July, 2, 2005 archives

zócalo will be having one of their events at the dorothy chandler pavilion later this month, “is california governable? a conversation with gray davis, pete wilson, george deukmejian, and jerry brown.” that’s four former governors for the price of none — it’s a free event.

they also have an upcoming event with wonkette’s ana marie cox, and one at the california plaza with the editor-in-chief of the hollywood reporter and joel stein, everyone’s favorite hollywood-wannabe opinion columnist for the los angeles times.

i guess the best way to review blink: the power of thinking without thinking by malcolm gladwell is to give my immediate impression: i liked it.

it also resonates with on intelligence, such as the example gladwell cites of a psychological experiment where the subjects would read comics while either holding a pen using their lips (preventing them from smiling) or with their teeth (forcing a smile) and they would either report the comic less or more amusing, respectively. that’s just what you would expect using the theory of how the brain works from on intelligence: you’re causing (or suppressing) associations with humor because you’re forcing values back up the feedback chain.

today was the big tour of the historic core shepherded by shannon, and it delivered on all the promised reasons to go. even the story about the parking lot. i have a bunch more pictures, and i’ll upload them to my flickr photos after i sort through them and clean up the good ones.

after the tour, albert, lisa and i went to clifton’s cafeteria, which i think is a required stop for anyone who hasn’t yet been there. and though i still think it is overpriced, the turkey was quite good.