Bloggers and rappers: separated at birth?
I missed this when it first came out. But I think it presents a highly credible thesis–heretofore unremarked upon– on the deep and powerful affinities between rappers and bloggers.
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Don’t know whether to laugh or cry?
There’s a new drug for a syndrome that isn’t actually new, but that’s gotten a new name. The drug is Neurodex, and the syndrome is now known as pseudobulbar effect, or PDA. The unsettling and positively creepy-sounding symptoms are as … Continue reading →
Happy Mother’s Day! (quotes, or lack thereof)
By now you may have noticed that I like quotations. So far, I’ve done Orwell, Churchill, and war (hmmm, is there a theme emerging here?) So, in honor of Mother’s Day (and a break with that theme), I thought I’d … Continue reading →
An idea whose time has come: the VVLF
I’ve learned through Brainster that there’s a newly-formed organization called the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation. Their website is a bit sparse as yet, but this looks as though it could be a fascinating project. A group of Vietnam Veterans, some … Continue reading →
The British election makes it three
British politics is another of the many topics on which my expertise is virtually non-existent. But I just wanted to say that, about a year ago, on the eve of the Australian elections, I was pretty pessimistic. The three major … Continue reading →
Ivan Illych, now and then
I know it’s not a real cheerer-upper, but I recently read Tolstoi’s The Death of Ivan Illych. Actually, you could say that I re-read it, since my first encounter with the novella was in a Russian literature course I took … Continue reading →
Let’s talk about the weather
The weather report for this weekend–Mother’s Day weekend–for virtually all of New England: in the 40’s (that’s the daytime figure, by the way), heavy rain and wind. This isn’t funny. This is extreme, even for this part of the country. … Continue reading →
Part 4C progress report
Well, here we go again. Excuses, excuses–I’m full of them! I thought I’d be publishing Part 4C of the “Mind is a difficult thing to change” series this week, but it’s not nearly ready, although I’ve been working on it. … Continue reading →
Vietnam revisited–again
Vietnam’s been on my mind recently, for obvious reasons. I’ve been thinking and writing so much about it lately that I’ve only just gotten around to reading this article by Stephen J. Morris, which appeared in the Op-Ed page of … Continue reading →
Looking like a thug
Sometimes when an ordinary, garden-variety murderer is caught (or even a more-than-garden variety serial killer, such as Ted Bundy), I am struck by how normal he looks. Normal, as in “you would pass him on the street and not suspect … Continue reading →
Fighting “liberal prejudice”
One would think the term “liberal prejudice” would be an oxymoron–but then, one would be wrong. Liberals are hardly immune to prejudice, as this article, appearing, surprisingly, in The Guardian (courtesy LGF) concedes–that is, if the prejudice happens to be … Continue reading →
Like Norm Geras, I’m not a desperate housewife
I thought perhaps I might get your attention with that title. Now that Norm has come out of the closet as a “Desperate Housewives” fan (or at least, a viewer), I feel it’s only right to show solidarity (Solidarity Forever, … Continue reading →