A film for all seasons

Tomorrow I have to watch a great film for work. Well, someone has to do it! Br. Gerry Molyneaux is teaching a course called "Film and Law" in which students will watch a film with a legal angle and then discuss it with a "real" lawyer afterwards. A reporter with the Pennsylvania Law Journal is coming to do a story on it, and I'm picking him up from the subway and taking him to the comm ctr. The movie is "A Man for All Seasons" which is about the trials of Sir Thomas Moore; it won Oscars for best picture, actor and director.

The "real" lawyer discussing it is Tim O'Toole, and I have a present for him. In 2006 Tim received an honorary degree from La Salle (he was graduated from the U in 1977). His acceptance speech was so good the Phila. Inquirer published it. But Tim hasn't seen it, so I'll give him some copies.

Last week the Inquirer published an oped by Dr. Marc Moreau, chair of the Philosophy Dept., on Darwin and Genesis. He wrote it last year to commemorate the 200th birthday of Darwin, but the paper didn't publish it. Since nothing has changed except the 200th part, I resubmitted it and the paper ran it. So far, Dr. Moreau says he's received about 80 emails from readers, mostly positive.

I tell students that the main thing for newspaper coverage is that it contain the words "La Salle"; last week I sent a reporter in California some comments from Br. Gerry. The reporter used th comments but attributed them to me! The kicker is that Br. Gerry used to work in that area and read that paper!! I've asked (nicely) for a correction.

What to do when a big storm is coming?

What do you do, you contact Donna Tonrey, a professor of social work here who studies and treats emotional trauma. She's given me a good soundbite, so let's see if anyone picks it up.

Next week we could have two opeds written by La Salle folks appear in both city newspapers...or we could have zero opeds appear next week. As I wrote earlier, all we can do is wait.

DON'T Let it snow

Yesterday an electronic media outlet did an interview for a La Salle story ... and then we woke up to some snow...just enough to get the traffic reports expanded, etc., so I think the La Salle story will never be broadcast....

What's Love Got to do with It?

Less than two weeks before Valentine's Day, and I'm working on every angle I can think of: what happens to our brains when we fall in love (that's one for the biology dept.), and what's the history of love? I've contacted Philosophy and English profs and my colleague Amy Cranston is trying to figure out when giving a rose became a Valentine's Day tradition. Last year one of professors who teaches a course on the philosophy of love was interivewed by KYW Newsradio. The first writer in English (or an early form of it) to write about romantic love was Geoffrey Chauder (this fact courtesy of Kevin Harty, chair of La Salle's English dept.). Then again, there's the 'business' of love; I've heard that restaurants do more business on Valentine's Day than any other day of the year, including Mother's Day. Amy is looking for some business profs to discuss that angle.

In the meantime, a British film crew is coming to town tomorrow to film Matthew Quick, a La Salle alum whose novel, "The Silver Linings Playbook" will be featured on an English TV program (akin to Oprah's book club). Inquirer columnist Mike Klein has something about the film crew in his column today, and the Courier-Post is interested (Quick lives in South Jersey).