My personal festival of the best Spanish movies continued today with LOS PECES ROJOS (“Red Fishies”), a 1955 film by director Jose Antonio Nieves Conde.

This is a good movie that turned out to be a really bad choice for me at this point in time. The movie’s protagonist Hugo invented a son in order to get his rich aunt to give him money to raise this non-existent boy. For 19 years he maintained the fiction of having a son. The imaginary son had his own room, his own clothes, books and belongings that changed as he aged. The father impersonated the son when needed but then discovered that the 19-year-old Carlos was getting out of his control to the point where the son almost stole the affections of the father’s fiancée.

The only jarring aspect of this movie is the obnoxious 1950s tradition of sticking a few annoying musical numbers into the story.

It’s like there is a a daily quota of suffering and crying that I have to fill. After I fill it, the rest of the time is not that horrible. The problem for now is that the quota is growing. I know it will start getting shorter eventually. Just not yet.

I’m a crappy blogger these days with little of interest to say. So I will share links to the articles of people who do have things to say. As always, feel free to leave your own links. And I promise I will have something of interest to say eventually.

Jews without Israel. Why are the North American Jews losing their emotional attachment to Israel?

If you are planning on entering the academic job market, read this post and learn how to figure out what the job listings really say.

The Charter of Quebec’s Values makes a few steps in the direction of showing religious fanatics their place but then stops short of making it completely clear that a secular society will not tolerate fanaticism spilling over into the public spaces. This is a good start but it needs to become a lot more than that.

One of the more disturbing revelations about the NSA: “NSA director modeled top secret war room to look like the bridge of Star Trek’s Enterprise.” This is just plain scary.

A great post on doing a PhD while suffering from a chronic illness. I wrote my dissertation while in the grips of a severe depression, so I know what this blogger is talking about.

What hides behind the bland language of NSA’s denials.

A brilliant post on the reasons behind the anti-intellectualism of some intellectuals.