Diary, Astute Observations
Robert Hilburn pieces together for the best account to day why Michael Jackson is dead. Michael Jackson: the wounds, the broken heart I’ll always regret that the last conversation I had with Michael Jackson ended with him angrily hanging up the phone—at least I’ve long thought of Michael’s mood that day more than a decade ago as angry. I now realize the more accurate description would be “wounded.” Michael was at times among the sweetest and most talented people I met during my 35 years of covering pop music for the Los Angeles Times.Michael Jackson Explained
Pop music critic Robert Hilburn recalls the years when the public turned its back on the singer. ‘I’m lonely,’ a 23-year-old Jackson said.
Diary, Astute Observations
The only columnist who I follow every week is David Brooks. Maybe you should too. The Long Voyage Home By DAVID BROOKS (NY Times)David Brooks dissects the Decline on the Republican Party
Republicans generally like Westerns. They generally admire John Wayne-style heroes who are rugged, individualistic and brave. They like leaders—from Goldwater to Reagan to Bush to Palin—who play up their Western heritage. Republicans like the way Westerns seem to celebrate their core themes—freedom, individualism, opportunity and moral clarity. But the greatest of all Western directors, John Ford, actually used Westerns to tell a different story. Ford’s movies didn’t really celebrate the rugged individual. They celebrated civic order. For example, in Ford’s 1946 movie, “My Darling Clementine,” Henry Fonda plays Wyatt Earp, the marshal who tamed Tombstone.
Diary, Astute Observations
I had not followed British politics and until I read this column by David Brooks, I did not know why the Tory party won the local elections in Great Britain last week. The Conservative Revival For years, American and British politics were in sync. Reagan came in roughly the same time as Thatcher, and ClintonDavid Brooks Explains the Reemergence of the Conservative Party in the UK
Diary, Astute Observations
This is a great reflection by Joel Achenbach (Washington Post) on the job of the president and how it has changed over the past 200 years. It makes you wonder. No one can really prepare for this job. My preferred candidate is still Barak Obama. But I recognize that we are all taking a leap of faith that our choice will be able to make the right decisions. A simple and deceptively tricky question: What does a president do? If you had to put together the Help Wanted ad for the position of chief executive, what would you write? Something like: “CEO needed to supervise 3 million employees. Must be at least 35, native-born, willing to work at home. Spectacular public failures likely.”What Does a President Really Do All Day?
Diary, Astute Observations
Different languages have come up with a way to express that the smell of other people has a profound effect how attracted we are to them. English talks about the “chemistry” that two people have. In German, you literally say “I cannot smell you” (Ich kann dich nicht riechen) to express that you don’t like another person. The Economist reports on the latest developments in the science of smell and interpersonal attraction. How to find a mate: The scent of a woman (and a man) The Smell of Romantic Attraction
A new kind of dating agency relies on matching people by their body odour
ONE of life’s little mysteries is why particular people fancy each other—or, rather, why they do not when on paper they ought to. One answer is that human consciousness, and thus human thought, is dominated by vision. Beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder, regardless of the other senses. However, as the multi-billion-dollar perfume industry attests, beauty is in the nose of the beholder, too.
Diary, Astute Observations
STEVEN PINKER pulls together in the New York Times magazine evidence that suggests that the human brain is pre-wired for developing a moral instinct. The article is a bit long but well worth reading. The Moral Instinct Which of the following people would you say is the most admirable: Mother Teresa, Bill Gates or Norman Borlaug? And which do you think is the least admirable? For most people, itHow the Brain Makes Moral Judgments
Diary, Astute Observations
Sometimes the lecture by the recipients of the Nobel Prize for literature are superb (e.g. Guenter Grass) and sometime they are quite disappointing (e.g. Heinrich Boell). Just read the Orhan Pamuk gave in Stockholm a few months ago after receiving the 2006 prize. It is a great read. Try it… By Orhan Pamuk: Two years before his death, my father gave me a small suitcase filled with his writings, manuscripts and notebooks. Assuming his usual joking, mocking air, he told me he wanted me to read them after he was gone, by which he meant after he died. ‘Just take a look,’ he said, looking slightly embarrassed. ‘See if there’s anything inside that you can use. Maybe after I’m gone you can make a selection and publish it.’Nobel Lecture: My Father’s Suitcase
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