A Few Quick Notes 240

-Yesterday and today have both been quite wet. Both days have been marked by periods of heavy precipitation. Fortunately, I seem to have managed to avoid some of these downpours on my way to school, which is nice as I am never a big fan of starting my day wet.

-A few days ago Neil, Rebecca, and I watched the documentary American Movie. The film follows Mark Borchardt as he attempts to complete Coven, an independently produced and financed short film. While there are many moments of humour, the film is in many ways strikingly sad. Not only does the viewer witness the mental and physical deterioration of the the protagonist's uncle, but the viewer also gets a rather close look

-It seems that the New York Times is reporting that in the near future the Christian Science Monitor will transition from a daily newspaper to an online newspaper with a regularly published magazine component. While this is not the largest of daily newspapers in the US, this change may be a sign of things to come in the very near future. One wonders how long other papers will be able to hold out in an era of declining circulation and increased competition from the online news media.

-My uncle was kind enough to forward me Gerard Damiano's obituary. For those of you who are not porn aficionados, Damiano was the director of the classic porn film Deep Throat. Surely fans of the film will be saddened by this news.

I am now curious to see if the Globe will carry his obituary, and if so how long it will take to appear.

-I managed to get through my lecture on Monday. While it likely wasn't the world's best lecture, I also don't think that it was the world's worst lecture. I am hoping that tomorrow's lecture on the American presidential system and elections will generate at least a modicum of excitement in the class. On Friday I will get the pleasure of talking to the class about writing and citing, with particular reference to the assignment that they have to do for me.

-For much of the evening I have been reading critiques of the work of George Grant, a Canadian political philosopher. Unfortunately, I haven't found these works particularly illuminating or accessible. I keep skimming my eyes over the page without getting much information. Hopefully I will eventually get some sense of what is going on by the time I decide to pack it in later tonight.