Monthly Archives: February 2005

Q: Excuse me sir, how much for that trashy propaganda novel? A: Ein Rand.

Shadow Originally uploaded by Grobstein. Along with just about everybody and his mother, I went down to New York last weekend to check out “The Gates” (the big public art project in Central Park, coming down next weekend). Like many … Continue reading →

I read Sputnik Sweetheart (Murakami, trans. Philip Gabriel) over the weekend. I guess it’s a love story, and a meditation on loneliness, but I can’t (and don’t want to) pin it down too tightly. Anyway, with a trim 200-page length … Continue reading →

In a recent (sort of bad) practice debate, Melissa and I presented the case that, in the event of a draft, there ought to be a broad exemption for students currently in higher education. (Present, post-Vietnam, law calls for a … Continue reading →

Econometric data has shown that the variance of consumption data is much larger at the higher end of the income scale. This is because rich people are more diverse.

I just finished Kafka on the Shore (cf. below). It was wonderful but (and?) bewildering. I wish I could say something more specific, but it seems like too much to capture in fewer words than the novel itself. (You can, … Continue reading →

Did you guys see the Times article last week about the restaurant that prepares paper foods with an inkjet? You did? Did you read to the part about cooking bread from the inside out with lasers?

Consider the following. Scenario 1: you come home after a long day’s work, expecting to be greeted by an empty house. Instead, you find a burglar in the house. Ironic? Scenario 2: on your way home from a long day’s … Continue reading →

I don’t know how I did on my comps yet, but I do know that they’re over, so the structure of the demands on my time has shifted somewhat. If I play my cards right, get back in the swing … Continue reading →