Podcast with Justin Werfel talking about building termite-inspired robots.
“Dunces” bus tour
The very excellent Cory MacLauchlin will be your host on this tour. I’d be there but I have a prior engagement in St. Francisville for the Walker Percy Weekend, WP as most will know, was instrumental in getting “Dunces” published. I do however have an appointment to see the Toole archives at Tulane.
Hello, Dolly! @ 50
Over at the terrific Dippermouth blog Ricky Riccardi commemorates this tune.
Armstrong forgot all about the tune until people in the audience of his shows began shouting for it. He had no idea what it was all about until he was reminded that it was from this forgotten record date. Using a record as a guide, the band worked out a routine and began featuring it.
You’ve got to admit, it’s a pretty great record. The jazz world loves to crap on it, with people crying outrage when it was included in Ken Burns’s Jazz documentary. It’s no “West End Blues” but damn, it’s a lot of fun, starting right off with Tony Gottuso’s banjo introduction, which Gary Giddins once likened to an alarm clock. Then there’s the ingenious touch of “This is Louis, Dolly,” one of Armstrong’s all time greatest lyric changes.
What To Wear In The Ruins
H/T to Rod Dreher
Distilled especially to help one weather the existential fallout of Western civilization. Guaranteed 100% free of noxious particles.
Propriety and Prosperity: New Studies on the Philosophy of Adam Smith
Now that the ms has been shipped off to the publisher here is the finalized lineup:
Foreword — Vernon Smith
Adam Smith as a Scottish Philosopher — Gordon Graham
Friendship in Commercial Society Revisited: Adam Smith on Commercial Friendship — Spyridon Tegos
Adam Smith and French Political Economy: Parallels and Differences — Laurent Dobuzinskis
Adam Smith: 18th Century Polymath — Roger Frantz
One Adam Smith — David Brat
Indulgent Sympathy and the Impartial Spectator — Joshua Rust
Adam Smith on Sensory Perception: A Sympathetic Account — Brian Glenney
Adam Smith on Sympathy: From Self-Interest to Empathy — Gloria Zúñiga y Postigo
What My Dog Can Do: On the Effect of The Wealth of Nations I.ii.2 — Jack Weinstein
Metaphor Made Manifest: Taking Seriously Smith’s “Invisible Hand” — Eugene Heath
The ‘Invisible Hand’ Phenomenon in Philosophy and Economics — Gavin Kennedy
Instincts and the Invisible Order: The Possibility of Progress — Jonathan B. Wight
The Spontaneous Order and the Family — Lauren K. Hall
Smith, Justice and the Scope of the Political — Craig Smith
A Confederacy of Dunces – quotes and extracts – 59
“This liberal doxy must be impaled upon the member of a particularly large stallion,” Ignatius mumbled furiously (p. 185).
Gary Becker
Greg Mankiw, the WP, TIME, UChicago and WSJ report the passing of Gary Becker. Here is his Nobel page and his Wiki page. I had tried to make contact with him some two years ago to no avail.
Varieties of extended emotions
EPISTEME 11:2
Best Soul Food
Willie Mae’s Scotch House and Dooky Chase’s feature. I’ve been lucky to have eaten at Sylvia’s Restaurant, Gladys Knight’s Chicken & Waffles and Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles.
