More Thoughts on Prof. McMahan’s Essay

Reading yesterday’s NYT (online) essay, The Meat Eaters, by Rutgers University professor of philosophy Jeff McMahan (forwarded by reader Daniela and shared below by Steve), I’m almost more puzzled by my own need to comment on the piece than I am amazed by it. It’s tempting to lump this man’s essay in with the tiresome mass of …

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Worst NYT piece EVER?

Unfortunately the Times is not up to Jeff Lockwood’s standard today, at least outside of their science pages. Last night Daniela sent me this essay by a philosophy professor at Rutgers who is also a visiting one at Princeton (which at least balances him and Peter Singer with Freeman Dyson, who outweighs them both together …

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Jeff Lockwood checks in: of Passenger pigeons and Cicadas

Jeff Lockwood, entomologist and first- rate writer from Wyoming, checked in re passenger pigeons with a link to an amazing essay and some thoughtful commentary: “Great to hear from you! I loved your piece on the Passenger Pigeon (and thanks for the plug/quote!), having recently discussed 1491 with a colleague. Your essay elegantly captures the …

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Joel

Our friend and sometimes neighbor Joel Becktell– we say “sometimes” only because he is a full time freelance cellist and though he has lived here for years travels every month of the year, somehow managing to maintain a garden and cook good meals for his friends, and staying up with me all too late to …

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Eagle Accessories

Lauren brought back a lot of eagle equipment from Asia (as we all do) but as she had spent more time and been more places. Most useful were a couple of pairs of eagle — boots?– gloves? At any rate, foot warmers for the birds’ naked feet (golden eagle legs are thickly feathered). The boots …

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Vodka from our Mongolian “Home Town”

Lauren brought among other things (like eagle tack I have never seen– be patient!) a bottle of new vodka named after the capitol of Mongolia’s Kazakh “Aimag” or state, therefore the de facto “Berkutchi” capitol. The back is attractive enough, with a Berkutchi painted on it (all photos enlarge if clicked on): But the front …

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“Chaucer” on book authorship

From the great and funny “Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog” “But the writinge of a booke doth but litel to take awey the dailye necessitees of the clerk of a kinges workes and a husband. Ywis, thogh ther be many volumes on the shelf clad in orange and blak, yet the trasshe taketh ytself nat …

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