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Last Train Home - NYT Critics' Pick

Chen Suqin, left, and Zhang Changhua, married migrant factory workers in Lixin Fan’s documentary “Last Train Home.”
A Family Caught in the Wheels of China’s Industrial Locomotive
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: September 2, 2010

According to an introductory note that appears on screen at the beginning of Lixin Fan’s documentary “Last Train Home,” every year, during the lunar New Year, 130 million workers return from China’s industrial cities to their homes in the countryside. This temporary shift in population, which the film calls the largest human migration in the world, is one of those numbers that seem impossible to comprehend. One hundred and thirty million people, moving between work and family, stoking the engines that drive the machinery of worldwide consumer capitalism. What does that look like? What does it mean? More

My Dog Tulip (2009) NYT Critics' Pick

J. R. Ackerley, voiced by Christopher Plummer, and Tulip in the animated film “My Dog Tulip.”
A Tender Love Story Between Man and Dog
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: August 31, 2010

Animated dog movie: Those three little words are enough to make many parents shudder in expectation of having to accompany their kindergarten-age children to a sentimental, anthropomorphic contrivance. Now read the following quotation from “My Dog Tulip,” an animated dog movie like no other, and reconsider your qualms. More

Krugman!

The Real Story
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: September 2, 2010

Next week, President Obama is scheduled to propose new measures to boost the economy. I hope they’re bold and substantive, since the Republicans will oppose him regardless — if he came out for motherhood, the G.O.P. would declare motherhood un-American. So he should put them on the spot for standing in the way of real action. More

The Many Iterations of William Shatner

By PAT JORDAN
Published: September 3, 2010

He’s late. He calls to explain. “A mix-up,” he says, and then, “I read all your stories.” Pause. “You. Are. A. Grrreat. Writer.” Another pause. “What’s your name?” I tell him. He says, “Of course it is.” I ask what his name is. “MY NAME? I. Am. William. Shatner!” More

Obama's Post-Iraq World

By ROGER COHEN
Published: September 2, 2010

LONDON — Europe adjusted long ago, but not without pain, to its diminished place in world affairs. After Suez for the British, after Algeria for the French, even the most stubborn post-World War II illusions evaporated. The baton had passed to America. European nations set their minds to a war-banishing Union. More

How to End the Great Recession

By ROBERT B. REICH
Published: September 2, 2010

THIS promises to be the worst Labor Day in the memory of most Americans. Organized labor is down to about 7 percent of the private work force. Members of non-organized labor — most of the rest of us — are unemployed, underemployed or underwater. Friday’s jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics will almost surely show fewer new jobs created in August than the 125,000 needed just to keep up with growth of the potential work force. More

Shocked! I'm just shocked!

Employers Push Costs for Health on Workers
By REED ABELSON
Published: September 2, 2010

As health care costs continue their relentless climb, companies are increasingly passing on higher premium costs to workers. More

Shifting the Health Cost Burden
Published: September 2, 2010

The latest annual survey of employer health benefits contains good news for the employers but bad news for their workers. The good news is that the average total premium for employer-sponsored health insurance (typically paid partly by employers and partly by their workers) rose only a modest 3 percent this year for family plans, reaching $13,770 in 2010. More

It's not every morning...

That you find a bag o' ram's wool in your cube.


Posted via LjBeetle