As usual, the powers-of-2 thing sneaks up on us. All of a sudden, our third Greatest Seminar Speaker competition is nearing its final rounds.
Today we have two contestants to be reckoned with. Shakira made it pretty far against weak competition but then vanquished the mighty Dahl. Meanwhile Cleary shot down David Bowie, A. J. Foyt, and the inventor of Code Names.
Songwriter or storyteller; which will it be?
Past matchup
Raghu offers arguments in both directions:
On the one hand, we have not resolved the mystery of physiological scaling among weight lifters.
On the other:
I decided to spend some time in the library working — a change of scenery — and I picked up a book by Maurice Sendak, “Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life,” because previously all I’ve read by Sendak is “Where the Wild Things Are” and because “There Must Be More to Life” is a wonderful title. So far I am only four chapters in: a narcissistic and possibly psychopathic dog leaves her comfortable life in search of something better. It is excellent, and I look forward to finishing. So far it shows no connections to science or statistics, but I wouldn’t mind a seminar on whether there is or is not more to life.
Dzhaughn makes the case for . . . ummm, I’m not sure which one:
It’s hard for me to relate to someone who can eat as much as they want. Or more than they want in case of japanese hot dog guy. Maybe i should open my mind and shut my mouth, even if that’s not their approach.
Supposedly Li Wenwen wins when she can eat, with more ease in her mores, more rice than Maurice, then Maurice.
Anonymous breaks the tie:
I think you really need to give a leg up to the unheard voices. I mean Maurice Sendak got to blab and blab in books, and then I’m sure went on the academic circuit to tell pretentious college students all about the importance of children books, and how important it is to pay him millions of dollars. I don’t speak mandarin, so although Li Wenwen has surely spoken at many cadre meetings or whatever, I haven’t heard it.
And I was all ready to give it Li, but then Ethan came in with this late entry:
“There must be more to life” is far weightier than anything Li can lift. Sendak wins on Wenwen’s turf. Sendak on to the semis.
Shakira is a signer. You know who else? A lot of other people! We don’t need to hear more songs but Beverly Cleary is a one-of-a-kind author. Hearing her speak would be incredible.
To be fair, there are an awful lot of one-of-a-kind authors, too. If it were Burl Ives it might be a different story.
With no comments (yet) I don’t even need an argument to clear the path for Cleary. (Though wanting Sendak later perhaps I shouldn’t shake a stick at Shakira.)
I vote Cleary for the present.
And the dawnzer lee light.
Ahem, donzerly
Dzhaughn,
I don’t have the book on hand right here, but . . .
You’re right, and my memory is disturbingly wrong, according to Google Books, which is the Truth.
A little bit of Googling reveals that Shakira once started in a soap opera (Telenovela) in her teen years. Apparently embarrassed, she ended up buying the rights to the soap and now it’s no longer available in any legal way.
Although I’m very sympathetic towards her actions and feelings, this blog is very pro-open science and sharing data and her actions are as against that as possible…
Alternatively, Clearly lived be past 100. Based purely on sample size of life experience, she has better chance than Shakira (46) of having more interesting things to talk about. Shouldn’t we aim to do MLE here?
Maybe we can turn that into an argument fir Shakira though. How often do you encounter a person who ‘tried everything’ (her own words) and still became rich enough to mop up the failures of your past [admittedly, every successful dictator does that, too]? She is known all over the globe- I did not hear about Beverly Cleary before this this competition (in my defense: I am young and from Germany. There are other authours I am supposed to know). So I don’t entirely buy the ‘better odds of having an interesting story to tell’ thing, because it’s not so much about how long you live, but what you do with the time you have. And someone who ‘tried everything’ might have a tale or two to tell about their experiences.
Ok, let’s get real. I have had the Cleary image of Ramona sitting in a basement taking one bite out of every apple for more than 90% of my life.
And, so would we have had The Ramones without Beverly paving the way? I doubt it. Frankly I’d rather be sedated if I have to listen to Shakira.
Fare thee well to our token representative of the Global South and the Global Present.
Indeed. I don’t wanna go down to the basement. Let it be Cleary.
Speaking of musical influences, Throwing Muses’ 1991 album is titled The Real Ramona, and the opening song, “Counting Backwards,” has come up in my memory often, with its repeated “I don’t remember.” Cleary is clearly the more resonant choice.