Also from Follow Me Here, Salman Rushdie compares gang violence in Two Towers and Gangs of New York to developments in Iraq. Interesting points, but did we see the same Scorsese film? In both the initial and final gangland scenes, there’s hardly any sense of moral ambiguity. To the contrary, as I noted in this post, the Irish (Neeson/DeCaprio) forces are portrayed exclusively as maligned, freedom-loving immigrants, while the Nativist (Day Lewis) gang are portrayed as racist brutes. You’d never get the sense in Scorsese’s film that it was the former group that actually unleashed virulent hatred upon the city’s African-American population in July of 1863. I suspect this reading of Gangs has more to do with the close friendship between Rushdie and “The Band that Built America.” Or perhaps Rushdie saw the longer Scorsese cut of the film, which is rumored to be more nuanced.
Supastar!
Anthropologists create a new face of Jesus, and, no, he doesn’t look like Ted Nugent. (Via Follow Me Here.)
About A Graphic Novel.
Nick Hornby delves into a spate of recent graphic novels for the NYT Book Review. (Via Random Walks.)
New Strategies.
Eager to pick up more seats in 2004, the Dems try appealing more to Hispanics and the burgeoning ranks of the terror-fearful. Perhaps they should take a look at New York.
The Tao of Yao.
Usually wrong about most things basketball, the Sports Guy gets one right with his apology for underestimating Yao Ming, the Chinese Tower of Power.
Paging Judge Gonzales.
The Dubya administration weighs Supreme Court contenders, with White House counsel Alberto Gonzales consistently leading the list.
Hell Freezes Over,
pigs are flying, and the Big Dig in Boston is almost done. Hope it was worth it.
Down the Rabbit Hole.
Newsweek gets spoilerific with the two Matrix sequels. More plot information than you really want to know.
No kidding…really?
The Washington Post announces in a front-page article that our “compassionate conservative” Prez has accomplished nothing compassionate in his first two years in office. In a related story, trees are green.
Enterprise? More like Voyager.
So Berk and I are spending the holidays with the family in Norfolk, VA, and all is well. But the trip down here…that’s a different story. I’d be remiss if I didn’t warn you all never, ever to rent a car from Enterprise Rent A Car. My Monday morning went something like this:
THE PLAN: Pick up car from Newark International Airport and get on road by 9:30am.
7:30am: Leave apt., Get on A train to Penn Station.
8:00am: Pay $30. Get on Amtrak to Newark Airport.
8:25am: Train stops in Downtown Newark
8:30am: Train arrives at airport. Get on Newark monorail.
8:55am: Arrive at rental car stop. Wait for Enterprise off-site bus.
9:15am: Bus arrives. I find out from bus driver that, despite my twice-confirmed reservation, I’m not allowed to rent a car from this Enterprise because I didn’t just get off a plane. No boarding pass, no car. But I’m told that the Enterprise in Downtown Newark (where I’d been an hour earlier) will honor the reservation.
9:25am: Get back on Newark monorail.
9:55am: Get back on Amtrak.
10:00am: Arrive in Downtown Newark.
10:10am: Arrive at Downtown Newark Enterprise. I wait while they give the suit in front of me the full customer service treatment (“You want to upgrade? Sure! We’ll just drive an Altima right over.“), etc. etc. When my turn comes, they look at my reservation printout like it’s a dead animal. They tell me they have no cars to give (despite upgrade of aforementioned suit) and that they can’t honor the reservation. I call the Airport Enterprise back to see if the car in my name is still there. They tell me they gave it away and that the only thing to do is try to make a new (read: much-higher-priced) reservation with an Enterprise somewhere else in the Tri-state area.
10:15am: I get very irate.
10:20am: The Kraken is released.
11:00am: To get me out of their hair, they finally ship me to a third Enterprise, in the Newark environs.
11:40am: The third Enterprise honors the first reservation at the first price, and I leave Newark in a Ford Focus, headed back for NYC (to pick up Berk and my friend/co-rider Amanda.)
Of course, getting back into the city is no picnic then, but you get the idea. Suffice to say, I’m never doing business with Enterprise again, despite the friendlier folk at the third franchise.