The Fly is a Hairy, Drunken Liar

Remember this post about Friar Dave and his whirlwind completion of a twenty page paper? Well, we have an update, and some other funny stuff about the state of modern historical study.

Friar Dave: For the record, i got an A in the class with the 20 pager
The Fly: With the twenty pager, or in spite of it?
Friar Dave: I assume with. there werent really any other grades during the semester to speak of
Friar Dave: it was an independent study
The Fly: What was the paper on?
Friar Dave: the books i'd read and discussed through the semester, and how they have responded (if at all) to a seminal historiographical article back from '89
The Fly: Okay.
Friar Dave: also, in academic news, i just got an email from the department for a call for papers for a conference (i kid you not) with the following title
Friar Dave:
Friar Dave:
The Fly: Did you just try to type something?
Friar Dave: Sexing the Look: A Regional Interdisciplinary Conference on the Impact of Sexualized Imagery in Visual Popular Culture
The Fly: And you've written on that?
Friar Dave: no no
Friar Dave: its a call for papers for a "serious" "academic" conference
Friar Dave: i just got the email fwd'd from the dept
The Fly: Interesting.
Friar Dave: bologna is what it is
Friar Dave: but it could be that i'm becoming a history snob
The Fly: So it's historical sexualization of visual pop culture they're looking for?
Friar Dave: not necessarily. but it got sent to our dept, so historians could enter papers
The Fly: And for the record, it doesn't take much to be a history snob, what with the focus on race and gender. The baby boomers can't die off fast enough to suit me.
Friar Dave: i could do without those myself
Friar Dave: i'll bbl
The Fly: k

The state of historical scholarship has really slid since the sixties, and as with many other things I hope that it will improve once baby boomers begin to retire. There's a lot of focus on "race and gender", and other so-called victim groups. The other thing that's bugged me, from museums to my own department at [Generic University], is the focus on the "social history" of common folks. Common people are the "most interesting" part of history? Nonsense. It's just sad.

For the record, I neither condone nor recommend Friar Dave's method of historical writing; in fact, I'd say it's dangerous, bordering on academic suicide.

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I started reading Dune when I was in high school, and eventually reread the beginning and finished it when I was traveling in the United Kingdom in 2004. It's a semi-impressive book, but by the end I was quite disappointed with the style in which the book had ended. I also had no clue what it was about, as I'd read the Spark Notes (not even worth linking to) for more context, but they held inaccurate information, referring to the drug culture of the sixties while completely ignoring the Middle Eastern influences and the (now) obvious allegory of the melange spice to Middle Eastern oil.

At least a year ago, I posted this link, a list of Arabic references in the book. I also found last night, much to my joy, that Children of Dune is on YouTube. If you have any interest, you can start watching right about here.

I may eventually be compelled to reread Dune with my new understanding of its underlying meaning. Right now, I'm compiling my target reading list for 2008, which includes both The Art of War and The Art of War, plus The Royal Marines, Battle for the Falklands, and Purgatory, just to name a few.

What about you folks? What are you reading right now, and what do you hope to read in 2008?

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You read the title correctly: the Fly is a hairy, drunken liar.

I'm growing a beard. As some of you will have seen from pictures over the last year and a half that I grew a goatee upon my arrival in California. OUt of lack of female prospects here, and out of boredom, I decided to grow a full beard - which is to say, I've allowed my sideburns and my goatee to connect. I can't actually grow a mustache (hopefully by the time I'm thirty?), so I look like I'm Amish... Well, with the military-style haircut, I look like an Amish G.I. Joe. Maybe I'll take some pictures.

I'm not actually drunken, but this Fly Report alluded to a brief project I undertook lately. Last week, I stocked up on beer - probably enough beer to last me for at least a month, maybe more. I bought Guinness, Widmer Hefeweizen, Killian's Irish Red, Samuel Adams Winter Lager, and Carlsberg. I decided that, in my continuing effort to become a highly qualified beer connoisseur, I ought to start mixing things up, so I got three of my standards (the first three) and two alternates (the second two). However, I wanted to switch them up a bit, so I developed a system. In each six pack carrier, I kept two of the original brand that came within it. After that, I put one of each of the other four brands, all of them organized in exactly the same slots. That way, as I drink beer throughout the next month and a half, it will be sufficiently randomized. Most excellent? Absolutely. Completely and totally anal retentive? No question whatsoever.

As far as my dishonesty, I've perpetrated a most excellent hoax, as evidenced by the picture above. Some of you will remember Manda, who used to comment frequently at TSTF. Both of us are on Facebook, and she was bored at work last week. One thing led to another, and the final fallout is that we changed our status to "married". Then she changed her last name to my own. Then I uploaded the picture you see above (relax, it's sterling silver). It's been truly entertaining to watch the fallout, from wall posts to private messages to mobile phone text messages - all of it culminating in a phone call from Michelley, who I haven't been able to get a hold of since June (despite a trip to Texas in which I was quite excited to see her). The best part, of course, is that Manda's a stone cold fox (and completely diabolical), and it's been simply brilliant to carry on such an entertaining ruse with her.

That, dear friends, is why the Fly is a hairy, drunken liar.

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Today's satellite image can be seen here. It's the Clarence Hotel in Dublin, home of the Octagon Bar where yours truly enjoyed two pints. What's makes the Clarence and the Octagon Bar interesting? They're partly owned by Bono, the Pope, and The Edge, the Prime Cardinal.

In keeping with this week's theme of entertaining Mighty Mo at work, I present "Daft Bodies".


Needless to say, I have zero sympathy with the Hollywood writers' strike. They've been producing almost nothing but rubbish for the last few years anyway, and their failure to do good work is highlighting talented efforts by much more talented folks on the Internet. As odd as this one is, it's evidence that being an overpaid Hollywood screen writer does not equate to having talent or originality. If you ask me, the Screen Writers' Guild can rot.

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Have great success this weekend, folks, and tune in next week!