S.C. Butler's Blog, page 7

Rapping Economists

If you have the stomach for it.

Duck in a Can Redux

Back from another lovely weekend in Montreal. I do enjoy that town. This time it was smoked meat instead of Duck in a Can. But, proving that the power of Duck in a Can is Supreme, I found myself inexorably drawn back to the spot, recognizing that I was three blocks away even though the only time I had ever been to the restaurant was on a summer night, and this was a winter noon.

Resistance is futile.

If Coakley Loses Tomorrow

If Coakley loses tomorrow, it's not going to be because of anything the Democrats did or didn't do, or anything the Republicans did or didn't do either. It's going to be because of us. The blame will lie on us, and only us, the ones who voted.

Why? Because as a society we are incapable of making any hard decisions. We want our cheap imports, but we want our jobs, too. We want all the medical care we can possibly consume, but we don't want to pay for it. We want to be safe and strong and...

Guerilla Marketing Your Book to the Max

Doing readings in people's homes. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/books/review/Elliott-t.html

Best Fish Restaurant in Queens

The Taverna Kyclades. If you're ever in Astoria, you have to go. Mmm, octopus.

Sam-Who-Likes-Nothing - The Stars My Destination

To read this rant, you need to go to SFNovelists.

Another Excellent, and Scary, Piece By Andrew Sullivan

In the London Times.

Money quote.

"The Republican gamble, in turn, is that the extremism of their populist oppositionism doesn't rally the fringe of their base at the cost of alienating the critical middle that still holds sway in American politics. My own sense is that in a low-turnout mid-term election, they could do very well with this tactic. But at a strategic level, I suspect that this is a trap for 2012. If they cannot attract younger or minority voters, if they continue to fail to...

It's Their Bookstore

And they can do whatever they want. Here, in a nutshell, is the secret to bookselling success. Don't be the same as everyone else. Be different. Books are different. Read what you like. And sell what you like, too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/nyregion/10stop.html?ref=todayspaper

(Read the 4th para.)

An Interesting Take on Avatar

In David Brooks's column at the NYTimes today.

Sam-Who-Likes-Nothing - District 9

This should have been great. Man, what an idea. I mean think of the cool science fiction fun you could have with shipwrecked aliens on Earth, and they breed, so Earth ghettoizes them, and then, really, what are you going to do when they start competing with an overcrowded earth for resources? Very, very cool.

But no. That's not where District 9 runs with it. Instead we have to belabor an already obvious metaphor by sticking the aliens in an already apartheid South Africa, and all the...