Why I'm Voting Republican

Watch on YouTube

Shamelessly Stolen from pegkerr

Paris Rediscovers Monet’s Magic at Grand Palais

A visitor takes in two views of the House of Parliament by Claude Monet at the current show at the Grand Palais in Paris.
By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN
Published: October 4, 2010

PARIS — Poor Claude Monet.

Like white noise, he’s everywhere and invisible, the staple of countless dentists’ offices. Old hat for more than a century now. Is it too late to recapture some of the shock and thrill that caused horrified Parisians in the 1870s to perceive his work as “leprous”?

Amazingly, no, it’s not. The Monet show that just opened here at the Grand Palais is a start. The biggest art spectacle in Europe this fall, with some 160 paintings, it is, believe it or not, the first full-dress overview Paris has staged in decades, the first chance anywhere to see the whole sweep of his work in some time. The French are treating it like a national celebration. President Nicolas Sarkozy contributed a note to the catalog extolling this “unmistakable emblem of the international influence of French culture.” The exhibition would have been a box office smash even if it had corralled fewer of Monet’s benchmarks.

It happens to be ravishing. More

Let them take the limo...

An Amtrak train in Washington, part of the busiest train corridor in the country. Several states received stimulus money to help expand passenger rail service.
Plan to Expand Rail Service Imperiled at State Level
By MICHAEL COOPER
Published: October 4, 2010

Republicans running for governor in a handful of states could block, or significantly delay, one of President Obama’s signature initiatives: his plan to expand the passenger rail system and to develop the nation’s first bullet-train service. More

Money Makes the World Go Around...

Midterm campaigns, brought to you by . . . ?
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, October 5, 2010

The Republican grab for Congress is being funded by a pack of wolves masquerading as a herd of sheep. More

Saint Krugman: Spock With A Beard

Oh, and I think there’s a reasonable case to be made for the proposition that I, personally, am Spock with a beard. Link

Sam and Andrea

Sam and Andrea are coming to town on Thursday, and we're doing a tour of eating places with her friends, culminating on Monday with her BD dinner, oops, at a restaurant that's closed on Monday... I'm taking a few days off. I hope to spin a duck or two on Saturday, and maybe throw a shrimp on the barbie.