Reviews and News:
Google employee who wrote an internal memo critiquing the company’s diversity policy has been fired for “perpetuating gender stereotypes.”
Looking for Sylvia Plath’s lost novel: “Plath started writing Double Exposure, a fictionalized autobiography about an artist who discovers her husband has cheated on her. Then the novel went missing.”
The revenge of the liberal arts major: “Throughout the major U.S. tech hubs, whether Silicon Valley or Seattle, Boston or Austin, Tex., software companies are discovering that liberal arts thinking makes them stronger.”
The absurd appeal of satirist and poet Dmitry Bykov.
The pleasures of the ISBN: “Until 1998 the TLS used to provide a comprehensive listings service of all books in English language received in the office in the previous week – in subject categories ranging from Anthropology to Zoology. Sometimes the Listings would take up as many as two pages at the back of the paper. It was a kind of free advertising service for publishers (especially the small presses) and free information service for TLS readers. Needless to say, academic presses loved it and would bombard the TLS with books they knew didn’t stand much chance of being reviewed but would be listed. The books appeared by name of author/editor, title, price, number of pages, publication date and of course ISBN (both hardback and paperback if there were two editions). One senior editor at the time would spend half his working hours proof-reading the item; I think he quite enjoyed it. He must have known many of the ISBN prefixes by heart: 0 19 for Oxford, 0 521 for Cambridge, the somehow pleasing 0 224 for Jonathan Cape, and the equally pleasing 0 393 for Norton and 0 674 for Harvard. Another editor at the TLS used to like being tested on ISBN prefixes, but she recalls that particular challenge now with some (understandable) embarrassment. She’s probably not even aware that Cambridge University Press a few years ago changed their prefix from 521 to 107.”
The first Godzilla has died: “Haruo Nakajima, the suit actor who played Godzilla from 1954’s Godzilla to 1972’s Godzilla vs. Gigan, has died. He was 88.”
If you dug straight through the earth, where would arrive? Find out with the Antipodes Map.
Matthew Hennessey remembers working at his parent’s bar: “My first job was at Hennessey’s, the bar my parents owned. When I was 12, I’d go there with my father on Saturday mornings to break down cardboard boxes. Rinsing ashtrays and scraping gum off the floor was the entry level. It was a sticky-elbows joint, and my dad—Jim, known as Hambone—was deep in his element… Hambone was big on a certain kind of madcap ambience. He would ‘French the place up’ with a can of Lysol, running from one side of the horseshoe-shaped bar to the other, canister held over his head, finger firmly on the trigger. This contrail of disinfectant he called the Flying French. It often got a round of applause. I learned early: a bar is where the unexpected happens. A good bar is where everyone gets the joke.”
Essay of the Day:
Steve Farzam was a big name in Santa Monica. He was the CEO of Shore Hotel who received awards for “environmental stewardship and social responsibility” and lived in a multi-million dollar home. He also pretended to be a police officer in his spare time:
Farzam and close friend Christopher Dancel “met in a peculiar social netherworld. Generously, you could call them police wannabes: guys who long to be associated with or, better yet, mistaken for officers of the law. Dancel and Farzam spent years obsessing over police culture. They became fluent in the lingo, from ‘copy’ in place of ‘I understand’ to the numbered codes cops use when speaking over radios; a favorite is ‘417,’ which means ‘I’m armed.’ They accumulated dozens of certificates in skills like handling firearms, picking locks, using Tasers, and responding to accidents. At the time of the 2014 raid, Farzam’s home was filled with law-enforcement memorabilia, including a fabric display pinned with dozens of badges from the FBI, Los Angeles Police Department, and other agencies. A full-size fire truck was parked in his driveway.
“The friends’ methods of pretense, though, were different. Dancel, who worked briefly as a police officer, spent much of his career as a security guard for hire. He conducted a handful of citizen’s arrests and in casual conversation implied that he was a sworn, employed officer, even when he wasn’t. If he deceived, he did so by omission, as he did with me.
“Farzam, on the other hand, tried and failed to become a public-safety officer, but he brazenly feigned otherwise. Whether out of a fondness or a fetish for law enforcement, he became a skilled, serial impersonator. He flashed badges, infiltrated government databases, and adopted the identities of real agents. Along the way, he took or threatened legal action against several people he felt had crossed him. Some individuals who know Farzam declined to be interviewed for this story or would do so only anonymously, for fear of retribution. (Over three years of reporting, Farzam did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Even before The Atavist Magazine initiated contact with him as part of its standard fact-checking process, a lawyer for the Shore Hotel sent a letter to the editors alleging that ‘multiple sources’ had said the article might include ‘defamatory statements’; the letter threatened legal action in case of ‘improper publication.’ Neither Farzam nor the lawyer subsequently replied to requests for verification or comment on the details reported here.)
“This is a buddy cop story that careened off the rails of a bizarre, untenable track. It’s thick with ego and delusion, and punctuated by lies and betrayal. Because while Christopher Dancel was not a member of law enforcement, as he intimated when we first spoke, he was working as a government informant.”
Photo: Alpe di Siusi
Poem: Grace Schulman, “Fragments of a Marriage”
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