Just Harry.

Harper’s enumerates a number of decidedly un-Christian behaviors of the most professedly Christian nation (we’re more professedly Christian than Israel is Jewish, f’r Chrissakes). The author calls it a paradox; I’m inclined to call it hypocrisy, or maybe just ignorance of what Christ is reported to have taught.

Harry Shearer’s first novel, Not Enough Indians, will be published next year. You bet I’ll be reading it!

The article is nominally about the return of Sarah Jane Smith, but also includes such tidbits as these:

• David Tennant does appear at the end of the first series (presumably we get to see Eccleston’s regeneration),
• Stephen Fry will write (has written?) an episode for the second series, and, perhaps best of all,
• Tony Head will guest in the second series!

In "the most important find of [its] sort in more than 70 years," 20 silver goblets, plates, and trays collected by their owner (or maybe a looter) into a wicker basket and stashed in a public bath stairwell have been separated and cleaned off.

A combo lock with letters instead of numbers is now available, but it can’t spell everything.

Clearly I’m out of touch with the world of fine arts, as it never would have occurred to me that at least one Symphony Orchestra is a preserve of sexist idiocy. Somehow the musicians’ "artistic expertise was being disregarded" in the "premature conclusion of the search process."
The coverage has that quality of vague that always indicates to me that nobody’s on the level. The musicians cite unspecified "concerns" (which I have to interpret as "you can’t make us follow some girl," since surely any substantive shortcoming would be bruited far and wide), while on the other hand we have Baltimore Symphony President Glicker: "Glicker expressed confidence that she would achieve a smooth relationship with the orchestra through ‘her personality on the podium. That’s pretty compelling,’ he said. ‘And she has great people skills. I’m hoping that’s going to win the day.’"
Her personality on the podium? People skills? I suppose conducting a bunch of egotistical gifted children does require good people skills, but why not say "her technical prowess is world class, and we’re lucky to have her," if it’s true? And if it’s not true, why would you hire her? Merely because "She has the ability to sit down one on one with a patron or potential donor and make that person very comfortable"? You need that ability in your Orchestra staff somewhere, but does it really have to be at the conductor position? Or is there a glut of world-class conductors (or it’s just not that hard), so they have the luxury of choosing based on schmoozing ability?
Maybe the next Grisham-esque thriller genre will deal with the cut-throat world of symphony conducting, so all this can be presented to us in an easy-to-grasp form. Hell, for all I know, such works already exist.

Via BoingBoing, some historical images of Nevada nuclear testing.

Adfreak! The sad/glad thing is, I watch so few TV ads that I am entirely unfamiliar with the ads people mention at the theoretical water cooler (actually the sign in desk at headquarters).

Later note: it is the trades, and I’m just easily led.

As with many NYT articles (or even news in general?) the premise is more interesting than the article itself: cheap paintings from China, cranked out in bulk. My favortite bits: 1. The idea of thousands of artists, painting away for export (so very Bruce Sterling!), but they seem to do it as piecework in their own homes or businesses rather than in a massive warehouse or cube farm. 2. “Artist groups in the United States are starting to express concern, questioning the originality of some Chinese paintings and whether they comply with American copyright laws.” I’m entertained that anyone’s surprised about the possiblility of China violating copyright (gasp!) and that the issue of originality is a separate issue. (One of the dealers comments that “the copies are inherently different because they are handmade, and so do not violate copyrights.” An interesting concept! A rep for a gallery trade group disagrees, naturally. In his rebuttal, it is mentioned that “vast majority of paintings produced before the 20th century were in the public domain.” Vast majority? Doesn’t it seem like all of the art produced before 1900 should be PD by now? Yeesh.) Unoriginal art produced in bulk for hotels and condos? Heaven forfend! 3. This is not a new industry, it is in fact the export of a business formerly common in northern New Jersey! I’m betting these are the same sort of outfits that Daniel Pinkwater wrote about in his essays on his early artistic life in Hoboken.

One of the retailers of such products is online and offers custom paintings! I think I need a custom oil of Alfred E. Neuman.