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TWO WHO CRIED WOLF
Published on 2012-02-20 19:12:00
What did pioneering social scientist Stanley Milgram and comedian Redd Foxx have in common? Both cried wolf at least once too often. In 1962/63, Milgram gained national notoriety for laboratory experiments that conned subjects into believing that they were administering electric shocks to other subjects to facilitate their learning. (The subjects on
Trouble in the Peaceable Kingdom
Published on 2012-02-16 17:52:00
Several months ago, through reliable sources, I learned of two amicable ventures between species. The first involved a skunk cavorting with cats after dark in the Holy Cross College neighborhood of Worcester, Massachusetts. The second, revealed to a friend by a park ranger at Yellowstone, paired a fox and a badger [shades of Beatrix Potter], who on opposite sides of a slope drove moles into the
Tintin in the Heart of Darkness
Published on 2012-02-12 00:15:00
After 80+ years, the boyish reporter-adventurer, Tintin, has finally broken through into American mass culture thanks to the Steven Spielberg movie, The Adventures of Tintin. Almost everywhere outside the U.S., Tintin comic books--synonymous with global adventure and intrigue--have captivated children and their parents for decades. Inside the U.S., however, interest in Tintin and his 23 graphic
The Doh of Homer; The Doh of Jimmy
Published on 2012-01-28 17:23:00
Jimmy Finlayson,left, with America's exemplar of fatherhood Thanks to the majesty of Homer Simpson, the interjection doh has become a phenomenon--even a cause célèbre. It is the cat's pajamas among interjections, which remain the poorest of poor relations among the parts of speech. Two weeks ago, with leverage from the web site Laughing Squid, a Simpsons enthusiast launched an amusing,
Bagel Mood Swings
Published on 2012-01-20 17:36:00
When I chance upon a seductively kickable rock on a walk, it’s usually good for two or three kicks before it squibs away. Often, I blame my own ineptness rather than the rock’s idiosyncrasies. Which is why discovering (and launching) a bagel on the sidewalk during an evening stroll in December proved so therapeutic. With zero practice, I instantly achieved mastery over the bagel’s speed and
Capital Steps
Published on 2012-01-15 17:22:00
Built in the late 1960s in the collegiate "bunker" architecture of the Vietnam War Era, the administration building on my campus has weathered decades of anti-war and other student protests. Inside the building, however, several of the original polymer-based staircases betray 50+ years of continuous footfalls. Notice that the "swayback" steps in the above photos are predominantly on the right
36 Views of North Korean Grieving
Published on 2012-01-09 18:46:00
AP photo from The Wall Street Journal Two weeks ago, while gazing at photos of North Koreans in mourning--including grown men chewing the scenery--I recalled head shots depicting emotional states in the books and training materials of Paul Ekman. What, I wondered, would Professor Ekman, our leading authority on "reading" emotions from facial expressions, make of that frenzy of facial
A Man, A Woman, & Their Trophies
Published on 2012-01-01 18:16:00
With my own marriage in the rear view mirror, I felt vicarious joy viewing recent photos of an old friend, now in his mid-sixties and his much younger wife. A naysayer might sniff: What unmitigated trophyism--even the enchantress has one to display. I say, why spite an honest celebration of fitness (in a Darwinian sense)? After all, we're likely witnessing DNA that will keep on giving in the
Duct Tape for the Holidays!
Published on 2011-12-23 16:48:00
If your family, like mine, walks on the dysfunctional side of the street, you value distractions—any distraction—during holiday gatherings. Why not, then, in the interest of family harmony, ponder this question?: What were the first movies and TV shows where duct tape first replaced rope, cloth, etc. as a sinister restraint of choice? My own recollections are fuzzy—the great migration seems to
Steal this Blog!: Abbie Hoffman Revisited
Published on 2011-12-14 18:18:00
Abbie Hoffman would have been 75 on November 30. I grew up two streets away from the Hoffmans on Worcester’s predominantly Jewish west side. Although Abbie was 15 years my senior, his footprint in the neighborhood was sticky. My father, a dentist, did business with Abbie’s father, who owned a medical supply store. “Abbie has once again given Johnny a heart attack,” my father announced one
Welch & Rawlings Wow Northampton
Published on 2011-12-07 17:56:00
Welch & Rawlings: Spiritual-Musical Heirs of John Dowland? Gillian Welch in Concert—In reality, it’s a shorthand for Gillian Welch & David Rawlings in Concert. Welch without Rawlings is yin without yang; Laurel without Hardy. Three standing ovations at the end of their November 28th two-hour concert at the Calvin Theater in Northampton, Massachusetts celebrated the musical beast with two
Giving Credits where Credits Are Due? Massachusetts’ Film Tax Incentive Program Respun
Published on 2011-06-16 10:41:00
Best Place. Best Crews. Best Films., exults the Massachusetts Film Office , the state-run marketing outfit charged with enticing film makers to make movies and TV shows in the Bay State. In recent years, Massachusetts has hosted The Social Network, T
The Young Adult Brain in Action! Tales from the Amherst, Massachusetts Police Blotter:*
Published on 2011-06-03 21:03:00
A Bonnie & Clyde Bank Heist, Amherst Style. In April, a young middle class couple, Michael Oldershaw, 24, of Sunderland and Shayna Henckel-Miller, 19, of Amherst allegedly conspired to rob Amherst’s highest-profile bank, The Bank of America. Ol
Meditations on Annoying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Published on 2011-05-27 16:44:00
Annoying is a well-crafted, valuable read. The authors give generous treatment both to the social psychology and physical science mechanisms of much that annoys. That includes public cell phone conversations, the blaring of sirens, the buzzing of fli
Glass-Is-Half-Empty Weather Forecast Images
Published on 2011-05-19 16:47:00
Consumer advisory: In its popular 7-day forecast web page, the National Weather Service assigns a weather image to each day and night ahead that often views the weather-glass as half empty. As a former U.S. president might have complained, Those st
Graduation Wishes from on High
Published on 2011-05-15 17:04:00
For the second year running, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony featured a nationally prominent keynote speaker that mirrored the university’s increasing national stature. Last year, FDIC Chairman She
Turning away from the American Public, Obama Embraces Us
Published on 2011-05-02 20:52:00
At the end of his 9-minute announcement of Osama Bin Laden’s demise, President Obama threw his audience an unexpected behind-the-Barak-pass. Speech over, he turned 180 degrees and ambled off down a hallway with his backside to his audience. A remar
This Is Not a Peccary?
Published on 2011-04-29 14:34:00
This is not a pig!!--Such a comfort for the zoo-going public at the peccary corral at the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem. To cover most bases, the signage is in Hebrew, Yiddish, English, and Arabic. And it terminates with two exclamation marks to under
Letting Their Freak Flags Fly
Published on 2011-04-24 22:11:00
James Taylor;Paul Simon There comes a time in many a follicle-challenged pop-star’s career when the decision to conceal hair loss looms large. After all, for many of those ageing baldies, the seductions of marketing still pander to their roots in
Hitlers in America
Published on 2011-04-18 12:43:00
In the clip below, Chris Hitler, an investment and real estate specialist in Mequon, Wisconsin, wants you to know that he is passionate about personal storage. Listen to the clip, and you’ll hear Peter, without pretentiousness or guile, deliver his
The Brand that Was You--2011
Published on 2011-04-12 11:23:00
The brand that was Lou For a second year running, this blog celebrates the enchanted craft of branding. What a growth industry it has become! Just like power tools, ping pong balls, universities, and New Age retreats, individuals have their ow
Ave, Pope Jeremy!
Published on 2011-04-04 13:28:00
Still Wafer-thin after all theses years The Borgias, which debuted last night on Showtime with the no-holds-barred episode, “The Poisoned Chalice/The Assassin,” stars Jeremy Irons as Rodrigo Borgia, a.k.a. Pope Alexander VI. Without question Alex
Entranced at Amherst College
Published on 2011-03-30 15:09:00
“I know trance music when I hear it,” might have been the response of late U.S. Supreme Justice Potter Stewart had he attended last Friday night’s (March 25) concert as the final installment in this year’s Parallels Series, an inspired new m
A Chip off the Old Corporate Block
Published on 2011-03-24 17:19:00
The next time you reach for a Dorito, consider its rounded corners. Those beveled vertices are soft, but it wasn’t always that way. Before the great Dorito makeover of 1994, they came to sharp points, just like at your friendly Mexican restaurant.
New Glocks on the Block in Amherst, Massachusetts
Published on 2011-03-14 16:14:00
Last week, when my son’s alarm failed to detonate for school, trouble ensued. So I promised that we’d buy a new clock at our local oasis for controlled substances, CVS. Perhaps because of the aura of drugs, we began riffing compulsively—a la Wh
Fishy Business Revealed
Published on 2011-03-08 15:02:00
Source: The Wall Street Journal When I was five, my family lived next door to an affable guy who owned a fish market on Water Street, the old Jewish commercial center in Worcester, Massachusetts. His wife was a bleached blonde and a chronic
Guns in Texas College Classrooms: A Shot in the Arm for Online Education?
Published on 2011-03-01 14:09:00
Will Kevlar Save in Texas? Blogger’s preface: Two years ago, my friend Osgood,* a dynamic professor of accounting, left my campus in Amherst to head up an accounting department at a large
A Coz Célèbre
Published on 2011-02-25 12:04:00
Last year’s death of I Spy costar Robert Culp afforded an opportunity to revisit his symbiotic relationship with Bill Cosby on the hit TV show. In the show, which ran for three seasons (1965-1968), the two were billed as equals; both were CIA agent
Old Man Walking—Just like a Train
Published on 2011-02-18 16:38:00
Get Out of My Way, You Jerk, a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, examined the causes and consequences of pedestrian sidewalk rage. The feature cited average rates of locomotion in Manhattan for men (4.42 feet per second), women (4.10 fps), c
New iPhone App Will Not Will Not Replace Confession; Will Not Replace Priests
Published on 2011-02-13 17:40:00
Say what you will about the Catholic Church--unlike many American institutions, it has protected its key employees—i.e, the priests, from the scythe of downsizing via outsourcing and replacement by new technologies. Heaven knows the American Cathol
A Nixon in China Artifact
Published on 2011-02-09 14:10:00
This year’s long-overdue Metropolitan Opera production of John Adams’ Nixon in China (introduced by the Houston Grand Opera in 1987) is a big deal. It is coming (simulcast) to a cinema or auditorium near you this Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. (A r
Greetings from Quebecachusetts!
Published on 2011-02-04 14:27:00
A tip for New Englanders who are stressed out over the elements. Seek out a Canadian for a saner hibernal perspective. It worked wonders for me, especially after I had convinced myself that this Massachusetts winter might well rival a winter in Quebe
Owls and Messiaen Offer Levitation; Inspiration
Published on 2011-01-29 17:07:00
One week ago at 3 a.m., during yet another middle aged nocturnal mission, I heard an owl from the trees behind my house. It offered several repetitions of the same sustained note in a dulcet alto that belied the bird’s predatory ways. Then, I heard
On the Aging of Aquarius
Published on 2011-01-26 11:50:00
My first memory of collective Boomer decline came in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz, shot in November of 1976. Close up after close up revealed road maps of dissipation on the faces and physiques of iconic music makers of My Generation. When Van
Annals of Seasonality: Are Family Therapists Prey to a December Effect? A January Effect?
Published on 2011-01-22 20:52:00
Click to enlarge. (On the right--The Bluth Family) It's common knowledge that holiday season revenues, not Santa, are a retailer’s saving grace. According to Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts (this blog’s home
Hitchcock and Hopper: Side by Side
Published on 2011-01-19 15:18:00
Click to enlarge. When Edward Hopper and his wife Jo read in the New York Evening Post that Alfred Hitchcock had credited Edward’s 1925 painting House by the Railroad as the principal inspiration for the Bates house in Psycho, the couple was deligh
Paris 1882: Edouard Manet Meets Bass Ale
Published on 2011-01-10 10:54:00
Sure, we’re the same species as the Homo sapiens depicted in pre-20th century paintings, but who hasn’t felt a disconnect when gazing in the art world’s rear view mirror—a chasm separating earlier cultures from our own? In that, transformatio
Americans Weep for Morente?
Published on 2011-01-03 16:01:00
Few Americans will lament the death on December 13 of Enrique Morente, age 67, Flamenco’s leading male vocalist (cantaor). That’s because few Americans have heard of Morente or, for that matter, of his fellow cantores. But for flamenco, los
Kvetching about Santa
Published on 2010-12-23 21:05:00
From The Polar Express--Warner Movies In his brilliant, riotous book, Born to Kvetch, professor and stand-up comic Michael Wex pays homage to Yiddish as an essential ingredient in a subversive glass-is-half-empty under-culture. Today and d
The Mind's Eye, Ears, Nose & Throat: Use Them or Lose Them!
Published on 2010-12-17 11:43:00
In his latest book, The Mind’s Eye, neurologist and psychiatrist-physician Oliver Sacks explores the resilience of human compensatory powers that arise after the loss of senses and perceptual-cognitive abilities that we take for granted. These incl
Bravo, Don Willie!
Published on 2010-12-10 20:55:00
The New York Times November 21 obit for Norris Church Mailer, the Arkansas beauty who married Norman Mailer, not only sheds light on her marriage but on President William Jefferson Clinton. In what some might consider a coda of stunning irreverence,
In China, Nothing Protects like Protection
Published on 2010-12-05 21:12:00
If you seek nuanced armchair immersion into China’s dynamic culture, read New Yorker magazine columnist Peter Hessler’s latest book, Country Driving. With virtually no authorial ego, Peter illuminates the greatest rural-to-urban migration of our