There are walls, and then there are walls. Robert Frost wrote: Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass … Continue reading →
Robert Louis Stevenson is one of those writers I connect with childhood, where he loomed large. A Child’s Garden of Verses and Treasure Island, of course (which I now see were published in the same year), and then the Strange … Continue reading →
Yesterday I called former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok a “vast and beckoning mystery.” That, he remains. But today I’ll offer a few thoughts about him nevertheless, based on what we do know (or think we know). Some of this … Continue reading →
Yesterday’s post on stage musicals vs. movie musicals led somehow to me watching video after video on YouTube with great pleasure, and one of the greatest of those pleasures was to learn that Patricia Morison is still alive and kicking … Continue reading →
Larry Tribe, Harvard law professor, made a very weird (or is it wierd?) suggestion on Twitter: Trump [had] tweeted: The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, … Continue reading →
A while back we had a discussion of popular and/or highly-thought-of books of the past that we’ve never heard of, and that don’t seem all that great if we try to tackle them now. Well, I recently came across The … Continue reading →
Joyce Carol Oates has been writing short stories and novels ever since the early 1960s. As a writer, she reminds me of Meryl Streep as an actress—that is, skillful, highly praised, prolific, versatile, and not especially appealing (to me, anyway). … Continue reading →
I’ve already said that I wasn’t going to watch Ken Burns’ documentary on Vietnam, and why. But of course lots of other people have watched it. Here’s a report from Powerline’s Scott Johnson: Watching the Ken Burns/Lynn Novick documentary history … Continue reading →
It began with a seemingly-innocuous gift: To celebrate “National Read a Book Day,” the first lady [Melania Trump] had sent out a collection of 10 Dr. Seuss books to one school in each state across the nation. The titles included: … Continue reading →
Almost two weeks ago Jerry Brown came up with this lovely gibe: “You should check out the derivation of ”˜Trump-ite’ and ”˜troglodyte,’ because they both refer to people who dwell in deep, dark caves.” And I say Brown’s supporters are … Continue reading →
Molly Worthen has written an article in the the NY Times recommending the memorization of poetry: Since ancient times, humans have memorized and recited poetry. Before the invention of writing, the only way to possess a poem was to memorize … Continue reading →
William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection has this to say (the whole post is worth reading): That truth that both sides [in Charlottesville] were violent doesn’t mean both sides were equal. But the denial of the truth that both sides were … Continue reading →