long we've focused solely on increasing the freedom of movement for goods, keeping the most valuable resource nations produce chained down.

It's time for the workers of the world to break their chains and move freely through the global marketplace, creating a more prosperous and secure world for all.

Planes Trains and Automobiles

2009-02-21T08:41:00.005-05:00

A few weeks ago, my brother took the train down from Syracuse for a professional networking event in the District. As he was traveling, I sent him an SMS saying that "Train is by far the most civilized form of transport." He replied, "Because it's slow and expensive?" Touché.

It's an unfortunate fact that rail transport in the US is far less efficient than it is compared to other places, Europe in particular. For all the complaints we hear about train schedules overseas, our European cousins have nothing on Amtrak. And for anyone who finds this an argument for car commuting, I say enjoy your stay on I-66 in Virginia, Loop 610 in Houston, or any number of fantastic examples of the wonders of American car culture.

Today's Wall Street Journal includes an interesting look at the effect of the stimulus bill on Amtrak, and the main obstacle to an efficient nationwide passenger rail system in the US - lack of infrastructure.

But as long as most Amtrak trains run on crowded freight-rail tracks, the U.S. will remain far from building a European-style network of bullet trains. Amtrak's swiftest offering, the Washington-to-Boston Acela service, briefly hits a top speed of 150 miles per hour but averages only 62 mph between New York and Boston. Many of its trains get bogged down on lines that are owned and operated by freight railroads. By contrast, the 190-mile Brussels-to-Paris trip averages about 140 mph.

"We're not Europe," Mr. Boardman said. "We have a huge and world-renowned freight rail system in this country, and that's where we run most of the miles we run on Amtrak."

The intentional creation of the interstate highway system in the US propelled America forward both culturally and economically. Opening interstate transportation dramatically allowed goods and labor to flow more efficiently, reducing costs and increasing productivity. It also allowed people to move around and experience more of the cultural diversity in their country.

But as efficient as we are, there are significant improvements that could be made. A key investment should be the creation of infrastructure to support a national passenger rail system. That Texans can't easily take a train from Houston to Austin is simply ridiculous. And that is costs as much or more to take the train from DC to New York as it does to fly points to serious problems in efficiency.

If we're going to be throwing around trillions of dollars to stimulate the economy, we would be wise to invest that money in sound projects that have proven returns on investment. National passenger rail service is one of those.

A well run rail service with adequate infrastructure would be faster than driving, more comfortable than flying, and provide more efficient transportation of human capital in a time when we need to be finding ways to make sustainable improvements to our economy that will keep us competitive in the global market.

Besides, it's just more civilized.

David Brooks may dream of Denver, but I dream of Leiden.

Those were the days

2009-02-03T20:10:00.003-05:00

Christmas 1975: Francisco Macías Nguema, President of Equatorial Guinea, had 150 alleged coup plotters executed to the sound of a band playing Mary Hopkin's tune Those Were the Days in a national stadium.

Inauguration Day

2009-01-24T14:09:00.003-05:00

I hadn't planned on going downtown for the Inauguration. People infinitely better connected that I am couldn't get tickets, and even conservative estimates of the crowds made it clear that actually seeing anything other than crowds was unlikely. I briefly considered going downtown with a camera just to record the event, but hadn't made up my mind.

Monday evening, though, I was leaving for a party when we got a phone call and a friend offered us tickets. The tickets turned out to be for the parade, not the Inauguration ceremony, but that was just as well. An opportunity to bear witness to an historic event is an opportunity to bear witness to an historic event, whether one is on the West side of the Capitol, or on the sidewalk between Treasury and Old Ebbitt.

Being the Inauguration of the President of the United States, I wore grey flannel, white OCBD, blue repp tie, and a black wool overcoat. I wasn't the only one who dressed appropriately for the occasion, but I was certainly in the minority. This country really needs a national moratorium on jeans.

A native Texan, I'm not inherently opposed to denim - but everything has its place. If you paid $200 for your jeans, it doesn't make them "dressy," it just makes you a fool. And wearing jeans with a coat and tie doesn't make them appropriate for presidential occasions, either. I'm sure I'll get a lot of flak for this, but I'm okay with that. Somebody needs to say it.

Jeans notwithstanding, a lot of people were really dressed up. Maybe not to my taste, but at least they were trying to be respectful. And as Peggy Noonan rightly observed, PETA really took one on the chin. Who knew there were that many full length fur coats in the world? And not just on women!

The coolest people on the street were by far the Secret Service.They are the classiest of the law enforcement branches, I'd say. Well dressed, polite, and quiet. At one point a couple of guys came walking down the street with big bags and equipment slung over their shoulders. My wife said, "here come the cameras!" Then we noticed that they weren't news media, they were snipers.

The rooftop snipers were out in numbers. We had blue tickets, for the end of the parade route, right around the corner from the presidential viewing stand. It was clear that we were in the safest place on the planet. The atmosphere was so jubilant, though, that rooftop snipers never felt remotely threatening. People just waved and cheered them. Sort of strange in retrospect, but at the time it seemed to make perfect sense.

The weather was brutally cold, so after the president and vice president came by, we went to Old Ebbitt to warm up with bourbon and crabcakes and watch the rest of the parade through the windows. At the end of the day, I was exhausted and near frozen. But I was glad to have had the opportunity to witness up close such an historic moment.

How Lordly is the life I lead

2009-01-23T20:27:00.003-05:00

This was a popular film in my house when I was a child. My takeaway was that it's better to put your pennies in the bank than to give them to poor people. Also, a red carnation in the lapel is becoming. People have always told me that there's some other lesson to be taken, but I haven't found it yet. Perhaps they're talking about how great it would be to have a cannon on the roof?

I still sing this song at my wife on occasion, just as a reminder of what it's like to be me.

The rhythm would speak for itself

2009-01-15T20:06:00.004-05:00

Today's WSJ draws attention to a quote in The Guardian that I can't stop thinking about.

"It was the very first production at Hampstead Theatre, in 1960. He wrote to me and asked me to play Riley [in "The Room"]. It was a very dense play and I didn't really understand it, but I was very flattered he'd asked me, so I thought, "Why not?" On the third day, there was a frightful row between Harold and Vivien Merchant on the rehearsal floor. She said: "I can't say this line. What does it mean? It doesn't seem to make sense." He said: "Just say the line, observe the pauses and it will work." I was heartened to know that I wasn't the only person who was puzzled. When Vivien complained to him about saying the lines, it meant that even as his wife, she hadn't been able to understand. . . . But I learned that if you said the lines exactly as he wrote them -- observing the pauses, the commas and semi-colons -- the rhythm would speak for itself."

Thomas Baptiste quoted in "Old Times: Actors Remember Harold Pinter," the Guardian (London), Jan. 8.

"Close the door"

2009-01-13T19:32:00.014-05:00

While pulling Esquire's Handbook for Hosts off the shelf yesterday to look up their recipe for a hot toddy, I spied another must-have reference for young men in America: P.J. O'Rourke's The Bachelor Home Companion.

O'Rourke is, of course, one of the finest wits of the 20th century, and a master of American culture and politics. I first discovered him when I was in high school and Parliament of Whores was number one on the New York Times bestseller list*.

While famous for his political satire, a few of O'Rourke's early books took aim at a quickly disappearing culture - the Ty Webb style cad. Bachelor Home Companion is the second such book, the first being Modern Manners. As a young man coming of age in the age of political correctness, O'Rourke's books were more than just humorous reflections on "the performance of gender in 20th century American society,"** they were a celebration of all that was good in the world. Well, maybe not all. But they were damned funny.

And Bachelor Home Companion is more than just satire. It also includes helpful information that I've put to use both before I was married, and when my wife was traveling a lot for work.

Table of Equivalents

Bachelor Measuring Units	Customary Household Measuring Units
1 shotglass	3 Tablespoons
1 handful (dry measure)	1/3 cup
1 handful (liquid measure)	1/2 cup
1 mouthful	1/3 cup
1 good splash (from tap)	4 Tbsp
1 good splash (from wine bottle)	1/2 cup
1 good splash (from whisky bottle into highball glass)	6 fl oz
1 beer can	1 cup
1 dog dish	1 pint
Customary Household Measuring Units	Bachelor Measuring Units
1 teaspoon	too much salt
1 Tablespoon	too much instant coffee
1 cup	too much mixer
1 pint	not enough whisky
1 quart	too much gin
1 gallon	enough beer to last until halftime
1 peck	I forgot to buy sweet corn
1 bushel	I bought too much
1 pound	3 oz of T-bone steak after 15 minutes on the grill

Today, O'Rourke is H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, and he continues to write for a variety of publications. His contemporary writing may not be what it once was, but his place in the history of American satire is firmly set.

* Today's number one is ~~Sideshow Bob~~ Malcolm Gladwell's recent tribute to the obvious. And so our society crumbles before our very eyes.
** I'm pretty sure I took that class in college. We did not read P.J. O'Rourke. The class would have been more interesting had we.

Doctor's Orders

2009-01-12T17:11:00.002-05:00

Falling asleep in the middle of the afternoon yesterday should have been a good indicator. But I suppose I was in denial. After all, being sick is no fun. Yes, you get to stay home from the office. But you also get to worry about work piling up and clients frantically calling for help. And, being sick, you don't even get to enjoy your time off.

So, you fight back against whatever microscopic invaders have penetrated your defenses. You hunker down for battle, scrambling the white blood cells and declaring your immune system at DEFCON 1. For a first strike against the enemy, you unleash the hot toddy.

Hot toddy recipes vary, of course. My wife includes honey and black tea. I tend to make it up as I go along. Today, though, I've opted today for the classic recipe*:

Mix double shot of favorite whisky or brandy with 1 teaspoon (or less) sugar. Fill glass with hot water and garnish with clove studded lemon slice and bits of stick cinnamon.

I will now retire to watch The News Hour and ponder the fate of the world. Question at hand: Does the fate of the world matter if I feel like this?

* Esquire's Handbook for Hosts. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1949. p. 174

Poeta, poetinha vagabundo

2009-01-09T09:46:00.003-05:00

It's been all about the bossa nova at my house lately. A glass of claret and a Toquinho record. It's the cure for what ails you.

Ready Made Disposable Society: Bespoke

2009-01-06T19:15:00.009-05:00

A couple of years ago, I was at a local tailor for alterations to a suit I'd just purchased. While I was waiting, I was looking at a couple of bespoke suits in his shop, all quite impressive. We talked for a while, and I asked him what it would take to have a bespoke suit tailored. He told me that his suits typically start around $3,000, but that they can go up quite a bit depending on the fabric one chooses.

$3,000 being well out of my budget, I thought I'd take it down a notch. "How about just a pair of trousers?" I don't remember exactly, but I think it was somewhere around $750. I humbly picked up my ready made suit and went home.

The first I remember learning the term bespoke was around 1989. I was thumbing through a copy of GQ magazine, and, while I wasn't entirely sure what the term meant (I would have been all of 13), it was fairly obvious that that was the suit one wanted. Since that introduction, I've always kept bespoke suiting in the back (well, middle, anyway) of my mind. It's kind of like a Rolls Royce - I'll likely never have one, but it's nice to know they're still out there.

A few years ago, though, I found myself in Bangladesh where tailored clothing is not yet only an option for the wealthiest of society. To be sure, you can go to a tailor in Dhaka and have a suit tailored for $2,000, if you so desire. But there's a wide range of tailors below that level - everyone from the guy with the rented sewing machine in the alley of the local bazaar, to the more mid-range shops filled with bolts of fabrics and people haggling over the price of a shirt. I picked one of the latter for my first foray into custom clothing.

I went in and was fitted by a tailor, picked out a collar, cuffs, and some fabric Between my broken Bangla and the tailor's broken English, we communicated pretty well, and I left with a claim slip for a single shirt and a pair of pants. A couple of weeks later, I returned and picked up my packages. Total cost for one shirt and one pair of pants: $32.

When I got home, I tried on the clothes and they fit perfectly. One of the worst consequences of industrialization and economic efficiency is the dominance of ready made clothing. After years of off-the-rack clothes that surely don't fit anybody, I finally had a set of clothes that was made to measure - and it felt like it. The next day I returned and ordered several more shirts.

I returned to pick up my packages and rushed home to try them on. When I slipped on the first shirt, I started to panic. The sleeves were about a half inch too short. I tried on the next one - sleeves were a full inch too short and too narrow, chest was about an inch too narrow. Each shirt I tried on got progressively smaller.

I was really distraught, and returned to the tailor hoping to get things corrected. Taking out a custom tailored shirt isn't exactly easy. Or possible. It requires a new shirt. And Bangladeshi economics subscribes very much to the theory of caveat emptor.

To be fair, the tailor was clearly as distraught as I was. It was pretty clear that, while he'd done the first order himself, this second order was likely delegated to hired help. It was right before Eid, after all, and business was really busy. And who would believe that a man could really have arms that big*!

I ended up moving back to the US, and never was able to recover my other shirts. Total cost: $50. Sure, I was out $50, which stung at the time, but looking back, it was worth the experience.

I still have the original pants and shirt, and they continue in regular rotation. My neck has gotten a little bigger since I've been back in the land of donut, but it still works. The pants are some of the most comfortable I've ever had.

Maybe someday I'll go back for that $3,000 suit from the tailor in Georgetown, but until then, I'll always have Dhaka Tailors and Fabrics.

* I'm not really that big, but much more so than the average Bangladeshi.

Ready Made Disposable Society: Detachable Collars

2009-01-04T10:02:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, I was putting away laundry when I noticed a white shirt collar that will soon resign the shirt to weekend-around-the-house wear. I do what you can to keep my collars and cuffs white, but living through Texas or DC summers, you're fighting a losing battle. When I lived in Bangladesh, the woman who washed my laundry dyed all my white shirts blue. I suppose that's one way of attacking it.

I started thinking about what a waste it is that the collar and cuffs of a shirt, probably all of 10 percent of the actual shirt, will often dictate the fate of the rest of the shirt. Hardly equitable, now, is it?

Now, unless you're attending Eton or, I don't know, a practicing barrister, perhaps, your collar is more than likely permanently sewn to the rest of your shirt. I wouldn't suggest that we should all be wearing wing collars or anything, but what's to keep from making day-to-day shirts with detachable collars? Nothing, it would seem, since one can find a shirt with a detachable collar, for a price.

But why should this option be reserved for people who buy $125 shirts? And even those are few and far between. When I think of how much easier, cheaper, and less wasteful it would be to worry about replacing a collar than an entire shirt, I can't help but wonder why more people aren't clamoring for them.

This really brings up a much larger issue, which is that in our economic quest to provide as much low-quality merchandise to as many people as possible, we've created a society in which most people never buy anything of value. We get to feel wealthy with our disposable fakes, while the wealthy continue to enjoy quality goods and services.

I hate the idea of looking costumey, and given the choice, I'll keep cycling out 90 percent perfect shirts. Maybe that's the tradeoff. But judging by the photo of the Clerk and Teller shirt linked above, it shouldn't have to be.

The typed and the printed and the spelt all wrong

2009-01-02T18:28:00.007-05:00

I was out to dinner with a friend recently who mentioned that she was looking for pen pals for her son as "he needs work on his penmanship." I was really overjoyed to hear this, not because I delighted in her child having poor penmanship, but because I at times despair that I'm the only person left who finds penmanship and letter writing worthy of consideration.

Growing up, I regularly had pen pals my age, and loved writing and receiving letters. This was right before the Internet took over all forms of communication, and before cellular phone companies made long distance charges all but obsolete. If you had a friend in another city or state, you were still best off keeping in touch via written letter.

Despite the ubiquity of Internet communications, I'm always on the lookout for the opportunity to write letters. When a good friend taught English in Japan for a year, we exchanged letters regularly. When I lived in Bangladesh, I wrote letters at least twice a week.

What's so great is, letter writing is an opportunity to give someone a gift. Who doesn't like to open the mailbox and see a hand addressed envelope with a letter inside? And it's so much more personal to receive a hand written missive than a three word SMS.

I once wrote an extensive letter to a film historian, a few of whose books I had just read, and received in reply a lengthy handwritten letter and a photograph of the author with John Wayne! Daniel Clowes sent me a postcard in reply. In college, I wrote a letter to my favorite author at the time, Haruki Murakami, and received, several weeks later, a letter from his assistant informing me that Mr. Murakami did not answer interviews. In a fit of rejection, I threw the letter away - a move I have regretted ever since.

For Christmas this year, I received a new fountain pen. I have a small collection of fountain pens that belonged to my Grandfather and Great Grandfather that my Grandmother gave me a few years ago. I treasure them, of course, and it's nice to add one of my own to the collection. Besides, there's nothing like sucking the ink up into a new pen and setting it to paper. I immediately went out and bought a new box of stationery, and look forward to a new year filled with new opportunities to write.

Chega De Saudade

2008-12-29T16:59:00.004-05:00

The sky is clear and blue, and the air is cool. It's the perfect day to go for a walk and marvel at the sunlight sparkling off the downtown architecture. Sure, the economy is in the tank, and senseless wars rage on. But a new year is just around the corner. Let's bossa nova our way to tomorrow.

Merry Christmas From the Family

2008-12-24T09:29:00.003-05:00

A holiday favorite, it could have been written about my grandparents' house in the early '80s. I have fond memories of family holidays growing up, and I enjoy them even more now that I'm old enough to appreciate how lucky I am to have a large, close family filled with utter lunatics. I'm missing them terribly this Christmas, but I'll be sure to give them a phone call tomorrow. And I can always watch this video if I need a peek at what's going on back in Texas. Feliz Navidad, ya'll.

Barberism Begins at Home

2008-12-22T18:33:00.005-05:00

Bobby Kennedy, a man with a good haircut

Since moving to DC, I've been on the lookout for a decent barber, a prize that has proven more elusive than one would hope. The problem, it seems, is that I require neither salon nor stylist. I very rarely put any sort of holding product in my hair, and I don't blow dry. I'm a low-intensity, wash and go kind of guy. No mess, no fuss, no hassle.

At home in Texas, a barber is not hard to find. From small town to big city, you will usually have your choice between more than one small barber shop that features: a stack of magazines (sports and outdoors), a refrigerator (soda), Pinaud talcum powder and after shave, straight razors, black combs, and your choice of haircut: regular, flat top, or buzz cut. I prefer regular.

DC has a lot of boutiques that are little more than overpriced suburban strip mall salons. These are pretty easy to spot, though, by the overworked young women who would rather be somewhere else, and the shiny black plastic sinks they want to wash your hair in before they cut it. I suppose if you've a head full of gel, that's probably necessary.

DC also has more than one "gentleman's salon" that features complimentary cocktails, dark wood, and hunting prints on the wall. But while the decor in these places may nod towards traditionalism, once seated in the chair, one is berated with suggestions as to how one might accomplish the latest gauche trends out of California or New York. One fellow (clad in all black, nach) even went so far as to roll his eyes and proclaim that the haircut I requested was "boring." If you want to be an artist, buddy, go buy some paint. All I need is a haircut.

Tonight, however, after renewed research, I found a barbershop in Foggy Bottom that looked promising. I trekked through the freezing cold in the hopes that I'd have a decent haircut for Christmas. It all felt right. There was Pinaud, hair all over the floor, Sports Illustrated (current), and a row of guys getting good old, boring, red-blooded-American, regular haircuts.

All signs point to fully satisfactory at this time. I was wearing a hat to protect from the cold, so hat hair is skewing the results. But the man didn't flinch when I requested, "long, but off the ears." He'd clearly heard it countless times. We talked about the weather, the best plan of attack for shoveling snow (consensus: if you need to shovel in DC, just take the day off), and how paying a bank every month isn't the same as "owning" a home. It felt right.

Christmas Movies

2008-12-20T17:27:00.004-05:00

Every year, new films are rolled out for the Christmas holiday. Some become classics, others, well, less so.

One great Christmas sleeper film is Walt Stillman's 1990 film, Metropolitan. Nominated for an Oscar (Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen), and a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance (Dramatic), Metropolitan is the story of a group of Manhattan debs and their escorts as they wiling away the time over a Christmas holiday discussing politics, society, and, of course, each other.

The group of friends, self-identified as the Sally Fowler Rat Pack, or SFRP, is accidentally infiltrated by Tom Townsend, a middle-class Fourierist who disapproves of conventional society, and debutante balls in particular, but finds himself attending out of "nothing better to do." The SFRP adopt Townsend and a story of alienation, youthful angst, and friendship emerges.

The film stars Chris Eigeman, who is a favorite from Noah Baumbach's 1995 film, Kicking & Screaming, a film with which Metropolitan also shares a penchant for dry, witty dialogue spoken by precocious, over-educated youth.

Not a film for everyone, I suppose, but a Christmas classic, nevertheless. Certainly one that will endure.

The Duke Spirit - Souvenir

2008-12-19T09:25:00.002-05:00

It's a wet and grey day on the Eastern seaboard. The economy is in shambles, and we're on the threshold of a future unknown. What better soundtrack than The Duke Spirit? With grainy tones and tired eyes, we know we'll get through it all with a little codeine and wine.

Life Imitates The Ritchie Whites

2008-12-16T13:13:00.004-05:00

Employees interviewed by WilmerHale investigators said Walters kept a jar of money -- one person said it contained $20 bills -- on her desk for co-workers, although Walters told investigators that claim wasn't true. After the embezzlement scheme was uncovered by federal law enforcement agents in November 2007, one employee told her boss that no one had raised concerns about Walters because "snitches get stitches."

- Washington Post, December 16, 2008

Ungentlemanly Conduct and the BCS

2008-12-01T10:07:00.002-05:00

Yesterday's BCS rankings left me more than a bit irritated. It's not simply that Texas was ranked third, nor that we were ranked below Oklahoma, though certainly that smarts a bit. But I don't mind being bested - that's part of the game. After all, we lost to Texas Tech because Tech played an outstanding game and, for that 60 minutes, simply outplayed us. I can live with that, and I sent a congratulatory email to my Red Raider cousin following the game.

What irritated me about the BCS rankings are what I fear are the lessons that will be taken. When Oklahoma beat Texas Tech - which was really the decisive game in this situation - OU played their star quarterback and Heisman contender, Sam Bradford, the entire game. At the end of play, the score was 65-21. A 44 point blowout.

Compare that to the Texas v. Texas A&M game on Thanksgiving. Despite the potential BCS implications of not serving up a blowout, Coach Mack Brown pulled Heisman contender Colt McCoy and, instead, giving playing time to the Sophomore quarterback, John Chiles.

The day after Thanksgiving, I was talking to a fellow from A&M about the game. Good natured ribbing overwith, this guy said, "You know, when Mack pulled Colt McCoy, that showed a lot of class. You guys could have really made things miserable for us."

This is an important part of competition - striving to win, but not to embarrass your opponent. It brings to mind Gen. Lee's definition of a gentleman,

The forbearing use of power does not only form a touchstone, but the manner in which an individual enjoys certain advantages over others is a test of a true gentleman.

The power which the strong have over the weak, the employer over the employed, the educated over the unlettered, the experienced over the confiding, even the clever over the silly--the forbearing or inoffensive use of all this power or authority, or a total abstinence from it when the case admits it, will show the gentleman in a plain light

The gentleman does not needlessly and unnecessarily remind an offender of a wrong he may have committed against him. He cannot only forgive, he can forget; and he strives for that nobleness of self and mildness of character which impart sufficient strength to let the past be but the past. A true man of honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others.

This is why my father still considers "ungentlemanly conduct" a mortal sin in sports. The object of the game should always to be win, but to win clean and with class.

Mack Brown is a true gentleman. Not only against A&M, but against Kansas, Coach Brown pulled his starting lineup when the game was clearly won. After the game, Coach Brown was very clear about his intentions:

"I'm worried a little bit that people aren't taking people out much in the fourth quarter," Brown said. "People are trying to score so many points. I hope that we go back and really work on sportsmanship and letting other kids play. I'm really concerned about that for our game."

I wish both OU and Mizzou the best of luck in the Big XII championship game. It would be unfair to the young men competing to say anything that might be read to impugn their character. They are performing their duty well, and competing like champions, all.

But I think we must take heed of Coach Brown's words. Competitive sports teaches values to coaches, players, and spectators alike. In our drive to win, to be the best that we can be, we must keep an eye on what truly matters. Winning at all costs will only result in Pyrrhic victories, and will ultimately undo us all.

The Texas Longhorns have shown incredible skill, determination, and, above all, class. Let's hope other programs are taking note.

Mickey 3d - La Mort du Peuple

2008-11-19T09:28:00.003-05:00

"What strikes me is the fact that in our society, art has become something which is only related to objects, and not to individuals, or to life."

- Michel Foucault

When Mr. McGinnis introduced me to Mickey 3d, I was instantly smitten. Searching around on YouTube, I found the video for La Mort du Peuple and went from smitten to spellbound. I recalled the first time I saw a collection of Diane Arbus portraits, and was reminded of a fact that is too often lost on us in our search for the sublime and the beautiful: Art lies not outside or within us; art is us.