Man, this is a weird winter. 40’s/50’s this past weekend, and today, low 40’s,30’s and windchill in the teens or 20’s. It’s the wind, really.
And, in today’s news, Bill Nye the Science Guy Gets Hitched. Congratulations, Science Guy!
In Slate: the dangers of reading memoirs – is a disclaimer good enough? I recall reading Barack Obama’s memoir and saw the little disclaimer. Then, I thought, you know, I would hardly expect Obama, at the time a soon-to-be-elected politician, to be entirely honest. And, he’s a lawyer on top of that – as if he’d really name names of people who passed through what was likely a more ordinary life. If the point of his book is to express his views on race and politics in America, not to express his actual memories, then maybe a little embellishment or literary license is allowable.
And, then I think about Bob Kerrey’s memoir and how, when I read it, I felt there was some kind of holding back about what he did in Vietnam – whether due to his faulty memory or his (understandable) desire not to discuss because he was not ready (whether for personal or political reasons).
Memoirs are touchy things. I’m not sure who really reads them because they’re accurate, or because they’re about art (artifice?) reflecting on reality. Would you feel cheated if it turns out what you read didn’t really happen? Sure. But, why did you really read the book – because it’s “real’ or because of the way it’s written and what you felt in reading it?
Prof. Tim Wu explains in Slate why patent law seems to allow this nasty guy to go after the makers of Blackberry. I thought that this article was amusing and educational. Hey, who knew that patent law could be funny? (speaking as a non-patent law person – the one IP class I didn’t take in law school, primarily since I didn’t – still don’t – have the scientific technical background).
Tuesday night, the bunch of us went to Virgil’s BBQ after a City Bar event. Good eating. Cheesy mac and cheese – wow. Digestion’s still on-going. 😉