Days Bygone and Egon.

“He’s cool. He’s jolly. The funny thing is that when I first met him [the Dalai Lama], the Tibetans were all familiar with Groundhog Day, but they didn’t understand the Dalai Lama speech in Caddyshack. They’re like, ‘The Dalai Lama does not play golf.’ I said, ‘I know, I know. But if he did…’

As part of the Year One roll out, GQ publishes a wide-ranging and worthwhile interview with director Harold Ramis, one that pauses to consider Animal House, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Meatballs, and the strange headspace of Bill Murray. “Everybody has a Bill Murray story. He just punishes people, for reasons they can’t figure out. He was a student of Gurdjieff for a while, the Sufi mystic. Gurdjieff used to act really irrationally to his students, almost as if trying to teach them object lessons.

Trouble in Tibet.

“The protests, sparked by the anniversary of the failed 1959 uprising that sent Tibet’s Dalai Lama into exile, are the latest embarrassment to hit 2008 Olympic-host China.” Some deadly (and potentially Olympics-threatening) violence breaks out in Lhasa, Tibet, claiming between 10 and 100 lives (depending on the source.) “Chinese authorities blamed the Dalai Lama for the unrest, but the Dalai Lama said the protesters were simply acting out of ‘deep-rooted resentment’ of the Chinese government. ‘As I have always said, unity and stability under brute force is at best a temporary solution…I therefore appeal to the Chinese leadership to stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue with the Tibetan people. I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence.’

Reporting from China, the Atlantic‘s James Fallows says the news isn’t really getting past the Great Firewall…yet.