In The New Yorker: Malcolm Gladwell on "To Kill a Mockingbird"

In this week's New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell looks at Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and examines anew the status of race and class in the South during the Atticus Finch era. This excellent article is a must read for those who have read and studied the book, and particularly for those interested in progressive social change.

Electronic Reader Specifically Designed for Newspapers and Magazines? Yes!

Plastic Logic is getting closer to what I want in a digital / electronic reader ("e-reader"). It is developing an e-reader made specifically for newspapers and magazines.

A March 31 story in The New York Observer reports that Plastic Logic's product-in-development will have a 8.5 by 10.7 inch display, which is significantly larger than the Kindle screen. The product will be thin, lightweight, and have a flexible screen. Plastic Logic plans to release its e-reader by 2010.

For consumers, purchasing an e-reader designed for use with periodicals makes more sense than purchasing one for designed primarily for reading books. Importantly, an e-reader for books does not provide any immediate benefit over traditional books for folks reading for pleasure and at their leisure. Further, most books have a life well beyond the first reader, they are read again, passed on to friends, donated to the library book drive and so on.

In contrast, delivering the news electronically, in a large, funky, and flexible format that is not paper, sounds ideal. New editions of newspapers and magazines arrive daily and then must be disposed of daily when the content is no longer timely. None of that with an e-reader: No papers and magazines cluttering up the house, no need to recycle, no need to cancel the paper when on vacation or call to report a missed delivery. In other words, an e-reader for The New Yorker, and The New York Times and other papers, sounds like an easier way to get great writing and timely news and analysis in a better format. Bring it on!


(Via Bookninja)

The New Yorker, Shouts and Murmurs: "Tails of Manhattan" by Woody Allen

Woody Allen, writing for The New Yorker: Bernie Madoff walks into a restaurant . . .

(Via Huffington Post)

When to Apologize

The fall 2008 edition of the journal In Character examines the topic of forgiveness. In this edition, Theodore Dairymple writes about what he calls the false apology syndrome: today's public figures apologizing for events that occurred in the long distant past. Examples of the false apology syndrome, according to Mr. Dairymple, are Pope John II apologizing to the Muslims for the Crusades, and then-Prime Minister Tony Blair apologizing to the Irish for the famine. (Note: 2008 is the international year of the potato).

Dairymple argues that apologies issued by individuals who did not commit the injury, and who are long removed from the acts and decisions that caused harm, are a perversion. A real apology, he contends, requires self-examination and evolution by an individual who was actually responsible for an action. He contends that expressing shame for these past acts is the correct and precise sentiment and not guilt, which is associated with apology.

It is an interesting argument. An official apology for starving my ancestors doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy. However, expressing shame for a political culture's crimes is indeed appropriate. In fact, it is a more powerful sentiment than saying 'we're sorry', which is hollow when it doesn't cost the speaker anything to say it - we know the spokesperson didn't actually do the misdeed.

In contrast, stating, or even hinting that you are embarrassed or ashamed of your country's past acts can cost the speaker, as recent dust-ups and misunderstandings in this year's presidential election race have illustrated.

With respect to the Presidential race, the manner in which John McCain is running his campaign - the negative ads, his choice of language, the actions and inactions of his running mate - would make most of us feel ashamed were we the candidate. Apparently, Senator McCain has drifted far, far away from the anchors of dignity, honesty, integrity and reality. And I am wary about how low he will sink during the next few weeks, and how hard he will try to pull Americans down with him.

Fortunately, Senator McCain will have time for personal reflection after the campaign and an opportunity to apologize. Which leads me to recall a piece titled Public Apology written by Steve Martin for the New Yorker some years ago. It starts: "Looking out over the East River from my jail cell and still running for public office, I realize that I have taken several actions in my life for which I owe public apologies." For years I have, on various occasions, pulled this piece out of my saved articles pile and read it for a laugh.

The New Yorker doesn't have Mr. Martin's article on-line, but if you go to this link at Amazon and scroll down through the page for his book Pure Drivel, it is reprinted in full.

Check it out. You won't be sorry.