As Americans prepare to stuff their faces with turkey, pie, turkey pie, and all manner of bread-related foods, and clock in millions of hours of TV football viewing, it’s worth considering the Pilgrims, originators of America's holiday. (I was just thinking that a Martian would have a very hard time understanding how football and overeating are linked to an otherworldly religious sect.) How do Pilgrims fit into American history and religious history in general?

The question Mr. Stephens asks is an important one for historians and American culture at large. In our age, how do the Pilgrims fit in? Certainly, we've moved beyond the simplistic (paternalistic and possibly racist) dualism of American Indian=good, European=bad, but have the Pilgrims moved along with us?

A thesis I've been putting around in my head lately is that modern history is so complex, ostensibly in an effort to avoid rigid black and white systems, that all first becomes gray, and then ultimately black. Those who were once the "good guys" became bad guys, then became simply products of their history and culture, and finally are seen as pre-enlightened objects of scorn and pity.

But history is not about good vs. bad (except maybe in WWII studies). The historian's job is to make connections between past and present. The Pilgrims, whether we like it or not, whether we see them as heroes or villains, are a part of (white) American history. Their story is our story, for good or ill.

Change your apps name. Not that big of a deal.

Steve

Sent from my iPhone

A developer had a program with "iPod" in the title, were subsequently told by Apple to knock it off, the developer wrote Steve Jobs a long email asking if they could work anything out, and Jobs responded in ten words, telling them a name change was not a big deal. This so perfectly encapsulates Steve Jobs.

According to a 2008 article in The Boston Globe, gay marriage has pumped over $100 million into the Massachusetts economy, with $5 million coming from marriage license fees and sales and occupancy taxes.

As far as I know, this is not photoshopped. (And yes, I know what he's doing means something different outside of the US.)

Top 1 Habits of Amazing Writers

1. They write.

Cinematical is reporting on a rumor that Peter Berg has left the Paramount production of Frank Herbert's Dune. There have been no official reports of this, and (as Cinematical says) if Berg has dropped out, it is probably due to a scheduling conflict.

The search for a new director will be difficult. According to a source:

The search, however, has run into two issues: 1) they're looking for a director who can put the movie together for under $175 million, which sounds manageable, but they don't want anything resembling the crap effects of the '84 film, and 2) they want a director who already has a preexisting passion for the novel and is enthusiastic about the project.

Neill Blomkamp's (District 9) name has been brought up as a potential replacement for Berg, as well as Neil Marshall, but this seems like a wrong move. The problem with previous versions of Dune is that they viewed the novel as sci-fi, and the productions reflected that. Dune is not, in any way, a work of science fiction. The science behind everything is tied to the spice; nothing would work without the mystical melange. As such, Dune is a work of fantasy, much in the same way Star Wars is fantasy. To approach it as sci-fi is to build on the wrong foundation.

This doesn't mean either of these guys couldn't make a good Dune film, look at what Peter Jackson had done before Lord of the Rings, but it does point to the fact that the production company may be looking at the entire project from the wrong angle. (This article at Film School Rejects shows the same problem.)

For my money, in order to make a great Dune film, you would need three things. First, someone who has a passion for the source material. There are a lot of people who dislike Dune, or who just plain "don't get it" and that's fine, but the director needs to be someone who loves Dune. Second, it has to be someone who has a history of films with great characters. Dune is, at the base, a character story. This is what Berg brought to the table and what someone like Joss Whedon could as well. Finally, it would be nice for the director to have some experience in epic films. Dune would be an epic of epics.

Following that list, I would love to see Guillermo del Toro, Ridley Scott, Alfonso Cuaron, Anthony Minghella, or Terrence Malick (I just blew my own mind) direct the film. Neill Blomkamp would be good, especially if Peter Jackson produces, but District 9 didn't blow me away in terms of the secondary characters. My fear is that he would screw up Thufir Hawat or Duke Leto or Liet-Kynes and then the story would be lost.

Of course, any way I look at this, I'm going to be disappointed in a Dune film because it will never match what's going on in my head when I read the books.