Just finished (finally) watching The Fog of War. I found McNamara’s early background to be in many ways strikingly similar to my father’s early career. I have a vague recollection of Mom and Dad telling me that they’d recently seen the film – something of a red-letter event, as they are not really big movie watchers.

McNamara went from an assistant professorship at Harvard to the Army in World War II. Dad recently told me that he turned down a permanent position teaching at Harvard around 1973 or 1974. We lived in Boston during 1973 and 1974; my dad had a visiting professor position. What he told me is that he was offered the job on a permanent basis.

It’s unclear in my memory if we discussed whether the position was tenured or not but I suspect it had to be by that point in his career. He told me that the most important aspect of his decision making process was his and my mother’s concern about raising kids in a big city.

I believe I goggled visibly at this news; I still turn it over in my mind trying to make sense of it.

I suppose the turmoil and uncertainty of the times must have strongly influenced their concerns. That fall, the September 1973 Chilean coup would have been fresh in their minds, as would the first rumblings of Watergate with October’s “Saturday Night Massacre.” One can imagine that some of the folkways of the Yard in 1973 might have been a source of interest to my dad at the time, given his teaching experience in the polarized atmosphere of the Chile in 1969. Of course, the next school year, 1974, was the first year of the tumult in Boston around busing, and surely the newspapers had coverage of the political battles that preceded that unpleasant episode.

I think, possibly, that the business school actually is on a physically separate campus from the location of the Yard, I should note.

Finally, I have asked if Dad recalls teaching a certain well-known HBS grad who was enrolled the year he was a visiting prof. His answer is “No.”

I should note that I found amazingly little analysis of W’s degree out there in web land – that one opinion piece was all I could come up with. I seems that most folks are content to refer to it offhandedly and let it mean what it already means to he reader, left or right.

The Movable Type Publishing Platform: Movable Type ‘nofollow’ plugin has been implemented. So, you hear that, spambots? Go away, and do not trouble me again!

SPI S&T #19- ZEPPELIN Unpunched, on eBay, via the comments a few days ago from Matt.

This 1993 turn-based hex-paper strategy game should not be confused with the computer game.

Manuel has followed up on the “unsecured webcams” meme and has a personal tale of righteous, mighty battle in the service of, um… Well, the morality is complicated.

Shesaiddestroy.org offers an .avi of The Clash, onstage in 1977, performing “London’s Burning.” [via The Cartoonist, again!]

For reasons unclear to me, there has been a subcurrent of Joe Strummer in my mediasphere over the past week.

This clip is interesting to me for several things:

Mick Jones looks at his fret hand the whole time he is playing the basic chords of the song and only looks away when he freestyles.

They must be hot in those jackets.

What is up with the oddball flat-and-bright lighting?

The cameraperson might be new to the game, not varying the shoot at all. Could this be from Don Letts’ footage? Is it a rip from “From Westway to the World”? Is this one of the art school gigs? The original site says it’s a gig in Munich.

I remember as a thirteen-year-old thinking those spring-coiled patch cords were the shiznit. Later in life I actually used one for a while, and they suck: they tangle in epic manner, and when they age, the cables snap in the coil. Avoid them.

I love the film scratches. What gear was this shot with? That really seems to be the live audio, and with that static camera work I’d guess this is an 8mm shoot; in which case the footage may have been shot silent. Whatever, it would be interesting to get the backstory.