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December 31, 2010

The Leftovers of an Argument

Why don't more people include explanations of what doesn't make it into their papers, books, etc.?

Is it akin to lesser cuts of meat in that when cooked well, they can be just as good as the carefully extracted filets, but are perceived as leftover bits to be less valued?

When reconstructing the cow, it's hard to make it complete with only the loins, so why is it that theses are expected to be stripped of extraneous bits and still offer explanation?



For a final research paper for HU3881 Communication and History at Michigan Tech, I studied the history of popular men's magazines as a communication technology because I thought looking at old issues of Popular Mechanics and Playboy might be interesting. As a bonus, I would get credit for it.

Art History II already taught me that I couldn't BS 8-10 pages on a boring topic easily. (Picasso was a great painter jerk, despite what your art professor might tell you.) but the question of "So what? Why do these magazines matter?" remained.