More on Gwyneth, math, and the U of C

Commenter Maureen notes below that Urban Outfitters sells t-shirts that say, "I'm too pretty to do math." I can't verify this, but I did see a man on the street once with a shirt that said, "They said there wasn't going to be any math," which is the most brilliant t-shirt in the world, followed only by a distant second, which are my neon pink and neon green C&C t-shirts I got for $8 a piece at the Intermix sample sale.

Commenter Dylan finds Gwyneth Paltrow only mildly attractive. Gwyneth Paltrow, in turn, finds all bloggers and blog-commentors breathtakingly gorgeous. But to respond to Dylan, all that I can say is I'll speak for all the women of the world who in no way resemble Paltrow and state that it's a relief that not all men consider this ideal. But speaking for all truth-tellers of the world, I must say that Gwyneth Paltrow is simply stunning, even when made to look as crummy as possible, so much so that playing a character with a habit of "never leaving the house or being even marginally polite to strangers," she still ought to have gotten more attention. The character sat on her porch on 46th Street, in full view of passers-by--what, does no one ever take a walk through Kenwood?

And finally, to respond to Will, and Jacob Levy: Of course it's a very U of C movie, as much as is ever likely to gain a widespread audience. I would argue that my friend Joe Hanson's brief role in the reality series "Beauty and the Geek" brought more U of C to a popular audience than all of Proof, but point taken re: UChicago movies--this sure beats When Harry Met Sally. Still... Will remarks: "The only male character with more than four minutes of screen time other than Paltrow's father had the hots for her even when he only glimpsed her for a few minutes in a years-old flashback." Yes, but that does not prove, so to speak, that the movie allows for the Paltrow character to be as attractive as the Paltrow we see before us. Said male character is a math grad student. How many women is he supposed to be meeting? Even an average-looking advisor's daughter might have inspired such a fantasy. And to respond to Levy: Yes, the movie is true-to-life. But it was missing something. And that something was undergraduates. There is a college at the University of Chicago, but you would never have known it from the movie, which shows plenty of the campus but which made the U of C out to be a research-only, geniuses and would-be-geniuses-only type of place. Maybe it's just that, as a college student, I was more conscious of college students being all over the campus. Maybe grad students really don't notice all the girls with sweatpants that say "AOPi" on the rear end, or the boys with popped collars on their polo shirts, or the sweatpants-wearing, housecest-having masses. Maybe the only way to show how unique a place the University really is would be to ignore the things that make it like other schools. And Levy's right about the movie's truthfulness regarding place--remarks about the Northside, Evanston, and downtown make it clear that Hyde Park is its own universe. And lord knows, Catherine wouldn't have given a damn if Hyde Park had a GAP.