Pun Salad

• UNH alum Erin Buzuvis, now a law prof at the University of Iowa, blogged about how she disapproved of the painted-pink visitor locker room at Kinnick Stadium. But Iowahawk has the first draft of her article, and it's better. Sorry, Erin.
• From the dogs-and-cats-living-together department: The WaPo has an editorial that, if you didn't know otherwise, might have come from National Review:

  Like looters who seize six televisions when their homes have room for only two, the Louisiana legislators are out to grab more federal cash than they could possibly spend usefully.

  Whoa. (Via Instapundit.)

• Will Wilkinson provides a piquant takedown of a Slate article by Daniel Gross. You'll come away wondering how Gross could have ever been hired to write on business and finance.

One of the great things about being on an online DVD rental plan is that there's no marginal cost involved in getting a sentimental favorite every so often. Such is the case here.

It was especially fun to watch this after Seven Samurai, on which it's based; some things are direct copies, others are significant changes, and it's fun to speculate on the reasons for the changes.

Example: the opening conflict where Chris (Yul Brynner) and Vin (Steve McQueen) meet; they are nothing less than selfless civil-rights workers, determined to integrate a "Boot Hill" cemetery, in conflict with a number of bigoted townsfolk. In Seven Samurai, Kambei has a much less socially relevant task: rescuing a child from a kidnapper. I'd guess this change reflects the mindset of the circa-1960 American "progressive" filmmaking community. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

But that's too much deep thinking for this fun movie.