Category: etc

I write reluctantly, and yet with, I feel, an historico-moral imperative to set the record on some key facts. In the first place, my father never visited Kansas with Truman Capote. Indeed, he never set foot in the sunflower state–on this point, there is no doubt. In fact, my father had the curious and somewhat…

This just in from our Paris correspondents, K et R: Even buildings and tourist attractions are going on strike!

The graph above (click to embiggen) charts the varying popularity levels of three names chosen at random, since 1880. There’s also a popular 4th name thrown in as a control. Care to guess what it is? You can have more fun here. And, if you want to be completely freaked out, go here and look…

Hal died Thursday night, his captors not really sure why. Nor is anyone sure where he came from, or how he got to Central Park in the first place. Would it have been possible to let a coyote live in Central Park, roaming around forever wild, or the ramble? Howling at night? Could he have…

“I never knew the old Vienna before the war, with its Strauss music, its glamour and easy charm.” So begins The Third Man (ranking high on my ten great films list), in which the city itself fills out the ensemble cast. It occurs to me just now that in the course of the film, we…

Quote from Charles Darwin: “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.” Quote from Bertrand Rusell: “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” Rings true? Then you may be interested in this study: Unskilled and Unaware of It:…