If Compelling Were Basketball, These Would Be My Starters
Deeply compelling
“Compelling” is a tough adjective. What does it mean? Interesting? Enviable? Charismatic? Successful? I’ve focused on the life work of each person. Each is great at what he or she does, and what he or she does is of particular interest to me. Here we go:
At the crossroads between nonfiction author, journalist, public intellectual, pundit and professional drunk, you will find Christopher Hitchens. He is a passionate political independent and the most vocal leader of the new atheist movement (excellent examples of the latter at this three-part series). And, of course, he is a hero to the drinking class. He is sadly on death’s door with a cancer that has spread to his lungs. I’ll miss him.
It’s trendy in elitist circles these days to dismiss Malcom Gladwell as a faux-intellectual. I think nothing could be further from the truth. His inclusion on my list is part fascination and part pure jealousy. Is there a better job in the world? As an author and staff writer for the New Yorker, he picks an interesting or quirky human event, summons all of scientific, economic and statistical information in the world that may help explain what is happening, and creates explanations that become important contributions to fields of social science and behavioral economics. And man, can he write. Who else could write an edge-of-your-seat, 5,000-word piece on ketchup?
I’m guessing most of you don’t know who Tyler Cowan is. He’s a professor of economics at George Mason University and, more importantly, the heart and soul of a terrific blog called Marginal Revolution, which I read daily. This guy reads more, thinks more, teaches more, and writes more than seems to me to be humanly possible. It’s hard to believe one person can write so much interesting material EVERY SINGLE DAY. I’m in awe of his intellect.
We all know who Jon Stewart is; no need for a biography. He has emerged from late-night deep cable obscurity to become the most powerful, if totally unlikely, advocate for rationale thinking, progressive politics, and honest journalism. I support all three. Plus, he’s funny. I love funny.
Where da white women at? Right here. Hillary Clinton. I find everything about her fascinating: her Wellesley-taught assertiveness, her wicked smarts, her naked ambition, her constant disappointment, her willingness to forgive serial marital infidelity – everything. She got my vote last time around, and I hope I’ll have a chance to vote for her again. PS – if this list were a bit longer, her husband would be on it as well.
I’d like to give a special shout-out to two more people who are doing important work. Jay-Z is living perhaps the coolest life ever lived, and Roman Abramovich is conducting an important longitudinal experiment in unchecked hedonistic consumption. Neither excelled in my “most compelling” criteria, but both easily could have under a different interpretation.
Posted on October 15th, 2010 Filed in: Life
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Let the readers note that Sparks and I take women very seriously. Lets see which women came off as compelling on these lists:
Sparks – Hilary Clinton
KillerB – Doris Kearns Goodwin
xTian – a random girl who was stalking a b-list celebrity
Evil – Lady Gaga, with a crotch shot
Nice work xTian and Evil. If we have any female readers left we will be lucky.
Killer B, you rule. Way to go. Evil, I’m calling your mom.
Evil took all of his from pop culture. That’s what compells him. No judgement!
@KillerB
Umm…aren’t you the one who wants to get DKG drunk to take advantage of her? How does that make you morally superior to us?
And don’t forget race! KB’s list is 40% black (Love and Walker); Evil’s is also 40% black (Tyson and Clinton); mine is 10% black (Gladwell) – just like our country. But xTian’s is nothing but white folks.
He may try to argue that the fangirl could be any race, but we all know that anyone skulking around Broadway theaters to run into stage actors must be totally white.
@Sparks
How dare you?
First, let’s agree that my list is folks that I find compelling because they are confusing. I grew up in the black section of a latino community. I totally understand Blacks and Latinos. (Data to Support my claim here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth_Amboy,_New_Jersey#Demographics)
Second, Rony is Lebanese(!) and was married to a MEXICAN!
The anonymous chick was white but was stalking a MEXICAN (who according to wikipedia is Bisexual…so I get points from the Gays as well)!
People often accuse Carolla of being half a MEXICAN!
I have a browner list than anyone…
Your claim to diversity is that (1) one of your entries is white but used to be married to a white-Mexican woman, (2) one of your entries is white but is occasionally incorrectly identified as half-Mexican, and (3) one of your entries is white but was trying to get the autograph of someone who is a Mexican? That’s a pretty weak shade of brown.
@Sparks
You will have to defend your contention that Lebanese = white
@xTian
can we focus our energies on making fun of the pic where xtian is trying to have sex with a jack-o-lantern?
@Nora
Well yes, all of mine is pop culture but pop culture is so broad! It can include almost anything. Anyone who is popular in their field eventually crosses over into pop culture, right? So to go back to these people’s original fields, I would say:
Lady Gaga = Music (ok, Pop Culture for sure)
Rod Blagojevich = Politics
Glenn Beck = News / Media
Bill Clinton = Politics
Mike Tyson = Sports
So news + sports + politics basically DOES sum up my interests! The only thing missing is, of course… CATS!!!!
I didn’t say all Lebanese are white. Just this guy. He is an American citizen by birth (thanks to his parents’ citizenship) of Greek decent who happened to have been born in Lebanon before moving back to Greece as a child and then back to America as an adult. We can certainly argue about whether Greeks are white, but I think the conventional wisdom is that they are.