{"id":4634,"date":"2009-11-02T05:00:48","date_gmt":"2009-11-02T09:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=4634"},"modified":"2009-11-01T18:51:14","modified_gmt":"2009-11-01T22:51:14","slug":"what-it-is-11209-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-11209-2","title":{"rendered":"What It Is: 11\/2\/09"},"content":{"rendered":"

What I’m reading:<\/em> The Book of Basketball<\/a>\"\", by Bill Simmons, When The Shooting Stops . . . The Cutting Begins: A Film Editor’s Story<\/a>\"\", by Ralph Rosenblum, and that bio of Timoleon in Plutarch<\/a> that I read a few months ago. I’m still thinking about the weird modernness of T’s story. As far as the hoops book goes, here’s economist, professor and blogger Tyler Cowen<\/a> on it:<\/p>\n

Could this be the best 736 pp. book on the diversity of human talent ever written?\u00c2\u00a0 It starts slow but eventually picks up steam.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s also devastatingly funny.\u00c2\u00a0 That said, if you don’t know a lot about the NBA, it is incomprehensible.\u00c2\u00a0 (I could not, for instance, understand the section of Dolph Schayes because that was not the NBA I know.)\u00c2\u00a0 In the historical pantheon, he picks David Thompson, Bernard King, and Allen Iverson as underrated.\u00c2\u00a0 The 1986 Boston Celtics are the best team ever, he argues.\u00c2\u00a0 And so on.\u00c2\u00a0 I found this more riveting than almost anything else I read and yes I think it is very much a work of social science, albeit in hermetic form.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What I’m listening to:<\/em> Just been shuffling around in iTunes. But the battery on my iPod (I only use it in the car or on plane-flights) is dying, so I’ve ordered a battery replacement kit and will soon attempt a feat that ifixit.com classifies as “very difficult.” Fun!<\/p>\n

What I’m watching:<\/em> Yankees playoff games, although not to the end, since they’re past my bedtime.<\/p>\n

What I’m drinking:<\/em> Blue Moon Belgian White ale.<\/p>\n

What Rufus is up to:<\/em> Celebrating Halloween in style<\/a> and going on his first greyhound-hike in weeks and weeks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Where I’m going:<\/em> Los Angeles next Sunday, for the annual AAPS meeting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What I’m happy about:<\/em> No one seems to have paid attention to the Oct. 30 “receipt of final materials at the printer” notice on our production schedules, giving me an extra day or two to wrap up the Nov\/Dec issue.<\/p>\n

What I’m sad about:<\/em> Not getting to see Pee-wee Herman’s stage show<\/a> when I’m in LA next week, as it’s been postponed until January. I’m likely going to a Clippers game to make up for it, but somehow that seems like adding insult to injury. Grr.<\/p>\n

What I’m worried about:<\/em> Burnett in game 5.<\/p>\n

What I’m pondering:<\/em> Participating in National Novel Writing Month<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What I’m reading: The Book of Basketball, by Bill Simmons, When The Shooting Stops . . . The Cutting Begins: A Film Editor’s Story, by Ralph Rosenblum, and that bio of Timoleon in Plutarch that I read a few months ago. I’m still thinking about the weird modernness of T’s story. As far as the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “What It Is: 11\/2\/09”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61,5],"tags":[896,528,897,654,870],"class_list":["post-4634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis","category-travel","tag-a-j-burnett","tag-bill-simmons","tag-pee-wee-heman","tag-plutarch","tag-tyler-cowen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1cK","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3900,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/art-virtue-and-dogs-in-sailor-suits","url_meta":{"origin":4634,"position":0},"title":"Art, virtue, and dogs in sailor suits","author":"Gil","date":"May 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Nine biographies into his work, Plutarch explains what he's up to! See, each of the Plutarch so far has essentially dived into the biography itself. But with Pericles' section, Plutarch instead begins by, um, decrying people who love their pets too much: Caesar once, seeing some wealthy strangers at Rome,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0679600086","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2891,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-defense-of-seneca-and-plutarch","url_meta":{"origin":4634,"position":1},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne: Defense of Seneca and Plutarch","author":"Gil","date":"November 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"No rambling exegeses this week. Instead, you get a couple of passages from Montaigne. The first comes from his Defense of Seneca and Plutarch: We must not judge what is possible and what is not, according to what is credible and incredible to our sense. . . . It seems\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Monday Morning Montaigne"","block_context":{"text":"Monday Morning Montaigne","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/monday-morning-montaigne"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3827,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/roman-gods","url_meta":{"origin":4634,"position":2},"title":"Roman Gods","author":"Gil","date":"April 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm working my way through Plutarch's Lives (or Parallel Lives, if you like). I decided not to challenge myself to blog about it, the way I did with Montaigne, because I didn't like the way that made me rush through some of the essays in an attempt to compress\/distill them.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"montaigne\"","block_context":{"text":"montaigne","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/montaigne"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0679600086","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3858,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/dam-straight","url_meta":{"origin":4634,"position":3},"title":"Dam, straight.","author":"Gil","date":"April 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I took a half-day, ran some errands, and then got home with plenty of time to work on my post about John Lanchester & the metaphors of risk and finance. Or I could've written up the rest of my notes about last week's Las Vegas trip, and posted the pix\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3565\/3487191962_03ff51f6a2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1039,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/da-boot","url_meta":{"origin":4634,"position":4},"title":"Da Boot","author":"Gil","date":"July 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"After the World Cup, Bill \"Sports Guy\" Simmons (as opposed to Don \"No Soul\" Simmons) decided he would start supporting an English Premier League soccer team, and asked his fans for advice on which team to support. The massive article that resulted makes for some fun reading.","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/da-boot#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3161,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/low-res-2","url_meta":{"origin":4634,"position":5},"title":"Low-res","author":"Gil","date":"January 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My health is fine, my finances are in order and my job seems pretty secure, so I don't have much by way of \"you must change your life\" New Year resolutions. I did pretty well on my main one for 2008: post to this blog every day. 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