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White supremacy is terrorism.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Hot air and ill-informed banter

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Republicans do not pay their debts.

A consequence of cucumbers

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Who Knew Harvard Had a Soul to Sell? (Open Thread)

Who Knew Harvard Had a Soul to Sell? (Open Thread)

by | 48 Comments

This post is in: 

Indulging in my waiting-for-the-shower-to-warm-up email habit (twelve steps are not enough), this subject line caught my eye:

Faust delivers Jefferson Lecture

Oh!  The possibilities!

__

Alas, it turned out to be a story about Harvard President Drew Faust, a Civil War historian, talking about writers and war.

But still, it got me thinking.  Pairs of leased souls (or sweet ones, I guess)  and American leaders.  Say, for example:

Iago delivers the Cheney Lecture.

Don Draper delivers the Bush II Lecture.

B. Bunny delivers the Carter lecture*

…and so on.  Have at it.

*Sorry — I have great admiration for both President and ex-President Carter.  But even low humor has its own muse.

Image:  Margaret Hofheinz-Döring, Witch and Mephisto (illustration to Faust I) (2.Serie), 1960

 

 

Reader Interactions

48Comments

  3. 3.

    El Tiburon

    Too early. Wish I had a clue what this post is about. It sounds vaguely interesting.

  4. 4.

    scav

    Well, Porky Pig could deliver the keynote at the Weight Watchers national meeting. (Actually, he kinda could. “Thhaa-aatt-atts all folks!”

    ETA: lost the presidental theme, will have to work that. Grover Cleveland must be in the audience. There.

  6. 6.

    Tom Levenson

    @scav: FTW!

    Or perhaps, to keep the fiction mojo going, whoever Harpo was playing in Duck Soup?

  9. 9.

    scav

    OK, put Taft in the Weight Watchers meeting, because:

    The Doublemint Twins are booked for the Taft lecture. ETA: Cleeveland!

  13. 13.

    ppcli

    Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin gives the Bush II lecture.
    [Doesn’t really work – Myshkin was good and saintly – but OK if you just stick with titles.]

  14. 14.

    Guster

    I’m old and technophobic, help me!

    Does a cell phone ring when you get a text? The same ring as when you get a call?

  15. 15.

    Less Popular Tim

    waiting-for-the-shower-to-warm-up

    No offense or anything, but that’s a pretty big waste of water, and energy if you let it run hot for a while before you get there if you get engrossed in your email (and who doesn’t?). I’ve had really good success with passive hot water recirculators. Unlike active recircs, which require the installation of a return line, passive recircs install at the water heater, or under the sink near the shower, and run cold water out of the hot water line to the cold water line until hot water is at the destination. There is a timer so you can set it to only recirculate the water before you shower, instead of all the time, (the latter wastes a bit more energy, because more hot water is sitting in the pipes cooling). You don’t waste any water because the cold water that was in your hot water pipes (that you run down the drain) is run into your cold water system.

    Installing one under the sink is trivial, at the water heater is a bit more hassle. For even less hassle you can install a shower head that you set to turn off when the water gets hot, then you release the hot water when you get there. Still wastes some water, but if you get distracted at least the hot water isn’t running the whole time.

    I have a Laing passive under the sink by the shower, works great. I represent and warrant no conflicts of interest or stake in the company or anything. The only down side is that the cold water tap can be slightly warmer than usual in the morning after the recirculator runs. In which case you are (ironically?) running the cold tap just a bit to get to the cold water under the warm that the recirculator placed in the cold line.

  18. 18.

    Less Popular Tim

    @Guster: Typically (at least with relatively newer phones, and all smartphones) you can set your phone to alert you to a text (or email if you have that) coming in. You could set that to be the same tone as the phone ringing, but by default it is usually a shorter and/or quieter tone. You usually should be able to set it to vibrate upon txt or email receipt, even if your ringer is on.

    You should be able to pull a PDF manual from on-line if you put in the model of the phone and “support.” For best results use the carrier’s manual (e.g. VZW, ATT) if available for that phone. Good luck!

  21. 21.

    Josie

    If anyone has the computer skills (I don’t) to zoom in to the original of that war room photo, the expression on Obama’s face is amazing. Rachel Maddow showed a close up of that face last night, and I was struck by how scary powerful it was.
    Edit: The party hat does kind of change the whole effect, though.

  22. 22.

    scav

    Oh, and while we’re playing with leaders, here are little BBC tidbits of British Prime Ministers, We’ve had Canadian (e.g. foreign) leaders today and leaders in silly hats so these rather combine the two themes (so long as they go to races or weddings).

  29. 29.

    Tom Levenson

    @nancydarling: Oh, the hats, the hats.

    I’m actually convinced that this is the photo that confirms that not only was Obama not born in the United States, he was not born in this solar system. What other explanation could there be for such elaborate comm. systems?

  31. 31.

    Paul in KY

    @Guster: Mine rings both when I get a text or a phone call. The ringtone differs though.

    Edit: See you already received a fine answer.

  32. 32.

    Tom Levenson

    @Less Popular Tim: Interesting. Will check in.

    FWIW — I don’t run the hot (much) w. out use. I live in an old house with a long run from the hot water source to the shower. Takes a surprising amount of time to move hot up to its destination. We did install the most efficient heat/h-w system we could find we could a couple of years ago, but there’s no reason not to try to kit the system out with a bit more goodness.

  33. 33.

    nancydarling

    This is kinda sick, but since assassins and their victims have already been brought up, how about Octomom gives the Dr. Tiller lectures?

  34. 34.

    nancydarling

    OT, but the Arkansas Democrat Gazette just ran a near 1200 word editorial with the headline “Got Him” without once mentioning the president’s name. No surprise here.

  35. 35.

    alwhite

    Larry, Moe and Curly give the Harding, Coolidge, Hoover lecture.

    The 7 dwarfs give the Polk, Taylor, Filmore, Pierce and Buchanan lecture.

    Andrew Dice Clay gives the Jackson lecture.

    David Duke gives the Woodrow Wilson Lecture.

    A May fly gives the Harrison lecture.

  37. 37.

    Menzies

    The sad part is that the first thing that occurred to me wasn’t the killer bunny but its Playboy counterpart.

    Also, too: George Carlin (in the later, bitterer years) gives the Lyndon B. Johnson lecture.

  38. 38.

    Steeplejack

    (Reposted from dead thread last night)

    I have to put in a plug for The Dave Gorman Collection, which some saint has uploaded to YouTube in six installments (first one here). This was titled Are You Dave Gorman? when I originally saw it on PBS about 10 years ago.

    Join the epic quest of one man, Dave Gorman, to find 54 other Dave Gormans while remaining in the “golden cone of Gorman-ness,” 300-500 mpdg (miles per Dave Gorman). Just check out the first episode and see if you want to go on with it. Classic British humor.

  39. 39.

    Tim

    @Tom Levenson:

    Here’s the one I have, the Laing Autocirc, with some pictures showing how it works. Old houses with a long hot water run are the perfect application for this, that is my situation as well. I really love this thing. Of course, the other easy thing to do is put styrofoam pipe wrap around any hot water pipes you can easily get to, i.e. along the basement ceiling.

  40. 40.

    piratedan

    well how about Foghorn Leghorn doing King’s I have a Dream speech, or in this case, it would have been, I say been, a miniseries.

  41. 41.

    Tom Levenson

    @Tim: Cool. Or rather, hot. I’ve forwarded the page to the non-power-tool-impaired in our relationship, my wife, and we’ll dive into the subject once she finishes building and propping Marie Curie’s lab for drama-doc shoot in NY.

  43. 43.

    Less Popular Tim

    @Tom Levenson: Cool, is that like a Law and Order: Paris circa 1900?

    Okay the last thing I’m going to say on these water things, another cool thing is that if you have internal pipes prone to freezing and not easily insulated (I’m in Minnesota), you can run the circulator when it gets really cold to keep warm water circulating, instead of the old-skool way of letting the water trickle.

  44. 44.

    jenniebee

    Count me in as another sad panda about the hot water thingie. My weapon of choice is the ladybug.

    Bonzo gives the Ronald Reagan lecture, also, too.

  48. 48.

    PNW Warrior Woman

    Just thinking about your “waiting-for-the-shower-to-warm-up” situation only …but you might perhaps investigate installing a circulation pump near your hot water tank. Saves you water. You’d love it.

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