The Daily Brief

My post concerning brine-soaked turkey seems to have been lost. But here’s another one appropriate to the season: What is better, butter or margarine? Most comparisons focus on the matter of nutrition – the issue of natural fat vs. trans fat. But I think the leading factor should be one of taste. Let’s face it; would you take a dollop of margarine on your fingertip and eat it plain? How about butter?

And the matter of taste places a major, and often disregarded, vector on the matter of nutrition. I don’t know about you, but for me, as a spread (the way most of us use the majority of our butter or margarine), I will use about half as much butter, for the same application, as I would margarine. Real butter just delivers more satisfaction.

Then it comes down to a matter of value. And frankly, at the price most supermarkets normally charge for real butter (about $4/lb. in this area), the value scale tilts badly against butter. But I just went to Costco, and paid $7.71 for 4 lbs. of Kirkland brand butter. At that price, the scale tilts strongly the other way.

The NBA has just suspended the Pacers’ Ron Artest for the rest of the season – great! I hope the Pacers dock his pay for it too.

This offense was inexcusable. Whatever the fans are yelling or throwing, you don’t go into the stands.

Our other major professional sports, particularly basketball, should really take a lesson from NASCAR. of course, it’s a different situation with auto racing (at least in the US, those F1 guys are another story). Do you think a big corporation like Lowe’s, Kellogg’s, or Procter and Gamble is going to put out millions in sponsorship money if the driver doesn’t have a squeaky-clean image?

As I have this slot to fill up after my double post snafu, and I just watched The Wizard of Oz for about the hundredth time, I just thought I’d through some Judy Garland trivia in here. Our regular readers know I consider her the greatest female singer ever recorded. But did you know that, while she was 17 when Oz was released, she was only 16 when she recorded Over The Rainbow. In fact, MGM had actually put her on contract at 13, in 1935. But they were hesitant to put her in a feature film, for fear that no-one would believe her singing voice wasn’t dubbed! For this they were lambasted by the Hollywood Reporter, which called her “the greatest individual talent in Hollywood.”

I can’t believe the lawsuit trying to force Warne Bros. to put a disclaimer in the opening credits of the new movie Alexander, due to references to his sexuality. I thought it was common knowledge to even a casual student of history, such as myself, that Alexander was at least bisexual, if not gay. But for the real lowdown, there’s this from Marc Millner, a grad student in Greek Classical Studies at the University of Washington:

So was he gay? The consensus among scholars is clear: Although Alexander occasionally slept with women, he preferred men.

And the man he preferred most was his boyfriend Hephaestion. They met when they were teens and remained lovers until Hephaestion died nineteen years later. The most respected scholars are not reticent about Alexander’s sexual appetites. For example, earlier this month Peter Green, author of the widely respected Alexander of Macedon: A Historical Biography recently appeared in The History Channel’s documentary on Alexander and was quite blunt about Hephaestion being the love of Alexander’s life. In a recent article for the New Republic, Green went even further quoting an anecdote the ancient philosopher Theophrastus attributes to his teacher Aristotle, who was also Alexander’s tutor: “Both Philip and Olympias [Alexander’s parents] were scared that their adolescent son was showing signs of becoming a gynnis, a ‘femme’ invert, and actually imported a high-class courtesan [hooker] to straighten out his sexual drive.”

And certainly the consensus among the academics who exchange ideas on Pothos.org, the most widely respected and renowned international site for serious Alexander scholars, is that Alexander was in love with Hephaestion and had an affair with the Persian eunuch, Bagoas.

Oddly enough, the most interesting take on Alexander’s sexuality comes from two non-academics–Michael Alvear and his sister Vicky Alvear Shecter. They co-wrote the first historically accurate comic biography on antiquity’s greatest warrior, Alexander the Fabulous: The Man Who Brought the World to Its Knees.

An interesting article, if you care to read the whole thing.

What also amazes me is that this lawsuit is being filed by an actual group of Greek (not Greek-Ameican) lawyers, as we always hear from those in Europe that we are entirely too Victorian about such things.

I ust rolled out of bed to Goldie Hawn’s lovely blue eyes. Then I saw Chevy Chase, Charles Grodin: Hey this looks promising. I click the info button – “Seems Like Old Times” – REJECT – Off to “Making Marines, Parris Island: Phase Two” on the Discovery Times channel.

4 periods a year – is this a good thing? I’m thinking, “don’t fool with Mother Nature.”

Back in the ’80s, with foreign companies cleaning our clock, America’s business world embarked on a restructuring which lead to the productivity improvements which drove the economic expansion we are still seeing today. American news watchers learned several new terms back then. The most notorious of those being hostile takeover. Another is Turnaround Expert – the hired gun C.E.O. brought in specifically to shake things up and find new profitability in floundering companies.

America’s complacent, entrenched management culture, not to mention it’s cultural elite, feared and reviled the turnaround expert. This was because the job inevitably entailed handing out pink slips to all who were expendable, and heaping new duties on those who were not. It didn’t ease their ire any that the turnaround expert frequently brought in his own team to breathe new life into the place.

Today, the tactics of the turnaround expert have become business as usual. The possibility of getting downsized is something we’ve all learned to live with. Well, at least that’s how it is in the private sector. As usual, government is running behind the curve. The CIA, in particular, had become bloated, complacent, and inefficient.

So, when I see the controversy concerning Porter Goss’ takeover of the CIA, it just tells me good things are happening.

A new study shows getting enough sleep is important to weight loss. Well, I guess I’ll have to cut down on the exercise time so I can sleep more. 🙂

I’m currently watching the Discovery-Times special Recreating The Taliban. I have long been aware of third-world replications of the Kalasnakov. But when I saw a vendor holding up a perfect A1 or A2 spec M16, my jaw dropped.

I’m currently watching CNBC’s Chris Matthews Show. One of the panelists is Andrew Sullivan, And it occurs to me that Andrew, like Mort Zuckerman, has become an omnipresence on cable news talking head shows. Further, he is widely read, not only on TNR, where he is a senior editor, but also Time and the NYT magazine.

But I am reminded of but two or three years ago, when he was virtually begging for contributions to his blog.

Andrew appeals to me because he is what I term a ‘rational liberal’, in the tradition of Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He has become a champion of the left because he is not only moderate and outwardly gay, but also OMG – English!

In any event, here’s to you, Andrew.