Heaven, as Explained by an Expert

Thanks to LGF for finding the most delightfully weird bit of filmmaking I’ve seen in a long time. As a bonus, it comes from someone with the simply awesome name of Estus Washington Pirkle.

As an agnostic skeptic I find the content simultaneously hilarious and sad. As a filmmaker I find the editing and camera choices mesmerising.

You’re wondering about, uh, the “other place”, aren’t you? Well, it’s worse than you thought. Lower resolution and more film scratches!

Update:

My film-literate coworkers have let me know that this first clip is lifted from Dianne Keaton’s 1987 film, “Heaven“. That explains the great editing.

Read This Post Later

And don’t eat the marshmallow.

“This is where your parents are important,” Mischel says. “Have they established rituals that force you to delay on a daily basis? Do they encourage you to wait? And do they make waiting worthwhile?” According to Mischel, even the most mundane routines of childhood—such as not snacking before dinner, or saving up your allowance, or holding out until Christmas morning—are really sly exercises in cognitive training: we’re teaching ourselves how to think so that we can outsmart our desires. But Mischel isn’t satisfied with such an informal approach. “We should give marshmallows to every kindergartner,” he says. “We should say, ‘You see this marshmallow? You don’t have to eat it. You can wait. Here’s how.’ ”

Degree in English

Christopher Francese looks at Latin diplomas and says, “Neque Ego Haer Intellegere Possum“.

We Latinists have also been resistant to change. Like most keepers of arcane knowledge, we savor our rare moments of prominence.

I say this from personal experience: Once, the hardened leader of the local SWAT team asked me for a Latin version of his team’s credo, “The strength of the wolf is in the pack, the strength of the pack is in the wolf.” I told him: “Robur gregi in lupo, robur lupo in grege.” He thanked me and then said the nine most comforting words a SWAT team leader could say to anyone: “Let me know if you ever need a favor.”

Admittedly, this pales in comparison to the fame gained by the Columbia University Latin scholar who had the high honor of translating for the press the tattoo of the woman at the center of the Eliot Spitzer scandal from “Tutela valui” to “I use protection.”

This all sounds very exciting, but these stories of linguistic derring-do obscure the fact that Latin diplomas have outlived their usefulness.