If American prosperity was ever based on our educational system, it was precisely because we taught reading, writing and arithmetic, along with a healthy side of history, civics, music, art, foreign language and physical education.
In 1925 the French anthropologist Marcel Mauss published his classic essay "The Gift," which argued that contrary to the textbook account of primitive man merrily trading beaver pelts for wampum, no society was ever based on barter.
Politics is ever based on self-interest, justifications come from oversimplification, and art's role can be to reveal how much culture matters.
(Not that those talking points were ever based in reality -- studies have shown that Keystone XL is mostly an export pipeline and that, if anything, it could drive up gas prices in the Midwest if approved).
"In the frontier town that is Everest Base Camp," Kodas writes, "Russell is something akin to Wyatt Earp".
It's excruciatingly, excoriatingly hot and my friend - oh my friend who's just about to find out she isn't my friend and never was my friend because, good God, was friendship ever based on this? - has a hangover.
"Hope no one is ever judged based on their race, color, name, etc".
The beauty of cinema is that it is and always has been such an organic storytelling medium and art form as ideas, concepts, genres, and styles are ever evolving based off of what has come before, accompanied by the contemporary discoveries that have and will come to be.
Homosexuality was illegal in Uganda under existing colonial laws, he explained, "But nobody was ever arrested or prosecuted based on those old laws.
However, if there was ever a hint of legislation based on our work, I am sure that it would heat up considerably.
If there was ever a watch that was based on emotion, it is this.
