The movie The Girl on the Train turned out to be vastly superior to the book (that I reviewed here.) Thanks to a very good director of photography and an actress called Haley Bennett whom I never saw before but who’s strangely talented for a Hollywood actress, the movie is actually good. Bennett took a character that was so flat in the book I forgot she existed and made her into a tragic and memorable figure. It’s a pity that the other two actresses are so typically indifferent. With 3 strong female leads, this could be an outstanding movie.

I have a strawberry yoghurt mask, aloe socks, a bucket of cherries, a San Pellegrino, a book that has nothing to do with work, and I’m about to order The Girl on the Train.

This is very not horrible.

I forgot how much I love Philadelphia. Almost as much as I love Chicago and Baltimore. I could be living here had I not made a total ass our of myself at the job interview 9 years ago. 

Klara’s daycare is conducting a weight loss challenge. At first, I freaked out but then it turned out it’s for parents, grandparents, and teachers. I’m not participating because I enjoy having my dignity.

I’m on my way to Philadelphia, folks. This will be my version of going to the resort, also known as the MLA. Initially, I was planning to speak but that fell through. I had already paid the enormous registration fee which my university will never reimburse since I’m not speaking. We had tons of points for a free ticket and hotel, so it made more sense to go than to waste the registration and membership fees.

I’ve been sick since October for no discernible reason. It must be that I’m tired. At the MLA I hope to rest, sleep, visit the book fair and go to the hotel spa. Since it’s kind of work related, I feel less guilty than if I went to an actual resort.

Klara clearly sensed that I was leaving, and she’s been throwing tantrums whenever I set her down yesterday and today. N is taking days off to stay with her, and he’s happy as a clam. 

ACA will be dismantled while Obama is still president. In the meanwhile, Trump will be untouched because all he does is support keeping the only provisions that people understand. Trump will end up being the hero of this story while Obama will be the one who messed up. And that’s how smart people do things.

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Some fool on the news has smugly announced that Trump is “very insecure.” The very insecure Trump is a billionaire who in a few days will become president of the US. But our brilliant political analysts who couldn’t predict or explain his win can’t quit feeling smugly superior. 

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Trump is defending Assange and soon probably Snowden. Cognitive dissonance is awaiting many liberals. 

The system with very low flat-rate income tax and sky-high tariffs on everything imported (i.e. everything) already exists. It was introduced by somebody whose name ends in -utin.

As a follow-up to the Not OK post, I want to share a story. I took a course in American Modernism as an undergrad. The readings were amazing. I still can recite the entire reading list 16 years later, it was that good. We had 86 people in the course (which is huge for a literature classroom) because when you say “modernism” people start running towards you like eager bulls in Pamplona. The TAs were amazing, the small group discussions were perfect. 

But the course was a bust because of the professor’s truly atrocious English. It wasn’t just English lit, it was modernism. You’ve got to be able to express yourself with some elegance. This prof, though, had such an incomprehensible accent and such poor spoken vocabulary that most of his lectures were useless. The point is not who hired him and why – he might have been a brilliant researcher with a perfect written English. What I wonder is why nobody in his life – or in the life of the woman with the speech impediment or the fat dance instructor – cared enough about them to tell them that their choice of profession was bad.

I cannot boast a wide circle of acquaintances but I did have people in my life who cared enough to tell me that my writing in English sucked and who took the trouble of finding a way to deliver that message without hurting my feelings. And when I improved my writing style and still couldn’t get published, I had somebody who cared enough to explain why that was.

Is it really caring if you are setting a person up for failure and ridicule simply because you don’t want the unpleasantness of being honest? Self-awareness is the most elusive skill of all, and if people who care don’t mention things to us, we will simply never know.

An article in the NYTimes suggests that Democrats adopt the strategies of the extraordinarily successful Tea Party to resist Trump:

It’s the Tea Party inverted: locally driven advocacy built on inclusion, fairness and respect.

It would be great to see powerful local organizing efforts on the part of Dem voters. But I don’t believe it will happen because “inclusion, fairness and respect” mean that participants will start policing each other’s speech patterns and publishing angry screeds about their comrades’ failure to be fully inclusive.

There is a lot of sexual repression at Facebook whose employees see sex in the weirdest places. 

Yes, I’m linking to Cosmopolitan but I can’t resist this piece about a bunch of truly pathetic idiots. 

“Trump called the generals who he met with “beautiful,” and alleged they made “Tom Cruise look like dirt.” I know what we need! A beauty contest for US generals. They prance around in speedos, and everybody votes by Twitter. And the ones who get few votes are fired by Trump on TV for not being pretty enough. 

Anthony Bourdain is great.

Just in case you need any more proof that when the media quote studies they are very likely to pervert the results to suit some dumb agenda. 

2016 porn stats are out!

Between 1996 and 2012, a 10 percent reduction in state appropriations was associated with a 12 percent increase in international undergraduate enrollment at public research universities. ‘Cause somebody has got to pay for it. And then we will hear widespread moaning as to why everybody in good jobs is Chinese and how we need a wall on the border with China. 

A smart rabbi from California on Trump’s victory. 

Yes, Heidegger was actively antisemitic. 

A belated but great post on Christmas.