Is there really a clash of civilizations? Alright, I just felt like throwing that phrase out there.

While pondering that question one might want to read two current (this week) and fascinating New York Times articles on the subject of Saudi Arabia’s youth and LOVE. The articles are titled: “Love on Girls ‘Side of the Saudi Divide” and “Young Saudis Vexed and Entranced by Love’s Rules.”

A particular tidbit at the very end of the first linked article caught me completely by surprise. A girl named Shaden is being described:

She turned back to the stack of DVDs she had been rifling through, and held up a copy of Pride and Prejudice, the version with Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet, a film she says she has seen dozens of times. “It’s a bit like our society, I think,” Shaden said of late Georgian England. “It’s dignified, and a bit strict. Doesn’t it remind you a little bit of Saudi Arabia? It’s my favorite DVD.” Shaden sighed, deeply. “When Darcy comes to Elizabeth and says ‘I love you’ — that’s exactly the kind of love I want.”

Officially, I like to grumble about Mr. Darcy. Just ask my wife - an avid fan of the Jane Austen movies and Pride and Prejudice in particular. We have a few different copies at our place and in the past I’ve wondered aloud if I need to worry about Mr. Darcy. I’ve also complained that I live in Chickflickistan and that maybe we should purchase some ‘manly’ movies to counterbalance all the drama spilling from the DVD shelf.

Off the record though, I’ll concede that Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are compelling characters and that Jane Austen’s fiction has plenty of insights to offer about the good and bad in human nature. It doesn’t really surprise me that Jane Austen’s stories have such lasting appeal to so many people.

But I wouldn’t have predicted that a Saudi Arabian girl would hold up Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy as the example of ideal romantic love. In my estimation, that anecdote really proves the point about Jane Austen’s mastery and capability to communicate the thoughts and emotions that are most truly human. It also makes me think that on a basic essential human level - despite numerous political and religious differences - Saudis and Westerners aren’t so different after all.

Okay - enough is enough. I’m off to find my copy of the Bourne Supremacy.

A friend brought to my attention that Google Talk Labs Edition is available for download. It’s supposed to allow for group chat … give it a shot if you want.

If you have a Facebook profile and you use Google Reader and you are a fan of the Google Reader share feature - then you may want to check out the Feedheads application. It’s a way to post those Google Reader shared links in your Facebook profile.

As if you didn’t have enough Facebook nonsense there already … (i.e. - “my werewolf just bit your vampire”)

Note: this Feedheads application can take over your Facebook mini-feeds if you don’t fix the settings on it.

I was reading an article about the French and stumbled across a description of a food called “andouillette” that somehow caught my attention. So I checked out the wikipedia entry, which begins by saying:

Traditional andouillette is made from the colon and the stomach of pig. In modern times, contents vary and normally contain intestines of pig, cow and/or calf. It is not to be confused with andouille sausage, which is much spicier, but more mild in animal-derived smells …

The phrase “animal-derived smells” is troubling, especially when it follows hard after a words such as “colon” and “stomach” … but if one is only uneasy at this point - prepare for horror. The description of this food goes straight downhill after that. In fact, it walks right off a cliff. We continue reading:

French andouillette … is an acquired taste and can be an interesting challenge even for adventurous eaters who don’t object to the taste or aroma of feces.

At the end of that sentence, in my mind, all the romance of France just died. RIP.