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Post-221: Watching the Grapes of Wrath (1940)

7/27/2014

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The Grapes of Wrath was released in March 1940, not long before (both sets of) my grandparents got married. Perhaps they saw it while on a date on some Saturday night back then.I think it would've especially drawn the sympathy of my father's parents (who married in Feb. '41), as they were also involved in farming at the time, in Iowa, not far from the Dust Bowl.

I watched this movie in 2014 for the first time.


Grapes of Wrath is based on a book. I read it in high school. Most of it, anyway. I gave a poorly-thought-out and poorly-delivered presentation on the themes of the movie, to the disappointment of our 11th grade English teacher, Mr. Mo***. Oh, I admired that man. He may have been more of an influence on my thinking than I realize. I'd like another shot at that presentation. I can do better now.

The movie has a simple plot: Expelled by the bank from their long-held farm in Oklahoma, westward the Joad family goes, to California. They want work. Ill fortune awaits. The local "company thugs" mistreat them, exploit them, lie, cheat, and treat them cruelly. The family begins to disintegrate. Tom Joad reacts by becoming a kind of political radical outlaw (this is toned down in the movie) and the ending is uncertain.

Here are some screenshots I took:
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Original Poster for Grapes of Wrath (1940)
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DVD case for Grapes of Wrath (2000s)
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Tom Joad walks "down that lonesome road" towards his (soon to be former) home in Oklahoma
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Post-220: Jewish Classmate, Reminisced

7/26/2014

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Fall 2000. Lunchtime. School cafeteria. Within sight were probably a few trend-followers wearing very, very baggy pants (a fashion that is, thank God, long gone). A few of us had finished eating and were wandering around out of doors, just outside the cafeteria. J.A., my Jewish friend, was there. I brought up the latest Israeli vs. Palestinian fighting then occurring. He said a few things which I'm sure he was repeating from his Jewish School teachers or parents. How to solve the problem once-and-for-all. Something about a "two-state solution" which I didn't understand at the time.

(J.A. also remarked, either on this occasion or another, something about the "real problem" being the Ultra-Orthodox Jews, a comment I also didn't understand at all, so simply accepted, on his authority as a Jew, without comment.)
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Post-219: Dilbert and Dave Barry on the Middle East

7/24/2014

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Dave Barry once wrote:
Wall Street [is] always making up preposterous explanations as to why stock prices rise and fall, such as “tension in the Middle East,” when of course there is always tension in the Middle East. When we finally have a nuclear war and there is no life left on Earth except cockroaches, the cockroaches in the Middle East will be tense.
And in the same spirit, a Dilbert comic strip from July 1989:
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This was twenty five years ago. Two of the three "reusable headlines" hold up well (certainly "Unrest in the Mideast"). "Home prices rise" was true most of the time. Here is an Economist on U.S. home prices 1987-2013:
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Post-218: Gaza in the "Mirror" (Spiegel) (And the Abyss Stares Back)

7/21/2014

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Last month, unknown assailants killed three Jewish teenagers in Israel. This month, Israel decided to kill 650 Palestinians (so far) in revenge bombings. "That'll shown those...unknown assailants."  Uhh...

It seems that nobody has determined who killed the teenagers or why. Oh, and between the three deaths and the 650 Palestinian deaths [and thousands of woundings], Israel used gestapo tactics to jail hundreds more Palestinians, killing ten or so in the round-up, which inspired some other Palestinians to launch a few useless rockets in anger.

All the same, the
"Gaza Conflict" of summer 2014 I view mostly with indifference. I don't support either side, and see it as senseless and a bit tiring (this happens so often). What does Respectable Opinion say?
PictureSpiegel "Pressekompass" July 21 2014 on Gaza Conflict [Link]
Der Spiegel ('The Mirror' in German), the news and politics magazine, did an analysis of a few newspapers' editorial stances on the July 2014 Gaza attack. The axes of opinions:

Vertical:
(top) Hamas' actions are understandable
(bottom) Hamas' actions not understandable

Horizontal:
(left) Israel's response is disproportionate
(right) Israel must respond in this way

Top-right quadrant: "Everybody's right".
Bottom-right: "Pro-Israel" (Israel justified, Hamas not)
Bottom-left: "Everybody's wrong."
Top-left: Pro-Palestinian (Hamas justified, Israel not).

The icons represent different newspapers' editorial opinions during the July 2014 crisis:

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Post-217: Introducing "I am Cappuccino" (using Korean)

7/20/2014

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Here is an assignment from my Korean class, kind of a free writing activity (for once). Choose a product and write a little summary of it. Guidelines, simple: Where was it bought? / Price? / Good points? / Bad points?

I wrote what is in black. Red is the teacher's. Below is the final text in Korean (corrected) with my English translation.
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캔 커피 [개요쓰기]
이것은 40분 전에 제가 이 건물 안에 있는 자동판매기에서 산 캔 커피예요. 이름이 "나는...카푸치노"이어서 우유가 좀 있는 커피예요. 키가 큰 여자 사진있지만, 그 사진은 작아요.

이 캔 커피는 값이 싸요. 오백원이에요. 커피가 맛있어서 마시고 기분이 좋아져요. 카페인이 많아서 졸리지 않아요. 그렇지만 캔이 작이어서 마실 수 있는 커피가 적고 설탕이 많아서 건강에 나쁠 수 있어요.

Can of Coffee [Product Summary] (Translation)
This is a can of coffee which was bought by me forty minutes ago in a vending machine in this building. As its name is "I Am...Cappuccino" it must be the kind of coffee which has some milk in it. There is a picture of a tall woman on the can, but the picture is small.

This can of coffee is sold at a cheap price. It is only 500 Korean Won [50 U.S. cents]. As the coffee tastes good, after drinking it you'll feel better. There is a lot of caffeine, so you won't feel drowsy. However, the can is a bit small so there is not much coffee to drink, and furthermore there's lots of sugar, so it may be a bad for your health.
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The can of coffee about which
I wrote a summary in Korean
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