Post-X-mas Stuff

Here are comments from Slate on Hollywood's remake mills. As I have said before, I am not opposed to the remake as such. But, this is the sort of thing we usually seem to end up with -- "Fun With Dick and Jane" is in many ways the most common kind of remake: remade simply because it's there. Freshening up an old movie is, well, easier and faster than coming up with an original idea. If all a studio executive needs to fill out next year's slate is a family comedy or a horror film, the quickest way to get one is to recycle content from the studio's own film library. Much of the heavy lifting to shape a three-act story has already been done.

Five bonus points to anyone who can guess who this young lady is:

I finished up John Battelle's book The Search over the weekend, and I have to recommend it highly to anyone interested in that sort of thing. I had put William Safire's No Uncertain Terms on the back burner for a while, and now that is almost done too. I think the next one I want to start is Louis Menand's The Metaphysical Club.

I see that Crispin Sartwell is going to be on Washington Journal tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. This guy is far out -- check out the segment if you get a chance. Here's Prof. Sartwell's blog.

You know how in Freakonomics they explain all those studies of baby names and how they relate to race and socio-economic status? Well, these parents-to-be want to make practical use of those studies.

Here's The Hitchiker's Guide to the Blogosphere. I might have to add that one to the sidebar. Same thing for This Blog Sits at the Intersection of Anthropology and Economics, which I found via THGTTB.