You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown

If you're around the Swarthmore area and looking for something to do, consider You're a Good Man Charlie Brown.

Thursday @ 8:00 PM, Friday @ 8:00 PM, Saturday @ 2:00 PM and 8:00. Lang Performing Arts Center.

If you do come, listen for the cowbell (and timpani, and tambourine, and...). My debut performance as an auxiliary percussionist!

What about Andy, Dave, and George?

St. Patrick's Day celebrations abound in the U.S. People wear green, drink green beer, eat corned beef and cabbage (ignoring the fact that it's not an Irish dish), and play up whatever Irish ancestry (real or imagined) they might have. That St. Patrick's Day is so widely recognized in the U.S. is hardly a surprise, considering the massive numbers of Irish immigrants that came to the U.S. throughout the 19th century.

I can't think of any reason that other British patron saints can't also be recognized here in the States along with good ol' St. Patrick (we'll ignore the question of whether Ireland should be considered British). My proposals follow.

On St. Andrew's Day (November 30th), Americans should wear plaid, eat haggis, and drink scotch.

On St. Davy's Day (March 1st), Americans should wear leeks upon their heads. I don't know anything about Welsh cuisine or drink.

Things get a bit more complicated with St. George's Day (April 23rd). Roast beef and ale, to be sure. But what to wear? Englishness is so wrapped up in Britishness (or, perhaps it's the other way around. See the introduction to Norman Davies The Isles) that it's hard, for me, the uneducated American, to think of distinctive British dress. Any ideas?

Too good not to share

This, from CNN.

Kerry campaigned in Florida Monday, while his Republican opponent, President Bush, took in a Houston rodeo, pressing a campaign strategy that depicts the former Texas oilman's connections with the average citizen, before attending a pair of $1.5 million fund-raisers in the evening.

Because we all know how many average citizens attend $1.5 million fund-raisers.

Berlusconi and political discourse in Italy

I've been meaning to post a link to this for a while and have kept forgetting.

A few weeks ago Nora Galli de' Paratesi wrote about Silvio Berlusconi's use of language for ItalPolBlog.

Nora's critique is biting. An excerpt:

When one reads his speeches, the image that is evoked of his voters, his accolytes and himself is the one of spotty, podgy preadolescents with knobbly, cold, red knees running around screeching in the school playground. An encouragement to regression, amusement and superficiality, and therefore a special communicative channel between him and "my voters". That, he thinks, allows a prime minister to use public television time and resources to be close to "his people" in the domain of Neverland, rather than use his image and energy for the domain of politics as a dignified, serious realm of ideas to which his actual role should confine him.

As the saying goes... the whole thing is worth reading.

An apology

Sorry for the lack of recent posts. It's a busy week, with a million and one things to get done. I'm hoping that after spring break I'll have at least three or four entries a week...