{"id":5748,"date":"2010-11-19T08:34:41","date_gmt":"2010-11-19T12:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=5748"},"modified":"2010-11-19T08:37:50","modified_gmt":"2010-11-19T12:37:50","slug":"unrequired-reading-november-19-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-november-19-2010","title":{"rendered":"Unrequired Reading: November 19, 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

I didn’t get a chance to check in on my Google Reader while I was in New Orleans this week, so when I got home last night, I discovered that there were 4,082 items stacked up and waiting for me. Here are some of them.<\/p>\n

Once again, Montaigne was the proto-blogger<\/a>. (Be warned: I may dive back into the Essays again in 2011.)<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

With a name like that<\/a>, he was bound to get into trouble.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Springsteen, The Promise, and Joe Posnanski<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

And a not-so-appreciative look at Bruce<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Berke Breathed: still not taking himself too seriously<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I’ll have to figure out how to dress appropriately without joining the USMC<\/a>, I guess.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

David Simon: journalism not completely screwed<\/a>?<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Not quite Hulk vs. Thor, but here it is: bees<\/a> vs. ants<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Whit Stillman: the most important American film director not working today<\/a>?<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Is there any there there<\/a>?<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Penn Jillette unwittingly guest stars on Crank Yankers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Finally, via Kottke, thrill to Super Mamika, the 91-year-old super-heroine<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I didn’t get a chance to check in on my Google Reader while I was in New Orleans this week, so when I got home last night, I discovered that there were 4,082 items stacked up and waiting for me. Here are some of them.<\/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":[26,45,1083,40,5],"tags":[1197,192,332,1195,1196,118,1185,1198],"class_list":["post-5748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comics","category-monday-morning-montaigne","category-movies","category-music","category-travel","tag-berke-breathed","tag-bruce-springsteen","tag-david-simon","tag-hugh-johnson","tag-joe-posnanski","tag-montaigne","tag-penn-jillette","tag-whit-stillman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1uI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3118,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-break","url_meta":{"origin":5748,"position":0},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne: BREAK!","author":"Gil","date":"December 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Due to travel schedules, and my unwillingness to lug a 1,300-page hardcover around with me, Monday Morning Montaigne is off until January! Enjoy!","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":3034,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-of-brain-cloud","url_meta":{"origin":5748,"position":1},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne: Of brain-cloud","author":"Gil","date":"December 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I know the news will break your heart, but there's no Montaigne post this week. My headcold rendered me even less comprehensible this weekend. I'll try to write about the first few essays of Book Three next week.","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":2704,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/montaigne-update","url_meta":{"origin":5748,"position":2},"title":"Montaigne update","author":"Gil","date":"October 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Hmm. Maybe I should have pushed my Montaigne-as-blogger idea, floated a few weeks ago when I wrote up Of presumption in my Monday Morning Montaigne series. Here's a piece from Andrew Sullivan's article \"Why I Blog\" in the new ish of The Atlantic: But perhaps the quintessential blogger avant la\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":3549,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-of-cripples","url_meta":{"origin":5748,"position":3},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne: Of cripples","author":"Gil","date":"March 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Don't invent reasons to explain every fact. For example, just because you had really good sex with a crippled woman, it does not validate a proverb that says cripples are better in bed. Seriously. That's the example he chose. On to Of physiognomy!","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":1307,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne","url_meta":{"origin":5748,"position":4},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne","author":"Gil","date":"January 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Montaigne, on prognostications: True, there remain among us some means of divination by the stars, by spirits, bodily dreams, and the like -- a notable example of the frenzied curiosity of our nature, which wastes its time anticipating future things, as if it did not have enough to do digesting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3226,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-on-okay-i-didnt-finish-this-one","url_meta":{"origin":5748,"position":5},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne: On okay I didn’t finish this one","author":"Gil","date":"January 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This week's Montaigne essay, On some verses of Virgil (pp. 774-831), turned out to be really good. However, I didn't have time to write about it, so I'm going to reread it this week and try to put something together for you by next Monday. Suffice to say, my worries\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5749,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5748\/revisions\/5749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}