Blowhard, Esq. writes:
- Will a free speech case few took note of prove to be the most significant decision of the Supreme Court’s current term? I thought this line was pretty funny: “Robert Post, the dean of Yale Law School and an authority on free speech, said the decision was so bold and so sweeping that the Supreme Court could not have thought through its consequences.” Post may be correct, of course, perhaps none of the six justices who voted in favor of the decision knew what they were doing. Or maybe they knew exactly what they were doing.
- Are robots the next legal frontier?
- Watch out, Loooov-rah!
- On the decline of Peanuts.
- Are we finally seeing a backlash against glass boxes?
- Michael Lewis on the evolution of Tom Wolfe. Paleo Retiree and I both enjoyed the recent premiere of Stefania de Kenessey’s opera based on Bonfire of the Vanities. Here’s Wolfe on Charles Portis, the funniest man he ever met.
- I’ve been enjoying this Great Courses series on the history of the American musical and I especially liked the prof’s treatment of the minstrel show, which he notes was the first indigenous American musical form and the first musical form to inspire the Europeans to copy us.
- I love the convenience and portability of my Kindle and I stream movies and TV shows every night, so you’ll find no bigger proponent of the digital world than me. But it’s good to be reminded that you don’t really own those ebooks and movies.
- For no reason, here’s a picture of Krysten Ritter:
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
Sherbrooke
Eddie Pensier
Enzo Nakamura
Epaminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
Uncouth Reflections 
Is Krysten Ritter the most attractive woman?
Yes, yes she is.
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Curious about that Great Course on the American musical, something I’m interested in. I looked at the syllabus and course description, and there is no mention of Sondheim. Is he entirely excluded from it? I realize you might not be up to that time period yet, but I’m wondering if the professor is one of those Sondheim deniers.
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So far, he hasn’t taken a strong stance against anyone or anything. He’s already mentioned Sondheim at least once (in the context of “West Side Story”) and I didn’t detect any bias.
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re: PEANUTS — that piece is mostly repeating the conventional wisdom. I’d argue that (a) the strip returned to a very high level in its last years, especially in the strips featuring Rerun (Linus and Lucy’s younger brother — who sounds like he’d be a cheesey character, but is really very strongly written as a cross between the two of them) and (b) even in the 80s during the “meh” period the strips featuring Peppermint Patty were as strong as ever. I agree a little more with his point about Snoopy: I like Snoopy, but he took over the strip in a way that obscured its major strengths.
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