In other news

Since my last two posts--late-night ramblings about Philip Roth and a photo of an elegant armored statuette--seem to have elicited absolutely no response, here are some more catchy things to ponder:

It got cold! Which means I can now wear my new trenchcoat (and no, despite my origins, not the trenchcoat mafia kind, but the classic beige variety). Not one but two women on the Upper East Side today have mistaken me for some friend of theirs, which suggests that there are benefits to this colder weather, in that it forces me to wear more sophisticated clothing...

Will Baude wins, and womankind (well, one woman, not counting some anonymous writer to "Miss Manners" and some of her equally anonymous, and possibly fictitious, makeup-hating friends) gives up makeup...

Daniel Moore is reading The Closing of the American Mind. I read Bloom's book (which, for the uninitiated, is a cross between Bridget Jones' Diary and Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed) last summer, and, though many of his arguments are today just the typical conservative problems with higher education, it is useful to see these ideas laid out. Moore, however, has little to worry about, as he is a recipient of a Chicago education and thus has presumably been exposed to the books and ideas that, according to Bloom, keep the American mind open...

And finally, in utterly uninteresting news, the Facebook has now ugraded itself and has a new "groups" function. You can join anything from "I Live at the Reg" to "I Heart Penis"--neither of which I have joined, as it so happens. Nevertheless, I am the proud founder of the "Jeremy Irons Appreciation Association," which I have listed, of course, as a sport. I invite all fellow Chicago Facebook procrastinators to join me, and the group's three distinguished other members, in appreciating Mr. Irons.