A while back I saw a link at Powerline to an article in The Critic entitled, “On the chopping block.” I idly clicked on it, wondering what it was about, and saw that it concerned one of those all-too-common flaps … Continue reading →
[The following is a slightly edited repeat of a previous post.] Tonight is the beginning of the Jewish holiday Passover. I’ve been impressed by the fact that Passover is a religious holiday dedicated to an idea that’s not solely religious: … Continue reading →
This article is worth reading: Many have slotted this drama [in Canada] into a familiar framework of right-wing populists versus left-wing elites. But a different way of looking at it may be more helpful in explaining not only what has … Continue reading →
Commenter John Tyler asks: There never is a shortage of jack-booted enforcers to impose a government’s will upon the citizenry. This time Canada is the venue. So, ladies and gents, what is about the Canadian personality or culture that enables … Continue reading →
[NOTE: Today is Presidents’ Day, and this is a repeat of a previous post.] I’m not that old, but pedagogical practices in my youth seem absolutely archaic compared to whatever passes for education these days. For starters, we had Washington’s … Continue reading →
This video has been making the rounds. It shows Las Vegas schoolchildren’s wild glee at being told that starting tomorrow they can ditch their masks. They’ve certainly suffered more than enough with this, but one of the things I find … Continue reading →
On the previous thread on COVID hope and fear, David Foster offered this quote from Arthur Koestler, as related by Koestler’s friend Richard Hillary: K has a theory for this. He believes there are two planes of existence which he … Continue reading →
A large swath of New England is expecting a big snowstorm this weekend, and that includes me. I’ve got a lot of food in the fridge, my place is warm, and I’m hoping for no power outage so that it … Continue reading →
The subject of the Tolstoy marriage came up in this thread, in the context of a discussion about Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina. In that book, Tolstoy presents a thinly-disguised more idealized version of his own marriage to his wife Sonya, … Continue reading →
Another person connected with the arts has died. This time it’s WSJ drama critic and playwright Terry Teachout, who died unexpectedly at the age of sixty-five. Teachout wasn’t just a drama critic and playwright, either; he was “an acclaimed author, … Continue reading →
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting was the first book I ever read by Milan Kundera back when it was first published in 1980, and it probably is still my favorite work of his. It’s a very strange but wonderful … Continue reading →
[NOTE: The topic of the two-volume graphic novel Maus came up in a recent thread, and I’ve decided to republish a review that I first wrote in 2009. So here it is.] I recently reread the two-volume graphic novel Maus, … Continue reading →