Spooky

What's spookier than Christopher Walken? Christopher Walken reading "The Raven"! I would have been so much more appropriately creeped out by this poem in eleventh grade if it had been presented thus.



Flavorwire: Christopher Walken Scare the Bejesus Out of Us When He Reads The Raven

Get Out the Vote

This ad made me go from giggling to verklempt in less than two minutes.



Wonkette: Cancel Out The Vote Of Your Paint-Huffing Neighbor!

All the wrong people have self esteem

Heat

Bill Buford, an editor at the New Yorker, became so enthralled with Mario Batali that he left his job to work for free in the kitchen at Babbo. After working his way up from the prep kitchen to the pasta station he feels he has to look further afield to discover its secrets; and shuttles between New York and Italy to learn the foundations of Italian cooking in the tiny rural kitchens where Batali honed his art. It takes a heaping pile of tenacity topped with considerable masochism to temporarily put aside a successful career to perform such physically punishing, financially unrewarding work; and it's sometimes unclear why exactly he put himself (and his wife) through the ordeal. But Buford wisely avoids the cooking - as-vehicle-of-self-discovery theme; and focuses on the economics and mechanics of running a great restaurant, and the fundamental elements of great Italian food. Even Batali, while the subject of a few slightly man-crushy chapters in the beginning, turns out to be just one of the many complicated, passionate characters who get the food from farm to table. I forgot all about him when I got to the section about Buford's apprenticeship with Dario, the Tuscan butcher who indignantly empties bottles of nonlocal balsamic vinegar on restaurant floors. Reading "Heat" will make you hungry- no big deal, any food-porn type book can do that. But more than any book in the genre I'd ever read, it will make you profoundly grateful for the people who cook for you.

Heyday

Kurt Anderson, the host of WNYC's "Studio 360", did his homework, and wants you to know it. In his novel "Heyday", set around 1848-1849 and zigzagging across two continents, he crams more historical figures into 600 pages than my high school American History book. That is not to say the book is dry- it might be set 150 years ago, but it includes plenty of sex and violence described in 21st century detail. The story follows four friends from the events that led to their meeting in New York to California, where they go to look for gold. But to describe the plot thus- leaving out the dramatic chases, tragic back stories, pit stops at several Utopian communities, quests for vengeance, meetings with Charles Darwin, Walt Whitman and numerous other luminaries, and an assault with a stuffed penguin- is to overlook the barrage of details and detours that are usually engrossing and occasionally reminiscent of a history student persistently looking for extra credit. I enjoyed the book and certainly learned a lot, but it was a little distracting to be so often reminded that I was learning.

Finance According to Mary Poppins

While the resources in the previous post have been very helpful, I think this video also provides valuable insights into the culture that led to the credit crunch.

Listen, then get measured for your barrel

This American Life is known, and sometimes mocked for, its stories in which "hipster know-it-alls talk about how fascinating ordinary people are." The show's coverage of the financial tumult of the last six months isn't quite like that- the "hipster know-it-alls" are actually confused and freaked out, and they're talking about how ordinary people got swept up in something that got way out of hand. "The Giant Pool of Money", their show about the subprime mortgage meltdown that first broadcast in May, and "Another Frightening Show About the Economy", last week's aptly-named show about whatever new mess we're in now, are the clearest, most even-handed explanations of what's going on I've come across. Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson, the reporters who put both shows together, also have a really interesting podcast and blog about the crisis called Planet Money. And the best news in these troubled times? They're all free.

What you're getting for Christmas (yes you)

A co-worker passed on this news item about a DVD recently released in Russia, "Let's Learn Judo with Vladimir Putin." My favorite part is "No cameras were rolling when Mr. Putin was said to have tranquilized the tiger as it stalked the journalists who had accompanied the prime minister and some scientists on a scientific expedition to Russia’s Far East in late August." Not convinced? Preview here. Try to make it to at least 2:07.

NYT:Putin’s Tips for What to Do When Negotiations Collapse

Self-Made Man

"Self-Made Man" was written by Norah Vincent, a columnist for the L.A. Times who quit her job to see what it's like to live as a man for eighteen months. The experiment was social, not personal- she wiped off her fake stubble when she got home from her job selling coupon books door to door, or bowling league, or her umpteenth bad date. Vincent expects that she'll uncover a world of privilege and freedom she'd never been able to experience as a woman, but soon realizes that men are forced into roles that are just as restrictive and unhealthy as those imposed on women. While most of these restrictions- particularly the discouragement of displaying emotion or weakness- are imposed by other men, Vincent reports that women are not only complicit in reinforcing these restrictions, but also hypocritical for getting upset when men aren't emotional enough, and self-righteous for acting as though women have a monopoly on the healthy display of feelings. Over the course of reading this book I cycled between sympathy for men have to put up with and irritation that I should be expected to feel sympathy when it still seems like they've gotten the better side of the deal for the past few millenia, not to mention in the division of reproductive duties. But ultimately I reached the same conclusion that Vincent does- I'd never been so grateful to be a woman.