I'll ignore Michael Powell and say I noticed in the Times that a friend of mine is in a museum show in Frankfurt. I should post something more on Noritoshi, who's done some odd and sexy pieces, and some quite sad as well, but for now this will do. It's pretty funny.

I've said it before, but as far as culture is concerned the most important difference between Europe and the US is that while Americans see middle class life as a stopping off point on the road to greater wealth, giving their lives and their environment short shrift, Europeans represent an 'actually existing' bourgeois. European adults have no desire or need to replace the present with a fantasy. They're complacent, but curious. That's changing of course with the 'New' Europe: never underestimate the destructive power of adolescent desire.

Jack Balkin pointed to an article on academic blogging, so I spent some time cruising around the younger generation of the bunch. I managed to offend quite a few people in a short period of time, posting comments on various sites. I listened in to the conversation of a couple of Rhodes Scholars. I'm still surprised to realize how often, for Americans, education does nothing more than encourage arrogance and lessen curiosity. And it's gotten worse.