A Random Assortment

~ From a review of a new (third) volume of Eliot's letters that covers 1926-1927 (1927, of course, being a key year in Eliot's life: the year he converted to Anglicanism and became a British citizen):

"Eliot rarely if ever confides in a correspondent about his spiritual life and even warns the priest who baptised him, William Force Stead, to keep quiet about it: 'I do not want any publicity or notoriety – for the moment, it concerns me alone, and not the public – not even those nearest me. I hate spectacular 'conversions.''" 

And from another review of the letters:

"Given Vivienne's baleful behaviour, her affair with Russell, her general impossibility, it is an unsurprising surprise that one of Eliot's letters confesses unequivocally to adultery. He is pre-empting a charge of excessive puritanism: 'I remember also minor pleasures of drunkenness and adultery…'"

 I am more surprised than unsurprised, but maybe that's just naive of me. 

~  Nick Offerman Reads Tweets from Young Female Celebrities:


(via Hopkins)

~ The former director of the Barnes, responding to the new Barnes and along the way mentioning why they moved. Sadly, I didn't make it to the old Barnes before it closed, nor have I been to the lately opened new Barnes, so I can't say a thing about the changes, but I'm intrigued by the controversy.

~ The Manolo's series on what shoes tell us about the wearer is spot on.

 
~ I want Jane Austen's ring. With the note from Eleanor Austen, "My dear Caroline. The enclosed Ring once belonged to your Aunt Jane. It was given to me by your Aunt Cassandra as soon as she knew that I was engaged to your Uncle. I bequeath it to you. God bless you!"

~ The Prime Minister of Romania, Victor Ponta, has been accused of plagarizing his dissertation on the International Criminal Court:

"[T]he ethics committee in charge gave its ruling, with its chairman saying it was plagiarised "copy-paste style", 85 pages out of a total of 307, from the work of another Romanian scholar. ... In an twist of irony, the professor who oversaw Mr Ponta's work was no other than his political mentor, Romania's former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, the first high level official to be put behind bars for corruption."

I also loved this quote from the article: 

"Interior minister Ioan Rus on Friday claimed (this and most other links in Romanian) that "ever since Plato and Aristoteles, everyone who has ever written a PhD in philosophy, in social sciences, has plagiarised."

Whatever else my dissertation may or may not be, it is emphatically not plagarized.

I consulted with my Romanian academic friend for his thoughts on this. He said it's even worse than the article lets on. He said that the heads of the academic community have said that academics shouldn't comment on this plagiarism case until an independent committee looks into it. They and politicians who are on the side of the Prime Minister have deferred to legal scholars, who are mostly unwilling to come forward with their opinion. When they critique the plagiarism, they themselves are critiqued. Two organizations which should have examined the case were recently disbanded by the government just before they could to meet to consider the Prime Minister's case. It's actually a very turbulent time for democracy and the rule of law in Romania, instigated by the revelation of this plagiarism.

~ Oh my goodness! You have to read this: This car-less mother of six has a bike to bike all of her children around in. In fact, she hasn't driven since she moved to Portland. And she moved to Portland from Williamsport, Pennsylvania! She said that 20 miles of biking a day is her and her kids' limit. You have to look at the pictures. And this story is my favorite:

"I have literally bungee-corded my 5-year-old to the back of the bike. He wouldn't get on. He was screaming and everyone was staring, so I stuck him on the seat and bungee-corded him in and just started pedaling really hard... He screamed all the way home."

 And this:

"The bike attached to the rear of the bakfiets [the kind of bike] is a key part of the motor. 'I rotate kids into pumping position to keep them fresh,' Emily tells me."