Deep Thought of the Day

Rum makes a better basis for cakes and sweetbreads than bourbon.

On Cold Mountain and Gone with the Wind

Am I the only one who finds it a little disturbing that the best Civil War films -- nearly all Civil War films, for that matter -- have an objectively pro-Southern slant to them? This is more true, of course, of GWTW than Cold Mountain, but still. There is a film that needs to be made, if not of the Civil War, then of the Reconstruction years, from an explicitly pro-Northern perspective. If Nathan Newman's recounting of the era is accurate, a great tragedy centered around Ulysses S. Grant could easily be written.

Movie Review: Enchanted

It was either this or Beowulf (non-3D version); and as tempting as a nude CGI Angelina Jolie may be, I was strangely not that enthused about the movie. But as far as Disney-approved satire goes, Enchanted is pretty entertaining, I must admit. It succeeds mainly on the strength of Amy Adams' performance, which is incredibly sweet and has more depth than a movie like this deserves.

Of course, if I were to write a Disney satire movie, I'd probably use this list as a jumping off point.

Good News!

The paper I co-authored with my professor and a classmate on the Law of the Sea Convention will be published in the next edition of Environmental Law and Policy.

In other news, Y. and I had a great Thanksgiving. It was the first big meal with both her parents and mine, and it went swimmingly. We also went home with an extra turkey -- Y.'s mother had gotten two turkeys expecting the 10 or so people in attendance to eat both, which, suffice to say, was not the case. So the usual 3-day turkey diet will be about 7 days for us.