Yes, you read that right: 400 years. If you call that “living.” We actually don’t know all that much about shark behavior. But here’s my first introduction to it, courtesy of Herman Melville in a Moby Dick passage that made … Continue reading →
There’s a trend I’ve noticed in the comments section here and also in some of the emails I’ve been getting: quite a few people admonishing me that I should shut up like a good apparatchik and take one for the … Continue reading →
Edward FitzGerald’s translation of “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” is justly famous and justly beloved. I studied the poem in high school, and it was one of my favorite assignments—really, a revelation. But FitzGerald was very free with his translation, … Continue reading →
That quote that I used for the title of this post is from Yeats’ famous poem “The Second Coming.” It’s one I’ve quoted many times on this blog, because it’s not only a great, great poem, but also because it … Continue reading →
I have no idea whether this theory known as “Snowball Earth” has any validity at all, but it’s fascinating to contemplate it: The Snowball Earth hypothesis proposes that the Earth’s surface became entirely or nearly entirely frozen at least once, … Continue reading →
I didn’t watch the convention yesterday. Mega-busy—and also there’s a limit to the number of political speeches I can stomach, and that limit has always been set very very low. But other people did watch, and if you want to … Continue reading →
I usually don’t watch convention speeches or speeches in general, but I was curious about two last night and decided to watch them. Neither was so very long, and both were interesting. The first was Guiliani’s fiery anti-Hillary pro-Trump shoutfest, … Continue reading →
It’s often an empty exercise to mourn what might have been. One reason is that one can never know, because the road not taken is just that: not taken. We are free to imagine any “if only” that suits our … Continue reading →
In announcing that the FBI does not recommend bringing charges against Hillary for matters related to her private email server, Director James Comey said in effect she’s a fool, not a knave. The complete text of Comey’s statement can be … Continue reading →
I can’t remember why I was doing it, but the other night I was researching the life of Harriet Beecher Stowe and I discovered a few surprising things. The first was that Stowe had seven children in addition to writing … Continue reading →
Talk shows seemed like a great idea at the beginning. And in many ways they still are. I’m not against them, or saying they should stop. They provide a gathering place and information for political junkies, a forum for a … Continue reading →
People on the right who refuse to vote for Donald Trump are commonly met with the response that they must then bear some responsibility for electing Hillary Clinton, and that as they watch her presidency unfold they will have to … Continue reading →