Tuesday, March 13, 2007

This and that

Though she has often been compared to Anthony Trollope, one astute reviewer has termed her "the love child of Graham Greene and Iris Murdoch." Well, that's a hell of a comparison isn't it? The subject of the comparison is Susan Howatch, who has written a series of book about the Church of England, one of which you can find here. A colleague recommended her to me.

I have a hard time believing this is real. Mylanta Ice Cream sounds like a frat boy initiation torture device.

Sven sends word that Iran is protesting 300. The battle of Thermopylae was 2,500 years ago! I think there has to be a statue of limitations on such things. And it actually happened! American Scene has useful thoughts. Scifi.com approaches the movie for it what it is, a comic book adaptation. Given the piss-poor state of knowledge about the classical world, it's worth pointing to Obsidian Wings which correctly notes that Sparta is not a great role model and that Salamis is where the Persians were truly defeated. Those who took IR classes back in the Cold War days will recall that Sparta=Soviet Union, Athens=United States. All this aside, I always enjoy a movie packed with lots of ass-kicking.

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