If you're interested in going to this lecture at the French Alliance, please let me know---I have two tickets!
Adam Gopnik writes for The New Yorker, broadcasts regularly for the CBC, and authored the article on American culture in the Encyclopedia Britannica. In 1995 he moved to Paris with his family and for the next five years he wrote an award-winning, biting series for The New Yorker called Paris Journals. The French press praised them as a “witty and Voltairian picture of French life.”
These articles have since been published in the book Paris to the Moon. Considered one of the greatest short-story writers, Guy de Maupassant’s (1850-1893) tales range from poignant scrutinies of social pretension, to wicked tales of lust and love, to portraits of terror and madness, all as relevant today as when they were first written.
Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street, by fax (212) 355-6189, phone (212) 355-6160. Tickets: $20; $15 Members.
posted by LauraB 1:34 PM
Doesn't the war make you thirsty? All those pictures of sand and dust? Well, it's not just the war, and you're not alone in your thirst. Waterwater everywhere (and not a drop to drink), is the point of this organization. Happily, the Japanese have recently invented a little desalination/powerplant contrapation which cleverly uses the difference in temperature between the water at the sea floor and the sea bottom to make ocean water potable.
posted by LauraB 11:04 AM
You know it's going to be a funny voir dire when:
- You and the plaintiff are the only ones to audibly guffaw when they randomly select the first batch of potential jurists from a wood-panelled bingo-box like you'd find on Wheel of Fortune.
- The judge asks "Are you familiar with the concept of exclusive contracts? and have you ever been wronged by a third party who knowingly harmed an exclusive contract you've been involved with?" and the second juror replies "hell yeah, my husband's new girlfriend!"
- Some of the selection queries include: "what is your favorite style of music?" and "do you have an opinion on rap or hip-hop music?"
- An elderly lady requests a sidebar conference to answer the question "how old are you?"
- When the plaintiff and the defendant are Ja Rule and Murder, Inc.
- When you get an opportunity to plug your unsigned band to not one but two record company executives.
posted by LauraB 6:42 PM