I came across a video that was touted as amazing, featuring a 75-year-old man who still teaches ballet. My first thought was, “That’s not the least bit amazing.” Quite a few of the ballet teachers of my youth reached that … Continue reading →
Joe Klein—yes, that Joe Klein—had this to say in Time’s Swampland about last night’s debate: Well, I’m with all the other talking heads: Mitt Romney won this debate. Barack Obama lost it. I mean, he got his butt kicked. It … Continue reading →
There’s a new way to break up with a significant other. It’s called “ghosting,” and essentially it involves disappearing from the person’s life suddenly and without explanation.
Continue reading →If you are a denizen of the blogosphere, you’ve probably already encountered the Obamaphone lady: I already knew about the program she’s referring to—which actually wasn’t started under Obama, by the way—so she didn’t seem quite as crazy as she … Continue reading →
An interesting bit of trivia: While at Eton, Eric Blair (future pen name, George Orwell) “was briefly taught French by Aldous Huxley.” England’s a small place, isn’t it? That wasn’t Orwell and Huxley’s only exchange. Huxley wrote to Orwell on … Continue reading →
Commenter “Harold” alerted me to a type of photography I’d never even heard of before, although I’d probably seen it and not known what I was looking at—HDR photography: High dynamic range imaging (HDRI or HDR) is a set of … Continue reading →
I’ve been reading a biography of the painter Edward Hopper. Perhaps “reading” is too strong a word; like many biographies these days, it’s way too long, in this case nearly 600 pages of text plus a ton of notes. So … Continue reading →
I was at a doctor’s office today and had to sit in the waiting room for a few minutes, listening to the blah-blah-blah noise pollution of CNN. They were crowing about how terrible Romney is and how great Obama’s been … Continue reading →
Remember back to when the fatwa on Salman Rushdie seemed a strange and unfathomable aberration? Never such innocence again.
Continue reading →They said it couldn’t be done. But hey, I’m a can-do person. So here, at commenter Gringo’s behest, is a post on ballet and jello. Helped out by the remarkably resourceful and inventive act of Googling the words “ballet jello,” … Continue reading →
Ann Althouse notes that Walter Russell Mead has closed comments on his blog with the following explanation: To make the comments section work in its present form we would have to edit and curate much more aggressively than we do … Continue reading →
…for his convention address was Matthew Scully, the same guy who wrote Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention. If I ever need to make a speech, I think I just might call that guy. Scully is … Continue reading →