Friday evening marginalia

As continuing work on one of the most significant S.D. Supreme Court briefs I’ve done in years (or ever) has kept my attention all week, here’s a few recent odds and ends as I settle in to watch UM-UND hockey on the tube:

• Among the things falling victim to work was an intended post on the “outrage” being shown over the movie The Golden Compass. But that’s alright. Cory at Madville Times has an excellent post on the crusade that I would be hard pressed to top. He even makes my intended point about how so much of this energy can be better spent not fearing contrary ideas but actually using them ideas as a learning experience. Go. Read. Think..
• The delay also makes this more timely: we miss you, John. (Via.)
• We Americans sure are an embarrassing lot.
• David Louis Edelman gives us a thoughtful and thought-provoking list of humanity’s five biggest moral challenges.
• Where do books go when they die are unread?
• Hmmm, maybe these justify buying myself a Wii for Christmas (assuming one can be found).
• An explicit set of “special instructions” to baseball players in 1898 shows today’s athletes don’t have a monopoly on “obscene and indecent language. (Also via.)
• Newsweek of all places is the source of what may be my reading challenge for next year: the Russian Reading Challenge 2008. In addition to wondering whether to join, I’m wondering if I would ever be brave enough to tackle the new translation of War and Peace as part of it.
• On a somewhat related note, Three Percent is compiling a list of the best translations of 2007.
• The 10 most manly writers ever? (Via.)

“Instant Karma,” John Lennon