From the monthly archives:

May 2008

Quercy Ejf Restaurant (4/5) on Yelp.com

Quercy Ejf Restaurant (4/5) on Yelp.com
Idiosyncratic, charismatic but daffy—that could describe the menu, staff or service here. I was more charmed than some will …

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One might do worse than to say that an intellectual is someone who does not attempt to soar on the thermals of public opinion. There ought to be a word for those men and women who do their own thinking; who are willing to stand the accusation of “elitism” (or at least to prefer it to the idea of populism); who care for language above all and guess its subtle relationship to truth; and who are willing and able to nail a lie. If such a person should also have a sense of irony and a feeling for history, then, as the French say, tant mieux. An intellectual need not be one who, in a well-known but essentially meaningless phrase, “speaks truth to power.” (Chomsky has dryly reminded us that power often knows the truth well enough.) However, the attitude towards authority should probably be sceptical, as should the attitude towards utopia, let alone to heaven or hell. Other aims should include the ability to survey the present through the optic of a historian, the past with the perspective of the living, and the culture and language of others with the equipment of an internationalist.

One might do worse than to say that an intellectual is someone who does not attempt to soar on the thermals of public opinion. There …

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How to get involved in TED Prize wishes

How to get involved in TED Prize wishes
Since it began in 2005, the TED Prize has been making wishes that call on the power …

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Creative Underclass: Why Does Gawker Hate You, Keith Gessen?

Creative Underclass: Why Does Gawker Hate You, Keith Gessen?…

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Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon (5/5) on Yelp.com

Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon (5/5) on Yelp.com
What do you expect from a guy who had his wedding rehearsal dinner there? The salon, and the …

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Maoz (4/5) on Yelp.com

Maoz (4/5) on Yelp.com
Astonishing: Maoz is easily my all-time favourite chain “fast food” concept in NYC. It beats out some indie folks like Mamoun’s …

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● New book by Gladwell: Outliers

● New book by Gladwell: Outliers
The Amazon page for Malcolm Gladwell’s new book is up. From here, we learn that the full title …

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It’s kind of cool to learn what distinguishes the history of ideas from intellectual history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ideas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_history …

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