Movie trailer tip

When a two minute trailer mysteriously features no dialogue whatsoever, the movie is not in English. Movie marketers don't want to tell you that though. They apparently think (and maybe this is backed up by research) that a wordless trailer will sell more tickets than a subtitled trailer. Probably the subtitle haters are annoyed when they discover the ruse, but the ticket is bought by then. May as well grit out the French; the other screens are playing some thing where Sandra Bullock and/or Jennifer Aniston find love and self-realization with Patrick Dempsey and/or Matthew McConaughey.



This movie for instance is about Swedish vampires, not mute vampires.

Eastern Europe's favorite cat and mouse team

Posts every three months or your money back

I am feeling very ridiculous* here. For noreaster-based reasons, today I had to break out a seriously old pair of hiking boots from the closet before driving to work. On the walk from the parking lot to the office, the things fell apart in a very cartoony way, almost emitting an audible "Sproing!" The soles delaminated from the toe to the mid shoe, flopping around like clown shoes. (Aside: it's sort of quantum mechanically freaky how connected pairs of shoes are. These things were constructed maybe ten years ago and have been separate physical entities since then. Since they were made at the same time from the same materials using the same process, then put through ten years of identical wear and conditions by me, they failed in the same way a mere ten seconds apart. I find that awesome to contemplate. It's like 79 year old identical twins having identical heart attacks on a random Thursday at 10:07 and 10:08 AM.) So anyway, with shoes a-flapping, I had to suddenly adopt an exaggerated high step reminiscent of a drunk Nazi or John Cleese's Ministry Of Silly Walks functionary in order to succesfully make it into my office. I have been sitting here in shame ever since, afraid to venture forth into the hallways, much less the bathroom, which I mention for no particularly urgent reason. The choice is between an unsanitary and frankly disgusting sock walk, and more Cleeseing it up with the boots. Furthermore, the boots are prodigiously shedding a black rubbery padding material from the now exposed layer just above the sole. So if I go with the boots I will also leave an unmistakable, incriminating trail. If I had some duct tape I could effect a repair. Alas.

*And a man in my position can't afford to look ridiculous!

Thoughts on watching Oliver Perez struggle through 12 pitch at bats

Say you've got a choice between your leadoff hitter starting the game with a 12 pitch AB that ends in an out vs. a first pitch single. Which would you take? What's your over/under on the pitch number? I'm pretty sure I'd take 20, that's a fifth of the pitches the starter can throw. But of course 20 pitch at bats are an extreme rarity; 10 is more common but still noteworthy.

Anyway a big key to modern baseball is getting the other team's middle relievers into the game ASAP. Wonder if anyone's working on a measure to incorporate a hitter's "pitch absorption" into calculations of value. It's extremely context-sensitive obviously; if the starter is Randy Johnson in his prime, getting him out of the game is more important than if it's the Pirates' fifth starter.

Books we're reading here

Europe Between The Oceans by Barry Cunliffe. A history of the continent, starting with the spread of the Neolithic package (farming, animal domestication, large settlements, pottery, etc.) from Turkey westward, displacing or converting the already present hunter-gatherers. I'm finding it quite interesting in the context of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, which I read a couple of years ago. Diamond's major thesis was that Europe (and to a lesser extent Asia) conquered the world rather than vice versa in the post 1492 era because it had a fortunate head start thousands of years earlier. Better wild animals to domesticate, much better plants to bend into productive crops, and an east-west continental orientation which allowed successful innovations to quickly propagate through similar climatic zones. The early adoption of productive agriculture allowed centers of high population to grow, which led to innovation and specialization, and not least to the evolution of deadly communicable diseases to which the people became (through a painful and deadly process) relatively immune, but to which the native populations of the Americas were highly susceptible once contact was made. I know this is considered an oversimplification by many, especially those who tend to read a lot into race. The head start does seem to be fairly inarguable though.

Regardless of the Diamond connection though, Cunliffe's book is one of those monumental accomplishments around which it is hard to get one's mind. The book is clearly the life's work of a man who knows and has synthesized more about a subject that most of us can ever dream of. It is technical and demanding reading (you are very quickly after a single quick definition presumed to remember what terms such as Linearbandkeramik signify), and I wonder how such a book (expensively produced with high quality color illustration and photography) even makes its money back. It's not exorbitantly priced or anything, $30 at Amazon.