The Third Table

Documenta, the once-in-five-years international art exhibition in Kassel, Germany, commissioned 100 “notebooks.” They’re nice, cheap, thought-provoking works with both English and German versions of each essay compacted into, say, 50 pages or so. They’re also cheap.

Mine is now available online, HERE. It says due in May 2012, though what I heard from the Documenta people is that it may be available any day now.

stupid spam of the day

“Military Assignment,

My name is Sgt.Steve wood, a US soldier currently on military assignment in Iraq,I humbly ask of your assistance to 
secure and invest some money for me in your country.

My unit was assigned duties to protect oil facilities here in Iraq and in the course of carrying out my assignment, 
I had a business deal with an Iraq Oil dealer in which i realized huge sum amount.”

It goes on longer, but this is enough. Two things I love about this one:

1. The use of “Steve Wood” as a generic, American-sounding name. Somehow, the name is so generic that it’s weird.

2. Maybe I’ve just been away from America for too long, but the last time I was there, the phrase “in which i realized huge sum amount” would not have been convincing American English.

Look, if you want to run a spam empire using fake Americans, just hire a sleazy unemployed American university graduate. This one is better than the Chinese chemical ones, but they’re still missing out on the chance to hire boina fide native and idiomatic speakers to bolster these scams.

McLuhan and philosophy

If you’re interested in McLuhan’s relation to philosophy, you’ll enjoy the Brussels dissertation abstract of Yoni Van Den Eede, HERE.