Ataraxia

  Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely   There are quite a few interesting and even funny stories in this psychology book.   There is the story of the nursery which imposed penalties on the parents who were late picking up their children: it did not work.  Before the penalties were imposed, there had been social norms which did the job, more or less- (some) parents were ashamed to be late and make teachers wait for them. Once another rule  was imposed, parents  thought they can be late, since they pay for it. When they saw their experiment fail, nursery officials went back to the policy of no penalty. The situation got worse, because people did not have to pay and both the economic and the social norm became kind of „expired”   When asked to do something for too little money, under the market value of the service offered, we tend to refuse. If the question is to offer a free service, we tend to be more inclined to accept (if we are not l...

  "The American Credo" by H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan ‘is a profound exploration of the national mind of America. The authors dissect the social aspirations that drive American behavior, revealing a complex interplay of ambition and fear’ that is a quote, and I agree with it, this is why I have it here, albeit there are caveats, for I feel very strongly that America is not what Mencken knew, it has changed since my youth, never mind more than fifty years ago…now for my inefficient self-promotion: you have more than five thousand reviews of magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other sites, plus about as many notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other lists on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html maybe you wish to subscribe…     H.L. Mencken is one of my favorite luminaries, his quotes on democracy- ‘Democracy is the theory that the common peo...

  Where the Money Is, based on a story by Max Frye In the archetypal, quintessential book on all things Hollywood, film making, actors, screenwriters and all those involved in the movie industry, Adventures in the Screen Trade, Paul Newman is one of the professionals, glorious actors, wonderful men that are described in the phenomenal work by William Goldman, who has worked with this deity on the set of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid – for which the writer has won one of his two Oscars- and other features. Paul Newman had his first chance to glory- and he took it- when another phenomenon, Montgomery Clift had passed on the chance of working on Somebody Up There Loves Me- and he did the same for On the Waterfront, launching the career of Marlon Brando and then with his refusal of East of Eden, gave audiences the brief opportunity to enjoy James Dean. From the aforementioned classic, we learn that Paul Newman was not just a very accomplished actor, doing his fair share and delive...

  Chasing Amy, starring, written and directed by Kevin Smith Nine out of 10 This is remarkable, amusing, provocative romantic comedy that has quite a few scenes, developments that could make for some uneasy moments for the audience and if a viewer were conservative, evangelical or fundamentalist in any other way, he or she would hate it. Ben Affleck is mostly very good in the leading role of Holden McNeil, although there are points where he can seem wooden, artificial, and inappropriate perhaps, but overall, this is such an extraordinary production that we can pass by that. The main character is a comic book author, rather successful together with his best friend, Banky Edwards aka the excellent Jason Lee, a personage that has some disputes, early and then later in the motion picture, with those who accuse him of just copying the material that his fiend had created. These friends seem to have a great time together, albeit the subconscious of Banky might be entertaining a different ...

La Ch’tite Famille, starring, written and directed by Dany Boon Seven out of 10 This comedy seems to be a sequel – or is it prequel? – to the very successful, at least in France, film Bienvenue Chez Les Ch’tis. Notwithstanding that first accomplishment, the latest descent into a very strange dialect does not seem to have the impact of the first, which was anyway hard to engage with for audiences outside the Hexagon. In the Welcome to the Sticks, a man from Provence is sent to work in the far North, where he finds it impossible to communicate with locals that seem to speak some foreign tongue. Recently, this has been a subject for the news, when the leader of the extreme left, Jean-Luc Melenchon has been aggressive to a journalist who spoke this strange dialect, which he pretended not understand, asking for a question in French. This was not just preposterous, it was outright offensive, pretentious, ignoble and stupid, and coming from a self-proclaimed leader who cares for those left be...

  Out of Africa by Karen Blixen and adapted for The BBC Another version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at: -               https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E Out of Africa has become famous after the production of the film based on the book, with its many Academy Awards nominations and wins. Directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, it is indeed an excellent advertising for the original. As for the unabridged version, I cannot say anything. This note refers to the dramatization for The BBC. Alas, the narrator and heroine of the book are played by an actress who is using a rather heavy-for this listener- Nordic accent. In general, I am against this habit of having an actor use a foreign accent, which is supposed to indicate a French, German or another nation. If the character is Italian American, I think it is all right fo...