Learn Something Everyday

In the course of grading my midterms for Popular Culture in English Speaking Countries, I’ve learned the following: Bombay can also be spelled Bumbay or Bombai. “Elbiss Presly” (Preslley, Plesly, etc) was the King of Rock’n’Roll, and he died of glycosuria (and/or stress, and/or suicide) Indians love song and dance more than any other people, which is why song-and-dance numbers are so prevalent in Indian films one prevalent stereotype of African American men widely expressed in blackface minstrelsy is that they’re all bisexual The only Beatle who has not been assassinated is Paul McCartney. The Indian festival Teej is celebrated …

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Syriana

I just watched Syriana, and found, well, entertaining enough. There were lots of plot threads running at once, and while they all kind of came together, I could see where they were headed, mostly, about halfway in. Still, some of the ideas bandied about in the movie were interesting, if a bit disturbing. How do people deal with crippling loss? How do people deal with hopelessness? How do people deal with their own guilt? And what might the Middle East look like in a century? All interesting questions. Unfortunately, the answers to most of them, as offered in Syriana, were …

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