Noted Here and There ...

by Cliopatria

The Cliopatriarch of Philadelphia has handed down a righteous rant, which ought to be read in every classroom, pool hall, church, rotary club, ladies aid society, chamber of commerce, newspaper, library, fast food outlet, theater, corporate headquarters, mosque, labor temple, grange hall, magazine, coffee shop, synagogue, editorial room, concert auditorium, restroom, professional association, bar, courtroom, and blog throughout the land.

The Cliopatriarch of Austin is scheduled for a guest commentary on National Public Radio this morning. It should be heard at 5:25 a.m. Eastern Standard Time and 7:25 a.m. EST, at 6:25 a.m. Central Standard Time and 8:25 a.m. CST.

O. K., this one's tough. Let's just say that Gary Farber, Belle Waring, and a couple other folks edged me out of a medal. Like the Afghani and Iraqi athletes, my glory was in the competition and I owe it all to Ogged of Unfogged for liberating me, allowing me to be there, and cheering me on. You'll notice that I didn't report my score. As I said, it's tough.

And, since he's so smart, take Gary Farber's recommendation of Adam Gopnik's essay in the New Yorker on re-thinking the causes of World War I.

Finally, I'm sorry, but on this one, I'm a law ‘n order jackhammer. Lock ‘em up. Throw away the key. Smash their computers. Burn their birth certificates and identity cards. Tell their mothers they had an abortion. Tell their fathers it was all an illusion. Tell their children they're up for adoption. (Ed: I feel better now. Bring on the lawyers ...).

comments powered by Disqus

More Comments:

Jonathan Dresner - 8/26/2004

By the way, given the frequency with which I was guessing, (and not using the convenient check-boxes to keep track), the reliability (in a statistical sense) of this test has to be suspect. In other words, there would have to be a pretty wide margin of difference between scores for it to be clearly meaningful.

Ralph E. Luker - 8/26/2004

But you put the rest of us to shame!

Miriam Elizabeth Burstein - 8/26/2004

Also beaten by Belle and Gary. *sniff*

Timothy James Burke - 8/26/2004

Yeah, that comment got me going after I wrote it at The Weblog, and so in the back of my head there was this little refrain saying, "Hey, I've got more of those that I could do". But probably two duplications are enough.

Ralph E. Luker - 8/26/2004

Yah. I asked him to plagiarize it over here, as well. But Easily Distracted claimed ownership of the literary property rights and wouldn't hear of it being cross posted.

Adam Kotsko - 8/25/2004

I think it does count as plagiarism, but I encourage plagiarism. The French have been doing it for years, and I think they just call it an "allusive style."

(In his infinite egotism, he apparently thought that his words would get more publicity in his site than in the comments to mine.)

Ralph E. Luker - 8/25/2004

Are you telling me that a Cliopatriarch plariarized himself? I fully endorse it. You make a good mid-wife.

Adam Kotsko - 8/25/2004

I am honored -- portions of Herr Doktor Burke's rant originally appeared in my comment section.

Jonathan Dresner - 8/25/2004

I think the point of the wild guess box was so that people who really care about their scores could spend lots more time going back and thinking about the ones they were guessing on.

But I'm guessing.....

Ralph E. Luker - 8/25/2004

You've got a job!

David Lion Salmanson - 8/25/2004

Which could explain a few things about my career.

Ralph E. Luker - 8/25/2004

Pity those who had no high school Latin. I had 167. What was the point of the "wild guess" boxes? I didn't check any of them.

Jonathan Dresner - 8/25/2004

I think my HS Latin helped, but not much....