Some odds and ends to wrap up the week:
- The auction of Cormac McCarthy’s typewriter has Brian Sorrell considering the physicality of writing. On a related note, Thessaly La Force discusses the Olivetti typewriter itself.
- Neko Case guest hosted on Turner Classic Movies the other night and revealed some of her top movies. Among her favorites are Radio Days and the The Third Man, which Spinner mistakenly believes was directed by Orson Welles.
- Leonard Cohen and Loretta Lynn will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards at next year’s Grammys. And, if that doesn’t get your blood pumping, they’ll also present awards to Michael Jackson, Bobby Darin, and Andre Previn. The Grammys would be hard-pressed to assemble a more disparate group.
- As you probably know, Harry Reid commented that the resistance to health care reform was comparable to the struggles faced by those who advocated emancipation, women’s suffrage, and civil rights. The Republicans countered that, in fact, it was their party that had supported many of those efforts, while the Democrats stalled. Regardless of politics, I have a hard time crediting the modern GOP with anything done by the pre-1960s version of the party. It was a completely different animal (as were the Democrats, who went through their own conversion over a thirty year period from the 1930s through the ’60s), but that matters little when the facts can be contorted to support one viewpoint or another. It’s frustrating from a historian’s perspective, as it demonstrates an ignorance of the past at best and a purposeful misuse of it at worst. I might have a longer post about this in the near future.
- And, Bob Dylan released the second video in support of Christmas in the Heart. It’s not as entertaining as the “Must Be Santa” video, which I linked to previously, but the art is interesting and the song is good, too. Take a look, buy the album, feed some hungry people.
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