First, the results: perhaps S&R voters are tired of conventional wisdom. Some would examine the results of ToR voting to date and reply that “conventional” isn’t the problem, they just lack wisdom, period. In any case, voters felt no reverence whatsoever for the seedings, as they have now evicted the last (and most prominent) of the #1s. The numbers: #3 The Who 53%; #1 The Beatles 47%. Isn’t that a fine kettle of fish?

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This is a bit of a mix in terms of category, because I have no idea what music gets called these days, or why. Folk used to have a fairly specific meaning in US music—and it still does in the UK and much of Europe. But lines have gotten pretty blurred the past several decades, and now it seems as if “folk” is applied to pretty much anything that isn’t rock. And even here it gets messy—what genre would one call The Levellers, for example? Anyway, the choice here is pretty straightforward–The Roches, We Three Kings. Since there are three Roches, the title is ironic, I suppose. But it’s a wonderful album–the Roches all have high thin reedy voices, but they harmonize extraordinarily well, and there are some lovely arrangements of all sorts of music, from the usual carols to Handel, and some of their own songs as well–Star of Wonder is a gem. This was my kids’ favorite Christmas album when they were smaller, perhaps because of their definitive version of Frosty the Snowman, sung in New Yawkese. It still gets plenty of play each Christmas. We’ll give this one to the Roches–this album has just brought everyone I know just too much sheer enjoyment.
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Back in 2005, self-described “rogue economist” Steven D. Levitt teamed up with journalist Stephen J. Dubner to write Freakonomics, a book that rose to #2 on the NY Times Nonfiction Bestseller List based largely on the controversial topics within its covers. Some of those topics included analyses of cheating by teachers, the economics of being a crack cocaine dealer, and the impact of legalized abortion on the crime rate. Levitt and Dubner (hereafter L&D) have recently published a second book, Superfreakonomics, and even before it was published it had made a huge splash in climate circles over its last chapter (Chapter 5 – “What do Al Gore and Mount Pinatubo have in common?”), the one that attempts to tackle climate disruption.

I’m greatly troubled by the content of Chapter 5, but only partly because of the many factual errors that L&D made. Full story »