Those wacky kids at the Paper of Record have put together this fun and informative volume entitled “The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge”. It contains all sorts of fun tidbits from Architecture to Zoroaster.
It’s a cross between an almanac and an encyclopedia, but at $22 at Costco, I figured it was worth it. Wow, did you know there are 362 million Buddhists and that New Hampshire is 1.7% Hispanic? Now you do!
Or do you?
I’ve added a section for research talks I’ve given. Mostly for my own amusement.
I caught this movie at the Dobie theater last night. Sarah Silverman, for those who don’t know, is a very funny, very elfish, very dirty comedianne. Personally, I think that I enjoy her schtick because she’s Jewish, but who am I kidding? It’s because she’s so damn cute. It makes me wanna puke.
The film is a series of vignettes and song pieces wrapped around her stage act. All together, though, it’s not quite enough to support a whole film. This would have been a reasonable HBO special, but $8 at the theater seems vain to me… and that’s part of the joke. Silverman’s character (or perhaps her own personality) is so self-obsessed and self-loving that she’s playing off the stereotype of the JAP — Jewish American Princess.
There are plenty of laughs, but the piece doesn’t hold on it’s own, and there’s never a build-up and release like in a George Carlin routine or Dave Chapelle.
But, what the hell, rent it anyway. And just in case you don’t see it, here’s one of her best lines:
“I was licking jello off my boyfriend’s penis the other day, and, whoa, it hit me all of a sudden: I’m becoming my mother!”
