Reader survey: writers and their baseball teams (also Joan Jett)

26Oct10

Almost World Series time!  I’m supporting the Giants — I still feel low about the title Bonds and the Giants should have won in 2002, and while Bonds is gone, my affection for his team remains.  Also, the Giants have more ex-Orioles. I was just reading about Marianne Moore and the Dodgers and wondering what [...]

Filed under: baseball, books, lists, offhand, orioles   |  5 Comments
Tags: bad reputation, delmore schwartz, don delillo, joan jett, marianne moore

Facts about Kyoto

24Oct10

The outskirts of Kyoto look more like the outskirts of an American city than they do like the outskirts of a European city, but downtown Kyoto looks more like a European downtown than it looks like an American downtown. There are a lot of soda machines in Kyoto.  Soda machines in untrafficked corners where you [...]

Filed under: food, lists, travel   |  2 Comments
Tags: eels, japan, kyoto, soda machines

Non-ridiculous things that sound ridiculous

22Oct10

New York Magazine this week features a dopey listicle, “The Ten Most Ridiculous-Sounding Math Classes Currently Offered at Liberal-Arts Colleges.” Many are not math courses at all, but literature courses studying the use and depiction of mathematics in novels and plays.  I approve.  Others are perfectly reasonable math courses, whose only sin seems to be [...]

Filed under: books, magazines, math   |  6 Comments

Mike Appelstein, Moe Tucker, and the Tea Party

20Oct10

For fans of Mike Appelstein and fans of Moe Tucker — I’m both! — here’s Mike’s interview with Velvet Underground drummer Moe Tucker about her emergence as the face of the indie rock Tea Party caucus.

Filed under: music, news, offhand, politics   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: mike appelstein, moe tucker, tea party, velvet underground

Orioles predictions revisited

16Oct10

Well, the baseball season is over and the October exhibition games are well underway, so it’s time to look back at 2010 and see how our Orioles pre-mortem looks in retrospect. Not too bad!  But I made it easy on myself.  I agreed with the general consensus that the Orioles had the talent to win [...]

Filed under: baseball, orioles   |  1 Comment

October 2010 linkdump

11Oct10

Listen to Pavement’s second-ever show, at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, 1990.  Did you know their debut was in New Brunswick?  New Brunswick is great.  I didn’t get around to blogging about their Milwaukee show last month.  It was ace. I took CJ to his first Badger game this weekend.  He has admirable football sophistication; it’s not [...]

Filed under: lists   |  3 Comments
Tags: arugula, badgers, football, gap, j.j.watt, pavement, pesto, probability, tackle

Partha Niyogi has died

10Oct10

I’m sorry to report that Partha Niyogi of the University of Chicago died last week, at 43, from brain cancer.  Partha gave a beautiful lecture at UW last spring as part of our MALBEC series on machine learning.  My description of his work in the linked blog post is inadequate; here’s his paper with Smale [...]

Filed under: computers, math   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: obituary, partha niyogi

David Lynch/parenting protip

06Oct10

Don’t watch “Inland Empire” while holding your baby.  Your baby won’t mind, but if you watch a David Lynch movie for ten minutes and then look down at your baby, your baby’s face will freak you out.

Filed under: baby, movies, offhand   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: advice, david lynch, inland empire, protips