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Someone still loves you Meredith Salenger
Meredith Salenger went to college with me. This was before Natalie Portman and the guy from Weezer came to town, and Meredith, who starred in The Journey of Natty Gann as a kid and moved up to...
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Reader survey: nerdy memories
On the flight back from England I watched an episode of Big Bang Theory, a sitcom about a bunch of nerds sharing an apartment. It’s not very funny, unfortunately, but it’s surprisingly accurate in its...
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Thursday is your last chance to see Anvil! The Story of Anvil in Madison
While we’re talking about watching rock music and getting choked up, I ought to mention that Anvil! The Story of Anvil is finishing its limited engagement at Sundance 608 on Thursday, September 24....
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The best math joke that will appear in a major Hollywood picture this year
Early in the just-released Up in the Air, George Clooney’s character reveals to a young coworker his dream of registering 10 million frequent flyer miles on American Airlines. She responds...
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David Lynch/parenting protip
Don’t watch “Inland Empire” while holding your baby. Your baby won’t mind, but if you watch a David Lynch movie for ten minutes and then look down at your baby, your baby’s face will freak you out.
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My favorite Wisconsin labor tweet
“One way or another, when this Walker experiment is over, one of the Koch brothers is going to owe the other exactly one dollar.”
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Happy Jim Traber Day
Twenty-seven years ago today, Jim Traber made his major-league debut for the Orioles. And he sang the national anthem before the game! Heroic. When I think about Jim Traber I think about the three...
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Movies I cried at in 2011
Bridesmaids The Muppets What has become of me? It has something to do with having kids, I think. Some people say “I became a totally different person when my children are born” but for me it’s been...
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What the ’80s looked like
For readers too young to remember. The patterns we used to put on things! They were wonderful. “I Feel Good About Myself,” from Meet The Hollowheads (This movie is indescribably strange and while it...
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Somewhere a dog barked
From Rosecrans Baldwin in Slate: As a reader of novels and not much else, I keep a running list of authorial whims. Male writers of the Roth/Updike generation, for example, love the word cunt. Also,...
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Jordan and the Dream of Rogen
The other night I dreamed I was going into a coffeeshop and Seth Rogen was sitting at an outside table eating a salad. He was wearing a jeans jacket and his skin was sort of bad. I have always...
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I hate bad buts and I cannot lie
From today’s New York Times: Scarlett Johansson gainfully posed in underwear and spiked heels for Esquire’s cover last year after the magazine named her the “sexiest woman alive.” But a French...
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Notes on Boyhood
Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is certainly the best movie I’ve seen this year, likely the best movie I’ll see this year. But I don’t see a lot of movies. After the spoiler bar, some notes on this one....
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Boyhood: one more note
I thought of one more small thing, concerning the last scene. People made fun of that last scene where they take shrooms and go hiking in Big Bend. But I liked this last scene. It captures that...
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Devil math!
The Chinese edition of How Not To Be Wrong, published by CITAC and translated by Xiaorui Hu, comes out in a couple of weeks. The Chinese title is 魔鬼数学 or “Mo gui shu xue” which means “Devil...
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Devil math!
The Chinese edition of How Not To Be Wrong, published by CITAC and translated by Xiaorui Hu, comes out in a couple of weeks. The Chinese title is 魔鬼数学 or “Mo gui shu xue” which means “Devil...
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Devil math!
The Chinese edition of How Not To Be Wrong, published by CITAC and translated by Xiaorui Hu, comes out in a couple of weeks. The Chinese title is 魔鬼数学 or “Mo gui shu xue” which means “Devil...
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My Erdos-Bacon-Sabbath number is 11
I am pleased to report that I have an Erdös-Bacon-Sabbath number. My Erdös number is 3; has been for a while, probably always will be. I wrote a paper with Mike Bennett and Nathan Ng about solutions...
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Mark Metcalf
Have you ever heard of this guy? I hadn’t. Or thought I hadn’t. But: he was Niedermeyer in Animal House and the dad in Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” video and the Master, the Big Bad of...
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I guess Caffe 608 was in trouble
Eight years after I wondered whether the arthouse cinema / cafe in Hilldale could really make a go of it, Sundance 608 is getting bought out by AMC. I have really come to like this weird little...
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