talbotlucas.org: a word to the wise is sufficient

karl weintraub, r.i.p.

At the risk of becoming obituary central, I though it worth noting that Karl Weintraub, one of the professors at the University of Chicago who taught the much-launded History of Western Civilization series of courses, has died. The obit from the University of Chicago is here.

The obit's statement that "The course was so popular when Weintraub was teaching it that students had to sleep out on the University’s quadrangle the night before registration to secure a place" doesn't quite capture the popularity of his course and the respect many students had for it. I didn't sleep out for Weintraub's class (my sleep-out goal was a seat in David Bevington's Shakespeare class), but I knew several students who did, and a few who slept out more than one night in very cold temperatures, putting their L.L. Bean sleeping bags to the test on the lawn in front of Harper Memorial Library. Weintraub's class was no walk in the park, and students at Chicago took it as a challenge, devoting additional hours every week to prepare not only for the daytime classes, but for Wednesday evening sessions as well. He will be missed by many.

claus josef riedel, r.i.p.

The man who demonstrated that glasses do make a difference in how a wine is experienced has died. Here's the obituary from the New York Times.

reconsidering a particular balance of power

Following up on the Wolf/Bloom contretemps, an interesting perspective from Laura Kipnis on unwanted sexual advances--at least those that are one-time and of the sort Wolf described in her New York article. Her suggestion--that it might not be correct to categorize recipients of such advances as powerless--shines new light on the recent hoo-ha.

(Back to my original entry on this subject, here.)

next week on "fresh air"

NPR's Fresh Air will feature shows next week in memory of Spalding Gray. Fresh Air also makes archived shows available via the web site, so if it's inconvenient to listen to the local broadcast in your area you can listen to them at a later date.

happy saint patrick's day

We're not celebrating as boldly or loudly as some do, but we're celebrating Saint Patrick's Day nonetheless. Wallace is the only member of our household who doesn't have a piece of the old sod in his background--his ancestors herald from Wales--but since Saint Patrick may have been born in Wales, Wallace has agreed that it's only right to celebrate on behalf of friends and distant relatives.

spalding gray, r.i.p.

The search for Spalding Gray ended last week, and for many people the news brought a creative chapter to a close. I had hoped that his latest monologue would help him exorcise the demons that traveled with him, but that wasn't meant to be. I guess "talking cures" can only do so much.

For those of you who are curious, a few more related pieces: The New York magazine cover story about the difficulties that plagued Gray in recent years; more thoughts from John Perry Barlow; an appreciation broadcast on NPR (with audio clips of Gray himself); link to the WNYC (Leonard Lopate Show) tribute (including a rebroadcast of a November 1990 interview with Gray, around the time he was performing "Monster in a Box," the monologue about his experience of writing Impossible Vacation); and the New York Times' obituary.

medical blacklist removed

Although I suspect this isn't the end of this type of particular web "service," the medical blacklist about which I wrote a few days ago has been taken offline (link to NYTimes article).

using an iPod to "regain your personal space"

From the BBC, an article about how iPods help listeners reclaim their personal space in a world that visually and aurally pummels us. I've found this to be true, and am going to seek out more information on Dr. Bull's research in this area.

Perhaps this explains why I enjoy riding the metro in Paris and the u-bahn in Frankfurt: while there are still advertisements and conversations, I'm able to tune them out because I'm not fluent in either French or German. More snippets sneak through in French, but unless I overhear something really interesting I'm able to shut it out. That's not always the case on the home front.

Lewis Black has famously (and comedically) commented on this subject of unwanted communication. In one of his monologues, he opines that brain aneurisms might be caused by hearing something stupid. That stupidity finds its way into your brain. You can't get it out of your head and some time later--blam!--it destroys a blood vessel. As an example he mentions a snippet of a conversation he overheard at an IHOP, where a woman says: "If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college." This causes Black great consternation, but serves as wonderful fodder for the rest of the monologue (available on The White Album). Not for the faint of heart, or ear...

spalding gray is no longer missing

The mystery is over: Spalding Gray's body has been recovered from the East River. Sad, but after the last few months without news, not much of a surprise.

seuss stamp

Celebrating figures from the world of arts and letters on postage stamps is something I like to see, and I'm especially happy to see the Dr. Seuss stamp. I have many happy memories of reading Dr. Seuss's books with my mom, twisting our tongues around the strings of words. I have to drop off a package at our local FedEx drop box; perhaps a trip to the post office is in order, too. (There's something I like about buying the stamps and taking them home in their glassine envelope...something decidedly and attractively low-tech. I haven't yet bought stamps online through the Post Office's web site, but if I knew that they'd still send me the stamps in the glassine envelope I might consider it...)

at the intersection of law and medicine

...is, among other messiness, the reality of the medical care blacklist. As discussed in a recent New York Times article, bringing an action against a doctor--even if that action was fully justified--can mean the denial of medical care at a later date. I'm against frivolous lawsuits as much as anyone, but this isn't the way to curb them, and I'm a little surprised by the AMA's approval of the practice.

update 9 march: LawMeme also finds this a troublesome development.

essential chicago book list

Courtesy of WBEZ, a list of books their panel suggests as "essential . . . for anyone who wants to truly understand Chicago." Some excellent choices (if I say so myself) and some that I haven't read but probably should. The to-be-read list keeps growing, and growing, and growing...

wallace wants to know...

did he miss a memo? it's 85 in the shade today in LA. how y'all doin'?

update: wallace wants everyone to know that it actually hit 91 today. hottest March 8 on record. he's not too thrilled about that. i had thought at one point he made a sustained, low growling noise that sounded something like "global warming...respected scientists...kyoto...damn administration" but it turned out he just wanted another cookie.

alice waters' continuing quest

In this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, an article about the impact--and potential--of Alice Waters' programs and proposals for changing the way food is presented in our school. Read it here (in .pdf form) or link to the Times.

For more information on The Edible Schoolyard program, visit their site. I encourage you to pay special attention to Waters' message.

Also of interest...Food Politics by Marion Nestle. An interesting intersection between my interest in food politics and my current Administrative Law class. You may have had no problem grasping the idea that agribusiness plays a big role in determining the availability of certain foods, but Nestle's book investigates how the FDA and other agencies are swayed by corporate concerns, putting shareholder interests far above the interests of consumers (and, some might say, above their statutory mandates). An excerpt from the introduction is available here, courtesy of the University of California Press.

Given the amount of class reading and other work I should probably wait to sink into Food Politics once the semester is over...

rebooting one's life

Can't blog much this week--too much to do on too many fronts--but I did want to share this entry from the Volokh Conspiracy on rebooting one's life. Nice to read about someone who had good results from the process, one that I feel I've started myself.

no news is...no news

That's the latest news on the search for Spalding Gray.