Most readers of this blog are probably aware of the recent theft of five masterpieces from the Musee d'Art Moderne in Paris last week. (For the philistines in our midst, a masked bandit took advantage of the museum's malfunctioning alarm system to break in and steal works by Picasso, Matisse, Georges Braque, Ferdinand Leger, and Amadeo Modigliani worth a combined 90 to 100 million euros.) In all the excitement, though, you may have missed a far more disturbing and potentially life-changing bit of news from the City of Light.Sometime in April at the Musee des Arts et Metiers, the cable holding a model of Foucault's pendulum inexplicably (and suspiciously, in the eye of this observer) snapped. In the resulting crash, the 60-pound ball was permanently damaged. Among several consequences, much of Western Europe can no longer keep accurate time, and I was forced to try to figure out what this equation means:
If you think Dan Brown didn't have something to do with this (probably in league with the Large Hadron Collider), you haven't been reading enough conspiracy theories. Umberto Eco laughs in your (and Brown's) general direction.
i did not hear about this theft. i will get on about solving it.
ReplyDeletejust read in wired magazine that there is now a pop-up book about the large hadron collider. you should get it for you kids . . .
Is everyone too intimidated by rob's brainy post to initiate rhombii or provide links to stupid yootoobs?
ReplyDeleteyes.
ReplyDeletei will touch on a different subject though - LOST. i found myself dreaming about the ending last night. and then when i'd wake up, i'd continue thinking about it and what the f it all meant. i slept like shit b/c of it. i'm glad it's over.
i was to busy reading umberto eco essays on semiotics to watch lost. i especially like his essay on disneyworld in "travels in hyper reality."
ReplyDeletebut he's no italo calvino.
and i heard that according to the LOST finale, eggplants are actually an alien species and that everyone on the island had an exact parallel to the cast of gilligan's island.
ReplyDeleteReally? I learned that everyone at G:TB has an exact parallel to the 1995 Washington Bullets.
ReplyDeletecan i be mark price?
ReplyDeleteif g:tb were seinfeld, who would be david putty? how about the maestro?
ReplyDeleteOnly if I can be Scott Skiles.
ReplyDeleteI would fight rob for Costanza and probably lose due to lack of seniority, in which case I might be Putty because I think I know the most about auto repair. But I never owned an 8-ball jacket.
ReplyDeleteDoes 90-100 million Euro get you much these days?
ReplyDeleteps - thanks Greece for ruining the global economy and keeping my house underwater.
We have closure in Philly. Somewhere out there in the ether, drexdrago is clapping his toe-thumbed hands and smiling.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/2wfaf4q
Rob, you are Brent Price, not Mark. You are on the G:TB court way too much to be Mark.
ReplyDeleteI'm Jimmy Mac. Prone to disappearing at times, tall and pasty, good haircut. Please pronounce it like in the "You the Man" video, Mac-la-vane.
I think Teej is Cal Cheaney. I don't know why. Maybe because Shlara has a thing for him.
And collectively, altogether, we are Gheorghe.
I can be me from the 1995 Bullets, this is easy.
ReplyDeleteAnd I had so many favorites from that team...it's hard to pick just one.
just walked by a homeless guy in philly who jumped up and played an animated air guitar riff before sitting back down. made my day.
ReplyDeleteWas it something by Hall & Oates?
ReplyDeleteseemed to have more of a carlos santana vibe
ReplyDelete