God Wants You to Be Rich?

"Milmon Harrison, author of Righteous Riches, calls this a 'prosperity narrative' and says it's as American as apple pie. Shaping these narratives, he says, is the entitlement mentality—from Winthrop's 'city upon a hill' sermon and John O'Sullivan's manifest destiny to the secular but similarly strong faith in Wall Street as 'too big to fail.' A laughable example was New Thought mystic Charles Fillmore's rendition of Psalm 23. It began: 'The Lord is my banker; my credit is good.' This talk of holy sinecure as a birthright is Osteen-ism at its most sophomoric. (He and his wife would not be held down by the foundation-cracked hovel of their more naive years! They got the full asking price for their townhouse!)"

Clint Rainey in Slate wonders how the recession will affect proponents of "the Prosperity Gospel."

Walk This Way

"Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn't is 'shuffle', where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down 'rewind' and releasing it randomly - effective, if a little laboured."

Scott Campbell, a thirteen-year-old British boy, reviews a thirty-year-old Sony Walkman for the BBC.

A Simple Desultory Philippic

"McNamara was the archetype of a new wave of management specialists on the rise in Washington during the 1960s. He surrounded himself with a bevy of analysts who became known as his 'whiz kids,' and they played a prominent role in drafting the classified 'Pentagon Papers,' an exhaustive history of the U.S. entry into Vietnam that McNamara secretly commissioned in 1967.
"Brimming with self-confidence, McNamara transformed the Defense Department into the giant military and civilian fiefdom it remains today. Among his creations were the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Defense Supply Agency, the predecessor of the massive Defense Logistics Agency.
"But it was Vietnam that defined him, from his assertive oversight of the first contingents of Green Beret advisors sent by the Kennedy administration to South Vietnam in 1961 to his backstage qualms that led Lyndon Johnson to replace him as Defense secretary."

In the Los Angeles Times, Stephen Braun writes an obituary for Robert S. McNamara.

"We Found That Rather Attractive"

"In 1965, Mr. Klein was hired by the Rolling Stones’ young manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, to handle the band’s business affairs. With his working-class New Jersey accent and aggressive, direct negotiating style, Mr. Klein convinced the Stones, as he would many other musicians, that he would be a powerful advocate."

Ben Sisario writes an obit for Allen Klein in The New York Times.

I'd Lurk in the Baddest Part of Town

"In fact, there is generally too much killing here. Dillinger's gang is responsible for the deaths of a dozen people, but the film makes it seem like many multiples of that number. During the entire yearlong spree between the summer of 1933 and summer 1934, Dillinger himself probably murdered just one man, but in Public Enemies, he is a killing machine."

Elliott J. Gorn in Slate checks the accuracy of Public Enemies.

When That New Party Army Came Marching Right Up the Stairs

"President Obama, speaking at Cairo University last month, described his 'unyielding' belief that various rights espoused by the founders, including free speech, representative government, and respect for property, deserve global support because they are 'not just American ideas.' In fact, they never were."

Adam Freedman in The New York Times connects the Declaration of Independence to English legal traditions.

Don't Leave Home without Him

"As Malden recalled in 1991 in The Times, Corridan 'was a Jesuit priest who taught law to the longshoremen. . . . The scene in the hold of the ship, he wrote at least 80% of that speech. A man came to him and said, "Father John, I can't get a chit to go to work. Now I haven't gotten a chit in two months." He says, "You go in there and demand a chit even if you take it out of his hands. . . ." And the man did, and two days later he was found in the East River,' nearly dead.
"The man survived, but the next morning Corridan stood on a box on the dock and delivered the sermon that inspired Budd Schulberg's screenplay.
"'Some people think the crucifixion only took place on Calvary. They better wise up,' Malden's priest says in the film. 'Every time the mob puts the crusher on a good man, tries to stop him from doing his duty as a citizen, it's a crucifixion.'"

Dennis McLellan in the Los Angeles Times writes an obit for Karl Malden.

Throwing Stones

"In The Philip Johnson Tapes, Johnson recounts that in the mid-1950s, he invited Mies, with whom he was collaborating on the Seagram Building, for an overnight visit. At 10:30 in the evening, Mies emerged from the nearby guesthouse and told his host that he wanted to leave. Johnson thought he was joking. 'I don't think you understood,' responded Mies. 'I'm not staying in this house another minute, and you've got to find me a place to stay.' What had upset the German architect? 'I just think he felt that my bad copy of his work was extremely unpleasant,' Johnson later speculated."

In honor of the building's sixtieth anniversary Witold Rybczynski in Slate visits Philip Johnson's Glass House.

Oh Canada

"In history class, in seventh grade (or as we like to say in Canada, grade seven) we learned the story of the American Revolution—from the British perspective. Turns out you were all a bunch of ungrateful tax cheats. And you weren’t very nice to the Loyalists. What I miss most about Canada is getting the truth about the United States."

To commemorate Canada Day in The New York Times, eleven expatriates write about what they long for.

June 2009 Acquisitions

Books:
Caroline Elkins, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya, 2005.
Art Fein, The L.A. Musical History Tour: A Guide to the Rock and Roll Landmarks of Los Angeles, 1991, 1998.
Thomas Flynn, Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction, 2006.
John A. Jackson, A House on Fire: The Rise and Fall of Philadelphia Soul, 2004.
Christian Lander, Stuff White People Like: A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions, 2008.
The Onion, Our Dumb World: Atlas of the Planet Earth--73rd Edition, 2007, 2008.
George E. Stanley and Meryl Henderson, Coretta Scott King: First Lady of Civil Rights, 2008.
David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest, 1996, 2006.

DVDs:
Ace in the Hole, 1951.
Darling, 1965.
Gran Torino, 2008.
The Omen, 1976.
Soul Plane, 2004.
Yo Gabba Gabba: New Friends, 2009.

Anti-Social Networks

"This is consistent with previous research on online communication, says Scott Caplan of the University of Delaware in Newark, who suspects that heavy users of sites such as Digg and Twitter may have similar characteristics. 'People who prefer online social behaviour tend to have higher levels of social anxiety and lower social skills,' he says."

Peter Aldhous in New Scientist explores research into who contributes to "community-curated" websites like Wikipedia..

Coffee Achievers

"For each of the store's four Synesso stations, water and power conduits connect directly to each station from the ceiling. 'There's a bit of a steampunk vibe,' says Ana Henton, principal of Mass Architecture & Design. Mass developed station prototypes and coordinated with woodworkers, metalworkers, plumbers and electricians. An Intelligentsia technical specialist ensured the mechanics meshed with the espresso machines."

In the Los Angeles Times, Joshua Lurie gets excited as Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea opens in Venice.