Paul Murray's weblog, with news you may have missed and my $0.02 worth on a number of topics.

"You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it."
- Art Buchwald

I bet you don't have a friend who's an acupuncturist

E-mail me: pmurray [at] despammed.com

Robert McNamara, 1916-2009. Some people lead lives that would seem appropriate as the subject of a Shakespeare play (in the tragic sense, although there are probably some appropriate examples for comedy as well). The first person who always comes to my mind in Richard Nixon, whose positive attributes were thoroughly undone by his negative ones. I've come to think that another may be the late Robert McNamara.

Some supporting evidence:

• Wikipedia biography
• New York Times obituary
• The Fog of War at Google Video (2003 Academy Award-wiinning documentary by Errol Morris -- 1:47 long)
• "The Outsider" in American Heritage, about his years at Ford

As a biographer concluded: "For better and worse McNamara shaped much in today's world -- and imprisoned himself. A little-known nineteenth century writer, P.W. Bornum, offers a summation: 'We make our decisions. And then our decisions turn around and make us.'"

(Last two links via Metafilter)

Labels: biography, history, obituary

posted by Paul Murray at 11:50 PM | permanent link |

The perfect crime? In August 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. It was recovered in December 1913 when Vincenzo Perugia tried to sell it in Italy. At his trial in June 1914, Perugia claimed that, acting alone, he stole the painting to return it to Italy (although he had admitted trying to sell it to someone in London). He was convicted and was imprisoned for seven months. Case closed.

Or not.

Mind-boggling as it is that someone could simply hide in the museum overnight, then walk out the next morning with one of the world's most famous paintings, there may be more to the story, as you can read in this book excerpt in Vanity Fair.

Apparently it's not a new story, but I'd never heard it before.

(via kottke)

Labels: crime, history, Mona Lisa

posted by Paul Murray at 11:42 PM | permanent link |

Origins. The Washington Post has a book excerpt this weekend: How the Pentagon Got Its Shape. Short answer: to fit on the unusually shaped original plot of land. The long answer is pretty interesting, though.

Labels: architecture, history, Pentagon

posted by Paul Murray at 12:16 AM | permanent link |