Boo! Hiss!

James Lileks is dead to me.

In his most recent Bleat, not only does he dismiss the brilliant Witness for the Prosecution as "[f]airly ordinary stuff", but he manages to pull a threefer by dissing Elsa Lanchester, Marlene Dietrich, and Charles Laughton in the same sentence. (He also misspells Lanchester's name and claims that the source material is an Agatha Christie novel, rather than - correctly - a short story.)

Charles Laughton (together, if you insist, "with his jowls") was the greatest ugly film actor in history. Dietrich's character, Lileks claims, was made "entirely of dry ice", despite the fact that her every action in the movie is emotionally driven. And how could anyone possibly consider Elsa Lanchester unlovable? Shame on you, Mr. Lileks!

DG, Part 1: Smooth Moves

Differential geometry is the study of geometry using the techniques of calculus. The simplest sort of geometric object, for these purposes, is a regular curve.

( Regular curves )

A Puzzlement

The following is not intended entirely seriously.

There is a general perception that Hollywood and the USAn entertainment industry in general are hotbeds of political liberalism. I find it striking, therefore, that all the actors who have been elected to office, at any level, that I can bring to mind have been Republicans.

Think about it. George Murphy. Ronald Reagan. Fred Grandy. Fred Thompson (OK, that's a marginal case; he was a lawyer and a politico before he was an actor). Sonny Bono. Clint Eastwood. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Am I missing anybody?

If you extend the definition of "entertainer" to include athletes - not a notoriously liberal bunch - the picture changes a little. Jim Bunning, Vinegar Bend Mizell, Bob Mathias, J. C. Watts, Tom Osborne - all Republicans. Bill Bradley was a Democrat, of course, and Jesse Ventura ran on the Reform ticket. Does Gerald Ford count? Byron White comes to mind - he was a Democrat, though he proved to be quite conservative on the Supreme Court - but he wasn't elected to anything.

Anybody else?

Temps Perdu

Sars plays Proust over at Tomato Nation.

Last post today, I promise.