My Life In Post-Racial America

I have just returned from a 7.25 mile walk, the highlight of which was being called "nigger" by a bunch of middle school girls in Ft. Tryon Park.

I had stopped to rest after carefully making it halfway down a still-somewhat-icy hill. I was staring out, from my perch, over the playground and past Dyckman Street, into Inwood, when I heard "What you staring at, nigger? Keep walking!". It took me some time to figure out that I was the intended recipient of this helpful bit of advice.

It was, I confess, somewhat disorienting. I have, in my lifetime, been called "fairy", "faggot", "lardass", "hump", "blubber butt", "jewboy" and (my favorite) "putrid synagoguer" -- I swear! -- but I never have been nor ever expected to be called "nigger". I have not yet decided whether this is some sign of progress...

How to Report the News

via Mike Schreibman on Facebook.

Keynes vs. Hayek: The Video

J.M. Keynes and F.A. Hayek, as you have never seen them before. At least I don't think you've seen them like this before. Well, probably not...

Cosma Sharizi on The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Cosma Sharizi, who works "on methods for building predictive models from data generated by stochastic processes, and applying those models to questions about neural information processing, self-organization in cellular automata, and so forth...", is not the first person I would have expected to pose the question: "why didn't prints displace paintings the same way that printed books displaced manuscript codices?"  And yet...

Down Memory Lane

JK Rowling Autograph, originally uploaded by baslow.

Now that the kids are both out of the house -- Joel already graduated from college and working, Ruth attending her first year at Grinnell -- I find myself more frequently picking through the memories of family days gone by. This picture is a reminder of a very big day for the family which, curiously, didn't seem like such a big deal at the time.