The kids here are so dumb, I feel I'm tutoring...

Why are there so many Italian cookbooks, and so few Scandinavian ones?

Look, I found one!  Let's look inside...

Eels!

Awwww!

"Finnish Rotten shark"

Fresh pilot whale

Is this a good idea?

Skeet shooting at the airport?
https://goo.gl/maps/6qTPt3WBpt32

(I saw this while biking but what with the war on terror I thought the better of showing up again to take a picture of strategic infrastructure, hence my resort to Google Maps Streetview.)

David Brooks, On Paradise Drive: How we live now

I read David Brooks in the Times now and then. He's a good essayist and says at least one interesting thing per column. I also know, from looking at the reader comments, that a lot of Times readers hate him. I'm not one of those people.

With that out of the way: this book doesn't have much going for it. Cover to cover, it's just nonstop hyperbole, snark and vapid generalization. The hyperbole is funny and the snark is semi-good-natured. But that's all it is.

Poking fun at other people's consumerism is one of his favorite themes. He tries to channel Veblen and Mencken:

"For example, I have a watch that only tells time. But on the racks, one finds several magazines serving the watch-nut population, for people whose self-worth depends largely on their wrists. These publications are printed on paper so rich and glossy that it might be made from butterscotch. Each issue features a few new watches that transcend mere watchdom..."

Of course Brooks is above all that. Just as, sophisticated urbanite that he is, he can look down on small-town people:

"The entire weekend economy of small-town America seems to depend on prepubescent sports tournaments..."

At his worst, he slides into Thomas Friedmanism:

"The inescapable fact is that the universe is divided beween Blondes and Brunettes. This is not a matter of the color of one's hair. This is a cosmic trait. The Cosmic Blonde floats through life on a beam of sunshine..."

We'll know he's gone full Thomas Friedman if he writes a book about the state of the world and entitles it _Blondes and Brunettes_.

Triple-entendre

Here's one thing you get, if you follow the instructions and google "sheriff's universal cheerleaders":

http://www.thenortherner.com/sports/2009/02/03/sheriff-finds-success-in-cheerleading/

This reminds me of an old Yiddish joke.  Yankel is out strolling and notices that Mendel the mohel has hung a large wooden sign over his storefront.  The sign is a wooden cutout of a man's hat.

Curious, Yankel enters the store and says, "Mendel, for what do you display over your storefront a hat?  You are a mohel, not a hatter!"

Replies Mendel: "Nu, then what should I display?"