Peter – Page 46 – Peter Murmann

Curious News, Diary

T-Shirt Message: “Meaningful Overnight Relationship Wanted”

by: PeterAugust 14, 2010

I had lunch at a Thai Restaurant today. On the front side of her T-shirt, the attractive waitress had a daring message printed. I could not resist asking her: “What does ‘Meaningful Overnight Relationship Wanted’ mean?” She smiles and says innocently: “I don’t know.” This answer left everything open…

Drama, Movies

Vicent wants the Sea (Vicent will Meer)

by: PeterAugust 5, 2010

Vincent suffers from Tourette’s syndrome, “an inherited neuropsychiatric disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by multiple physical (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic” (Wikipedia). When his mother dies, his father, a politician in Bavaria, sticks him into an institution of people with mental problems so that his tic gets cured. Now

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Curious News, Diary

Should we mourn the disappearance of the Rocky Mountains locusts?

by: PeterJuly 21, 2010

I am spoiled. I admit it. But in my defense, I shall say: In the industrialized world most of us are spoiled! We are living in far greater comfort than the kings of the middle ages who lacked modern medicine and ipods. If you don’t believe me, read on this story about the locust epidemics.

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Humor, People

John Stoppard on the meaning of his early play

by: PeterJuly 17, 2010

From Writer’s Almanac: Stoppard was a drama critic, and while watching a performance of Hamlet he began thinking about the minor characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who are hired by King Claudius to spy on Hamlet. Stoppard decided to write a play that would tell Hamlet from the point of view of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. In Stoppard’s

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Astute Observations, Diary

I’m glad I am not David Cameron or Barak Obama

by: PeterJuly 6, 2010

If you have been studying the business pages of major newspapers and business magazines, you will realize that a fierce battle is being waged by believers in demand or supply side economics. Everyone after the Great Depression used to be a demand sider; then Milton Friedman and his conspirators convinced many politians that government spending

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Humor, People

Barney Frank’s Career Advice

by: PeterJune 25, 2010

From Time.com: With his shaggy white hair, Frank joked that his mastery of the conference is simply a function of his inability to focus. “There’s one piece of advice I give young people—generally they don’t want us pontificating to ‘em—try to find a line of work where a central characteristic of your personality is an

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Drama, Movies

Family Wedding, Youth in Revolt, Arthur, and Brooklyn’s Finest

by: PeterJune 20, 2010

Four films: two good, two bad. Family Wedding, which chronicles the challenges of marrying across cultural and racial boundaries, had great comic potential but delivered a lame treatment of the subject. Youth in Revolt is the opposite: a film about love that is poetic and deep. Two thumbs up. Arthur, mixing animation with human being

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Astute Observations, Diary

Private Cooling: Al and Tipper Gore separate

by: PeterJune 2, 2010

Ellen McCarthy (Washington Post) puts her finger on just how significant the news of Al and Tipper Gore’s divorce is and spells out what this means for the instution of marriage in a modern wolrd with life expectancies reaching nine decades. Al and Tipper Gore’s separation makes us fear for our parents, ourselves Please Al and Tipper,

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Drama, Movies

United 93

by: PeterMay 29, 2010

We all roughly know what happened in the case of United 93. It was the fourth plane that was hijacked on September 11, 2001, to hit a high profile target. In this case, it was not the World Trade Center or the Pentagon but possibly the White House or the Capitol Building. If the Presidential

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Humor, People

Conan O’Brian “My own show again”

by: PeterMay 20, 2010