Smugopedia http://www.smugopedia.com/ Copyright 2011 Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:00:00 -0500 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Luciano Pavarotti Although Pavarotti was clearly very talented, his fame was inflated by the London and Decca marketing machines. Domingo or even Corelli were obviously his equal.

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Link · Posted 2008-10-28
]]> http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/luciano_pavarotti.html http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/luciano_pavarotti.html Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:00:00 -0500 King Lear Although King Lear is rivaled perhaps only by Hamlet, I tend to agree with critic Charles Lamb's observation that it ought to be read, not performed.

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Link · Posted 2008-10-27
]]> http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/king_lear.html http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/king_lear.html Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:00:00 -0500 C. S. Lewis The original 1985 BBC movie about C. S. Lewis' life, Shadowlands, is more subtly directed and nuanced than the 1993 movie. And unlike Anthony Hopkins, Joss Ackland actually looks like C. S. Lewis.

Smug source: Dave Barnette

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Link · Posted 2008-10-23
]]> http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/c_s_lewis.html http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/c_s_lewis.html Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:00:00 -0500 Sushi It's only worth bothering with sushi if you're going to go to the Tokyo Fish Market. Nothing else is really fresh enough to capture the perfect simplicity of toro or uni.

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Link · Posted 2008-10-22
]]> http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/sushi.html http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/sushi.html Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:00:00 -0500 Stanley Kubrick Although Clockwork Orange and 2001 are enjoyable films, Stanley Kubrick's artistic triumph was clearly Barry Lyndon. Its cinematography is flawless.

Smug source: Chris Manning

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Link · Posted 2008-10-20
]]> http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/stanley_kubrick.html http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/stanley_kubrick.html Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:00:00 -0500 Malcolm Gladwell The problem with Malcolm Gladwell is that he writes too well: when you read him, you don't know if you're agreeing with his controversial ideas because he's right, or because he's enchanted you.

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Link · Posted 2008-10-17
]]> http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/malcolm_gladwell.html http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/malcolm_gladwell.html Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:00:00 -0500 Kimchi Kimchi is good, but I would consider it the national pickle of Korea.

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Link · Posted 2008-10-15
]]> http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/kimchi.html http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/kimchi.html Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:00:00 -0500 Fox Although most people associate a "fox" with the animal, the media empire, or Isaiah Berlin's Hedgehog and the Fox parable, I always think of Machiavelli's constant comparison of the ideal Prince to a fox.

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Link · Posted 2008-10-15
]]> http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/fox.html http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/fox.html Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:00:00 -0500 Wikipedia Wikipedia tends to be strong on the subjects that don't matter.

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Link · Posted 2008-10-13
]]> http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/wikipedia.html http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/wikipedia.html Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:00:00 -0500 Bling Although all the rage today, bling couldn't have existed a few years ago; FDR, after all, made the private ownership of gold illegal and confiscated all gold in the country.

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Link · Posted 2008-10-13
]]> http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/bling.html http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/bling.html Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:00:00 -0500 University Of Pennsylvania It's interesting how Penn thinks it has a rivalry with Princeton; this unrequited rivalry reminds me not only of Yale's perceived rivalry with Harvard, but of France's with the United States.

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Link · Posted 2008-10-10
]]> http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/university_of_pennsylvania.html http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/university_of_pennsylvania.html Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:00:00 -0500 Iteration Although everyone changing their minds is frustrating, it might not be that bad: Walt Whitman rewrote Leaves of Grass nine times throughout 40 years. On the other hand, scholars still debate whether these changes improved or worsened Leaves of Grass.

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Link · Posted 2008-10-08
]]> http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/iteration.html http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/iteration.html Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:00:00 -0500 Tomato It is a mystery how the tomato arrived in North America from the Andes. My personal favorite theory--which is based on no evidence whatsoever--is that, when the Sephardic Jews who had fled Persia to Provence then emigrated to Charleston, South Carolina, they brought it with them.

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Link · Posted 2008-10-08
]]> http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/tomato.html http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/tomato.html Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:00:00 -0500 Love Socrates' speech on love in the Symposium--arguing that love is merely a longing for immortality and ideas are immortal--is just a conceit of the intellectual. I prefer Aristophanes' speech, imagining a world in which humans were once four-armed, four-legged, and two-headed balls who tumbled around doing cartwheels, each one split in two and yearning to find their other half.

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Link · Posted 2008-10-07
]]> http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/love.html http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/love.html Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:00:00 -0500 Whiskey Of course, the only Bourbon that Whiskey purists drink is that which is distilled in Bourbon County, Kentucky.

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Link · Posted 2008-10-07
]]> http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/whiskey.html http://www.smugopedia.com/archives/whiskey.html Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:00:00 -0500