Soooo caffeinated...

to the point of distraction. Whee! Shiny things!

Scarf #5

Scarves #3 and #4 have yet to be photographed, but I had to get a record of #5 because I mailed it to its new home in Ottawa this weekend. Photos have been embargoed until now.

Ain't it purdy?


It's a cable knit scarf using this pattern and four 50g skeins of this yarn. It was my first time knitting cables and I was determined to use a pattern that was cabled on both sides (so that both sides were presentable, though clearly one side is prettier). Turns out I picked a pattern that required eight cables for every set of eight rows. Let's just say that I am now adept at cable knitting.

The "prettier" side:


The "still pretty" side:

I love the slight variegation in the yarn, which is a lovely shade of blue with occasional sections of white. Hopefully it wears well and doesn't shed too much.

Feminism won't kill me

Imagine me giggling in agreement while reading this article by Zoe Williams in the Guardian on specious attacks on feminism and feminists:

It interests, but doesn't surprise me, that the people who most keenly hate women also seem to hate men.

The article is a lovely piece of rhetoric, written in a clear voice and with real energy and verve. It's refreshing to read something that has a clear point and makes that point entertainingly.

Best Sentence

Tonight I finished cleaning up a short article that will be published online this summer. In the meantime, because I love it so much, here is the best sentence of the article (inspired by this blog):

"In fact, it is heavily ironic that Elizabeth is proposed to in the home of a man whose proposal she rejected."

And yes, you need to have read Pride and Prejudice to understand it.

Makin' the blogroll big time

Congratulations to DarNat, who just made the blogroll for Man vs. Clown! a few months after I inexplicably did (how, I know not, but I do know that Mr. Man (or is it Mr. Clown?) tracks his blog stats).

Screen shot of a small section of the blogroll is here:









And yes, I did click on the "Darnat" link, just to be the first to do so. Not to nitpick (okay, totally to nitpick), but the "n" should be capitalized. It's bad enough that Daorcey gets to be first and poor Nat is relegated to second, although I guess "NatDar" doesn't have the same ring to it.

Samuel Richardson = George Lucas?

I read up on George Lucas's first movie, THX-1138, this week for my TA work, including some info on the changes he made to the recently released Directors' Cut (which include some rather silly looking CGI monkeys). In his defense, Lucas's film was recut by the studio and he was prevented by the lack of technology from fully realizing his dystopic, futuristic world. However, there is a certain charm to the 1971 version; it's not as slick, it's more claustrophobic, and the special effects are better integrated (as you would expect). And really, once a director releases a movie, he/she must be able to just let it go. The movie, like any piece of art, takes on a life of its own and will produce meanings that its creator never intended or considered. That's part of being an artist. (On the other hand, I do sympathize with any director whose movie is recut behind her back by the studio head).

But film directors were certainly not the first artists who could not let go. Samuel Richardson, author of Clarissa, was notorious for not being able to leave well enough alone. His first novel, Pamela, was immensely popular, but Richardson continued revising even after it was published. A second edition followed, and then a third, fourth, fifth... all the way up to a posthumous 11th edition edited by his daughters. The editions, by all accounts (no, I haven't read every edition of Pamela), differ in the representation of the eponymous heroine. In the first edition she's definitely a servant girl with a sharp, witty tongue who speaks with a lower-class accent. The heroine's rough edges are gradually worn down as the edition numbers increase, and some of the more titillating bits are removed. Richardson also corrected some of his factual errors regarding persons of rank (titles and whatnot), which he learned about because, ironically, Pamela's success enabled him to rub elbows with persons of rank. Also, Richardson wrote two sequels to the novel, partly in response to someone else's unauthorized sequel.

There are also some notable differences between the first and third editions of Clarissa. I've read only the 1st edition (twice), but my understanding is that the third edition makes Lovelace even more villainous because, to Richardson's shock, some readers still wanted Clarissa to marry her rapist.

Of course, the only reason Richardson was able to release multiple, different editions of his works was because he was his own publisher and editor. Now that's vertical integration.

Chinese food and fiction

A story broke this morning about a study that found the food in "Chinese" restaurants in the US is unhealthy, particularly in terms of sodium content. I use the quotation marks because to refer to the food in question as Chinese is generous at best and unfair at worse. The dishes studied bear little or no resemblance to the food found in Chinese homes around the world, with General Tao's chicken being the main offender, but also including Lemon Chicken and even Beef with Broccoli (because this is not the same as this).

Of course, the CP story writer doesn't seem to know this, querying whether 1.3 billion people (presumably the population of China) could be wrong. Newsflash: there is nothing wrong with Chinese food, if by Chinese food you mean the food Chinese people prepare and eat for themselves. The difference between Chinese and "Chinese" was particularly striking in the CBC Edmonton 6 p.m. newscast, as Chinese Chinese-restaurant managers and cooks defended their buffet (yes, I said buffet) items while white patrons ate in the background.

As ironic consolation, the studies notes that the nutritional value of "Chinese" food has not gone down since the last time it was analyzed, "which is something that certainly cannot be said about typical American-style restaurant food." Now hold on there, tiger. I counter that the "Chinese" food studied here is typical, American-style restaurant food. We've all seen it: bright red sauces, meat deep fried in so much batter as to be unrecognizable re: animal of origin, and chop suey glistening with oil. More importantly, we've all seen it in restaurants.

Of course, Chinese immigrants do have to share some responsibility for this conflation of "Chinese" food and Chinese food. After all, they're the ones who un-Communistly bowed to market pressures and "Americanized" the cuisine for customers in the first place. That said, I wonder why they made it more unhealthy in the process. Was it merely because it was the quickest, cheapest way to cook? Or was it to contribute to the gradual decline of the typical American's health? Was it all part of a large conspiracy in which China takes over the world? Is it possible that America (i.e., Hansel and Gretel) is slowly, unknowingly being fattened up by China until one day China comes over and consumes it like a giant amoeba? Or is China just waiting for America to keel over of heart disease before stepping into the power vacuum?

Only time will tell. Until, then, a word to the CPSI: If you're going to muck up "Chinese" and Chinese food, at least refrain from using stupid puns in the study's title.

Facebook meets e-Harmony

Alright, I think this one's already gone viral, but it's too good to not share.


The above spoof was produced for a TV show at the University of Southern California.
Directed by Mu Sun, produced by Adam Sussman, written by James Grosch.

Of course, it's only funny if you're on Facebook (which is where my old/new friend Toby posted it in the first place). So why aren't you? Waste your time looking up old friends you haven't spoken to in years and reading other people's hipper-than-thou lists of interests (Peter).

In other Facebook-related posts, check out Emily Yoffe's experiment on Facebook in Slate here and the sequel here.

Guy Maddin: Heart of the World

The department held its Broadus lecture series this week, in which one of our film professors spoke about the movies of Winnipeg filmmaker Guy Maddin. I was the professor's research assistant on the project and as a result became a bit of a Maddin fan myself. In light of this week, I thought it would be nice to post my favourite Maddin short, The Heart of the World, which was one of ten Canadian short films commissioned to start the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival. Anyone who's taken film studies will notice the Soviet Montage influence, but what I love is just how much story Maddin manages to cram into such a short period of time. Warning: this requires — nay, insists upon — rewatching. Don't try to get it all on the first viewing.

Enjoy!

Calgary still superior

Just watched a ridiculous news report on TV tonight about how Edmontonians and Edmonton mail carriers are being confused by duplicate addresses in different (NW and SW) quadrants of the city. The SW quadrant is only now being developed (Edmonton is mainly a gigantic NW quadrant) and people can't seem to get used to it. Story might still be on the website here (scroll down).

Calgary is also laid out in a quadrant system, though that one is superior for the following reasons:
1. Calgary's quadrants are about equal in size.
2. No one, not even mail carriers, gets confused about NW or SW.
3. If there is confusion, local TV news does not see fit to turn it into a fluff story.
4. People learn really quickly (as I did when I moved to Calgary) to add the quadrant designation (NW, SW, SE, NE) at the end of the street address and to tell all their friends and family to do the same. It's not that hard. Really.

Language barriers

Stick with the story. I do have a point here.

Today my dad phoned from Calgary to ask me to look up the phone number of the Chinese herb store that's in West Edmonton Mall. It's in the corridor leading up to the T & T Chinese Superstore, so you wouldn't think it would be that difficult, especially since I've been in that very corridor dozens of times (though, to be fair, I've never noticed a herb place).

Here's what I did:
1. I begin by going to the T&T website, misunderstanding dad that it was in the store and not by the store. Nothing. Call Dad. He clarifies. I realize my Chinese is not that great. Oops.
2. Phonetically, the store's name sounds like "Wah Hing", so I plugged that term into Canada411. No such thing in Edmonton.
3. I go to the West Edmonton Mall website and search for "Wah Hing" in the directory. Nothing.
4. I click on the "Mall Map" button and Firefox tries to load up Java. It works but it's slow, and the page tells me to use Safari instead, so I do.
5. In Safari (so we're at three tabbed windows and two browsers now) I check the map, but its "interactivity" does not extend to being able to click on the little rectangles that represent stores and see which stores they are. I guess not many people have to search backwards for a store name based on its location.
6. I picked up a mall directory the last time I was there, so I start scanning its list of stores for potential candidates. I base my search on whether the location number is close to that of T&T (i.e., blue and on the second floor). The closest I come is "Waiting Hut", which I know is a bubble tea place.
7. I phone dad. He suggests some different spellings, which 411 rejects. Thankfully, the store he's looking for is part of a chain which also has a store in Calgary (it's a family business). He looks up the Calgary store in a Chinese phone book and spells out the English name of the business: "Wah Sun".
8. Mentally cursing my stupidity, I realize that I should have checked the alphabetical listings on the WestEd website. I click on "W" and nothing resembling "Wah Sun" or "Wah Hing" is listed.
9. I plug "Wah Sun" into Canada 411. Nothing.
10. SUCCESS! I search for "Chinese Herbs" in Edmonton and come up with this. I give dad the phone number.
11. Curious, I search for "WahSun" in the WestEd online directory. It gives me nothing, though the address in the Canada 411 listing clearly indicates that it's located in the mall. Plus, my father has actually been there, and if he says it's in the mall, then I trust him.

My big question to the people running West Ed is: why isn't this store listed in any of your directories? Even if it was new, the website should still have it. And the directory I was checking is quite recent; it was picked up a few weeks ago when my sister was visiting. You list other stores in that corridor, including a noodle place and the bubble tea place. What gives? What did it take much longer than it should have to find this store online? I know that a Chinese herbal place that sells medicinal herbs might not be a big tourist draw, but it's a legitimate business that needs a place on your directory so that Chinese people can find it. Did you just not know what category to put it in? I can think of two: Health & Beauty Care, or Medical, Dental & Optical.

For the record, the search took 20 minutes. I'm sure it would have been faster if a) I owned a directory of Chinese businesses in Edmonton and b) I read Chinese. But I don't, and the above 11 steps was the result.

Jane Austen and Female Self-Worth

The British press is abuzz this week with all sorts of articles on Jane Austen, due to Friday's release of Becoming Jane. Much of it isn't worth reading, but Germaine Greer's take on why Jane Austen is still relevant to women today (and, I would argue, to men) in The Guardian is particularly sharp, and gets to the core of why Austen's novels are not about getting the man:

The point is not to achieve the man at any cost. He is not the prey or the prize but the symbol of merit. The possibility that there may be no such man is always present. Part of our gratified surprise at the Austen happy ending is that there was a man around with the good sense to see that a woman without rich and powerful connections might be a pearl beyond price, a woman whose company was reward in itself. We know that she is good company because we have been seeing the world through her disabused eyes. We go on reading and watching Jane Austen because she is good for us.

More here.

Fender Bender

Not of the car variety, as anyone who knows me will know.

I met Karine at Sugarbowl to work this afternoon, bringing with me my flagged Clarissa, 28 pages in pulled quotations (size 10 font, no less), and my trusty laptop. When it was time to go, I put the book and my laptop in my computer bag, which was standing upright on the bench beside me. As I turned away to grab something else on the table, I heard a worrying though oddly satisfying-because-heavy THUD, the sound of my bag tipping over and falling to the floor. I wasn't too worried about damage to the sleeping computer, which I've accidentally dropped from a similar height before (it slid off my bed) but was annoyed nonetheless. A few hours after I got home, I saw this:


My beautiful laptop is now asymmetrical.

I'm not entirely sure how the fall could have made that particular dent, but there you go. Throw in the fact that the F11 key somehow came loose and fell off a couple of months ago (I haven't managed to figure out how to put it back on), and I believe I now own the Powerbook equivalent of a used car. Still lots of milage on it, but definitely well loved and a little worse for wear. But still, what's the point of buying a laptop if I'm not going to take it places (like, well, for coffee and to bed)?

Note to self: Back up files tonight.

Update: I am happy to report that the F11 key has been restored to its rightful place. Yay!

Dead Theorists

Jean Baudrillard died today. My first reaction, as it has been for the recent deaths of other great thinkers and theorists (such as Jacques Derrida), was surprise that he was still alive (until, well, quite recently). I guess I don't think of theorists as actual people, but rather, as abstract intellects from whom fascinating, earth-changing ways of looking at the world flow. I think it also has something to do with a timelessness I associate with academics and university in general — who knows how old some of our professors really are? Some seem older, some seem younger (including the much-missed Bruce Stovel), and some seem eternal (Prof. Gordon-Craig, who taught Bailey's father in grad school).

Other "I didn't know he was still alive" deaths:

• Jacques Derrida: Oct. 2004
  
• Edward Said: Sept. 2003
  
• Pierre Bourdieu: Jan. 2002
  

But, as I gird myself (gird! hee!) for the arrival of a much-maligned Jane Austen biopic, I do wonder whether the person or the life matters at all, when his/her work is so rich. After all, we'll always have the simulacrum.

Auto-Icon

I went out for dinner with some friends tonight and somehow or another we got around to talking about 18th-century philosopher Jeremy Bentham, who I fully intend to visit on my research trip. And by visit, I do not mean stopping by his grave.

Bentham was associated with the founding of University College London, and in his will, he stipulated that his body be preserved (in a seated position) and stored in a cabinet at the college.


The figure is now all wax, but his skeleton still lies beneath it all. His head, however, was damaged in the initial preservation process and a wax head was connected to the flesh body instead. However, the real head was also on display in the cabinet, sitting between Bentham's legs. As a result of being stolen in a series of student pranks, the head was eventually locked away.

Popular legend has it that Bentham's Auto-Icon is wheeled into College Council meetings to "attend". Depending on who you read, Bentham attends as a non-voting member, votes to support the motion, or votes as the Chair votes. Now that's tenure.

Sources here and here (scroll down to "Auto-Icon").