So, you know, Roman Polanski is in prison. Polanski’s lawyers are asking that the Swiss court release him on bail [link]. Here’s the quote that made me choke and splutter while trying innocently to drink some cool water: “One of the lawyers, Herve Temime, added that Polanski did not pose a flight risk.” Seriously? Are […]
Archive | Famous People
Happy Birthday, Doctor J!
Not the basketball player, but the amazing Dr. Johnson (who has appeared before in these magical pages). Creator of the first modern English dictionary. Today he would be 300 years old and still bitching. Bitching, that is, in the most witty and quotable way. Go read some of his dictionary. Today’s word is pickapack, which […]
Einstein Sees a Silver Lining
Or, at least, an unrelated happy event. Here’s a line from one of his letters to a friend: “The little one is very sickly and must go to Arosa [where there’s a sanatorium] for a year. My wife is also ailing. Worries and more worries. Nevertheless, I have found a nice generalization of the Sommerfield-Epstein […]
R.I.P. Tom Paine
Tom Paine believed in Liberty, and he fought tyranny his whole life. His writings helped spark a revolution, the effects of which are still felt to this day, exactly 200 years after his death. He also believed in God, but not in the Bible, which got him in some hot water here and there. And […]
Einstein
I’m reading a biography of Einstein, by Walter Isaacson. There are lots of “didja knows” throughout the book, but the theme seems to be how Einstein’s creativity and irreverence were the keys to his scientific life and success. A few notable items that have nothing to do with that theme: 1. He had an illegitimate […]
Perez Hilton, Politics, and Whining
I don’t exactly follow the Miss USA contest, and I don’t care about its results. So that’s one thing I don’t care about. I also don’t care about Perez Hilton (I don’t even want to link to his little blog of celebrity snark). But… the mixture of the two things has gotten my attention, and […]
Ted Turner is Getting Old
I recently listened to a Podcast interview of Ted Turner. Or, to be more precise, I listened to part of it. Here are the reasons I didn’t want to listen any more: 1. Ted is hard of hearing. He said so at the beginning of the interview. Still, throughout the podcast, he had to keep […]
Lovely Rita
Last night/this morning, as I couldn’t sleep from fever and other annoying symptoms of an ear infection, I watched The Lady from Shanghai. The movie? Interesting in bits. Whatever. But man, was Rita Hayworth beautiful. Good God.
Inauguration
Overall pretty nice. I liked that Obama was nervous enough to stop in the middle of his oath and wait for Roberts to help him out. It was kind of a sweet moment of humanity. And it’s the last time that the Chief Justice will lift a finger to help out Obama. Update: Ok, so […]
Nice to See Ya
Today I ran into a guy who mentioned to me that he’s been reading weeklyrob. Occasionally this happens, and I invariably do the following three things, in order: 1. Feel embarrassment, shame, dread, and horror while trying to remember the latest post. 2. Go read the front page of weeklyrob, pretending that I’m new. 3. […]