I just read the New Republic's terrific story on Andrew Weil. I must confess that I have not read Weil's books, but from interviews I always got the impression, with those Harvard credentials, that he was only flirting with the fringees in alternative medicine. This article makes it quite clear that he was never flirting and is himself completely off the deep end. Really wacky stuff, beginning with heavy hallucinogenic drug use and going down hill from there. A really well-written and well-researched article by a former editor of the NEJOM. Check it out.

http://www.thenewrepublic.com/magazines/tnr/current/relman121498.html

Meanwhile, this is worth a good laugh, but it is no joke:

This has all the earmarks of a hoax, but with deconstructionism there is little difference between reality and hoax, so maybe it doesn't matter. In any case, I thought you would all enjoy this little item:

This month (November) Hofstra University hosted a conference entitled: FRANK SINATRA: THE MAN, THE MUSIC, THE LEGEND, deconstructing the late singer's "text." Presentations include:

"Hanging on a String of Dreams: Delirium and Discontent in Sinatra's Love Songs"
"Frank Sinatra's Second Self: The Transformation of His Personality into His Art"
"Frank Sinatra: An Artist Whose Creative Expression Amplified the Whispers of the American Collective Unconscious"
"Doing it 'His' Way? Frank Sinatra, Black Music and the Performance of Whiteness"
"Frank Sinatra and the Endgame of Cool"
"'All of Me'" The Cartesian Soul of Frank Sinatra"
"Do You Take Sinners Here? How the Films of Frank Sinatra Brought Catholicism Into America's Pop Culture Mainstream"
"Frank Sinatra and the American Presidency"
"Playing the Big Room: Frank Sinatra, The Fountainbleau, and the Architecture of Inclusion"

I'll never listen to Andrew or Frank the same way again. But at least they did it their way, for what it's worth.