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David Jones
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ENG4U1*01
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Course Introduction: Why The Essay?
Welcome to ENG4U. We’ll begin our course by examining the “essay” as the
process of learning to write effective essays provides the “bread and butter” core of this
course. The essay is also the assignment of choice in many university courses, a fact that
might lead you to ask “Why?” This is a good question, and one which might be best
answered, to begin with, by defining the word “essay”, and then showing how the essay
as defined provides teachers with an opportunity to help students develop their ability to
think and write clearly. So what is an essay?
The word essay derives from the French essai
('attempt'), from the verb essayer, 'to try' or 'to attempt'. The
first author to describe his works as essays was the French
writer and thinker Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592).”
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Montaigne’s essays were published in a work called
(no…honest!) “Essays”—a work which is described in the
entry on Montaigne at Wikipedia as “unprecedented in its candidness and personal flavor,
he takes mankind and especially himself as the object of study.”
(1)( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_de_Montaigne )
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While Montaigne may have provided the original “essays” or attempts at
understanding a topic, the essay as a form has branched out into a variety of different but
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related types of writing. The ways that essays are categorized and the number of
categories available really depends on who is setting up the categories. For instance, an
Internet Search on “Essay Types” will reveal a variety of University Writing Workshop
web pages, Internet “Paper Mills,” and other writing related web sites that provide
definitions for as few as three or four essay “types”—“classification,” “comparison and
contrast,” “cause and effect,” and “argumentative” essays for instance. (“Essay Types”)
But then there are sites that lump as many as 52 different types of writing into this
category. The winner in the “largest number of entries” category as this paper is being
written for instance—the 52 entry site just mentioned—was found at “ The Paper
Experts”, a paper mill that appears to be trying to scare students out of writing essays and
into buying one. The good folks at “The Paper Experts” seem to be developing their
scare tactics by overwhelming potential essay writers with just the variety of essay types
it is possible to write (the implied message: ”there’s just so much out there that you’ll
never get a grip on essay writing—you may as well buy one instead.”). Whatever. At
any rate The Paper Experts, includes, in its list, everything from the “Analysis of a
Book,” to “Timed,” “Scholarship,” Deductive,” and Division and Classification”
essays.(“List of Essay Types”)
If there are so many different types of essay, do they have anything in common?
They do, and it is this common set of elements that makes the essay a useful form for
teaching the generic thinking and writing skills that will help students approach the
assortment of topics or situations that will, no doubt, appear in their future.
One core characteristic common to all essays—one so fundamental that it is often
overlooked—is the fact that essays are about something: essays (except badly written
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ones) are “focused” and address one idea at one time—an area of study, a “topic.” Even
if the topic is a complex one—even if the essay being written is long and multipartite—
the essay is about one “thing.” The process of dealing with that one topic often requires
the essay to be broken down into several sub-discussions, which may in turn be broken
down even further, but the fact remains that essays are “about something”: well written
essays address one topic and stay focused on that topic.
The topics addressed in essays are as diverse as humanity itself; the essay as a
form has been used to address everything from the most universal human problems, to
very narrowly defined specialty topics; from ideas that are completely profound, to ideas
that are banal and frivolous: as a “for instance” here, one topic used as a first essay by
one university writing class had students describing their favourite flavour of ice cream
and why they liked that flavour so much. I will let you decide whether this is banal or
profound.
As a form the essay provides a fundamental organizing strategy for thinking about
things in an organized, structured manner: in order to write an essay about any topic the
extent of the discussion involved must be defined, and then broken down into an
organized series of thoughts. Why break things down? Although we human beings may
be able to have many things going on in our minds at once—and there are many of us that
often have a lot racing around our brains at any given time. I am not one of those: I am
one of those people known for being able to deal with, maybe, one thing at a time…and
often even that is a struggle. I am fortunate though, in that I have a partner who often
has, and can deal with her work, the laundry, what that funny noise is in the refrigerator,
and why I am not getting dinner together as I am supposed to be doing. At any rate,
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although it is clearly possible to think about many things at a time, it is really only
possible to write about one. And it is best to stick to that one. Even if there are several
things a writer feels compelled to say about that topic, then it will be necessary to
organize that information in a meaningful way, and say those things one at a time.
Beyond the fact that essays are about one thing, well written essays also have a
point or series of points that are being made about that topic: a writer has considered a
topic, has found a way to make sense of this topic, and then explains his or her
understanding of this topic one piece of information at a time: this means that if, for
instance, the essay being written is the abovementioned “ice cream” masterpiece, the
writer will have to do more than state that “I like chocolate.” After all there must be a
reason why that writer likes chocolate. And while the process of explaining why she
likes chocolate may be a simple little comparative discussion of a preference of the
richness of chocolate’s depth and bouquet relative to strawberry’s saccharine goopiness,
or even if the comparison is as complex as a whole series of Proustian rememberances
and their complex interconnections, it is this explanation that makes the essay an essay.
Otherwise we just have a fact, and of course a fact doesn’t really reveal that much about
the rich complex human experience and history that underlies one’s preference for
“Death by Chocolate” as opposed to strawberry.
Essays, because they require the writer to reflect on a specific body of
knowledge—ice cream, life and death, the use of imagery in Shakespeare’s Hamlet,
problems in the political economy of some new emerging state or [put your next essay
topic here]—require the essay writer to consider a body of knowledge; select facts, ideas
and other forms of data that will help that writer make sense of that body of knowledge;
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organize his or her understanding of this body of information into a coherent discussion
and then present this discussion in the most simple, direct, clear manner possible. The
nice thing about this core set of skills is that it can be used and is used by effective
thinkers who are confronted with everything from the problem of how to get this week’s
groceries, to trying to attract a significant other, solving world issues, and/or trying to
rule the world. As an example of how essay skills are at the core of even the later
perhaps the most ambitious and complex of
these projects I would ask you, dear reader,
to consider that most ambitious pair of
rodents—Pinky and The Brain—who for a
brief time, week after week contemplated
the task of taking over the world. Although
Brain’s plans may have been a little too
ambitious, he was clearly organized, had a plan, a focus, and a clear strategy that was
easy to understand, and then clearly communicated to both his television audience and
Pinky. In this respect Brain knew the basics behind how to put together a good essay.
And if he had considered his topic a little more closely—if, for instance he had thought
about where his plan might go wrong, if his analysis had been a little more thorough—
Brain would, no doubt, have succeeded eventually.
The understanding of anything we attempt in the world will only ever be as good
as our ability to organize, consider, communicate, and then act on our understanding of
this topic even if we are communicating this understanding only to ourselves. And
learning to write an essay is learning to do the first three of these four things: learning to
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write an essay is learning to develop those fundamental thinking skills that allow us to
address/consider whatever problems/tasks we have to face as post-high-school thinking
and acting human beings.
Something that allows us to see just how central the set of thinking skills included
in the process of writing an essay is to our post-high-school life, has to do with the way
that essays, when well written, can often very easily be morphed into some other practical
form that ends in a call for action, or organized plan to do something: essays can be
turned into reports, or included in reports, letters, memos and plans of action quite easily,
a process that you will get to see as we turn some of the essays we write throughout this
course into these other forms of writing
As The course you are beginning is about how to write essays, it is also about
how to think well. As a final word it is worth pointing out that as this course is about
how to think and write well, the most important thing that you can take away from this
this course, has nothing to do with your preference for ice cream, your understanding of
Shakespeare, or Brain’s desire to rule the world: the most important thing you can and
should take away from this course has to do with your ability to think about the next
problem you are confronted with, the next situation you must work out for yourself and
others, the next topic you will be addressing; in its essence learning how to write an essay
is not learning how to solve the world’s problems with Shakespeare, it is not learning
how to psychoanalyze the deep inner desires apparent in your preference for chocolate
ice cream—although both of these look like interesting topics that some may think worth
pursuing; learning how to write an essay is nothing more nor less than just learning how
to think. And if, at the end of this course, you aren’t that much the wiser about William
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Shakespeare and how he used the pun in Hamlet, that’s okay; if, though, you can think a
little better, and if you can communicate what you are thinking clearly…well now, that’s
something.
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List of Works Cited
“Essay Types.” Bogazici University Online Writing Workshop . 2006. August 18, 2006.
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http://www.buowl.boun.edu.tr/essay%20types.htm .
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“List of Essay Types.” The Essay Experts . 2006. August 18, 2006.
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http://www.thepaperexperts.com/essays_types.shtml .
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“Michel De Montaigne.” Wikipedia . 15 August 2006. August 18, 2006.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_de_Montaigne .
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Essay Analysis 1
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Reviewing the Basics
Complete the following and submit as an attachment having, as file names, your last
name and initial (mine would be jonesd.doc, or jonesd.ppt (the PowerPoint) for
instance) to jonesjdavid@sympatico.ca Make sure that your submission is clearly
marked with your names, and includes all parts.
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As an in-class exercise in preparation for the following assignment we will
develop a synopsis of the essay provided above: to do so we will first determine what
question or questions this writer is trying to answer and then describe how he presents
this argument. Toward this end we will itemize the major points made in this piece of
work, as well as what the writer argues in general. We will convert this material into a
brief PowerPoint presentation, and then use this material to demonstrate that essays are
focused, and how they maintain their focus—a process which will model the exercise to
be completed below.
In the following exercise you will once again be trying to establish, or at least
begin to explore, how authors make a point, how they maintain focus, how they organize
their argument, how they use examples, and how these examples are explained.
1) You will work with a partner and read through one of the essays in the collection
provided for this exercise. Having read your essays you and your partner will
create a PowerPoint presentation in which you:
a. Identify what the essay is about (what the main topic of discussion
includes).
b. Describe an overall question that the writer of your essay was trying to
answer in writing the essays you have examined. Having established what
the major question being answered includes, you will then
c. Provide a bulleted synopsis of the major points made in this essay, and
what the author concludes in terms of an answer to this question, so that
you can then explain to the rest of the class how the essay you have
examined maintains its focus, and presents its argument.
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the dismal science
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Sinister and Rich
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The evidence that lefties earn more.
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By Joel Waldfogel
Posted Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2006, at 12:19 PM ET
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It's well-known that many societies hold lefties in low esteem. In Christian tradition, the
devil is generally associated with the left hand; the word sinister comes from the Latin
for left, sinistra . Arabs have historically used the right hand for eating and the left for, er,
activities at the other end of the alimentary process. More scientifically, left-handedness
is related to a number of physiological conditions. Lefties have higher rates of high blood
pressure, irritable bowel syndrome, and schizophrenia.
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On the other hand, if you'll forgive the inevitable bad pun, left-handedness is also linked
with creativity. Leonardo da Vinci was a lefty, as were Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, and
Albert Einstein. Psychologists confirm that left-handedness involves different brain
function: While right-handed people seem to have better cognitive skills on average,
studies find that lefties are more common among the highly talented.
What's the economic effect of left- and right-handedness—who makes more money,
lefties or normal people? Thanks to two new studies, one from the United States and
another from the United Kingdom , we have some answers. At least as far as earnings are
concerned, lefties have been unjustly slurred—if they're men.
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There are two reasons to expect lefties to earn less, not more. About 11 percent of the
American population is left-handed (with slightly more men than women). Learning and
working in a world of machines designed for majority righties, lefties are at a
disadvantage. Tools like the screwdriver work well for both. But others, like the scissors
and the standard classroom writing desk and the electric food slicer and the band saw—
not to mention writing from left to right, with all the smudges and blackened fingers that
entails—are explicitly designed for righties. This ought to make lefties less productive .
(Hence the basis for Ned Flanders' Leftorium , the fictional store for left-handed people
on The Simpsons .) In addition, given the studies showing that lefties are more prone to
certain illnesses, they would be expected to be spend less time in productive activity and,
therefore, to earn less.
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But that's not the case. In the new U.S. study, authors Christopher S. Ruebeck of
Lafayette College and Joseph E. Harrington and Robert Moffitt of Johns Hopkins
University looked at a representative sample of 5,000 men and women in the United
States. Across the board, they found no discernible difference between the average hourly
earnings, and other characteristics, of left- and right-handed people. Both groups earned
an average of $13.20 per hour in 1993. They also had identical average intelligence
scores. The British study, by Kevin Denny of University College Dublin and Vincent
O'Sullivan of the University of Warwick, looked at about 5,000 people born in 1958 and
found modest earnings differences: 5 percent higher pay for male lefties relative to their
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right-handed counterparts and 5 percent lower pay for female lefties compared to female
righties.
What's more noteworthy is that the pay difference appears to increase with college
education. In the U.S. study, college graduates overall earned an average of 30 percent
more than high-school graduates. And after accounting for other determinants of pay—
age, intelligence, marital status, and race and ethnicity—lefties with college education
earned 10 to 15 percent more than their right-handed counterparts. (The U.K. study did
not look at the effect of college education on the earning power of lefties and righties.)
The identification of two styles of thinking may help explain why college-educated lefties
make more. Psychologist Stanley Coren defines "convergent" thinking as "a fairly
focused application of existing knowledge and rules to the task of isolating a single
correct answer." "Divergent" thinking, by contrast, "moves outward from conventional
knowledge into unexplored association." There may be an outsize number of lefty
geniuses because lefties are more likely to engage in divergent thinking. In an experiment
in which subjects devised uses for pairs of common objects, such as imagining that a
stick and a can could together be a birdhouse, lefties on average came up with nearly 30
percent more uses.
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But the tendency toward greater aptitude in divergent thinking holds only for male lefties.
Psychologists don't know why this is the case. One hypothesis concerns differing levels
of fetal testosterone. This is just a possibility: Psychologists agree that the relationship
between left- and right-handedness and brain function is still not well-understood.
Whatever its cause, though, the male lefty advantage may have an economic effect: The
boost in earnings found in the U.S. study was associated with left-handedness only for
men. The study found no systematic difference between the pay of women lefties and
women righties, regardless of education or other factors.
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These results suggest that education and an edge in divergent thinking are a potent mix
that put college-educated male lefties on top in the earnings game. Any practical
consequences? If your family's college fund runs short, you might send your lefty sons to
college and the rest of the brood to trade school. And if you're at a college mixer or
alumni reunion looking for a mate with high earning potential, you might keep an eye out
for the guy who wears his watch on his right wrist.
Joel Waldfogel is the Ehrenkranz family professor of business and public policy at the
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania .
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Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2147842/
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Copyright 2006 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC
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family
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Fear of the Deep End
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What's the best way for kids to learn to swim?
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By Emily Bazelon
Posted Thursday, Aug. 17, 2006, at 11:26 AM ET
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"You'll only build a sand castle with me if I swim to the dock?" My 6-year-old son, Eli,
asked my husband, Paul, this question a couple of weeks ago as they stood on the shore
of a Maine lake. Eli didn't sound plaintive; he wanted to make certain that he had his
facts right. Paul replied in a deliberately even tone, "No, I'm going to swim to the dock
right now and I think it would be fun for you to come. But if you don't want to, I'll build a
sand castle with you when I get back."
If this sounds all too practiced, that's because Paul has been waging a campaign to get Eli
into the water for several summers now. My husband comes from a family of avid
swimmers who revel in jumping into lakes—the colder, the more memorable. When
Paul's father tossed him into freezing water in Nova Scotia as a kid, he howled in protest,
but nonetheless considers the episode a badge of honor—baptism by ice. Eli, however,
hasn't been a bearer of this family tradition. Much of the time, he is the sort of child who
loves to please, but persuading him to put his head under water took great effort, and he's
even been skittish about playing in shallow water in which he can easily stand. During
past summers, Eli has spent vacation weekends on the sand or at the side of the pool,
keeping all but an occasional toe dry, his refusals becoming louder and firmer the more
we tried to coax him. This has led to Paul asking me uncharacteristically surly questions
about why our kid is acting like a ninny.
The struggle to get Eli to swim has taught me how much easier it is to act and feel like a
good father or mother when your child easily follows your lead. When parents talk about
their babies who sleep through the night or kindergartners who read to themselves, a note
of inevitable pleasure creeps into their voices as they explain how the child's signature
achievement is the output of their inputs. We may pretend to humility ("I mean, not that I
realized what I was doing …"). But don't be fooled. When we're proud of our kids, we're
usually sure they have us to thank. The corollary of this smugness is that if a child is
generally adept at fulfilling expectations, we wonder what we've done wrong when he or
she fails to. Watching Eli in the water, I started thinking that Paul and I shouldn't be
trying to teach him to swim ourselves. In the end, I learned, we weren't wrong to try. We
were just trying too hard.
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The American Red Cross has taken the lead on swimming instruction in this country for
nearly a century. The organization says that this is all because of one man, Commodore
Wilbert Longfellow, who saw the death toll from drowning as an impending national
tragedy and started a Red Cross lifesaving corps in 1914. During World War I, the Red
Cross taught soldiers to swim with full packs and in combat conditions. By the 1920s, the
organization had established two national institutes to train swimming instructors. The
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initial emphasis was on lifesaving and elementary swimming. That led to the step-by-step
program familiar from camp and the YMCA.
When I was a kid, you moved from "Beginner" to "Advanced Beginner" to
"Intermediate" to the hallowed designation of "Swimmer." In 1992, the Red Cross got rid
of the names—it says the progression was hard for some kids and parents to remember—
and replaced them with numbers, from Level 1 to Level 6. Kids still get a card for
completing each level, and according to my 12- and 7-year-old nephews, Zachary and
Matthew, this remains a prime motivator. The program looks like what we've failed to
develop in so many other areas of education: a national set of standards. Almost 2 million
kids participated last year. The Red Cross would like to raise that number, especially in
minority communities: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
black children drown at twice the rate of whites.
Since 1957, when the Red Cross kicked off the separate program "Teaching Johnny To
Swim," the organization has also urged parents to help their kids get used to the water.
For infants and toddlers, that involves classes that children attend with a parent (or
another adult) as well as an instructor. And the Red Cross urges the parents of older
children to spend time with their kids in the lake or the pool. The idea is that kids are
encouraged to learn to swim if they're around water often.
But when a child is ready for Level 1 instruction—depending on maturity, perhaps at age
5 or 6—the organization thinks that ideally instructors, not parents, should impart the
requisite skills. "When I taught swimming, the rule was that the parents stayed behind the
glass in the hallway," says Don Lauritzen, a Red Cross health and safety expert. "We
didn't want them creating a distraction and extra pressure by shouting out if they saw
their kid doing something incorrect."
I like to think that Paul and I would never be so unrestrained. But pushing Eli to do new
things in the water (Blow bubbles! Float!) was probably the psychological equivalent.
We'd have been better off putting him on his stomach in the bathtub, pouring water on his
head, and giving him more time to splash around there. I learned this from my sister-inlaw. Her three children have taken to swimming more easily than mine, and when I
watched their youngest, Elena, play in the tub as a baby last year, I understood why. The
Red Cross calls this "water adjustment." Elena, of course, just thinks it's fun.
What of Eli's swim to the dock on our Maine vacation? He decided to swim with Paul
that morning, but insisted on lying on top of a raft while he kicked himself across the
water. I demonstrated the kick for the breast stroke and expected him to try it; naturally,
that went nowhere. The breakthroughs began later that week: Eli swam to the dock on his
own when he got to know a bunch of kids around his age who were comfortable
swimming and wanted to go with them. A few days afterward, we hiked with his cousins
to a mountain swimming hole. The water was bragging-rights chilly: Paul leapt in. Eli
hesitated. But then Zachary and Matthew jumped. They climbed out and did it again, this
time from a higher rock. Eli watched them jump and whoop with Paul a few more times.
And then he jumped, too.
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Emily Bazelon is a Slate senior editor.
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Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2147913/
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Copyright 2006 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC
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clothes sense
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Belle Lettrism
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Thoughts on words on clothes.
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By Anne Hollander
Posted Thursday, Oct. 2, 1997, at 3:30 AM ET
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The current show at the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute concentrates on 20 th century garments bearing words, letters, and numbers in various ways. There are a few
word-bearing accessories from earlier days--garters, stockings, fans, and gloves, most
with political or erotic reference--but the clothes date mostly from the middle to the end
of this century. Nevertheless the show's punning title, "Wordrobe," appears on the wall
with the displaced "a" in flashing red neon above the first "o." Right away we're meant to
think of Hester Prynne's big scarlet A, imposed by the godly community, which she
defiantly embellished with gold thread. In so doing Hester was transgressing a second
time, because in the 17 th century, in which the novel was set (and in the 19 th , in which it
was written), wearing letters for decoration on everyday clothing was entirely
unacceptable.
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It is still disturbing, or was until very recently. Why is that? Words, letters, and numbers
on garments seem riskier than kittens, clouds, and flowers on garments, just as those
seem less natural than stripes, plaids, or checks. But what, exactly, is profaned by putting
words on clothes? Is it the garment, the person, or the words? I believe it is the writing.
The written word was accumulating its own sacred aura even before Homer and the
Bible. Ever since priests, scholars, and poets used writing to record Scripture, prayer law,
and history both exalted and prosaic, reverence for canonical writings has lent an august
power to written words themselves. And with all the weight of such a past, a certain
dread can still attach to the sight of them being frivolously used.
In the middle of this century, turning words into fashion seemed like just such a use.
Some of the designs shown at the Met reflect a serious daring; they are examples not just
of amusing invention but also of rule-breaking. Turning the cutout letters of Emily Post's
Advice to Debutantes into a debutante's dress (designed by Evans and Wong, 1996), or
knitting the preamble to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence into a
cashmere sweater (designed by Joseph Golden, 1997), or even just making a dress out of
random alphabet-lace (French, late 1920s)--all these are ways of flaunting modern
fashion's basic iconoclasm.
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After the show, I looked around the museum to see if I could find any paintings
representing people with writing on their clothes. I found only Christ and the Virgin and
the occasional saint, clad in ceremonial garments edged with golden or pearl-sewn words
from liturgy or Scripture--but these were worn only in heaven. Earthly mortals didn't
seem to have the privilege. Words or letters or numbers on your clothes set you apart as
some sort of human object, sacred like St. Anthony or shameful like Hester Prynne or
maybe useful like a team member.
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There is, in fact, an old football jersey in this show, with a big number on it. But it's
mainly there as a foil to an evening dress by Geoffrey Beene (1968) with a football
number in glittering beading. Beene has another beautiful, sleek black one with a
sequined traffic sign emblazoned across the chest, a big, shiny yellow triangle with
"yield" in black capitals (1967). Wonderful to look at--with the meaning not lost, just
transmuted, by the sequins.
More stirring is a sheer bodysuit designed by Jean Paul Gaultier in 1994 that transforms
the wearer into a living banknote, all gray-green engraved swirls and crosshatching, with
an occasional "100" at salient corners. This stretches the theme a little, since there are no
words and it isn't the reproduction of a real bill. But it works, like so much else in the
exhibition, to show how practical signs can become erotic adornments on the human
surface, depending on texture and placement. This skintight, transparent garment turns its
pattern into a tattoo, a practice alluded to by several other items here, including some
skin-colored Gaultier swim trunks that seem to cover the genitals with a tattoo saying
"Safe Sex Forever" (1997).
Monograms have a natural place in the "wordrobe," but they were not invented for
clothing. The rich and the noble used to put them on personal effects to imitate the
ancient royal habit of stamping (or embroidering or incising) the king's property with his
personal cipher. Artisans would discreetly stamp precious creations with their own
monograms in minidesigner-label mode, while giving elaborate prominence to the
client's. There are plenty of surviving cigar cases, purses, boxes, lockets, brooches,
penknives, and all kinds of tableware with small maker-monograms and large ownermonograms; and there are mountains of antique household linen with embroidered
domestic monograms.
But none of these is clothing. Putting monograms on display on garments is very recent. I
know my mother thought monogrammed blouses and bathrobes vulgar--but not
monogrammed bracelets or guest towels; from which I gather that vivid personal
monograms on clothes were new in the '30s. Once everybody got used to them in the next
generation, it was very easy to replace them with YSL and CK and the double Gs in the
following one. And those have acquired a lot more prestige than our own ever had.
Sultan Sáladin, the great 12 th -century Muslim opponent of the Crusaders, had an ornate
monogram that Mary McFadden borrowed to adorn a dignified 1993 ensemble that is on
view in this show. Of course it can't be read by those familiar with only Greek and
Roman letters; nor can all the beautiful Chinese and Japanese characters in this
exhibition, similarly reduced to abstract motifs by our inability to recognize what they
say. (It does seem unfair to love them only for their looks, as if we despised their minds.)
Unlike Judaism and Christianity, Islam has used script for sumptuous decoration of all
kinds. But the Islamic artists, like those in China and Japan, didn't forget that the
immortal soul of the word is its sense; nor that clothing, since prehistory, has made sense
without words. Arabic words appear on beautiful textiles, but not on those worn as
clothing. Similarly, Japanese calligraphy has a great artistic tradition, no less great than
that of Japanese watercolor painting or Japanese costume, and beautifully brushed poems
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may appear next to watercolor images similar to those that often appear on clothes. But
the words do not go on the garments.
It has taken modern Western fashion to make that happen. Brocade or chiffon dresses
covered in who-knows-what utterances in beautiful Chinese and Arabic script, or dresses
wittily made of paper printed with the New York Yellow Pages, all express a joyful relish
in the decay of the written word, a forthright pleasure in the way its meaning has been
draining away. Indeed, you could view this show as a carnivalesque celebration of our
growing tolerance for illiteracy.
At the end of the show is a cluster of popular sportswear with Tommy Hilfiger, Donna
Karan, Nautica, the Gap, and such names applied to it. These prove that Hester Prynne's
proud display of her A was prophetic. For with the proliferation of shifting public
signage, slogans, logos, and the lava flow of printout, the words on your clothes are now
what certify your physical existence. They put you in harmony with the rest of the
material world, as well as with the electronically written universe on the Internet. Words
are now rarely carved in stone; printed books are quickly pulped; but endless messages
flicker momentarily on screens or on this month's T-shirt. The exhibition tells us that as a
vessel of lasting sense or sacred truth, the written word may be losing ground, but that as
a source of inarticulate comfort, it has gained much.
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Anne Hollander is a regular contributor to Slate .
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Street-fashion blogs keep tabs on the world's most stylish pedestrians.
By Justin Shubow
Posted Friday, July 21, 2006, at 2:08 PM ET
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Fashionistas have long fetishized the street. Yves Saint-Laurent led the way in 1960 with
his scandalous Beat Collection, which paid tribute to the beatniks who moped around
Paris' Left Bank in motorcycle jackets, black leotards, and flats. Designers—who had
traditionally associated themselves with high culture and the beau monde—have ever
since been finding inspiration in the vulgar masses. A cynic might say that by co-opting
rather than creating trends, haute couture has been trying to defend its prestige and
authority in an increasingly anarchic fashion world, one in which the forces of ready-towear and cultural anti-elitism threaten to win the day.
Whatever the reason for fashion's obsession with the street, keeping an eye on it has
never been easy. Strolling around town is tough on the shoe leather, and only insiders
know just where to look. The print media, meanwhile, has been of little help. Fashion
editors are more likely to devote what pages they have to the fashion establishment
(which pays for advertising) than to nameless but chic pedestrians (who don't).
Until now, the best-known exception has been the Sunday New York Times , which for
more than 10 years has been running—at a small size, on lackluster newsprint in the Style
section—Bill Cunningham's candid shots of stylish New Yorkers. But an exciting new
development is making it easier than ever to follow the look of the man (and woman) on
the street. Made possible by faster Internet access and cheaper digital photography, streetfashion blogs have sprung up all over the world, and they are quickly proliferating.
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The best of these sites capture the joys of people-watching and offer an experience that's
more like lounging on a park bench than flipping through a fashion magazine. For one
thing, the blogs aren't label-conscious: Few identify the brands worn, and not one
mentions the prices paid. Their subjects also tend to be dressed casually, with few
business suits or cocktail outfits in sight. Even better, many of the subjects are actually
smiling—quite a faux pas in the fashion world, which still demands the scornful, stricken
look that traces back to Lord Byron . But the sites do share at least one trait with fashion
glossies: Most feature photos of young hipsters taken by young hipsters, with few
ordinary Joes or dowdy seniors on display.
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The photography in the blogs usually consists of straight-on, full-length portraits, but a
few include some candid photojournalism. Unlike New York magazine's misanthropic
" Look Book "—which uses low camera angles that, intentionally or not, make its
subjects look like snobs with upturned noses—the sites try to portray people in a
flattering or at least neutral light. Anti-elitist and upbeat in tone, they tend to inspire
appreciation or emulation rather than envy. Refreshingly, those that include comments
from readers or the editors usually avoid the cattiness found in celebrity fashion blogs
like Go Fug Yourself .
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Each site has its own distinctive look and feel, as determined by the taste and skill of its
editors and photographers (usually one person holds both jobs). In some, such as London
Street Fashion , the subjects pose self-consciously, while in others, such as Stockholm's
STHLMstil , they stand naturally and without pretensions. StilinBerlin prefers ordinary
people in mundane garb, whereas Shanghai's Meet Cute concentrates on teenage b-boys
and flygirls. On the amateurishly homey side, there is Singapore's the Clothes Project ,
which contrasts with the slick production of Tokyo Street Style . Emphasizing the
individual over his or her attire, Paris' Facehunter puts decadent scenesters on display,
and significantly it is the only one to sexualize its subjects, who sometimes pose
provocatively . As of yet, there are no street blogs from Italy, which is surprising given
that country's ties to the fashion world. It's not a shock, though, not to find any from Los
Angeles—after all, more attention is paid to public attire in pedestrian-friendly cities,
which offer the most opportunities to see and be seen.
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Upon surveying the blogs, it's tempting to generalize about the state of fashion around the
world. At the very least, these sites demonstrate that the shoulder-bagged urban hipster
will fit in wherever he travels. And this photo suggests that the plague of "high idiocy"
T-shirts, which sport ironically dumb slogans like "Your retarded," has spread as far as
Singapore. Likewise, someone looking for local trends might conclude that Stockholmers
are fond of cheery , almost primary colors , that Berliners prefer knee-length skirts and
sundresses to trousers, and that Muscovites love busy patterns . One must be careful
not to extrapolate too much, however. Not being documentarians or anthropologists, the
editors end up revealing their own taste more than that of their locales.
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Some of the editors prove to be unusually adept at capturing a particular aesthetic. For
instance, Helsinki's Hel-Looks , whose subjects always appear strikingly in sharp focus
against a blurry background, has recently been concentrating on trends in platform
boots , horizontally striped stockings (sometimes mismatched ), and the style known in
Japan as " elegant Gothic Lolita ," which is a morbid take on Victorian doll dresses.
Appropriately enough, it has also been offering plentiful examples of the Scandinavian
look of combining highly disparate items that nonetheless work together.
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But the standout street-fashion blog is far and away New York's the Sartorialist . Unlike
nearly all of the others, it concerns itself more with adult elegance than adolescent
faddishness, and its subjects range from elderly Harlem popinjays to chic ladies on
bicycles . Paying special attention to fine men's clothing, it shows how even a fat , bald
guy can look dashing when clad in an impeccable suit and tie.
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Helmed by Scott Schuman, a former showroom owner who used to work for Valentino,
the Sartorialist has attracted a large and influential audience (averaging 7,000 visits per
day) that includes a number of industry insiders. The comments posted by Schuman and
his sophisticated readership can offer quite an education to the unschooled eye. It is
possible, for instance, to learn the pros and cons of "freelancing" socks as well as how to
spot Italians by the length of their neckties. The best remarks, which reveal how
clotheshorses obsessively and discerningly judge others, bring to mind the example of
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Beau Brummell, the 19 th -century dandy who famously used to lounge in front of the bow
window of a London gentlemen's club while criticizing the dress of passers-by.
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Schuman's blog has now become so well-known that he was recently asked to cover
men's Fashion Week in Milan for Men.Style.Com , and Esquire will soon devote some
space each month to his work. In October he will receive an even greater honor: Saks
Fifth Avenue will be showcasing the Sartorialist's photos in its landmark display
windows.
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It is, of course, no surprise that the fashion industry has already begun to use streetfashion blogs for its own commercial purposes—indeed, the Marxist social critic Walter
Benjamin once accused the flâneur of being a "spy for the capitalists, on assignment in
the realm of consumers." But ultimately these blogs should strengthen the leveling and
decentralizing forces that continue to dismantle the once dominant fashion pyramid. The
time is long past when a few couturiers could dictate international style from the heights
of Paris. Thanks to the growing popularity of this new medium, it seems likely that a
leaderless multitude will increasingly influence fashion from the ground—or rather,
pavement—up.
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Justin Shubow is a student at Yale Law School.
Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2146220/
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Shrinks in the Dugout
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Sports psychology is more popular than ever. But does it really work?
By Daniel Engber
Updated Friday, July 28, 2006, at 5:43 PM ET
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Last weekend, it seemed like Alex Rodriguez had lost his mind. "He is spooked," wrote
ESPN.com's Buster Olney after a dreadful stretch in which A-Rod made five throwing
errors and went hitless in 10 straight at-bats. Rodriguez insisted that everything was fine :
"That's life, we're human beings," he said. "I wish we were perfect. But I feel very
comfortable and very confident." His daily affirmation seemed to do the trick. He had
two base hits on Monday, another two on Wednesday, and he's been flawless in the field
all week.
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This wasn't the first time we'd heard therapy-speak from A-Rod. Last May, he declared
that professional psychology helped him overcome a tough first season in New York.
" It's helped in baseball , for one, in terms of my approach to everything," he said. While
some of A-Rod's therapy has focused on abandonment issues and childhood trauma, his
professional colleagues have grown increasingly enamored of sport-focused " mental
training " regimens that promise optimized performance and easier entry into a " flow
state ." A psychological-skills coach will teach a slumping player to use mental imagery
to visualize success. Or he'll suggest various methods of arousal control, like affirmative
"self-talk" that can help him psych up for crucial situations, stuff like, "Stay on target!"
and, "I can do this!"
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Can sports psychologists really help the best players in the game play even better?
Nobody really knows. Despite all the scientific-sounding rhetoric, applied sport
psychology remains a qualitative science—more of an art form than a rigorous clinical
practice. It's not clear if mental training improves performance on the field; what
evidence we do have relies more on personal anecdotes than hard data.
The fact that baseball shrinks can't back up their work with numbers is at odds with the
trend toward rational decision-making among baseball managers. Egghead GMs like
Billy Beane and Theo Epstein have revolutionized the sport by using objective measures
to build their teams. You might expect this new breed of executives to demand the same
rigor from their psychologists.
In fact, a mental-skills coach can build a baseball career from a few dramatic success
stories rather than worrying about consistent statistical results. Jack Llewellyn became a
famous baseball shrink by getting credit for turning around a young John Smoltz. The
pitcher started the 1991 season 2-11; after working with Llewellyn, he went 12-2. Since
then, Llewellyn has had steady employment with the Braves, and the team has made the
playoffs 14 straight times. Llewellyn has had success with other players, but he can't
prove that his interventions always work—some clients boost their stats, and others don't.
Besides, manager Bobby Cox and pitching coach Leo Mazzone were around for those
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playoff appearances, too. Could Llewellyn simply have been at the right place at the right
time?
Prominent sports psychologists get praised for their successes and don't get grief for their
failures. Harvey Dorfman made his career by helping out the Oakland A's during their
1980s glory years. But Dorfman couldn't save the career of Rick Ankiel, the Cardinals
phenom who stopped throwing strikes after his rookie season. The self-trained hypnotist
Harvey Misel assembled a roster of 200 major-league clients thanks to his work with Hall
of Famer Rod Carew. But Misel couldn't do much for Jim Eisenreich: "He helped me
relax while I was sitting in a chair, but that has nothing to do with playing ball."
Misel has a simple explanation for these less-impressive case studies. "We're only as
good as the people we work with," he told the Los Angeles Times . "The talent has to be
there." Other sports psychologists chalk up failure to players who won't stick with the
program. It's a reasonable premise—you can't expect to see results if your client lacks
ability or motivation. But from a scientific perspective, it's a sham. If you just write off
negative results, how do you know your intervention does anything at all?
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University researchers have made this point for years. Back in 1989, leading sports
psychologist Ronald Smith argued that his field had entered an "age of accountability," in
which objective measures of success should guide clinical practice. Seventeen years later,
little progress has been made. A few recent papers are typical of the current state of
research: Five college students improved their three-point shooting after hypnosis
training, four amateur golfers improved their chip shots with imagery practice, and a
couple of girls improved their soccer shooting with "self-talk." According to Robert
Weinberg , longtime editor of the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology , there are plenty
of studies showing some correlation between psychological interventions and improved
performance, but relatively few that demonstrate a convincing causal link.
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Practicing mental trainers claim that it's almost impossible to measure success using onfield statistics. A batter could take four good swings, they argue, and still go 0 for 4. A
pitcher who lowers his ERA might have benefited from "mental reps," or he might have
fixed his delivery thanks to conventional coaching. Instead, they argue, success should be
measured by the players themselves. (The academics call this a "qualitative analysis.") If
John Smoltz says Llewellyn turned his career around, then Llewellyn turned his career
around. Why shouldn't we believe A-Rod when he says therapy helps him through his
slumps?
In fact, we have every reason to doubt the testimony of professional athletes. Baseball
players in particular are notorious for ascribing their success to inane rituals, astrological
signs, and other hokum. Wade Boggs used to eat chicken before every game. If Boggs
says that eating drumsticks helped him get hits, should we believe him, too?
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The distinction between superstition and sport psychology turns out to be rather narrow.
Mental trainers push their clients to develop systematic "preperformance routines,"
including relaxation breaths, focusing exercises, and self-talk. But what's the difference
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between a psychological routine and a mystical one? When Nomar Garciaparra refastens
his batting gloves between every pitch, is it a preperformance routine or a superstition?
What about when Dirk Nowitzki sings David Hasselhoff tunes before he shoots free
throws?
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Sport psychologists would argue that Nowitzki and Garciaparra are using cognitive
strategies. Their rituals make them feel more comfortable, which in turn helps them
perform. But if it all comes down to feeling comfortable, then you'll get good results as
long as you think your ritual will work. It doesn't matter if you're using focused mental
imagery or humming " Do the Limbo Dance ."
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Given the power of the placebo effect , it's no surprise that mental trainers say their
interventions only work when a player "buys in" to what they're selling. Sport
psychologists can be effective in part because they put a scientific imprimatur on the
rituals they promote. A player might feel more comfortable if he thinks there's a scientific
basis for him to shout, "Stay on target!"
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A sport psychologist would be worth a lot of money if he could give players a genuine
competitive advantage. Perhaps mental imagery and self-talk really do work better than
superstitious fiddling. It wouldn't be impossible to find out. Full-on experiments—with
players assigned to different treatment groups—would yield the best data, but even that
level of rigor isn't necessary. Mental trainers could learn a lot just by keeping careful logs
of all their cases, with statistical outcomes for each player.
No one asks the baseball shrinks for these data. If a player's happy, then his team is
happy, and everyone calls the intervention a success. Does A-Rod think his therapy
works? Sure. Right now, that's all we have to go on.
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Daniel Engber is a regular contributor to Slate . He can be reached at
danengber@yahoo.com .
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Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2146635/
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Tour de Farce
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Floyd Landis' positive test shows why drug testing will never work.
By Brian Alexander
Posted Thursday, July 27, 2006, at 6:46 PM ET
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Like much of the rest of the world, I was thrilled by Floyd Landis' startling comeback in
Stage 17 of the Tour de France. But since I write about doping and sports , I've learned to
be suspicious of miracles. The real tragedy of doping is the way it tarnishes everything
and everybody and forbids us from giving in to the wonder of sports. And now the news
comes out that Floyd Landis tested positive for high testosterone levels following that
very same miracle stage. There is a disheartening feeling of inevitability about the whole
thing.
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It is certainly possible that Landis did nothing wrong. The test the Tour de France uses
for testosterone does not actually detect the use of a drug; it detects a ratio of testosterone
to another hormone called epitestosterone. There are vagaries, the science can be
imprecise, and it is known that massive athletic effort can fog the test. Innocent until
proven guilty and all that.
Regardless of Landis' fate, this episode, and the banning of a group of top riders before
this year's Tour began, illustrates why the current system of doping detection and
"justice" does not work. The main reason why it doesn't work is that the world, and
especially the American sports consuming public, is not ready to embrace the changes
necessary to leech drugs from sports. Sure, Congress holds hearings on steroid use in
baseball. Sports officials make earnest statements, and athletes decry those among them
who dope. Fans and editorial writers demand action. But do they realize what they are
asking for?
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That the current testing regimen does not work to prevent doping is painfully obvious.
True enough, Landis' "A" sample—the first of two needed to confirm that he broke the
rules—turned up positive. So, you could argue that the testing worked in this case. But if
his testosterone was low, what does that mean about the value of the test? You might
point to Tyler Hamilton, who was caught using somebody else's blood to boost his own
endurance by a new test that detects foreign blood cells. He was banned for two years,
sure. But how long had he been using that technique before he was found out by a brand
new procedure? Cyclists are always figuring out new ways to dope, and the testers will
always be playing catch-up. For example, there is still no urine test for human growth
hormone, a commonly used performance booster. There's also no test for a new drug
called Increlex , which gives athletes more insulinlike growth factor 1—a protein that
does essentially the same thing as growth hormone.
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If a test won't stop doping, what will? The biggest crackdowns of recent times have been
the result of law enforcement action, not testing. The BALCO case blew up because the
feds started investigating the BALCO lab and because a track coach, Trevor Graham,
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blew the whistle by sending a syringe of a previously undetectable steroid to testing
authorities. The scandal that wiped out the cream of this year's Tour crop was the result
of an investigation by Spanish police. During the last Winter Olympics in Italy, the
Italian police raided the quarters of the Austrian ski team. Nobody tested positive in
either the Spanish or the Austrian scandals.
When cyclists and track athletes get caught doping these days, their punishment gets
meted out by the World Anti-Doping Agency. This odd parallel justice system is not fair
to athletes, science, and sports consumers. In order to stamp out doping, WADA must be
backed by real law enforcement.
Italy has already taken a step in that direction. Athletes there could face jail for "fraud"—
competing under false pretenses. The Italian government treats doping as a criminal
matter, not something to be dealt with from the cosseted confines of sports. Now, a doper
must weigh the potential for enormous wealth and prestige that a victory would bring
against the possibility of a temporary ban from competition for a first offense. In the
Italian model, he must also weigh a stint behind bars or a substantial financial penalty.
We are faced, then, with a proposal to criminalize sports doping. There would be raids by
the feds, trials, and law enforcement resources burned in the pursuit of multi-millionaire
druggies. I'm not so sure we have the stomach for this. Barry Bonds is still a hero in San
Francisco. There are no boycotts of Giants games. And remember that if Bonds goes
down, it will be for perjury or tax evasion—none of the athletes involved in the BALCO
case will ever see jail time for taking performance-enhancing drugs.
Major League Baseball insists that it is taking care of its own drug problems, and the
sports-consuming public seems content to believe it. Only aficionados can recall who was
banned from track and field because of the BALCO case. Lance Armstrong, who has
struggled through years of accusations but has never officially tested positive for
performance-enhancing drugs, remains an American icon. And if it would be hard to
muster support for a federal justice role here, think about the difficulty of mounting an
international effort. Just imagine the outcry the first time French police pick up a star
American tennis player during the French Open.
This is what American consumers have to ask themselves: If we really want doping to
stop, we have to be prepared to see our heroes do hard time. Do we care that much?
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Brian Alexander writes about drugs and sports for Outside magazine .
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Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2146630/
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From: Seth Stevenson
Subject: Step 5: Actually Liking Stuff
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Click for today's slide show.
In the mid-1970s, famed author V.S. Naipaul (of Indian descent but raised in Trinidad)
came to India to survey the land and record his impressions. The result is a hilariously
grouchy book titled India: A Wounded Civilization . Really, he should have just titled it
India: Allow Me To Bitch at You for 161 Pages .
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I hear you, V.S.—this place has its problems. As you point out, many of them result from
the ravages of colonialism … and some are just India's own damn fault. Still, I've found a
lot to love about this place. For instance:
1) I love cricket. The passion for cricket is infectious. When I first got here, the sport was
an utter mystery to me, but now I've hopped on the cricket bandwagon, big time. I've got
the rules down, I've become a discerning spectator, and I've settled on a favorite player
(spin bowler Harbhajan Singh, known as "The Turbanator"—because he wears a turban).
I've even eaten twice at Tendulkar's, a Mumbai restaurant owned by legendary cricketer
Sachin Tendulkar. Fun fact: Sachin Tendulkar's nicknames include "The Master Blaster"
(honoring his prowess as a batsman), "The Maestro of Mumbai" (he's a native), and "The
Little Champion" (he's wicked short). His restaurant here looks exactly like a reverseengineered Michael Jordan's Steak House. Instead of a glass case with autographed Air
Jordans, there is a glass case with an autographed cricket bat.
And in what could turn out to be a dangerous habit, I've begun going to Mumbai sports
bars to watch all-day cricket matches. These last like seven hours. That is a frightening
amount of beer and chicken wings.
2) I love the Indian head waggle. It's a fantastic bit of body language, and I'm trying to
add it to my repertoire. The head waggle says, in a uniquely unenthusiastic way, "OK,
that's fine." In terms of Western gestures, its meaning is somewhere between the nod
(though less affirmative) and the shrug (though not quite as neutral).
To perform the head waggle, keep your shoulders perfectly still, hold your face
completely expressionless, and tilt your head side-to-side, metronome style. Make it
smooth—like you're a bobble-head doll. It's not easy. Believe me, I've been practicing.
3) I love how Indians are unflappable. Nothing—I mean nothing —seems to faze them in
the least. If you live here, I suppose you've seen your fair share of
crazy/horrid/miraculous/incomprehensible/mind-blowing stuff, and it's impractical to get
too worked up over anything, good or bad.
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(This is a trait I admire in the Dutch, as well. They don't blink when some college kid
tripping on mushrooms decides to leap naked into an Amsterdam canal. Likewise, were
there a dead, limbless child in the canal … an Indian person might not blink. Though he
might offer a head waggle.)
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4) I love how they dote on children here. (I'm not talking about dead, limbless children
anymore, I'm being serious now.) At our beach resort in Goa, there were all these
bourgeois Indian folks down from Mumbai on vacation. These parents spoiled their
children rotten in a manner that was quite charming to see. In no other country have I
seen kids so obviously cherished, indulged, and loved. It's fantastic. Perhaps my favorite
thing on television (other than cricket matches) has been a quiz show called India's
Smartest Child , because I can tell the entire country derives great joy from putting these
terrifyingly erudite children on display.
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5) I love that this is a billion -person democracy. That is insane. Somehow the Tibetan
Buddhists of Ladakh, the IT workers of Bangalore, the downtrodden poor of Bihar, and
the Bollywood stars of Mumbai all fit together under this single, ramshackle umbrella.
It's astonishing and commendable that anyone would even attempt to pull this off.
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6) I love the chaos (when I don't hate it). Mumbai is a city of 18 million people—all of
whom appear to be on the same block of sidewalk as you. If you enjoy the stimulation
overload of a Manhattan or a Tokyo but prefer much less wealth and infrastructure …
this is your spot. (Our friend Rishi, who we've been traveling with, has a related but
slightly different take: "It's like New York, if everyone in New York was Indian! How
great is that!") And whatever else you may feel, Mumbai will force you to consider your
tiny place within humanity and the universe. That's healthy.
There's more good stuff I'm forgetting, but enough love for now. Let's not go overboard.
As they say in really lame travel writing: India is a land of contradictions. A lot of things
to like and a lot of things (perhaps two to three times as many things) to hate.
It's the spinach of travel destinations—you may not always (or ever) enjoy it, but it's
probably good for you. In the final reckoning, am I glad that I came here? Oh, absolutely.
It's been humbling. It's been edifying. It's been, on several occasions, quite wondrous. It's
even been fun, when it hasn't been miserable.
That said, am I ready to leave? Sweet mercy, yes.
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Seth Stevenson is a frequent contributor to Slate .
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SUVs for Hippies?
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Hummer courts the tofu set.
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By Seth Stevenson
Posted Monday, Aug. 14, 2006, at 11:43 AM ET
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The Spot : A man waits in the checkout line at the supermarket. He's buying organic tofu
and leafy vegetables. Meanwhile, the guy in line behind him is stacking up huge racks of
meat and barbecue fixings. Tofu guy, looking a bit insecure, suddenly notices an ad for
the Hummer H3 SUV. Eureka! In a series of quick cuts, he exits the supermarket, goes to
the Hummer dealership, buys a new H3, and drives off—now happily munching on a
large carrot. "Restore the balance," reads the tag line. (To see the ad, click here , then
click "Enter Hummer.com," then click "Hummer World," then "TV Commercials," then
"Tofu.")
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Each new generation of Hummer has been smaller and cheaper than the last. Remember
the original Hummer made available to consumers? Launched in 1992, during the height
of Gulf War patriotism, the $140,000, five-ton Hummer H1 was discontinued this June
because of poor sales. The absurd H1 begat, in 2002, the slightly less massive H2 (which
is still available). Last spring, Hummer scaled things down yet again, introducing the new
H3—a $30,000, relatively sanely sized SUV.
While the vehicles have grown less imposing over time, the brand's reputation hasn't
quite kept pace. According to Hummer spokeswoman Dayna Hart, there was a sense
among Hummer's marketing brain trust that the brand felt "expensive, too big, and out of
reach" for many consumers. What's more, recent Hummer ads have been a little lofty:
They've featured cool visuals of the trucks romping through dramatic landscapes but have
lacked everyday scenes of people enjoying their Hummers.
Enter this new H3 ad, which tries to make the brand feel a bit less intimidating. It shows
an ordinary dude (and not, say, Arnold Schwarzenegger) going to a Hummer dealership,
making a purchase, and driving out in a new truck. Which may seem basic, but showing
the transaction (and portraying it as lightning-quick and painless—the guy points at a
Hummer on the showroom floor, and a moment later he's the proud owner) helps make
the H3 seem more like a realistic option and less like a blingtastic pipe dream. And the
text that appears at the end of the ad touts the truck's 20-miles-per-gallon performance
and its $29,500 price tag, which further drags the brand back toward the sphere of
affordability and normalcy.
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Hart says the spot aims to make the H3 a more "approachable vehicle that will appeal to
introverts, extroverts, vegans, and carnivores." She's right that we wouldn't expect a tofu
eater to buy a Hummer. But at the same time, the spot reinforces the central, classic
stereotype about Hummer drivers: They buy big cars because they have small … egos.
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It's stunning how enthusiastically the ad embraces this idea. The entire plot is based on it:
A guy feels wimpy because another guy saw him buying tofu, so he dashes out and buys
a Hummer to feel better about himself. The original tag line of the ad was in fact "Restore
your manhood." Hart says people called in to complain ("The whole idea of manhood and
virility is a touchy subject," she points out, "especially for men"), so, after two weeks on
the air, the ad was recut with the line changed to the slightly more ambiguous "Restore
the balance."
Toned-down tag line or not, I can't believe this is an effective way to sell Hummers. I
imagine current Hummer owners are already tired of fending off accusations that their
vehicle is meant to make up for other shortcomings. Do they really want this notion
propagated by Hummer itself? Won't this ad sour them on the company and lead them to
buy a different truck next time? And what prospective buyer will be swayed by an ad that
explicitly suggests this truck's purpose is to compensate for inadequacies? How is that a
positive brand image? I thought the whole idea with Hummers is that their superior
capabilities (climbing steep inclines, muscling over tough roads) lend you street cred (or
off-street cred, I suppose) as the dude with the baddest beast in town. This ad has it
backward, eschewing all the performance hype and instead suggesting that the Hummer
is best employed as an image enhancer for wussy tofu hippies.
A second, similar spot—with a woman in the lead role—is no better. This time, the scene
is a playground, and the woman is standing alongside her son when another boy cuts
them in line for the slide. "I'm sorry, Jake was next," she says politely. "Yeah, well, we're
next now," replies the other kid's mom with a scowl. Once again, our wounded
protagonist races straight to a Hummer dealer and drives off with a truck seconds later.
The tag line this time: "Get your girl on." Interestingly, no one seems to have complained
about this take on femininity. But one of my readers suggests the message is this: "Even
women can have tiny dicks, and the Hummer is the cure."
Grade: C-. According to Hart, it was easy to swap out that "Restore your manhood" tag
line. Simply a matter of recutting the ad and then redistributing it to television stations.
Apparently, this sort of thing happens all the time—often in response to viewer
complaints—and is known as a "re-edit." So, if you see an ad that suddenly looks or
sounds different than you remembered it, you might not be imagining things.
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Send your recollections of awkward or embarrassing "re-edits" to
adreportcard@slate.com . I'll try to confirm these with the advertisers, find out why the
edits were made, and get back to you down the line with a special "Re-edits Edition" of
Ad Report Card.
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Seth Stevenson is a frequent contributor to Slate .
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Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2147657/
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The Myth of the Living-Room PC
Why you don't have an Apple iTV.
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By Paul Boutin
Posted Monday, Aug. 7, 2006, at 5:25 PM ET
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Moments before Steve Jobs took the wraps off his supercharged new Macs in San
Francisco today, he took a minute to talk up the company's recent successes. As numbers
flashed on the big screen behind him, Jobs reviewed the latest stats on his retail stores.
But the one thing I wanted to see hard data on was conspicuously absent from Jobs'
keynote. It's been nearly a year since Apple added downloadable videos and a couchsurfing remote to its lineup. How are those doing, Steve? One more question: How come
none of my Apple-loving geek buddies have Macs in their living rooms?
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It's not just Apple that's failed to invade the living room. Computer makers have been
trying to find space next to the couch for years, but so far all of these attacks have been
repulsed. In January, Intel launched a huge marketing program for an ambitious PCmeets-TV brand called Viiv . Instead of a keyboard and mouse, you'd control Viiv from
the sofa with a remote control. You'd download movies on demand, subscribe to TV
shows, search clips by keywords, and create a personalized, self-updating video
collection to watch whenever and wherever you want. This was the convergence of DVD,
iTunes, YouTube, and IMDb—couch potato heaven!
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At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Bill Gates, Yahoo CEO Terry Semel,
and Tom Hanks took the stage to shill for these über-consoles, "available today starting
under $900." Viiv, promised the showmen, would download and play a mind-boggling
collection of video. I eagerly arranged for a loaner from Dell and typed up a gushing
preview for BusinessWeek . My Viiv never arrived. The few reviewers who got one were
stumped by the lack of new features on their test units. Seven months after Viiv's launch,
it seems what happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas: Dell's big rollout never happened, and
the rumor that Apple was launching a 50-inch plasma-screen Viiv turned out to be pure
baloney. This weekend, I found one lonely HP with a Viiv sticker at my local Best Buy.
The new HP flyer in my mailbox doesn't mention Viiv at all.
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What happened here? Tech pundits say Intel botched their TV debut by pushing
technology that wasn't ready. Still, if the living-room PC is such a great idea, why hasn't
the Viiv void been filled with better alternatives?
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My theory is that PC-TV hybrid products like Viiv aim for a sweet spot that doesn't exist.
Very savvy consumers will hack together these setups themselves. The less savvy will
just keep their TVs and computers separate. And the folks in the middle? If they're
around, nobody's found them yet.
If people actually wanted Viiv-like products, there'd be a lot more do-it-yourself versions
while we're waiting for Intel. If the problem were a lack of software, there'd be plenty of
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open-source projects by impatient hackers—that's how we got Napster and BitTorrent.
But the geeks seem uninterested. Where are the obsessive bloggers? The forum feuds?
The amateur meetups? Show me any truly hot technology, and I'll show you 100,000
guys who can't wait to tell you about it. Has anyone bored you to death talking about
their Media Center PC lately?
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You could argue that living-room PCs have simply yet to grow powerful and affordable
enough for the mass market. I asked Harry McCracken, the gadget hound who edits PC
World , what he thought of that notion. He dryly handed me a 1992 magazine whose
cover depicted Indiana Jones on a PC monitor. "Multimedia Magic with Full PC Power
TODAY!" the mag exulted. That could be a Viiv ad from seven months ago. We've had
the hardware to make some sort of PC-driven TV console for at least 20 years. With the
help of a simple adapter, you can see anything on your living-room screen that you can
see on your PC. Today's computers have the power for HD resolution, high-bandwidth
downloads, and house-wide networking. So, why hasn't the Great Convergence
happened?
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McCracken says most homes are consolidating around a two-hub model. A PC (or Mac)
with some multimedia features anchors the home office, while a TV with some
computerized gear—think TiVo, not desktop computer—owns the living room. Tech
marketers talk about the " 2-foot interface " of the PC versus the "10-foot interface" of the
TV. When you use a computer, you want to lean forward and engage with the thing,
typing and clicking and multitasking. When you watch Lost , you want to sit back and put
your feet up on the couch. My tech-savvy friends who can afford anything they want set
up a huge HDTV with TiVo, cable, and DVD players—then sit in front of it with a laptop
on their knees. They use Google and AIM while watching TV, but they keep their 2-foot
and 10-foot gadgets separate.
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It makes sense that Apple pays lip service to convergence, but a dedicated product—even
a gorgeous, one-button iTV—would fall flat. In theory, TVs and PCs were supposed to
converge and spawn one hybrid media device. In practice, they touch on the couch
without breeding. TiVo buffs up your TV with PC-style software that ends the pain of
VCR programming. YouTube delivers a searchable trove of instant-play clips to your
computer screen. But when you plunk down on the couch to relax, you probably don't
want to search YouTube with a remote wand.
Computer companies should ignore what people claim they want and watch what they
actually do. We want the best of both worlds while still keeping them separate. I'm pretty
stoked about that buffed-up new Mac. It'll be a great way to watch movies … at my desk.
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Wired , and Engadget .
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Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2147258/
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Copyright 2006 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC
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August 14, 2006
Ethicists say selling live lobsters is cruel. Are oysters next?
Could the Whole Foods lobsters-feel-pain ruling dampen our lust for oyster murder?
ANNE KINGSTON
It was in jest that Bertrand Russell uttered his famous quip about animal rights: "Where will it
end?" he asked. "Votes for oysters?" But, today, the British philosopher deserves points for
prescience: the latest frontier of ethical dining is aquatic, with talk of fish pain thresholds,
caught fish smothering to death, even oyster quality of life. Last month, Whole Foods threw
down the gauntlet on the "do-lobsters-feel-pain?" debate, announcing it would no longer sell
live lobsters because it could not guarantee humane treatment on their journey from sea to
table. The food blogosphere reacted quickly. "Where will it end?" one poster griped. "A
yogourt liberation league, protecting the rights of bacteria?" Chef and author Michael
Ruhlman vented on megnut. com: "No more salmon roe! Think of all those unborn salmon
you're smearing on your toast and dotting on your blini! All the good salmon deeds that will
remain undone!"
Sparking the most vitriol, though, were reports Whole Foods Market was zeroing in on
treatment of clams and oysters. Company spokeswoman Kate Klotz clarifies the confusion:
"Whole Foods is examining the treatment of crawfish and Dungeness crabs, and has no
plans to review oysters," she says. "But we can't say for certain we won't."
Such are the vagaries of ethical dining: even an insentient mollusk isn't an open and
shucked case. But suggesting the oyster belongs in the campaign to improve the living -and killing -- conditions of the animals we eat, as ridiculous as it seems, does offer
perspective. For oysters don't permit any pretence of "humane slaughter" such as that
promised by Whole Foods's revised lobster policy. (It now sells the crustaceans precooked
and frozen, serene in the knowledge that they lived their last days in individual "lobster
condos" -- they prefer solitude, studies say -- before being shocked to death in a highpressure water chamber that provides a more "humane" demise than being boiled alive or
having a knife thrust through their tiny skulls.)
The oyster's slaughter, on the other hand, is unapologetically human: a squeeze of lemon, a
shaving of horseradish, a slurp and the deed is done. In Consider the Oyster, M.F.K.
Fisher's appreciation of the most prized of mollusks, she observes that man is the oyster's
greatest enemy because "he protects her from the others only to eat her for himself."
The killer's conscience is salved, if need be, by the fact the briny bivalve is eaten "raw"
rather than "live." That and the fact that though oysters are wondrous creatures, transmuting
from male to female throughout their lives, they defy anthropomorphism; unlike lobsters
thrashing in what we assume must be pain, they submit to the shucker's knife with
preternatural calm. True, shellfish activists could mount the case that oysters shutting
themselves so tightly out of water suggests a will to live. Or they could present as de facto
evidence Lewis Carroll's timeless tale of seafood abuse, "The Walrus and the Carpenter," in
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which trusting oysters are tricked into becoming dinner. Then there is oysters' newly
discovered cultural significance to ponder as revealed in The Big Oyster: History on the Half
Shell. In it, Mark Kurlansky chronicles the mollusks' defining influence on the economy,
gastronomy and ecology of New York City. Perhaps they're now too important to eat.
Considering the oyster too closely, obviously, blurs perspective. "People don't know how to
think about this," says Ruhlman. "Oysters are not people; they don't feel pain; there's no
consciousness." He believes preoccupation with treatment of luxuries such as lobster and
foie gras-producing ducks has taken focus off factory farming where the greatest abuses
take place. "My definition of humane treatment is to let animals live according to the way
they are built, not according to agri-businesses' law of cost-efficiencies," he says.
Rodney Clark, the founder of Rodney's Oyster House in Toronto, laughs at the suggestion
oysters could be subject to inhumane treatment. "I've never heard one complain," he says.
"The farmed oyster is a manageable, renewable mollusk, monitored for safety." He believes
that there are more important campaigns to fight, such as the corporatization of the fishing
industry. The second-generation oyster purveyor does practise seafood ethics, however,
refusing to serve wild shrimp or endangered fish like Chilean sea bass. "It's a desecration of
nature," he says. He too wonders where it will end. "Cruelty to cut lettuce?" he suggests.
That's a joke, for now.
To comment, email letters@macleans.ca
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Copyright by Rogers Media Inc.
May not be reprinted or republished without permission .
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This story can be found at:
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/life/article.jsp?content=20060814_131691_131691
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July 25, 2006
Breakup blast
Rejection can trigger a brain 'primed to do something dangerous'
CELIA MILNE
What went on in Frank Mailly's brain before he killed his estranged wife, himself and their
three children in a fit of rage and possessiveness? While Mailly may have been abusive
and controlling toward his wife for years, what put him over the edge was her insistence
that their marriage was over. On April 2, 2006, he burned his farmhouse to the ground,
taking all five lives.
What snapped in Marc Daniel's brain to make him stab his ex-girlfriend Lori Dupont to
death? Dupont had broken up with Daniel, but he had continued to pursue her
obsessively. Nine months after the breakup, on Nov. 12, 2005, he attacked and killed her
at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor, Ont., where they both worked. He then took an
overdose of drugs, and died a few days later.
New research in brain chemistry provides insight into two of Canada's most recent and
gruesome cases of domestic murder. Helen Fisher, a research professor in the
anthropology department at Rutgers University in New York, believes love is an
addiction, and being rejected is like going through a chemical withdrawal. Seeking to find
the chemical basis for the mania of love -- for feelings such as longing, euphoria, despair
and pining -- she has used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the
brains of people happily in love. Her scientific explorations of love and a nasty personal
breakup led her into the realm of rejection, and what happens in the brain when
someone is dumped.
Brain scans on 10 women and five men who were in love but had recently been rejected.
While in the fMRI machine, they were shown a picture of their ex-lover. "Being rejected
activates one of the most powerful brain systems on earth," she found. "Romantic
rejection is so lethal. Not only lethal to the individual and family members, but also
society."
Rejected lovers showed greater activity in an area of the brain called the nucleus
accumbens. This region is associated with risk-taking, gambling, focused attention on a
person, and motivation to win. "When someone is lying in the MRI machine looking at a
picture of the person who rejected them, those brain centres suck up blood because they
are working harder. When you look at the brain slice by slice, some parts don't look any
different, such as the area for smell or rhyming words," explains Fisher, author of four
books on the chemistry of love.
Fisher's team also found activity in the anterior insular cortex, which is associated with
pain in skin and muscles, and the lateral orbital frontal cortex, a region linked to
controlling anger, obsessive-compulsive behaviour, and ruminations on the intentions
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and actions of others. "Add it all up and you've got a brain that's primed to do something
dangerous," she says. "This work leads us to understand more clearly the science of
addiction. It helps us understand more about stalking and homicidal rages."
Her advice? "When someone says, 'My wife is leaving me,' you've got to take it
seriously. There are changes going on in the brain and some people can't deal with
these. They are a serious liability to themselves and others. It's a medical emergency."
While brain scans may be able to show the depth of someone's brain activity, an fMRI
alone cannot reveal how well he or she deals with anguish. Though these changes in the
brain may occur commonly in both men and women, they only trigger violence in a few.
This is because most people can control their impulses. Fisher calls this "a triumph of
culture over biology."
In 2004, 74 people in Canada were killed by a current or former intimate partner,
according to the latest figures from Statistics Canada. By far the majority of these cases
are males killing females. In most cases, family homicides involve a single death. But
when several victims are killed (in seven per cent of cases), it is typically the
perpetrator's own children who are also victims. Most of these multiple killings culminate
in the suicide of the accused, 95 per cent of whom are male. Those most likely to turn
abusive are those who are demanding and needy, and whose self-worth is very
dependent on their partner, says Antonia Henderson, a research psychologist in
Vancouver who studies partner abuse.
While studies show men and women are equally capable of abusing their partners, men
do more harm. "Domestic violence goes across all relationships. But serious injury and
death -- it's men stalking and killing women," says Peter Jaffe, a professor at the
University of Western Ontario and academic director of the Centre for Research on
Violence Against Women and Children in London.
Dr. David Eden is an Ontario coroner who studies the patterns that precede domestic
violence deaths. He agrees with Fisher that separation can be deadly. While
preoccupation and instability may be harbingers of abuse, the most potent predictor of all
is a recent breakup. "Imminent or recent separation is the risk marker. It is outstanding in
its importance," he says.
The most horrific manifestation of a man's inability to cope with breakup is killing not only
his partner but also their children, and then himself, as Mailly did. "It is the same pattern
to the extreme," says Jaffe. "The man is saying if he can't have her, then no one else
should either, and the same with the kids. He is motivated by depression and anger and
a sense of vengeance. His life can't move forward, so no one else's can either."
Jaffe suggests the most vital time for family, friends and caregivers to rally around is
early in the breakup. "The gravest danger is weeks and months after separation, when
she tells him it's over," he said. Men who seem dangerously volatile may need
counselling. "Few are natural-born killers. They need to develop a sense of the future.
We've seen too many cases where the family has seen the warning signs and in
retrospect the death could have been prevented."
By the time a couple is divorced, the danger almost always recedes. Historically,
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femicide after divorce is almost unheard of, accounting for only one to two per cent of
cases. This makes sense biologically, Fisher says. "Eventually, the brain chemistry
recedes." Indeed, her study included spurned lovers in what she calls the "protest
phase" of rejection, when they are still hoping to win back the affection of their loved one
and are willing to do "crazy things like jump on a plane and meet them in China for
lunch" to achieve that. Over time, this gives way to the "resignation/despair phase,"
when the finality of the breakup becomes clear and a sense of despondency and
resignation takes over.
In the future, Fisher would like to scan the brains of people at various stages of love and
rejection, to note the changes over time. "Breaking up is never easy," she says. "You lie
in bed and sob. You drive too fast. You stalk. But this can't go on forever. After a while,
you can remember the pain, but you are not going through it at the same level."
Copyright by Rogers Media Inc.
May not be reprinted or republished without permission .
This story can be found at:
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/science/article.jsp?content=20060731_131152_131152
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