"I invented Dan Brown"

So says Umberto Eco, and who can argue with him? (HT: Hogwarts Professor.) Actually, I imagine it's rather difficult to argue with him about anything. After enjoying The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum, I tried reading one of his works on semiotics, Kant and the Platypus. I don't know that I got past the introduction; the philosophical woods were too thick.

Richard Rhodes has a post about learning dead languages here. I was also disappointed that they spoke Latin instead of Greek in The Passion of the Christ. And now doing movies in dead/obscure languages is kind of Mel Gibson's thing, which means nobody else will touch it for awhile.

Or maybe not. (Though I feel like I've been hearing about a Vin Diesel-as-Hannibal movie for about six years, now.)

Also, John McCain, still trying to capture the hearts of Evangelicals, comes out against the construction of pagan idols with American tax dollars.