What we read while they were walking with their feet ten feet off of Beale…
- Bob Dylan stirred some controversy by playing in China despite censorship of his set list. Maureen Dowd accused him of selling out, but many, including Sean Wilentz, rushed to his defense, essentially calling Dowd “Mr. Jones.” The case is obviously complicated, but Dylan is right.
- Tyler Cowen speculates why Brazilian emigration rates are so low compared to other South American countries.
- Cowen’s colleague, Bryan Caplan, had his book Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids published this week. Will Wilkinson finds his central argument bewildering. And Caplan responds. Motoko Rich offers a critique of sorts in the New York Times.
- Caplan also offers some thoughts on philosopher Jason Brennan’s The Ethics of Voting in which he argues that there is no duty to vote: John S is on board.
- Today is Tax Day, meaning that rich people are going to complain about paying taxes, despite the absurd advantages that rich people have in this country.
- Whose Line Is It Anyway? is sort of making a comeback.
- Norm MacDonald has been making the interview rounds to promote his new show, Sports Show with Norm MacDonald, leading to awesome interviews like this one.
Posted by doc on April 20, 2011 at 9:59 AM
I love this joke and how Norm told it. Conan can barely contain himself throughout and I felt myself empathizing with the intense psychic pain that the moth must have been enduring. It was like watching Christopher Walken telling a joke while he was stoned.
If the NPI group hasn’t seen “The Aristocrats”, a documentary about comedians “jamming” on one joke, then run to Netflix or AppleTV and check it out. Norm Macdonald’s joke and style reminds a lot of that documentary (which is hysterical by the way). You really can get a feel for how different comedian’s personalities and styles impact their joke-telling.