There have been two suicides of prominent celebrities in the news in the past few days: Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. I’ll talk about them a bit later in this post, but I want to start with something more general—this … Continue reading →
Frost again: The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day When the sun is out and the wind is still, You’re one month on in the middle of May. But … Continue reading →
I find that lately I’ve been pulling back ever-so-slightly from day-to-day politics. It’s not that I’m not writing about that sort of thing; I definitely still am. I just find that, for the most part, the stories du jour are … Continue reading →
—John Updike: we may skate upon an intense radiance we do not see because we see nothing else. Delmore Schwartz was a mid-20th-century poet with a tragic life but a wonderful gift. In fact, Saul Bellow wrote the novel Humboldt’s … Continue reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
On Monday, August 21, 2017, America will witness one of nature’s grandest spectacles. The “Great American Eclipse,” as it is being called, will be the first total solar eclipse visible from the continental United States since 1979, when a massive … Continue reading →
I stopped to eat my sandwich at a rest stop on the western Massachusetts Turnpike one recent weekend. It was a lovely day and the Berkshires a fine place for my little picnic, although I didn’t have time to leave … Continue reading →
Commenter “Stan McQueen” wrote on the Conrad Aiken thread: I was especially touched by the inscription of “Cosmos Mariner-Destination Unknown” on his tombstone, which is in the shape of a bench.. He saw a ship by that name and looked … Continue reading →
Sometimes random associations lead to a post. Earlier today I wrote about a story that’s big in the news: the legal, medical, ethical, and human issues involved in the case of Charlie Gard. While writing it, I noticed that the … Continue reading →
[NOTE: The following is a re-edited and updated version of a post that has appeared previously on this blog.] Unbelievable that it’s been eight years since commenter FredHJr died suddenly and tragically. As time passes, the number of readers here … Continue reading →