Sorry for the meager posting of late. I'm in one of those phases with papers that are justthatclose to being done, and have to concentrate on pushing them out the door. So blogging might be light for a while. By way of light diversion, here's the LA Times' take on grading recent Nobel Laureates on their fashion savvy (hat tip to Jennifer). The first thing to note is that physicists come out looking good, although one suspects that the grading was done on a curve. Here is Peter Gruenberg, of Giant Magnetoresistance fame.
On the Hit/Miss scale, the Times bestows a "Hit" on Gruenberg's ensemble. "Here's a guy who knows cool," they say. Who am I to argue with the mainstream media? But it's not only the physicists who seem to get the benefit of the doubt. Here's Literature laureate Doris Lessing, just after the Prize was announced.
This one is also graded a "Hit." Admittedly, I wouldn't want to be graded on my fashion choices as I was being surprised by photographers upon returning home from a trip to the grocery store. But still, rhapsodizing about the "curving highlight of red scarf" seems a bit much. In other cases, the Times is unduly harsh. Here is Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
I'm sorry, but that is one stylin' bureaucrat. Yet the Times gives him a "Miss," complaining that the blue of his tie blends into the blue of his shirt. Like I said, graded on a curve, and not the same curve for everyone. And then we have Medicine laureate Mario Capecchi.
Again, the Times comes down hard, especially on the hat. Obviously they've spent too much time at Oscar parties and not enough at convocation ceremonies. The guy's receiving an honorary degree in medical biotechnologies from the University of Bologna. This is the one yearly chance for your typical academic to go whole hog for the pomp and circumstance. Good for him.
