Surprising headlines

Michael Kinsley, in his wonderfully snarky collection Curse of the Giant Muffins, described the "genre of boring headlines [that] gravely inform[s] you that a development you weren't aware of and don't care about has reversed itself, ideally in some distant part of the globe." He cites Nepal Premier Won't Resign and University of Rochester Decides To Keep Name. But what if, while not exactly caring about it in the sense of it affecting you, you still find it very interesting? I'd certainly read an article headlined with another of Kinsley's examples, Chill Falls on Warming Relations Between Australia and Indonesia.

Here's a development I wasn't aware of that has reversed itself, doesn't affect me, but still interests me: Media Abandoning German Language Reforms (via Arts & Letters Daily). One thing the article doesn't say, perhaps because it's short, is that this is not the first time the German language has been officially reformed. Anyone who needs to deal with 19C (or earlier) German texts will find it useful to know that around the end of that century some official body decided to drop the letter h in the combination th, as in German it doesn't affect pronunciation, and apparently there was no homonym confusion. There was one word they left the h in, though: der Thron, which led to wags remarking that the throne wouldn't stand without its h. As it happened, the throne fell without all the other hs instead.

Here's something else that interests me: Computer-imaging restoration of ancient sound recordings. All the early recordings I've heard have remained scratchy and fuzzy even after the sound is cleaned up: perhaps this new process will yield something better.

Most overrated film on DVD

Whale Rider. Not enough whales in this movie. Instead, this tired old plot: stubborn old man refuses to believe his granddaughter can be just as good as a boy. After being beaten over the head with her talents and abilities for an interminable two hours, he finally gets a clue. The end. All the other characters got it in about the first fifteen minutes. One could make a good story on this theme if there were only any more to it, but there isn't. Cliche after cliche. Two thumbs down. As B. put it, "We could have watched an episode of Xena instead. It would have been shorter, and much better paced."

One does learn a bit about Maori culture from this film. For one thing, I hadn't known they fight with quarterstaffs while making faces like John Belushi's parody of a samurai. I could have lived a long time without learning that. Also memorable: the old man's keening wail, left untranslated but clearly renderable as "Oy vey is mir! My grandson, that should have been, is a girl!"

If there's such a thing as multi-cultural education that subtracts instead of adds to enlightenment, this is it. If only I had read Mick LaSalle's killer review before, instead of after, renting this pretentious film. Should have rented Freaky Friday instead.