Highly recommended novel

J.G. Farrell's "Troubles," a comedy of futility and decay set in Ireland in 1919.

Dinosaur poem I once wrote

The duckbill herd had drunk its fill
Thought Raptor Red: "It's time to kill."
Her sisters three were close at hand
And by the grove they made their stand
The duckbill herd was acting shy
And sticking close as they went by
A flash of claws, a snarl of teeth
The sisters leaped, and pinned beneath
A duckbill chick, who soon was still
The herd all honked and fled downhill
And stomped beneath their thundering feet
An acrocanthosaur who'd planned to eat
The raptors' kill as stolen meat
The raptors stretched and ate their fill
And lay down in the grass until
Another acro spied their prize
But by that time no meat was left
Except some for the pterodactyls and the flies.

End of the semester

I have just completed teaching my last Tax I class of the fall 2008 semester. I'm always ambivalent when this happens. Certainly, having more free time until the next semester is welcome; teaching has elements of being a chore and isn't necessarily the main reason one goes into this line of work. But a semester-long class is kind of a living thing that the professor & students share and that can be fun; you really get to know each other though just in this formalized setting. And I felt we had pretty good relations and some fun together plus a sense of shared enterprise. I enjoyed teaching this class, and the next time inevitably will be different; possibly not as good since these things inevitably vary each time around.

As a parting gesture various students brought in items of fruit on the last day. This referred in part to a couple of early twentieth century Supreme Court tax cases that (following Marvin Chirelstein) I mocked for their labored and unhelpful metaphors about "fruit and tree": Eisner v. Macomber, saying that only the fruit is income; and Lucas v. Earl, saying that the fruit can only be taxed to the tree on which it grew. Other references behind the gesture: someone brought in an apple earlier in the semester, and when I forgot it he brought in a persimmon the next time; also, I've mentioned my mania for the Union Square farmer's market when fresh fruit is in season. So the gesture was literarily rich; multiple layers of reference.

Anyway, here was my net haul: 4 bananas, a persimmon, a few lychees, a pomegranate, a kiwi, a pineapple, a mango, an orange, a tangerine, a Clementine, an Asian pear, a Comice pear, and a potato (perhaps because in French it's a "pomme de terre"?). Plus an NYU canvas bag so I can carry my loot home.

Luckily I do not plan to respond by asking them on the exam whether this haul is taxable income. Detached generosity? (I'd like to think so.) Might section 102(c) apply? (No, they aren't the employer.)

Final chapter of the class saga, other than the exam, is recruitment to the lifestyle. We tax profs are all alike. We are hoping people will be interested enough to take more classes in the subject, and perhaps to give more thought than they had expected to tax policy as a subject or tax practice as a career. I'd certainly be happy to see people from this class again over the next few semesters. On this angle, on verra.
Posted by Daniel Shaviro at 2:20 PM 0 comments

Reasons to be cheerful

1) I've finally gotten to the end of a huge to-do list that's been hounding me, and frequently growing faster than I could cross things off it, since mid-July. While a new to-do list, possibly a lot worse than the last, is starting to loom and will be having its malign way with me by early January, for the moment I can't or shouldn't do most of those things yet.

2) Expanded 2-CD reissue of Pavement's Brighten the Corners. I got in the mood by spending a few days with the reissue of Wowee Zowee. So far the added material sounds pretty good.

3) Today I was hitting better on the tennis court, and my suspect elbow didn't fall off. My once-reliable forehand, no less than the elbow, has been playing nasty tricks on me lately.

4) Creative gift ideas for certain others, suitably restrained but nonetheless (I hope) thoughtful, have recently occurred to me.

5) I could be in a jury room right now if the case I was picked for hadn't settled.
Posted by Daniel Shaviro at 2:51 PM 0 comments

Cat pandering

Couldn't resist posting this shot of Buddy, a.k.a. the "bad little bunny."

Elmer Fudd wouldn't have liked him, nor Yosemite Sam nor Marvin the Martian, but we actually cherish his foibles.

Life versus the movies

On Christmas Eve we watched the 1951 Alastair Sim version of A Christmas Carol. Scrooge as portrayed by Sim (pre-redemption) forcefully, unremittingly reminded me of Cheney. But Cheney is both far worse and utterly irredeemable.

Someone (me?) should write a satirical Christmas Carol knock-off starring Cheney. Rumsfeld as Marley? Casting or plot ideas, anyone?
Posted by Daniel Shaviro at 10:49 PM 2 comments

FRIDAY (1995) (***):




Post BOYZ N THE HOOD and MENACE II SOCIETY, urban black films were smokin’. So Ice Cube decided to write and produce a stoner comedy set in the hood. F. Gary Gray, whom had grown up not far from where Ice Cube grew up in South Central L.A., got his first shot at directing a feature film, after having cut his helming chops on music videos. He’d go on to direct the wonderful thriller THE NEGOTIATOR. But this cult hit is what most people remember. And whether you think it’s good or bad, the film made a star of Chris Tucker.

Written by Ice Cube and DJ Pooh, whom both take roles in the film, the story is set over one Friday. Craig Jones (Ice Cube) just lost his job the day before and his friend Smokey (Tucker, RUSH HOUR) is determined to get him high for the first time. While there is a plot involving a drug dealer named Big Worm (Faizon Love, IDLEWILD), the crux of the movie is simply Craig and Smokey hanging out and interacting with the folks in their neighborhood.

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Categories : Reviews, Comedy, Crime

This Weekend’s Film Festival Celebrates The Best Stoner Flicks
7 01 2009

Someone says stoner flick and you think about high people acting dumb. But not all stoner flicks are dumb. With PINEAPPLE EXPRESS arriving on DVD this week, This Weekend’s Film Festival takes a look at the five best stoner flicks. We have something fruity. We have something served up with Ice Cube. We have two heterosexual life partners. We have a whole high school class. And no stoner party would be complete without The Dude.

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Categories : This Weekend's Film Festival

Lennon’s MBE discovered in royal vault
Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 2:01 am
The symbol of one of the final acts of ‘Sixties’ rebellion has been discovered, almost 40 years after John Lennon returned his MBE to the British Queen. The appointment of the Fab Four as MBEs in the 1965 led to several people returning their own awards, complaining that they felt the honour had been demeaned. Lennon decided that he had sold out to... Read more »

Written by Sajid Manzoor ·

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This my first post as a blogger

I am studing in University of Karachi(KU).

The hills are alive with the sound of blogging