Caillebotte and "Charade": separated at birth?

caillebotte charade sep birth
Originally uploaded by halobrien

I was just watching Charade and noticed a particular shot.

Left: Gustave Caillebotte's "La Place de l'Europe, temps de pluie," from 1877. Right: Cary Grant in the movie, in 1963.

What's your name again?

Occasional humorist David Brooks (occasionally he's funny, occasionally it's intentional) writes a piece in the New York Times that gives a fine example of "defining deviance down."

Brooks, who's had problems distinguishing between fantasy and reality for years ("He accused [the writer of the linked article] of being "too pedantic," of "taking all of this too literally," of "taking a joke and distorting it." "That's totally unethical," he said."), decides that he is the norm from whom all others deviate. Given that, and since he's apparently been having memory problems of late, he decides to declare, "In the era of an aging population, memory is the new sex."

I know, I know... he's just not doing it right. (And if by chance he ever should stumble upon doing it right, he can't even remember it.)

Trouble is, Brooks is in about the 5th percentile at this sort of thing. So 95% of us remember things better than he does. No problem -- we're "colossal Proustian memory bullies."

Awwwwwwww. Woody-oodums. Poor overpaid Times columnists, they just get picked upon so often. It's such a burden.

Cue Denis Leary: "Whining fucking maggot."