Spoilery

In scanning through articles on Project Muse (an academic journal database) just now, I noticed that hypertext author and scholar Stuart Moulthrop prefaced an essay on Watchmen with the disclaimer, "This essay reveals key plot details of the graphic novel Watchmen and the film based upon it." Are we really going to start putting spoiler alerts on academic writing now? And about a book and movie that came out 23 years and 6 months ago, respectively? Should we?

Pres. Bush really made "emboldened" happen. Remember when he first said it and everyone thought it was a made-up word a la The Simpsons' "embiggened"? At least three academic panelists at the conference this weekend have used it.

More from Yale

Jeff Jarvis (paraphrase): "The future of news is entrepreneurial, not institutional. ... Journalism becomes a task rather than a profession, as anybody can perform acts of journalism."

The language of crisis

Fascinating conference today and yesterday at Yale Law School on new media, journalism and economic models for the future. A combination of the usual suspects (Clay Shirky, Jeff Jarvis, Steve Brill) and a variety of journalists, law professors, economists, sociologists ... One of the great things the conference is doing is enacting its precepts with a live video stream, live blog and constant Twitter updates - it's even creating a feedback loop between David Carr tweeting in the audience, panelists reading the tweets and responding during their talks, and Carr asking questions in person.

One disappointing thing, though: about 80 percent of the panelists are middle-aged white men. What does it say about this language of crisis that these are the people having the discussions?

Elaine Scarry, On Beauty and Being Just :

By perpetuating beauty, institutions of education help incite the will toward creation. ... To misstate, or even merely understate, the relation of the universities to beauty is one kind of error that can be made. A university is among the precious things that can be destroyed.

All the (good) news (about the Yankees) that's fit to print

Obviously I'm biased here ... but why is it that the NYT can be the most authoritative, objective paper on any other issue, but when it comes to the Yankees they gush like a fan blog? Even putting aside the almost total lack of Mets coverage (OK, there wasn't much to cover this year, but this is a longstanding issue), the Times' writers are always either praising or defending the Yankees. From extolling Jeter's fielding skills (right), to determining whether A-Rod is clutch, to today's inanity headlined "Don't worry! I'm pretty sure they're not going to blow a 3-1 lead!" they just can't stop wetting themselves over the Yankees' perpetual greatness. Could I maybe just get the box score?

Get ready for a long, cold winter

"It's designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything is new again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains comes, it stops, and leaves you to face the fall alone.” - Bart Giamatti, former president of Yale and MLB commissioner.

Thanks, Red Sox radio announcers, for sending that little extra shiver of despair through my soul when closing out the season today. Remind me again why I decided not to move to L.A.?