Open Season

2005 Visiting season opened today as Frank Miller of Columbia's Dept. of Slavic Languages stopped in to America's most corporate college town for a visit, earning himself a sure slot on next year's holiday letter roll of honor. Who will be next to join the few, the proud, the italicized non-family member out-of-town visitors? No wait, Kirill Postoutenko of USC slipped in earlier, though that was technically 2004.

Saw the new version of the Manchurian Candidate this weekend. It's good to see Meryl Streep getting roles and even having an opportunity to act some, though it's hard to see her as the Angela Lansbury evil one. The funny thing is that the Manchurian thing in the title is a private equity firm, clearly modelled on Carlyle. Private equity just sort of sounds evil, I guess. Oxymoronic, even. Much is imputed to the PE firm, though, as if they had Halliburton or Bechtel-like infrastructure. I kind of doubt it. They just like money.