In answer to your question

The NYT seems perplexed as to the reasons for American fascination with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The answer is quite simple, really. True, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei holds the true executive power in Iran, however he is not nearly as vocal, or inflammatory as Ahmadinejad. It would be difficult, then, for watchdog groups to raise alarm over a mum-leader. Fortunately Ahmadinejad never misses an opportunity for bellicose rhetoric thereby serving as a much better icon of the threat that Iran poses. He is more of a thermometer than the heat source.

Short answer to a long question.

Where tired, old, unofficial mottos come to die

I never liked "Where fun comes to die" as the unofficial UofC motto. It just never seemed to capture life there; neither for me nor anyone I knew--we just had a different type of fun (eg Scavhunt).

Anecdotally, it appears that UofC has a new unofficial motto: "That's all very well and good in practice, but how does it work in theory?" Naomi S. first told me of the line, and I was instantly crushing. I have already seen the t-shirt here in Ann Arbor, one of my professors (Shmuel) quoted it in a workshop in Berkeley, and bought two shirts (for himself and his son), and I saw at least two or three of them around campus today (on my search for the Really Bad Hegel translation, by Oxford)--but no "Where fun comes to die" shirts!

I hope it's a trend.

Mazal Tov!

www.lailaandabraham.com
And what's up with Socrates arm anyhow? To find out click the "More Info" link.

Caution: Identity under construction

It is very funny to come to a school and not really have anything to do with the place, and then after only a short time, you find that you identify with it.

I told you so

There is little in life more satisfying than uttering the phrase, "I told you so"; in this case it is really more of, "we told you so."

It is vindicating to complain about something so consistently and vigorously, and then see that very thing go down in a blaze of ignominy. To read a top music executive say, "And you wonder why people don't buy CDs anymore," Rubin says. "One song is great and the other is. . . . " is just heart warming. No one buys or listens to new music because it is terrible, and has been so for a decade (after all, why would you pay for garbage like that?). I am excited to see someone conscience and focused on the problem.

Sam, have any thoughts on the matter?