Daily Office: Friday
¶ Matins: The American Scholar has reprinted a speech, “Solitude and Leadership,” delivered by writer and critic (and former Yale prof) William Deresiewicz to the plebe class at West Point last October. It is an important speech, probably because it follows its own advice. Mr Deresiewicz offers no canned adages about leadership, and in fact he never discusses the skills required in order to command others. What concerns him is the moral self-awareness that can be achieved only after long and serious self-interrogation.
¶ Lauds: At the Guardian, Tanya Gold describes her visit to the Jewish Museum in north London, and her adventures in Yiddish drama with comedian David Schneider at the museum’s “tiny interactive theatre.”
¶ Prime: At the Guardian, Tanya Gold describes her visit to the Jewish Museum in north London, and her adventures in Yiddish drama with comedian David Schneider at the museum’s “tiny interactive theatre.”
¶ Tierce: Felix Salmon quite brilliantly compares the monoculture of genetically-modified crops to CDOs — and it’s brilliant because each side of the comparison illuminates the other.
Essentially, you’re trading a large number of small problems for a small probability that at some point you’re going to have an absolutely enormous problem.
¶ Sext: Sam Sifton has quickly established himself as a peerless reviewer of restaurant experiences. Each piece is a memoir, rich in incidental associations. He doesn’t think a whole of Choptank, ‘way down on Bleecker Street, but we’re always on the lookout for awesome fries. (NYT)
¶ Nones: Back from the dead, as it were, Yukos Oil stakeholders have brought a claim for whopping damages against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights. (NYT)
¶ Vespers: Jessica Ferri reviews Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy, by Melissa Milgrom, at The Second Pass. Learn, among other things, about the power behind Damien Hirst, a “short-haired, chain-smoking battle-axe who finds beauty in death.”
¶ Compline: James Crabtree and Nicholas Christakis take the social-network-contagion findings apply them to politics. (About time.) But the fascinating passage relates to Brian Uzzi’s study of Broadway production teams over more than forty years. (Prospect; via 3 Quarks Daily)