Toluu : Diary of a Rat

Diary of a Rat

Homo homini rodentius est

Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonDecember 29 2008

F. Scott Fitzgerald published the story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” in 1922 as part of a collection entitled Tales of the Jazz Age. As with so much of his work, the story, a fantasy about a man who ages in reverse, was a clever way of addressing pet themes concerning class, social standing and our tenuous hold on the conventions that root us to life. But, as Fitzgerald acknowledged, it was also about the meaning and value of maturity in a disordered world following the end of World War 1 where an entire generation of young men were robbed of the chance to grow old. The story begins in arch satire and ends in melancholy reverence of (lost) innocence.

Eighty-six years later, Hollywood and its special-effects wizards have discovered the story and brought it to the screen with Brad Pitt playing Benjamin Button and Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton playing his loves. Director David Fincher and his screenwriters depart from the original story fairly significantly and, sorry to say, not for the better. The film starts out promisingly with a parable — not in the original story — of a blind watchmaker who loses a son in the Great War and, out of his grief, builds a clock for the city that he lives in that runs backwards, as a tribute to all the boys who have lost their futures

Holiday Dieting Tips!November 26 2008

Patented Diet Elixir Think of it as Drano for your own personal plumbing…

People often ask me (and by “people” I mean “no one” and by “often” I mean “never”) “Sprague, as a busy metropolitan blogger — hip deep in the hoopla — attending social events right and left, how DO you keep your lithe boyish body? Especially during the holidays?!” And I just shake my head, laugh quietly into my armpit and say, “Well, just between you and me, I’ve come up with a sure-fire method that lets me keep those unsightly pounds at bay while still allowing me to plow through food like Kirstie Alley at a Las Vegas buffet.” My secret? A simple elixir of prune juice with a few dashes of hot sauce.

Disgusting? You bet it is — like everything that’s good for you. Broccoli, fish oil, cigarettes — they’re all disgusting. “But wait a minute,” I hear you say, “how could something so simple be the answer to such a vexing problem?” Well. For the answer to that, we have to spend a few minutes talking about how your body works…

(more…)

Similar Posts:

Could Al Go

Taking to the StreetsNovember 15 2008

An Army of Lovers: Hundreds of people protesting the California ballot initiative outcome.

Protests of the outcome of the California Proposition 8 ballot initiative were held all over the country today. I ran into the New York protest as it marched up Broadway toward Union Square. One of the protesters — the fellow in the leftmost image above, was running up to the windows of a diner and sticking his sign, which called for equal rights to love, into the faces of straight couples. They studiously avoided his glare as they ate their eggs. Walking west on 14th street I ran into them again as they came down 6th Avenue, heading toward Christopher Street. Ironically, they marched right past 15th Street, without being aware of the Mormon temple that resides there. Given the role of church organizations in getting the ballot initiative passed and the [extraordinary role of the LDS], I wish they had scheduled the protest for churches and temples on Sunday. Even still, while the marriage issue does not carry the gravity of the AIDS protests of the late 80s and early 90s — it sure was good to see angry queers in the streets, again.

Perhaps it was because my family was made up of Irish immigrants and still very much immersed in the myths and folklore of that ancient culture, but for me and my sister as children the veil that separated the real world from the supernatural was not entirely distinct and we felt that it was possible to push it aside and be touched by extraordinary events. As evidence, my aunt’s haunted house that [I’ve written of] previously. But there was another event that occurred a few years after the adventure involving the haunted house that had a more poignant and profound impact on us and that convinced me forever that the distinction between nature and supernature is itself wholly inadequate as a description of reality.

From the time she was tiny, my sister Maggie had been the favorite of our grandmother. Never an easy woman, Nana was often brusque with the children in the family. She had been raised in a strict culture where children knew their place and that place was usually at the end of the table and silent — she had little patience for the liberal upbringing practices her own children and many of the grandchildren (myself included) knew her withering rebukes if we got out of line. But Maggie was doted upon and even her non-stop chattering (she’

What’s wrong with this picture?October 25 2008

Culture Shock Union Square Barnes & Noble bookstore, New York City, October 25, 2008.