March 2007

The Archives

• not baseball

  Luck O’ The Draw

  03.17.07 | Permalink | 12 Comments

  The World Cup of Cricket is currently underway. Those of you who care, already know this and I am informing the rest now. The concept is beguilingly similar to other ‘World Cup’s - a bunch of teams from across the world gather every 4 years and find out how bad they suck compared to Australia [...]

• portraits, univerCity

  Pakistan Education Project

  03.16.07 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  In 1957, Francis S. Chase, the founding Dean of the Graduate School of Education, established at the University of Chicago the “Pakistan Education Project” with support from the Ford Foundation. The purpose of the project was to improve education through teacher-training programs at extension centers in what was then East and West Pakistan and to [...]

• optical character recognition

  Fire in the Belly

  03.12.07 | Permalink | 8 Comments

  I admit that I find it extremely hard to post here. In general, for a variety of reasons, I have very little energy for anything.
  Last night, I saw 300 - the war porn movie. Usually, I’d expect myself to post some snarky review talking about Xerxes the cuban transsexual. Or at least some comment about [...]

• portraits, purple people

  Welcome to the AARP, Mr. Ben Laden!

  03.11.07 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  Dear Mr. Ben Laden:
  Happy 50th birthday and welcome to the AARP! This is a very special birthday because it qualifies you for membership in one of the fastest growing organizations in the United States, the American Association of Retired Persons. AARP is all about beginnings, and depending on which type of membership you choose, [...]

• talkies

  Desi Comedians Don’t Do Yo Mama! Jokes

  03.09.07 | Permalink | 6 Comments

  At a dinner table, recently, I asserted that ‘family’ was largely absent from the routines of desi comedians. Their comedy was largely set in the habermasian realm of the public [yes that is a joke. of course, I would never say anything like 'habermasian realm'. ever]. You get lots of material about interactions with the [...]

• stardust

  Kal Penn on the Namesake

  03.09.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  Many of us were surprised to learn that the actor who performed the role of Kumar in Harold and Kumar go to White Castle with such panache will now be starring in the film version of Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel the Namesake. There will be lots of publicity on this in the coming weeks; but [...]