Alison Bechdel (4) vs. Willie Nelson; Hammurabi advances

We had a good exchange the other day. Manuel led off with a strong argument for Kahlo:

I can’t believe Frida is unseeded, what’s cooler than the combination of art, politics, sex & tequila shots?

Regarding the current competition, can you imagine how physically punishing can be to attend a Hammurabi seminar? His main publication weighs almost 4 tons! What if he starts to distribute handouts and you forgot to bring a forklift?

But then Anonymous Pigeon bounced it right back:

Well then you can simply take your favorite law home with you to hang on your wall. Just jot a mental note to bring a crane.

Also strong supporting arguments from Raghu:

There have been so many blog posts here about bad / inept / fraudulent scientific studies that I’m warming to the idea of “physically punishing the perpetrator.”

With two more commenters adding a solid one-two punch:

John: I really wanna see what Hammurabi does with PowerPoint.

Jeff: More than enough bullets for everyone.

So the lawgiver it is! Just bring a crane.

Today’s matchup

Alison Bechdel is fourth seeded in the “Creators of laws or rules” category (see some blog discussion here). Willie Nelson is . . . an alleged tax cheat. (If someone’s in this competition and you can’t guess their category, then the “Alleged tax cheats” category is good place to check.)

Who should it be? On one hand, Bechdel created the Bechdel Test; long after her books have been forgotten, we’ll still have her Test. On the other hand, the theater production of Fun Home was excellent but had mediocre music; I’m guessing Nelson could’ve helped with that. On the other other hand, with no tax money our government would fall apart: no public schools, libraries, parks, fire departments, police departments, army, navy, NSF, NIH, . . . to be honest, Columbia would probably no longer have the funds to run this seminar. So it’s a tough call, and we need your help with some witty arguments!

Again, here are the announcement and the rules.

4 thoughts on “Alison Bechdel (4) vs. Willie Nelson; Hammurabi advances

  1. Bechdel is already going around the country giving seminars. https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/11/29/graphic-memoirist-alison-bechdel-to-speak-at-yale/

    So why do we want warmed-over ambiguous honesty? “Bechdel is well known for including ambivalence and ambiguity alongside brutal honesty in her works.” If you’re brutally honest, but ambiguous, it sounds like you’re just not very good at explanation.

    In any case, our seminar needs to be special, not the sort of thing you can see on an average Thursday in New Haven.

  2. Just because we choose a seminar speaker, it doesn’t mean we will be able to get them to come. Famous alleged tax cheats can be difficult to contact. Luckily wikiHow already has detailed instructions on how to meet Willie: https://www.wikihow.com/Meet-Willie-Nelson

    Another bonus is the seminar will give all of these Willie Nelson fans another route to meeting him instead of paying $29.99/month for his fan club or scrutinizing paparazzi photographs for location clues.

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