Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

* Polly Frost is having a reading of her erotic/satirical fiction in Park Slope this Sunday. Smart woman: I suspect that we're on the verge of an era when adults once again allow themselves to enjoy classy erotic entertainments.

* Stephen Bodio confesses that he's a Derb fan, wonders what's conservative about over-ambitious neocons, and announces that he's off to Kurdistan.

* Poynter Online's Sree Sreenivasan reports that, while paper-newspaper readership has declined 2.6% over the last six months, online readership of newspapers over the same time is up 11%.

* You'd think those things would get in the way of being a good athlete, but I guess they don't. (NSFW)

* Dustbury celebrates the life and work of Joe ("You Talk Too Much") Jones.

* In the Battle of the Steves, Steve Sailer has been showing Steven Leavitt (author of the bestselling "Freakonomics") no mercy whatsoever. UPDATE: The Economist comes out on Steve Sailer's side, not that they're about to mention Steve Sailer ...

* Some people have a very peculiar sense of how to have fun ...

* Scott Chaffin indulges in a a Texas-sized Thanksgiving, and ponders a low-carb future.

* Here's a a disruption that ought to crop up on more news reports. I love the expression she makes when she realizes her moment of glory has been ruined ...

* So what exactly is suburban sprawl anyway? David Sucher sponsors a lively discussion, featuring terrific comments by Brian Miller, Benjamin Hemric, and others.

* Searchie visits the Neue Gallerie to check out an Egon Schiele exhibition, and recognizes something of herself on the walls.

* One of Tyler Cowen's recommendations in "How to Choose A Charity" is "don't donate to beggars." A lively comment thread follows.

* Your Lying Eyes attends a Steven Pinker talk, and reports that Pinker semi-sorta endorses the Cochran/Hardy/Harpending theory about Ashkenazi Jewish intelligence.

* Fred Himebaugh can't see what's so special about Marilyn Monroe.

* Well, at least this girl can console herself with the thought that the camera didn't catch her in an ungroomed state ... If that link doesn't work, go here and then Klik through. (NSFW)

* For the first time ever, Lynn Sislo blogs in her p.j.'s.

Best,

Michael

Marilyn Monroe was the most expressive, or projective still model I have ever seen. The photographer didn't capture her;Marilyn pushed herself thru the lens. I really have never seen anything like it.

Posted by: bob mcmanus on December 2, 2005 03:00 AM

In the Battle of the Steves, Steve Sailer has been showing Steven Leavitt (author of the bestselling "Freakonomics") no mercy whatsoever.

His criticisms are very strong. Still, the most important consequence of Leavitt's analysis may lie in its reception, i.e., the increased acceptance of consequentialism in the pro-choice position, as opposed to the rather frightening fetuses-are-not-persons line.

The book was primarily meant to stimulate such discussions, anyway, not to provide conclusions.

Posted by: J. Goard on December 2, 2005 04:23 AM

I always wondered how the strong odor of eugenics hanging around Mr. Leavitt's position hadn't led to its condemnation by the anti-IQ testing left. Apparently its support for the "sacrament" of abortion was sufficient to remove the taint from a doctrine that always seemed like it should have been propogated by the Aryan nation. Strange intellectual bedfellows indeed.

Posted by: Friedrich von Blowhard on December 2, 2005 12:31 PM

I always wondered how the strong odor of eugenics hanging around Mr. Leavitt's position hadn't led to its condemnation by the anti-IQ testing left.

That would be because we believe that a lower number of unwanted, indigent children leads to a lower number of criminals. This is a different thing from believing that a lower number of black children leads to a lower number of criminals, a la Bill Bennett.

Posted by: Cryptic Ned on December 2, 2005 12:56 PM

Mr. Ned:

So does the fact that Mr. Leavitt's theory doesn't actually appear to be true undermine your faith in the notion that crime springs from unwantedness or indigence? I'm a little confused here.

Posted by: Friedrich von Blowhard on December 2, 2005 06:30 PM

I've often wondered about what we would be saying about Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor if Taylor is the one who had died young and not Monroe. Would Monroe be the subject of fat jokes on Saturday Night Live? I don't know, just wondering out loud.

Posted by: mattie on December 3, 2005 04:46 PM






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