http://www.themillions.com Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:16:04 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Prominent among my childhood memories is the voice of Julia Child. Or rather, the voice of my father imitating Julia Child. Ours was (you'll be shocked to learn) a PBS household, and the pseudo-Julia arias he would deliver while making Chicken Dish - in that swooping, fluty, Childian soprano - ... http://www.themillions.com/2009/08/inter-alia-18-julia-child-and-the-ethical-appeal.html A prize-winning journalist once told me this story: Early in his career, writing on spec for The Village Voice or some such organ of the alternative press, he had ventured to the set of Blazing Saddles to interview Mel Brooks. Flush with the wine of self-importance, he flourished his press ... http://www.themillions.com/2009/03/inter-alia-17-n1br-blazing-saddles-and_30.html Well, Wyatt Mason beat me to it. Over at his blog, Sentences, the Harper's critic has registered a couple of cavils with D.T. Max's powerful, fascinating New Yorker article on David Foster Wallace, "The Unfinished." First, Mason suggests, Max makes his case for The Broom of the System at the ... http://www.themillions.com/2009/03/inter-alia-16-footnoting-dt-max-dfw_05.html Today on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show, David Denby put in an appearance promoting his new book, Snark. I'm not sure what qualifies Denby, a movie critic, to save us from "a strain of nasty, knowing abuse spreading like pinkeye through the national conversation." Nor am I entirely sure we ... http://www.themillions.com/2009/02/inter-alia-15-toward-phenomenology-of_09.html Among its many peculiar achievements, the Internet seems to have pushed the old "observer effect" - wherein by paying attention to a process we alter its outcome - into the realm of magical thinking. Back during election season, I remember, I had assembled a little rosary of blogs I'd cycle ... http://www.themillions.com/2009/02/inter-alia-14-my-political-blog_2587.html Back in 2001, The Onion published a breathless report from a gala awards ceremony: The Fontys. A few dissenting voices groused about the night's big winner, Helvetica Bold Oblique - "a bold as best font?" - but ebullience carried the night. "'A million thanks to all the wonderful folks in ... http://www.themillions.com/2008/10/inter-alia-13-font-wars-phantom-menace_8658.html Film critics have lauded the French thriller Ne le dis à personne (Tell No One) with adjectives fit for a personal ad: "taut," "sexy," "smart..." Having recently caught a matinee, I'm willing to attest to its tautness. However, the climax reminded me that dramatic smarts entail more than a pensive ... http://www.themillions.com/2008/08/inter-alia-12-tell-no-one-i-literary_28.html Last week, Manhattan's Mercantile Library emptied the shelves of its shambling, elegant midtown mansion and locked the doors for good. The Merc, one of Old New York's several private libraries, had occupied its East 47th Street location continuously since 1932, but could no longer outrun the fiscal exigencies of arts ... http://www.themillions.com/2008/06/inter-alia-11-death-and-life-of_10.html [Editor's Note: To plug a hole in the Inter Alia series, we've numbered this one out of order.]I know next to nothing about the translation business, except that it is vital to my reading habits. And so, earlier this week, I posted a little survey of international awards for fiction, ... http://www.themillions.com/2008/05/inter-alia-4-international-prizewinners_15.html In Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace imagines a fungus that grows on another fungus; a nuclear reaction fueled by the byproducts of nuclear reactions; and movies whose audiences watch an audience watching them. For this kind of derivative process, he invokes the adjective annular, which the O.E.D. defines as "ringlike" ... http://www.themillions.com/2008/03/inter-alia-authority-anniversary-and.html