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Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Slate goodness

Lots of links to Slate.

Starting with an excerpt from Monday's edition of their great international papers : What the foreign papers are saying:

In a particularly illuminating commentary, the Times of Britain recounted a scene that unfolded on Kiev's Independence Square a few days ago: Lech Walesa, the shipyard electrician-turned-Solidarity-founder-turned-Polish-president greeted Ukrainians who were out protesting the election results and asked them, "What took you so long?" The symbol of Eastern European popular revolution wiped snowflakes from his face and commented, "It might be freezing cold, but I can see that it is politically hot!"

Indeed, it's hot and getting hotter by the day, and much of the European press is focused on fears that the disputed election could lead to a civil war in Ukraine or a split into two separate countries.

The Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda posed a blunt question: Regardless of which candidate ultimately takes office, what will happen to the half of the country that supported the other candidate? The Italian La Repubblica fretted that tensions between the two sides are running so high that neither leader may be able to contain the situation. Both France's Le Monde and Spain's El Pais endorsed new elections as the best solution to the crisis caused by the faulty vote-counting. (Translations from the Russian, Italian, French, and Spanish courtesy of Deutsche Welle.)


I was going to just excerpt that first paragraph, but couldn't resist extending it to the link-rich 3rd one.

Next: have been planning a post on the medicinal marijuana case that is before the Supreme Court this week. I'll have to do that, but for now here a Slate dispatch:


supreme court dispatches Oral argument from the court.
Dude, Where's My Integrity?
Medical marijuana tests the Supreme Court's true love of federalism.
By Dahlia Lithwick
Posted Monday, Nov. 29, 2004, at 3:49 PM PT

So Lithwick looks at in the same light that I was going to: federalism/states' rights. I'll still put up my comments, along with some local Yay Area flavor (like this).

Finally: that same edition of Today in Slate slipped in this profile of Derek Walcott:

books Reading between the lines.
The Odyssey
Derek Walcott, the greatest living English-language poet.
By Adam Kirsch
Posted Monday, Nov. 29, 2004, at 3:47 AM PT


Had an e-mail exchange with some guys earlier this year that culminated with a reference to Walcott. Thanks to my anal archiving of e-mail, plus Yahoo Mail's new and improved search capabilities, I found it. I'll put it in a comment.



1 comment:

Suman said...

here's the e-mail exchange. not sure if i actually followed up with some more about the NYer profile. if i did, i can't find the e-mail.

Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 11:25:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Suman Ganguli"
Subject: Re: music, plaxo, elizabeth alexander
To: D, J

here's a weird coincidence. i'd saved a new yorker from feb b/c there
was a profile of derek walcott written by hilton als in there.
finally got around to reading it yesterday to and from work. was
thinking of e-mailing you guys about it anyways, but then came across
a quote from elizabeth alexander in there! she was a student of
walcott's at BU.

left the issue at home, i'll try to remember to send the quote.

--Suman

--- D wrote:
> sorry about that, terra hit the send button
>
> as i was saying, ...mos def, have all put out "albums", rather than a
> collection of unrelated, uninteresting songs. i haven't purchased a
> non-hip-hop joint in years other than jazz and lyle lovett, i think.
> has there been anything worthwhile. long gone are the days of
> thoughfulness in music. no more cover art, liner notes, etc.
>
> as for elizabeth, she's awesome. one of my favorite people in the world
> all-time. if you see her, tell her that D says hi again. i just
> sent her some shutterfly photos on sunday.
>
> -dmsb
>
> On Apr 5, 2004, at 8:03 PM, J wrote:
>
> > Did any of you see the article below in today's NYTimes? (Suman: the
> > author isn't your friend John Schwartz, is it?) There was also an
> > article in the same section (Business) about Plaxo, the wannabe Google.
> >
> >
> > D: Elizabeth Alexander is reading in NYC on April 15 as part of a
> > Graywolf Press night (Graywolf = small Minneapolis publisher with one
> > of the best poetry lists in the country). Is it worth checking out? Is
> > she really that talented?
> >
> > Today I got an email from Howard Zinn, endorsing one of the books I'm
> > working on. It goes without saying, it was the highlight of my day.
> >
> > J
> >
> >
> > A Heretical View of File Sharing
> >
> > April 5, 2004
> > By JOHN SCHWARTZ
> >
> >
> > What if the music industry is wrong, and file sharing is not
> > hurting record sales? A new report suggests just that.
> >
> > http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/05/technology/05music.html?
> > ex=1082212192&ei=1&en=7fd8493616b656f8
> >
> >
> >
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------------
> "In the Kamigata area they have a sort of tiered lunchbox they use for a
> single day when flower viewing. Upon returning, they throw them away,
> trampling them underfoot. The end is important in all things."
>
> --Hagakure, 2nd Chapter
>
>