Basically, what they’re reading is a lot of what used to be called porn. And I don’t mean sneaking around to get it, or looking at it online. I mean that the young adult book market—books written expressively for young … Continue reading →
You may think the title of this post is some sort of joke, but it’s not. Michael Totten, traveler to the world’s most dangerous countries and reporter extraordinaire, has indeed written a zombie novel. Now, I know Michael Totten, and … Continue reading →
[NOTE: Gerard Vanderleun recycled an old post of his at American Digest, an ode to the rainy season in Seattle. Which reminds me that, way back when, I wrote an answering poem—only mine was an ode to snow season in … Continue reading →
[Bumped up.] I’ve been reading another book about Robert Frost, and I keep coming across fascinating tidbits. For example, the following is taken from a letter Frost wrote to the Amherst student newspaper in 1935, and it gives some perspective: … Continue reading →
The Anchoress has a lot to say about the Obama’s administration’s proposal to use the FCC to “study” the newsrooms: …[The administration is] thinking no one in the mainstream press has asked them a difficult or challenging question in 7 … Continue reading →
The following is from a speech Robert Frost gave at Bread Loaf on July 4, 1960 (from the book Robert Frost: A Living Voice, edited by Reginald L. Cook), where he’s describing an encounter with a Boston cab driver: Now … Continue reading →
The following passage is from the book Robert Frost: A Living Voice, edited by Reginald L. Cook. It’s from a talk Frost gave at Bread Loaf in July 27, 1960, when he was in his 80s. He starts by describing … Continue reading →
…I think it should be this one by Jay Parini. I’ve read quite a few, and Jay Parini’s is the only one that seems to capture the Frost I sense from Frost’s poetry and his other writings. Plus, Parini’s book … Continue reading →
…in the Bronx.* And it’s still standing, although it’s been relocated a few hundred feet, and a little park built around it. At the time Poe moved there, the Bronx was not a city. His young wife was dying of … Continue reading →
No, the poet Robert Frost didn’t write anything about the believers versus the deniers of anthropogenic global warming. After all, he died in 1963. When I started this blog (lo about nine long years ago!), I had some idea of … Continue reading →
When I was young I came across this book of courtroom speeches by Clarence Darrow. Although I was only about eleven years old it enthralled me, and I think it was one of the reasons I ended up going to … Continue reading →
Leonard Cohen is a songwriter, and a very successful one at that. But he was a poet first. He’s old, too—if 79 can be called “old” these days. Accordingly, the style and content of his songs have changed over the … Continue reading →