Storm Jameson on Happiness
Marageret Storm Jameson said:
Happiness comes of the capacity
to feel deeply,
to enjoy simply,
to think freely,
to risk life,
to be needed.
Apocalypse Now (Redux)
The first 10 minutes of Apocalypse Now are magnificent. My eyes were glued to every pixel on the screen. But following Captain Willard on his long journey from Saigon up a river to Cambodia where he is supposed to assassinate a U.S. general gone mad becomes tiring. The Redux version of the 1979 film is definitely too long. I have seen my share of Vietnam movies. This one is short on action and long on setting scenes like a painter would have. (I have never been to Vietnam and I found the landscape cinematography beautiful.) Apocalypse Now focuses on the psychological damage the war did on American soldiers. It does very little to explain why the American government got sucked into this war. The documentary The Fog of War is much better on this front. You can skip Apocalypse Now but not the The Fog of War.
Elton John is allegedly retiring and ready to start a family
Two days ago it was Hugh Hefner, today it is Elton John who catches me by surprise. Apparently, Elton is ready to start a family now that he is retiring from the road. People Magazine reports:
The singer, 62, and husband David Furnish, 48, welcomed son Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John on Dec. 25, John’s rep confirms to PEOPLE.
The 7 lb., 15 oz., baby was delivered via surrogate in California.
“We are overwhelmed with happiness and joy at this very special moment,” the couple, who exchanged vows in a civil ceremony in 2005, said in a statement. “Zachary is healthy and doing really well, and we are very proud and happy parents.”
Just last year, Furish told PEOPLE they were going to wait to start a family until John was ready to come off the road.
“We don’t want to put the raising of children into the hands of nannies and housekeepers,” said Furnish. “We want to be active parents. We have godchildren [and] kids that we support in Africa, so we’re fine.”
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Hugh Heffner, 84, marries Chrystal Harris, 24
I have long believed that similarity in interests rather than similarity in age is much more important for a good relationship. This, of course, raises the important question: Just what are the common interests of Hugh and Crystal. I am not a big fan of reality TV shows, but now I am eager for Chrystal to become the main attraction of the reality TV show (which I just learned about) The Girls Next Door. I want to see how the 60 years in age difference works out when they are not going into the bedroom. What the news story below does not mention is that Playboy Entprises has fallen on very hard times lately. On the assumption that Chrystal believes that Hugh has big dough left, I can understand why Chrystal would want to marry Hugh given that Hugh in all likelihood will not be around that long. But why would Hugh want to marry Chrystal. Because she will not be his bunny unless he marries her? Will Hugh’s daughter, Christie, who ran Playboy Enterprises until 2008, offer her services as bridesmade? I am beginning to think this is all a big publicity stunt and this announced mariage is not what the Pople has in mind for the institution. What a story. I need to start watching The Girls Next Door.
2010 in Pictures Courtesy of the New York Times & Spiegel Online
NY Times: 2010: The Year in Pictures
A more poetic version of the year appeared in:
Spiegel Online: 52 pictures of 2010
Picture: Child in Africa inspired by the World Cup!
Continue ReadingCharles Krauthammer: Obama’s New Start
Charles Krauthammer, the conservative editorialist of the Washington Post, warns his Republican friends that Obama is not to be written off. It is useful to remember that in politics, just like in any sport or busines, you don’t have to be perfect. You only have to be better than the compeitition.
Riding the lamest of ducks, President Obama just won the Triple Crown. He fulfilled (1) his most important economic priority, passage of Stimulus II, a.k.a. the tax cut deal (the perfect pre-re-election fiscal sugar high - the piper gets paid in 2013 and beyond); (2) his most important social policy objective, repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell”; and (3) his most cherished (achievable) foreign policy goal, ratification of the New START treaty with Russia.
Picture: “Die Hard with a Vengeance”
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WikiLeaks Exposing the Psychology of America
It is difficult for individuals to change their personalities; it also also difficult for countries to change their personalities. Derek Leebaert desribes the lens through which American diplomats have thinking about the world for a long time.
Our Envoys, Ourselves (NY Times)
A GLOBAL power’s diplomatic archives are inevitably full of caustic dispatches. In Britain, a new batch of Foreign Office records is declassified each January under the “30-year rule” (a “50-year rule” before 1968). Historians can peruse elegantly handwritten mockeries of President Eisenhower’s name as exotically Eastern European, or files deriding Americans as the planet’s “most excitable” people—other than Bangladeshis.
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