9thdoctor

I sit corrected. The peace prize is from Norway, the rest are from Sweden.

Bravo JR, I say don’t feed the trolls. Reference the trader principle. Continually.

Whoa-Whoa-Whoa, hold the phone, isn’t the Nobel Prize a Swedish thing? Sweden was neutral during WW2, we neither saved nor kicked their butt. A quick Wikipedia search (praises be to Jimbo!) shows some references to Norway, but it still looks like it primarily comes from Sweden. The ceremony is in Stockholm.

Phil: Here’s a link to How to Travel with a Salmon, which is a collection of shorter works by Eco. Most are comic opinion columns, a la Dave Barry, but Stars and Stripes and Conversation in Bablyon are short stories, the only one’s by Eco I can think of. They read like something by Douglas Adams, all the way down to the Apple computer references. http://books.google.com/books?id=_ntDTaMUys8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=eco+salmon#v=onepage&q=&f=false That’s all the nudging I’m inclined to give you in the direction of Eco. Beyond this would be an exercise in public masturbation.

Looks like this thread’s wound down, as gracefully as could be hoped for, still here’s one more for the road: The limerick packs laughs anatomical Into space that is quite economical. But the good ones I’ve seen So seldom are clean And the clean ones so seldom are comical.

Phil: Try Google books, here’s a link to Baudolino, you can read 100 or so pages for free http://books.google.com/books?id=KweMpAzT_dEC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false Have you read any Eco? I felt like I was writing advertising copy up above, if it wasn’t intriguing enough, maybe the book’s not for you. Ted Keer lists Name of the Rose as one of his all time favorites, my Eco pecking order goes: Foucault’s Pendulum, Baudolino, Name of the Rose, Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, Island of the Day Before. You should give something of his a try. One other thing I thought of, coming out of our little scrap on the Dan Edge thread, is that Baudolino bears some comparison to Monty Python’s Holy Grail, and Life of Brian. More so than Forrest Gump, though I can’t think of any other work (movie, novel, whatever) that really has the same flavor as Baudolino.

Phil: I think you’re alright, don’t get me wrong, but if I had to choose between getting water from a rock, blood from a turnip, or a laugh from one of your posts, my money would be on the turnip to win, the rock to place, and for you to not even finish the race.

Like Jean Valjean doing 19 years hard labor for stealing a loaf of bread. Could happen, and if he sees the video I link to above he may think twice. I could be saving this guy's ass.

Huge Python fan here, and South Park is often great, sometimes awful. The episodes about Scientology and the Mormons were awesome. Sounds like you're inclined to think this is symptomatic of mental illness...

Sign me up. How about a simple, first-come first-served? Sounds fair enough to me.

No, but posting a link to a comedy bit isn’t going to contribute to his “persecution”. It’s just a joke, sorry if it didn’t energize your levity circuits. From skimming the info on his case, it looks like nothing more than a tempest in a teapot. Facing six years in prison? Oh puhleeze.

Zug is a German speaking town in NE Switzerland. About as close to Munich as Geneva, as the crow flies. The limerick comes from Norman Douglas’s book Some Limericks, a famous volume, though decidedly not high brow stuff. One must consider alternate pronunciations of words based on the author’s context, otherwise good luck getting through Ulysses. This thread was a Friday night contribution, with inspiration from Charlie and Sam (that is, Mingus and Adams); Oddly no one’s complained yet that it crossed the line into the obscene, or that it has nothing to do with Rand. Valid criticisms. I’d just posted my comment on Dan Edge (on another thread), and thought about the accusations that OL is a den of pedo-whatevers (apologists etc.). I then thought of the Stephen Fry limerick, and again consulting Charlie and Sam, said let’s give them something to talk about. Now getting back to the bawdy limericks, here’s the classic: There was a young man of Nantucket Whose prick was so long he could suck it He said, with a grin As he wiped off his chin: ‘If my ear were a cunt, I could fuck it.’

You're entitled to a full refund. The author was a Brit born in Austria. Who knows how he pronounced the names of German towns. Take it easy, crack open a beer.

I bow before a master of one-upmanship. There was an old man of Brienz, The length of whose cock was immense With one swerve he could plug A boy’s bottom in Zug And a kitchen-maid’s cunt in Koblenz. Norman Douglas

MSK: There doesn’t seem to be a subtext to your post, but to be sure, are you implying there’s something wrong or irrational about post-hypnotic suggestion? I don’t know enough about it to have an opinion. I remember a story (from Judgement Day?) about NB hypnotizing someone in front of AR. Talking about Atlas and music, if the Atlas movie ever gets off the ground, I bet this will be the temp track for the first running of the John Galt line: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5rX0EjPqig

I don’t have a favorite novel, but I’ll contribute a post about Umberto Eco’s Baudolino, since its been on my mind lately. Baudolino, published in 2002, is set in the Middle Ages, it opens during the sack of Constantinople by the army of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The title character bears some comparison to Forrest Gump, not that he’s an utter fool, but in that he’s witness to historical events, and interacts with actual historical figures. And he’s pretty simple. He saves the life of a Byzantine historian, Niketas, and the novel consists largely of flashbacks recounting Baudolino’s adventures, as he’s relating them to Niketas, who occasionally interrupts to comment and cast doubt on the truth of the tales. Relics of saints, the Holy Grail, the strange creatures of the Nuremberg Chronicle, a conspiracy theory about the death of Barbarossa, and above all the legendary Prester John are among the disparate elements that combine to create sophisticated intellectual comedy, some bawdy stretches, and deeper messages about credulity and political machinations. What’s so great about it? The characterizations are rich, the story stimulates study of the legends and history on which its based, and it packs loads of laughs. It bears repeated reading (I’ve been through it about 3 times), and keeps getting better. Its actually a bit of a challenge the first time through, and in particular the 1st chapter can be off-putting. Next time you listen to Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, note that some of the lyrics (e.g. In Taberna) are actually by Baudolino. Just as Forrest Gump originated the phrase “Shit Happens”.

There was a young chaplain from King’s, Who discoursed about God and such things: But his deepest desire Was a boy in the choir With a bottom like jelly on springs. Stephen Fry, from The Ode Less Travelled

Dan Edge had a hearing scheduled for yesterday, and he hasn’t updated his blog since. Could he be in the pokey? I hope not, but since he’s thrown some uncalled for brickbats at this forum here’s the place to indulge in some schadenfreude. Here’s to you, Danny Boy:

I’ve been recommending Umberto Eco’s Baudolino on another thread, it satirizes the reverence of relics by Catholics. If you tour the old churches in Europe (particularly Rome) they have big collections of reliquaries displaying possessions or body parts of saints. Many are of dubious provenance, which Eco mocks by having his protagonist traipse about the Medieval world trying to sell 6 heads of John the Baptist and 12 mummified Magi. Anyway, I have a collection of European vacation photos on my Iphone, that I share with friends, and eventually we come to this one: Which I describe as the finger of San Benedetto of Dover. Never heard of him? He’s the patron saint of prostate exams. It always gets a good laugh, though I wonder if people are just being nice. I feel like I owe readers something better after that, so here’s what they had taped to the metal detector (as you’re first going in) at the Accademia in Florence (where Michelangelo’s David stands):

Ted: I experienced Pendulum as a very different novel the second time. See if it has the same effect on you. Here’s an interview where Eco talks about Kubrick, there’s not much to it though. http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/23/stories/2005102305241000.htm Some of the scenes in Pendulum would have been fantastic in Kubrick’s hands. Particularly the big museum scene at the end. I read Catcher in the Rye in high school, I remember identifying with it then, but I looked at the first couple pages in a bookstore within the last 5-10 years, and wasn’t interested.

Ted: I think Name of the Rose is great too, but Foucault’s Pendulum and Baudolino have much more humor in them. Next time you try Baudolino, go ahead and skip the first chapter. You’ll like the opening better the second time you read the book, once you’ve developed an ear for Baudolino’s patois. Since you’re rereading FP, let me know if you agree that the first time you read it, it’s a thriller. The second time, it’s a dark comedy. BTW Stanley Kubrick wanted to make a movie of FP, but Eco was disappointed by the Name of the Rose film, and turned him down. Funny that you mention Canticle for Leibowitz, there as in FP the plot turns on the misreading of an ancient shopping list. Canticle wasn’t really my cup of tea, though certainly worthwile.

Ted, haven’t heard of it. I missed this thread, here’s a few particular favorites of mine no one mentioned: Douglas Adams: Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency Umberto Eco: Foucault’s Pendulum and Baudolino (I prefer both to Name of the Rose) Most anything by P.G. Wodehouse, particularly the Jeeves stories. Also Ukridge, Psmith, and the Blandings series.

Like with the Oscars, there’s brand name recognition. But now where does Obama go from here? In terms of honors, the sort of thing Rand wrote about in “The Monument Builders”? The Swedes have shot their wad as far as influencing U.S. policy, its like a hot model jumping in the sack with you BEFORE the first date. Next, watch China send over a dragoon of Pandas. To thank Obama for...

Costs as a percentage of GDP? Of the Federal Budget? The ageing of the baby boomers goes a long way towards explaining both. They’re counting on Medicare, they haven’t saved for future medical needs (or sufficiently for retirement), thus bankruptcy of the U.S. government looms. This will have catastrophic consequences. Faced with similar fiscal challenges, the Roman Empire sent out the legions to conquer/enslave the Dacians. Unthinkable for the U.S. Why aren’t the baby boomers ready? One could criticize the culture of that generation, but its simple enough to note they’ve been convinced they can count on Medicare. Never mind that its an unfunded liability, the next generation will pay in the needed taxes, somehow. Sounds like something out of Atlas Shrugged. And the baby boomers will have the votes to make it so. Until reality intervenes. To keep this short, doing more of what doesn’t work, doesn’t work. Including more government intervention in the free market. Here’s a good recent Thomas Sowell article: http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=5643

GS: "why has the healthcare system got into such bad shape in the US?" I’d invite you to check that premise, and define better what you mean by your statement. I say it’s the equivalent of the claim that global warming is a crisis, government officials/candidates and MSM assert it, but this hardly makes a case. Manufactured crises are their bread and butter. If you can (or choose to) afford to join boutique medical practice in the U.S., can you not get the best medical care in human history? Free enterprise in medicine does still exist in the U.S., though only a small minority avail themselves of it in its pure form. Free market advocates fear that Obamacare is a trojan horse that, after a couple iterations of subsequent reforms, will destroy what freedom is left. I’ve met Canadians who describe horror stories similar to what MSK relates above, people with knee and eye problems who had to go the US to get prompt treatment because the wait involved in Canada guaranteed they’d never walk/see again. Analogous horror stories emerge from HMO’s and Medicare in the U.S., though here we have an army of lawyers (for better and worse) to provide a counterweight.