Brian Leiter is on sabbatical and seems to be enjoying a stint in London, most of the time, anyway. Welcome to our city, Professor Leiter, I hope you have fun while you’re here.
Oh, and by the way, you’re right both about the belly-buttons and the buffoon, but try to have closer to the correct change in supermarkets, it’ll make your life so much easier.
{ 11 comments }
otto 10.17.05 at 4:20 pm
Nothing wrong with belly-buttons. But ideally this trend would not have coincided with increasing obesity.
cburns 10.17.05 at 4:34 pm
Don’t forget the boots and mini skirts. As a midwestern boy now studying at King’s College London, I’ve never seen so much leg. Even in class. Even after living in Florida for four years.
Slocum 10.17.05 at 5:03 pm
On our first day, a rather dishevelled, heavy-set man–who might easily have been mistaken for a vagrant, except the streets are not littered with disposed human beings.
Hmmm. On our first day in London a few years back, we ended up staying near King’s Cross (a mistake, perhaps, but it worked out OK). The streets there were, indeed, littered with vagrant junkies sitting on stoops. They did not seem dangerous (one actually helpfully pointed out the water dripping from our rental car’s air conditioner – thinking we had some kind of leak), but there were plenty of ’em.
The free museums were nice – making it possible to stop in for an hour and see a small portion rather than pay a hefty admission fee and feel one had to spend the day. Somehow I don’t remember the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and the Maritime Museum being free, though, I’m pretty sure we paid an admissions fee there. Getting to see the Harrison clocks and wander up and peer through the ‘hatch’ into the ‘cabin’ of the James B Caird was worth it, though. H*ly Sh*t.
Belly buttons? That does not seem much of a cultural difference, but then I live in a university town and have high school aged kids who bring their friends around, so there’s no navel shortage.
Andrew 10.17.05 at 9:05 pm
The free museums were nice – making it possible to stop in for an hour and see a small portion rather than pay a hefty admission fee and feel one had to spend the day.
I agree that free museums are nice, but which museums have you been to that the admission was “hefty” enough to make you feel you had to spend an entire day there? A lot of museums are free in the States (Smithsonian for one) and OZ (NMoA) too. I remember coughing up 70 yen (60¢ at the time) for the Tokyo Kokuritsu hakubustukan, though I went as a student, so maybe I paid discounted admission; thought it could cost more than a dollar dollar.
I can’t recall spending more than $5 or $10 (hardly hefty, especially since children are usually free) for any museum other than NYMoMA, which was maybe $20, but worth it.
Dan Simon 10.17.05 at 9:14 pm
Journalists on T.V. ask politicans real questions and call them on their bullshit, at least some of the time.
I strongly disagree. It’s true that the questions are often delivered in an antagonistic, skeptical tone, casting doubt on each premise that the interviewee has been summoned to defend. In fact, though, the confrontational displays I saw (on a recent visit) were all just a cleverly disguised version of the American softball style: the interviewer mimicked a caricature of the interviewee’s opponents, threw out a few lame challenges in that voice, and let the interviewee demolish them.
This format naturally pleases everyone involved: the interviewer ends up looking tough, the interviewee looks clever and articulate, and the gullible audience imagines it’s just seen a lively debate.
KCinDC 10.17.05 at 11:05 pm
Are the free museums a UK thing or just a London thing? We have lots of free museums in Washington, but they seem to be rather rarer in the rest of the US.
There seem to be plenty of bellybuttons in the US.
Dan Simon may be right, but I don’t think Bush looked clever and articulate when Carole Coleman interviewed him. But perhaps the Irish style is different.
Micah 10.17.05 at 11:17 pm
Thanks for the critical-thinking patrol on Leiter’s ridiculously filtered tripe, people. Refreshing.
I’ve read Leiter on and off for a couple of years and just find myself curious: is he such a horse’s ass in person?
Abbott 10.18.05 at 3:15 am
Relevance, Micah? I’d say the horse’s ass is the one who posts comments like yours.
Slocum 10.18.05 at 7:52 am
I agree that free museums are nice, but which museums have you been to that the admission was “hefty†enough to make you feel you had to spend an entire day there?
Well, maybe not the entire day, but in Chicago, the Art Institute is $12 (not including special exhibits), the Shedd Aquarium is $23, the Field Museum is $19.
Thlayli 10.18.05 at 9:59 am
Did anyone else notice that after making the comment about belly buttons, he tagged the post “Navel-Gazing”? ;)
vivian 10.18.05 at 8:01 pm
re #4: many museums charge/suggest really hefty fees (most didn’t when I was a kid): google
the American Museum of Natural History $14 adult $8 kid, MOMA $20 adult, kids free
Boston’s MFA $15 adults, kids $5 during school hours and free after
Boston Children’s Museum $9 adults, $7 each child
etc.
But in the UK we’ve noticed hefty admissions fees to things like the
Blue Planet Aquarium (Adults £9.95, children £7.50family £34.00 (2+2). ) Chester Zoo (similar), London Eye (never tempted me). Heck, the gate-keeping gentleman at Christchurch college oxford wanted £2 per tourist to peruse the garden paths… (he was satisfied by a shocked “In MY day this would never have happened!”
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