Errata is a web journal written by Robert Davis who has neither spent a night in a ghost town nor pulled a turnip from the earth. He doesn't even know if turnips grow in the ground. Perhaps on trees, like candy corn. Therefore, Errata is a non-commercial project.

Observation #1: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious."

Observation #2: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious" at the top of your lungs. Bring your eyebrows together before you say it. Effective!

Observation #3: Same for books. Even at libraries.

There is a prize for people who correctly guess the thing about Metropolis, Nevada.

Except where the text specifically states otherwise, Errata's vagaries are indicated vaguely and its authors are indistinct in the traditional way of the Internet, except where the authors lay claim to their work. In some cases Robert Davis lays claim to work that is not his own but has been abandoned like so many ghost towns. Except where held presently, fistfuls of dirt are suspended via dispersal, or dispersed via suspension (in the air), and thus their dissolution is their transcendence, or their transcendence is their dissolution. And yet our eyes tear, and our vision is impaired, demonstrating for the umpteenth time that one entity's gain is another's fit of sneezes. Except where indicated, storms shall outlive the clay upon which they rain, unless storms are improperly delimited by their clouds, which dissolve, rather than by their inevitable return. Thus the clay loses, unless the clay is said to own the storm, to use it to make itself heavy, to make itself cling to white garments, refuse dispersal, cake upon the facades of abandoned buildings, and sit like Man [sic] upon the earth where it is pelted by a storm that it owns. In which case the clay still loses, if you ask us.

Some of the above is legally binding and should be considered a mental contract between Errata and those upon whom it acts. The bit about the prize should be considered an overstatement insofar as prizes differ from dirt and prize dispersal differs from dirt dispersal. Please recall that ownership is a weight and, therefore, hope that you do not win the prize.

One day Errata or its representatives will call upon you for a favor. It is expected that you will hop-to without delay.

You may contact Robert Davis by email unless it's about the rock that was thrown in anger. The rock is more properly called a clod. Why do you continue to raise the topic?

2 June 2004

Moral Superiority

A great line from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart keeps coming to mind. A couple of weeks ago they were discussing the abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib and the rather contradictory statements from the administration about how good a job various officials are doing and how this isn't the sort of thing Americans support.

With the perfect cadence of a television reporter, faux-correspondent Rob Corddry explained it like this: "Jon, just because it's something we did doesn't mean it's something we would do."

In that same vein, I stumbled across a blog called Slacktivist in which Fred Clark comments on the president's recent appearance before a friendly group of religious journalists where he outlined his plan to spread compassion around the globe. Clark labels two of the quotations from the president's speech as a "text-book example of projection," one of which goes like this (this is Bush speaking):

I think what we're dealing with are people — extreme, radical people — who've got a deep desire to spread an ideology that is anti-women, anti-free thought, anti- art and science, you know, that couch their language in religious terms. But that doesn't make them religious people.

I also like Clark's previous post about "the dog rule" of movies. He writes:

Simply stated, the Dog Rule holds that no good movie seeks a larger emotional response from the survival of a dog than from the casual death of a dozen or more people.

He notes that several recent blockbusters have shown countless humans killed but earned points with the audience by sparing a cuddly canine.

All of this is somehow related, yes it is.

Posted by davis | Link

Reader Comments

June 2, 2004, 03:21 PM

James Tata

I like the Dog Rule. There is no cheaper way to get an audience to moan "awwww" than to put a dog on screen.

How was London? Are we going to hear more about what you saw while you were there?

June 3, 2004, 02:17 PM

davis

It was a great trip, Jim. Thanks for asking. I'll post a few notes about it... the most extensive being a recap of an Edward Hopper exhibit going on now. Just finished it -- whew!

You'll be glad to hear that people were sketching at every museum I went to.

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