Popular Culture
WHY I WROTE MY NOVEL by Larry Stout
SEVENTY YEARS YOUNG by Larry Stout
SEVENTY YEARS YOUNG by Larry Stout
NOTHING LITTLE ABOUT LITTLE LEAGUE by Larry Stout
Get a Grip on Life – Grab a Golf Club by Larry Stout (edited by Debbie Stout)
One of the more humorous moments I had during my tenure in Latvia was a visit to a driving range with my friend Ungars. It was sometime in the mid 1990s, and a group was trying to generate interest in golf with the idea of eventually building a golf course outside of Riga. They placed a big net up and sold a bucket of balls to hit into the net, and I thought it might be fun to try my hand again at a game I played as a teenager. Ungars agreed to go with me and he paid the vendor and we received our clubs. I was anxious to get started and quickly teed up the ball and hit it. The vendor walked over to me and said to me in English, "You are an American, aren't you?" I was quite surprised because everything I was wearing was from Latvia, and I had not spoken a single word. I acknowledged that, indeed, I was American, but how did he know? "I could tell by the way you hit the ball." I was shocked – Americans even golf different than the rest of the world.
HONORABLE OMISSIONS FROM 2005: Larry’s Best from the Year Gone By, by Larry Stout
HONORABLE OMISSIONS FROM 2005: Larry’s Best from the Year Gone By
I realized that my last Vision article in 2005 listing my best films was done in haste, and I neglected some films that I truly enjoyed. In addition, I thought I would add my five favorite books from the previous year:
BEST FILMS OF 2005:
I would include March of the Penguins and Batman Begins from my previous list, but I would now add The Island, Merchant of Venice, and Cinderella Man to that group.
The Best Films of 2005: Larry's Own Academy Awards, by Larry Stout
THE BEST FILMS OF 2005: Larry’s Own Academy Awards
It is something of a tradition that I present my best films of the year in December. I mentioned in my column last year that I believe motion pictures as a medium tell us more about the best and worst of a culture than anything else. They are a reflection of contemporary society, especially in the United States.
I had a bit of a problem with my Top Five Favorites Films for 2005 because there were not five outstanding films. So, I decided to put them into categories and give my favorite film in each category:
WHEN EXPERTS ARE WRONG: Quotes of Misjudgment by Larry Stout
Who said the experts are always right? In my Futures Studies course this year, we have enjoyed looking at the miscalculations of ‘experts’ concerning the future.
"640K ought to be enough for anybody. "- Bill Gates, in 1981
“Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” - Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science.
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” - Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
KEEPING THE COURSE: Quotes on Determination, by Larry Stout
KEEPING THE COURSE: Quotes on Determination by Larry Stout
Since I have been very busy, this week’s Vision article is a collection of quotes that have been meaningful to me in the area of perseverance and wanting to make a difference.
- Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful makes sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by a final form of love which is forgiveness.
Reinhold Niebubr, The Irony of Human History (1952)
WELCOME TO 'THE CAT WAS BLACK': Post-Modernist Lessons in Linguistics
“Welcome to ‘The Cat was Black: Symposium on Linguistic Interpretation in Modern Life.’ My name is Sigmund Butterhead, director of Harvard-R-Us Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts and I am moderating today’s session. It is imperative today for us to understand the modern use of language. As our former President Bill Clinton reminded us,” (scattering of applause from the audience), “more than ever it depends on what our definition of ‘is’ is. The New York Times has helped us to understand that even when the facts in a story are completely wrong, such as the account of President Bush’s National Guard duty (uneasy stirring in the seats), the story itself can still be conceptually true. Even the Supreme Court is joining in the redefining of language. Recently their decision of Kelo vs. City of New London helped us to understand that though the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution seems to clearly say that private property cannot be taken for anything except public use, what it really meant is public purpose. This new interpretation opens up huge new vistas for government officials to not just appropriate private property for things like highways, bridges or railroads for public use, but confiscate it for any public purpose like beautiful new shopping centers and malls or anything that will bring in higher property taxes. Isn’t liberating language wonderful?” (Polite applause from the audience.)
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