(no subject)

I once wrote to the managers of the Westminster House (some kind of Christian -themed boarding house near campus). They wrote back a month later saying that the rent was $900 a month, and when would I like to move in?? I said, "Sorry, but it's waaaay too expensive," and now I have an email from them saying, "How about if I give you July for free, and $200 for every person you refer?" What odd sort of haggling...

weekend report

friday: dinner with some of Diane's friends and friends-of-friends from the snowboarding club, including virtually the entire Nuclear Engineering department. Film: Bend it like Beckham. Food: Indian, then chocolate soufle for dessert! Coolness.

saturday: Dan Silverstein's housewarming party (in conjunction with his incredibly cool roommate Fred) in The City, after dinner on Clement street (facilitated by a secret parking location known to Diane).

sunday: The Fog Of War: Eleven Lessons from the life of Robert S. McNamara matinee at Landmark Theatres' Act I and II. And then Metric Differential Geometry long into the night.

Evening with one of Dr. Strangelove

Robert S. McNamara came to campus last week. I went to the reception at the Chancellor's House, but I was shooed away before I could grab my first martini. (I suppose I should have answered "Yes, of course" when asked, "Do you belong here?") I felt out of place anyway, with all these sophisticated smoozing types who looked like they belonged in New York City.

It was, they said, his first public appearance here since he graduated — in 1937. The evening began with a small Intellectual Property SNAFU — apparently Sony Pictures Classics denied permission to show the film The Fog of War in its entirety, and, instead, about half of the film was shown, an editing job that could easily be described as vastly more 'effective' — or 'prejudicial' — than the released cut. They cut out the context and put in the war scenes. The firebombing of Toyko comes across as utterly mesmerizing. A team of Chinese peasants harnessed to a giant roller, crushing rocks to make a B-29 runway somewhere (is it Mongolia?) — the surreality continues. And you're thinking, "Did this really happen?" at the same time you suddenly feel disgust at being American.

So in this context it's a rather strange happening. The film clip ends and we realize that the Chancellor, the Producer, the Professor, the Millionaire, and the self-described War Criminal are all sitting together in the wing. And then McNamara shrugs off the pointed questions of the Professor, instead addressing the audience with all his might, shaking his fist in the air: "YOU'VE GOT TO DO SOMETHING!"

It's up to us, he says, to make sure history doesn't repeat itself. But he takes no blame for making that history happen the last time around. ("I've not going to appl y these lessons to the Bush Administration. That's for YOU to do!")

The question now is, who is responsible for the talking-head waving-arms McNamara-doll at http://www.sonyclassics.com/fogofwar? That person should be prosecuted immediately.

( New York Times coverage follows - it's good! )