Cats are Hilarious

Banquet at Delmonico's - Barry Werth

I recently read a book by Barry Werth entitled Banquet at Delmonico's. It purports to explain the big debate in this country about evolution at the end of the 19th century. That debate, after all, was extremely important. Edmund Spencer's phrase "survival of the fittest" was used to justify imperial expansion all over the world. Both Spencer and Darwin himself were extremely famous and influential men on both sides of the Atlantic.

Werth attempts to describe the debate as it moved to this side of the Atlantic and increasingly became accepted not as a fantastic theory, but as solid fact. To do that, he follows the lives of several men over a span of more than a decade.

He does a good job explaining their daily movements and personal correspondences, but the book mystifyingly lacks any detailed discussion of the particularities of either Spencer or Darwin's ideas. He sets up an ideological competition between Darwin and Spencer, but the reader is never treated to its nuances. We assume it exists, but we never learn its particularities.

Instead, Werth primarily concerns himself with where the main characters were, who they were debating with, and what books they were writing. He spends chapter after chapter describing in exhaustive detail about the alleged affair between Henry Ward Beecher and one of his female parishioners without explaining why the affair was important to the debate concerning evolution. Was it because the affair had a transformative effect on Beecher himself? Did it discredit him? Did it change his viewpoints concerning evolution? Werth never explains.

It's a well researched, pretty well written book. But Werth's apparent insecurity with discussing the ideological debate - the very subject of his book, no less - is a big flaw. It's interesting to read about the comings and goings of famous men, but in the end that's all the book has to offer.

Broadway in Front of my Office

This is a glary, but pretty accurate, photo of Broadway in front of my office.

Bruce Springsteen Covers

If you're into Bruce, which I'm not really, you might be into this. Lots of covers of his songs by more contemporary bands. Even if you're not a fan, some of the interpretations are interesting.

http://www.brucespringsteen.net/news/hanginout.html

Old Color Photos

A collection of old color photos, circa 1910, from Russia. So, so sweet:

http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2009/03/some-of-worlds-first-color-photographs.html

Europe in 1914

Europe, circa 1914:



Over the past few weeks I've been writing an essay about a subject that has links to World War One. I did a lot of research about that war in college, and I'm endlessly interested by the incredible effects it had, and still has, on the entire world. Nothing drives the point home more, I think, than to look at a map of Europe pre-WWI. So much has changed. So many problems that we're currently dealing with have their roots in the WWI area. It's mind-boggling to think about.

SoHo when it Snows

Took this with my Blackberry a few weeks ago when it snowed. I have a pretty cool, though very short, walk from the subway to my office. I thought it looked neat with the snow on the cobbled streets.

Beautiful Weather Weekends

Friday at work I was sick as a dog. I might be exaggerating, but that's sort of the way it felt. I went to bed early and woke up at a decent hour on Saturday and prepared myself, and the apartment, for the arrival of some college friends, Tom and Abby (aka TomAbby). Tom was unlucky enough to live with me and Tyler senior year and as a result was subjected to all the filth that we senior college dudes could generate. Which was a lot, if you were wondering.

But I cleaned the apartment sufficiently that when Tom and Abby arrived promptly at noon, they weren't thoroughly disgusted. I took that as a compliment. Tyler, Ashley and I led them on a pretty decent walking tour of the Park Slope neighborhood. Abby got us free pizza at a place on 7th Ave. called Roma Pizza which is TERRIFIC because she knew the owner's daughter. After that, we got Gorilla coffee and also some chocolate and beer from a really cool local beer botique.

We watched a bit of baseball on TV and drank the beer at our apartment, then walked over to Prospect Park to play frisbee. We discovered a squirrel who had met his unfortunate end in the middle of a field. Lacking the proper equipment for a formal funeral, I wanted to put him in the garbage but the girls thought that was mean and gross, so we left him there to await his fate.

We got bored with frisbee after a while so Alex climbed a tree. After that we walked home and watched a bit of Die Hard with a Vengeance. In the right situation, i.e. with friends and over beer, that movie can be pretty entertaining.

Eventually we got ourselves out the door and met Tyler's girlfriend and a girl that Alex is dating at a bbq joint in Chelsea called Rub BBQ. After a 40 minute wait we got a table for all 8 of us and feasted on bbq'd pork, beef, and chicken with a healthy dose of cornbread and baked beans. It was terrific, and even with drinks and tip the total was under $25 per person. I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who likes the bbq genre. Even if you're on the fence about it, this place is great.

After dinner we all split up. Ashley and I walked with Tom and Abby all the way up to Grand Central. It took us nearly an hour but it was a pleasant evening and we weren't in a hurry. We talked about a possible group trip to Las Vegas over the July 4th weekend. It might just happen. We dropped the pair off in time for an 11:17 train and retired ourselves for the night.

It was absolutely great to see those two. I've been remiss about visiting them. Tom's got a job in Westchester that puts him within an easy train ride, so I really hope to see him/her/both more often. I'll tell you what, though. Good weather does wonders for my disposition.

"Requiem for a Day Off"

Via SpliceToday:

Mechanical Bulls and Happy Hours

There's a bar in midtown Manhattan called Johnny Utah's that's known for having a mechanical bull. Some friends of mine chose this particular bar to host a happy hour fundraising event to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. $10 cover to go to the LLS, a few drink specials, and a big group of friends. And a mechanical bull.

I got to the bar around 6:30, had a $4 can of PBR but quickly decided that PBR should never be worth $4. Other than that, though, the whole thing was a lot of fun. Between 40 and 50 people showed up, which means between $400 or $500 went to the LLS.

I saw a lot of familiar faces, mostly people from college who I don't keep in touch with anymore. It was strange to see them all at a "fundraising event" and not in a dingy frat house basement. Whatever friendship we had back then didn't make the transition from beer-soaked kitchen floors to the real world.

And to be honest, I'm not too sad about it. You're friends with people whom you get along with in particular circumstances. When circumstances and/or locations change, you lose some of those friends and you make new ones. The people you keep in touch with despite changing circumstances are your "true" friends. And we all need as many of those as we can get.

Speaking of true friends, my roommate from college, Tom, and his girlfriend Abby (known affectionately in college as Tomabby) are coming down to New York this weekend for a visit. I'm wicked psyched because I haven't seen them in nearly a year.

I'll leave you with this, the aforementioned mechanical bull. Yee hah!

More On Jindal

There’s a new twist to all the fuss surrounding Bobby Jindal’s rebuttal to Obama’s speech on Tuesday night. There were all kinds of negative responses to Jindal’s speech itself. But this article talks about something much weirder: an exorcism that Jindal claims he participated in during college. Alternet.org reports:

During his years at Brown University, Jindal pursued his Catholic faith with unbridled zeal. Jindal became emotionally involved with a classmate named Susan who had overcome skin cancer and struggled to cope with the suicide of a close friend. Jindal reflected in an article for a Catholic magazine (called "Beating a Demon: Physical Dimensions of Spiritual Warfare") that "sulfuric" scents hovered over Susan everywhere she went. In the middle of a prayer meeting, Jindal claimed that Susan collapsed and began convulsing on the floor. His prayer partners gathered together on the floor, holding hands and shouting, "Satan, I command you to leave this woman!"

So Jindal thought The Exorcist was actually a documentary?

The Insanity of Greg Anderson

For most of us, choosing between testifying at a trial about things most people already know you did, and spending an indefinite amount of time behind bars, would be pretty simple. We'd tesfiy. But Greg Anderson, Barry Bonds' disgraced former trainer and alleged provider of steroids, apparently would rather go to jail than testify against Bonds. According to ESPN, Anderson has once again refused to testify about Bonds' alleged steroid use, this time in Bonds' perjury trial that's scheduled to start in March. Mind you, Anderson has already spent a year in jail when he refused to testify in front of a grand jury investigating Bonds for steroid use a couple of years ago.

No one understands why Anderson won't testify: loyalty to Bonds? fear? insanity? Maybe he's afraid that once he testifies, the Feds will charge him with distribution of steroids. But it also seems crazy that the Feds wouldn't have offered Anderson a deal to avoid jailtime in exchange for testifying against the guy that the government really wants: Bonds.

For my money, I'd bet that all the steroids that Anderson dealt, and presumably did himself, have somehow warped his brain, shrinking it along with his cojones to the size of a pea. Or maybe he's just not afraid of prison because the steroids have made him so strong that he'd dominate any prison they threw him into.

It can't be that he's just saving the details for a future book deal, can it? That would be too cynical, too unbelievable...but then again, it'd sell millions.

Doggie Dreams