Jan Freeman writes The Word column for Ideas.
Joshua Glenn is a Boston-based writer, editor, and multimedia
producer.
Christopher Shea writes the Critical Faculties column for Ideas.
 Send the Brainiac bloggers a
comment on a post.
  Week of:
November 11
Week of:
November 4
Week of:
October 28
Week of:
October 21
Week of:
October 14
Week of:
October 7
Mind the gap
Shop talk What he learned in the newsroom Mr. Boffo lays an eggcorn Curse of the mummy's tummy More in Word Watch  |
« Taking Things Seriously | Main | Flaunting and flouting » Tuesday, August 7, 2007Brainiac mailbag* Responding to a Brainiac item I wrote about Downtown Crossing, Joe K. of Somerville writes: I've been saying the same [thing] for two years. What will we as a city gain from having another block full of high end chain stores? Copley's and the Newb is clearly enough. Let's make the Crossing urban, in the sense that it's a hodgepodge of interesting places, ideas, sounds, smells and people that's allowed to grow organically. Not some more glitzy, over-planned [expletive] mall to cater to the suburban mindset. I'm on [expletive] board. Love that downwardly mobile upwardly middle class line. The Boston foundation actually did a study predicting seven futures for Boston. The grimmest one -- by their reckoning -- was boom-and-bust-Boston, which basically entailed all developers and condo complexes [failing], the city going broke, and then being redeemed by youngsters looking for a cheap city with character, and lots of grubby indie businesses. "Ooh, I want that one," I said while reading it. Joe, you're speaking my language. Too bad I can't reproduce that language here. * Responding to a Brainiac item I wrote about Anthony Lane's New Yorker review of "Sunshine," Tim C. of Los Angeles writes: For my money Anthony Lane's only good point is that he's not David Denby, but I think you may be coming down a little hard on him here. The idea of using plants as you oxygen supply is such a staple of science fiction, of terraforming-Mars theories, and now of terraforming-Earth theories, that I don't imagine Lane is claiming Boyle and Garland are the first people who ever thought of it. And I say that as somebody who saw "Silent Running" both in the seventies and within the past year. (Hands up: Who else can make that boast?) He could just be claiming that the garden here is a "lovely invention" because of the way it looks or of some other feature of the way the trope is used in this movie. You might be right, Tim. But I think Lane screwed up. * Thanks, Shirley C. of Dorchester, for pointing out that the phrase "Generation Obama," which I introduced in this space back in February, has been adopted by some of Obama's supporters. This Obama blogger likes the phrase, too. It's all yours, folks. Posted by Joshua Glenn at 06:01 PM
|
