In the New Yorker...

[Front-Ranger]

I really enjoyed that article too!

I also liked Devid Denby's review of "A Most Violent Year" but that was about it.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I really enjoyed that article too!

I think it's really fun to know that a world-renowned academic sociologist once played piano in Chicago strip joints. 

And apparently he was very insistent to Adam Gopnik that they weren't burlesque houses; they were strip joints. 

[serious crayons]

I just started the Gopnik article, but I also enjoyed the one by the guy who can't smile. And, as I said earlier I think, the Malcolm Gladwell review of Stephen Brill's book.

But I'm supposed to care what a meme is? 

Yes, because it's much much simpler and it's information that almost everybody you know, at least those of your age or younger, possesses. The chances that it will come up in a conversation with the expectation that you'll know it are much greater. And you could google it in a quarter of a second.

But here, I'm happy to explain once again.

A meme is actually an old sociological term for a thing that gets repeated throughout a culture (or something like that). In the modern sense, it's just some thing -- usually an image or a saying -- that gets repeated in different forms on social media and elsewhere. Usually, for example, it will be one picture with various captions, or a picture that's been altered in different ways. Or it might be a famous quote presented in different contexts.

So remember that cop who pepper-sprayed the protesters at the University in California? That image was widely memed. Here are a couple of pages of examples:

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/casually-pepper-spray-everything-cop

http://peppersprayingcop.tumblr.com/

These are more elaborate and creative than memes usually are, but you get the idea.

See, that wasn't so hard. Now you can go back to forgetting it. 

[Jeff Wrangler]

Yes, because it's much much simpler and it's information that almost everybody you know, at least those of your age or younger, possesses. The chances that it will come up in a conversation with the expectation that you'll know it are much greater. And you could google it in a quarter of a second.

You don't know the people with whom I ordinarily have conversations, or the type of things we discuss. 

But here, I'm happy to explain once again.

Thanks.

So remember that cop who pepper-sprayed the protesters at the University in California? That image was widely memed.

Actually, no, but let be, let be.

See, that wasn't so hard. Now you can go back to forgetting it. 

Forget what? ...

[Jeff Wrangler]

So I read the smile article over lunch. It interested me particularly because back in the 1970s my grandmother suffered an attack of Bell's palsy, from which she completely recovered; apparently Grandma was lucky.

I'm guessing the Duchenne guy who is discussed is the person for whom Duchenne's muscular dystrophy is named.

I've moved on to Malcolm Gladwell's article.

[Front-Ranger]

Bell's palsy and problems like it are really much more common than you might think. I have fortunately never had those problems myself (knock on wood).

In the January 19th issue, I really enjoyed Rebecca Mead's article about theme parks where kids practice adult skills.

In the latest issue, I devoured the overview of the "fast casual" quickly growing class of eateries. Probably like the article on grocery stores to most people, but it impacts on my job directly. Plus, it was only one page long.

I also really loved the article about the Wayback Machine, aka the Internet archive. This really exists! It's in SF, naturally, and is at the Presidio. An article about French author Michel Houellebecq by Adam Gopnik was repellent, and I'm looking forward to reading all about the history of gayness and how the Germans invented it (?) by Alex Ross. The fiction this week is by Isaac Bashevis Singer...really?

[Jeff Wrangler]

Bell's palsy and problems like it are really much more common than you might think. I have fortunately never had those problems myself (knock on wood).

In the January 19th issue, I really enjoyed Rebecca Mead's article about theme parks where kids practice adult skills.

In the latest issue, I devoured the overview of the "fast casual" quickly growing class of eateries. Probably like the article on grocery stores to most people, but it impacts on my job directly. Plus, it was only one page long.

I also really loved the article about the Wayback Machine, aka the Internet archive. This really exists! It's in SF, naturally, and is at the Presidio. An article about French author Michel Houellebecq by Adam Gopnik was repellent, and I'm looking forward to reading all about the history of gayness and how the Germans invented it (?) by Alex Ross. The fiction this week is by Isaac Bashevis Singer...really?

What was repellent, Houellebecq or the article? 

[Front-Ranger]

Good question. The article was well written, but I was repelled by the description of the author (and his picture) and the subject of his book, a satire describing a takeover of the French government by an Islamic faction. Uggh!

[Jeff Wrangler]

From the Jan. 12 article about Mikhail Khodorkovsky, I learned that the Russian language has familiar (ty) and formal (vy) forms of address. Reminds one of the French tu and vous.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I'm looking forward to reading all about the history of gayness and how the Germans invented it (?) by Alex Ross.

The Jan. 26 issue arrived in my mail today, and over supper I went right for this article. It was very interesting. I'd like to read the book.