My five minutes of moment of hate this afternoon. I read an essay by one of the people at this gala last week and was completely underwhelmed. Made think that I shouldn’t give up writing.
More Nazi art! It’s amazing that we’re still finding this stuff.
And some helpful fashion tips!
Toronto Mayor admitted to smoking crack, but he doesn’t remember, because he was in a drunken stupor at the time. I would like to say that I also don’t remember my entire ten years of grad school, because I was in a drunken stupor pretty much the entire time. I am really happy that being in a “drunken stupor” is now an acceptable excuse for all sorts of bad behavior. It lets me off the hook for a couple of regretable actions that I may or may not remember. Huzzah for Mayor Ford!
Apt. 11d 
On behalf of Canada I apologise for Rob Ford.
On the Nazi art, someone posted on FB yesterday that they were excited to see the art AND that it had been thoughtfully and carefully stored since WWII. Nope, that’d be “stolen/looted from its owners”. Perhaps a little history lesson is in order? Next up, why were all those gorgeous apartments sitting empty in major European cities in the late 30’s and early ’40’s just waiting for someone to move in? Anyone follow up on the rightful owners?
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It’s far from clear that Gurlitt Sr did the original stealing; iirc the state did most of the confiscation of what it deemed “degenerate art.”
Given that the most likely alternative to “squirreled away” was “destroyed in the war,” at least a little bit of relief is in order. And the restitution policies are more likely better now than, say, 60 years ago.
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From today’s SNYT – http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/16/opinion/sunday/the-banality-of-robbing-the-jews.html?_r=0
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Me too. Also, next time I violate a city bylaw I am definitely saying I was in a drunken stupor.
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Canadians are strange. All these years of being really boring while getting upset that nobody in the U.S. paid them the slightest bit of attention, were the problem. Canada finally has a sad over being worth paying attention to?
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What, no Amber Room?
The past isn’t even past, is it?
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We were at that library party. Do you mean, you read an essay by one of the honorees, and you write better than that? Which one? I am not really familiar with Robinson or Diaz, although Ann Althouse links today to an interview with Robinson in The American Conservative. Boo published a very well-received book this past year, on Mumbai.
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Really? Boo is good. Frazen’s smug picture made me gag. I read an essay by Zadie Smith in the Best Of 2013 Essays last week. I thought it was self indulgent and boring. Why should I care that her mother never listened to Joni Mitchell. I couldn’t get past the first two pages in that essay. I know a million people who are better writers. Wish that blogging had made the system more democratic, but it didn’t.
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There will be absolutely no dissing of Junot Diaz, my next husband, on this blog. Love. Him. Laura, you might like him because he considers himself half-Dominican, half-Jerseyite (he’s living in Boston now). He has a lot of interesting stuff to say about Jersey, the “elsewhere” to New York’s “somewhere.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3vm5v5bWYQ
Have you or Steve read Monuments Men yet? The movie is apparently going to suck, which is disappointing.
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What bothered me about the library party is that there were so few authors actually photographed. Sloane Crossley barely counts. I actually like Zadie Smith though I agree with Laura: that Joni Mitchell essay was underwhelming. I kind of like the whole “I’m not going to get my hair did for you people” thing she has going. But hello, show Anna Wintour’s daughter? Sigh.
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