There’s an excellent essay in the New York Times by the esteemed Milton critic and putative model for Morris Zapp in some of David Lodge’s novels, Stanley Fish. Fish lays out his idiosyncratic approach to teaching:”On the first day of my freshman writing class I give the students this assignment: You will be divided into […]
The Istanbul Syndrome, as it’s being called in the newpapers here, refers to Wednesday night’s defeat of A.C.Milan by Liverpool in the UEFA Champions’ league final. Leading in the first half by 3 goals to nil, a certain complacency set in, and the team of superstars ended up losing on penalty kicks. While his football […]
My recent (relatively) stellar performance in posting every day came to an end this week as the small matter of work got in the way. As well as trying to maintain a trickle of income coming in from mundane sources (the mortgage’s thirst is never slaked), I’m tricking around trying to get a blog tool […]
It’s with not inconsiderable excitement that this Monkey looks forward to the latest film from Oscar winning Italian director Gabriele Salvatores. His adaptation of Grazia Verasani’s crime novel Quo Vadis Baby?, set and filmed in Bologna will get its Italian release this Friday. Coinciding, there’s a nice interview in last week’s Il Venerdi di Repubblica. […]
I have a bad feeling that this is not a spoof: Das Keyboard (via Blogdex)
Chancellor Schr�der’s decision to call early elections came in the wake of disastrous election results in North Rhine-Westphalia. Apparently, the electorate gave the Social Democratic Party a kicking because they don’t like the government’s fairly timid attempts to reform the economy (in particular the so-called Hartz IV reforms, which introduced cuts to unemployment and social […]
Last year a controversial law was introduced by the centre-right ruling majority in Italy, to govern the conditions under which assisted procreation may take place. The requirement for legislation governing this area was not in itself controversial. Most recognised that there existed a ‘far-west’ situation, where ethics and medical standards were dubious to say the […]
Last year a controversial law was introduced by the centre-right ruling majority in Italy, to govern the conditions under which assisted procreation may take place. The requirement for legislation governing this area was not in itself controversial. Most recognised that there existed a ‘far-west’ situation, where ethics and medical standards were dubious to say the […]
Walter Kirn reviews Steven Johnson’s “Everything Bad Is Good for You” in the New York Times Sunday Book Review today. Johnson’s book is attracting quite a lot of coverage for making the apparently counter-intuitive proposal that watching a lot of television or playing a lot of video games is actually a Good Thing. Apparently, the […]