The wittiest and most sophisticated movie I’ve seen in ages, Trouble in Paradise (1932, dir. Ernst Lubitsch), starring the beautiful Kay Francis, in a splendid Criterion reissue with great DVD extras Cory Doctorow’s new short story collection Overclocked as well as hearing him speak at Duke on privacy and a fizzing mass of other 21st-century things Julie Taymor’s film Titus, containing some slightly silly touches (like legionaries on wolf-headed motorcycles) but redeeming Anthony Hopkins a little in my eyes—although the man has no scruples about his career, does he? Darren Naish’s Tetrapod Zoology blog The extremely French song Le Vent Nous Portera, both in its original Noir Désir and Manu Chao version, and Victoria Vox’s ukulele cover from her new CD—I only wish I’d asked to hear it live when she played at the Open Eye in Carrboro Remembering what really good science journalism can be by reading the Best American Science Writing 2006, edited by Atul Gawande Baking thin baguettes in a three-loaf pan, because three is the Platonic ideal number of baguettes I for one welcome our new Mexican movie mafia overlords if they keep bringing us Pan’s Labyrinth and Children of Men The chowpatty chaat at Cool Breeze in Cary.