A member of Professor Charles Kingsfield’s seminar for second- and third-year law students has just given a report using two props — a piece of “eastern erotica” and a Playboy centerfold. Kingsfield’s response: “lively, energetic, entertaining, . . . also overlong, ineptly researched, and quite shallow.” The props, says Kingsfield, are merely “a smoke screen” to conceal shoddy work. He then gives the student this advice: “Do the work, and you won’t need to do the dance.”
Do the work: yes. I’m reminded of the justly celebrated Rule 7.
These bits of dialogue come from a second-season episode of The Paper Chase, “Spreading It Thin,” which aired on June 15, 1983. Yes, the DVD is at Netflix.
Two more Kingsfield posts
How to improve writing (no. 42)
“Minds, not memories”
Monday, March 18, 2013
“Do the work”
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Facebook CEO likes paper, pens
Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg, talking with the New York Times:
“I probably shouldn’t admit this since I work in the tech industry, but I still prefer reading paper books. (In Lean In , I also admit that I carry a notebook and pen around to keep track of my to-do list, which, at Facebook, is like carrying around a stone tablet and chisel.)”Related reading
All paper posts (Pinboard)
A poem for the day
I like what the poet David Schubert said in a letter to a friend: “I’m going to buy my edition of Yeats tomorrow, for he does belong to the ages although he knows it too well.” But he does belong to the ages, all of them.
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day. Patrick, or, if you must, Paddy. Not Patty.
The name Leddy is Irish.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Hi and Lois watch
[Hi and Lois, March 16, 2013.]
Somewhere in that “‘Job Jar’” is a slip of paper that reads Draw collar. Or Prooflook.
Related reading
All Hi and Lois posts (Pinboard)
Friday, March 15, 2013
On joining a museum
Elaine and I had never considered a membership in the Art Institute of Chicago. We live at a great distance, and we visit just a few times a year. But as a helpful fellow at the ticket counter pointed out yesterday, just two visits a year would recoup the cost. A membership for one gets us admission for two, along with a magazine, a 10% discount on purchases, safe passage to the Member Lounge (with free coffee and tea), and, yes, a totebag. We have promised not to fight over the totebag.
There are some great things at the AIC now. Among them: an enormous Picasso exhibition, an exhibition of Chicago immigrant and migrant experience in art (with a woodcut by Elaine’s great-uncle Aaron Bohrod), Irving Penn’s chewing-gum-on-pavement photographs, and work inspired by or made in collaboration with poets (Frank O’Hara and Larry Rivers FTW). And the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine art is back.
[Kylix (Wine Cup). Greek, Athens. Attributed to the Workshop of Nikosthenes. 530/520 B.C. Terracotta, decorated in the black-figure technique. Anonymous loan.]
[Pablo Picasso, White Owl on Red Ground. Vallauris, March 25, 1957. Red earthenware clay, decoration in engobes, knife engraved. Private collection.]
An unexpected benefit of membership: running into a old friend and colleague—in the Member Lounge.
Perhaps you too should join a museum.
A related post
Word of the day: apotropaic
[Descriptions verbatim from the AIC information cards.]
Overheard
“I think you could laser-focus it a little more.”
Related reading
All “overheard” posts (Pinboard)
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Teenagers with moose, also plural
[“Des Moines, Iowa High School Teen Agers.” Photograph by George Skadding. November 1947. From the Life Photo Archive.]
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Hummingbird Nest Cam
My daughter Rachel gave me the link. I tuned in today by chance, around 4:45 p.m. (PDT), and saw Phoebe feeding her babies. So cute. Add as many o’s to so as you like.
Which will it be: instant calm, or unexpected excitement? There’s only one way to find out: Hummingbird Nest Cam. Either way, the hummingbirds are sooooooo cute.
Thank you, Rachel.
