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 →
…Clint Eastwood tonight? Talk about tough acts to follow! But as Roger Simon says: Has Mitt Romney been upstaged on his big night? Well, sure, but so what? Romney seems almost an afterthought, the guy behind the scenes who helped … Continue reading →
I’ve just finished my latest book group assignment, Waiting For Snow in Havana, a memoir by Carlos Eire about his childhood in pre-Castro Cuba, the Castro takeover, and the circumstances under which he was able to leave Cuba for the … Continue reading →
There’s this: And then there’s this: ‘Nuff said.
Continue reading →I am getting really, really, really sick of this sort of excuse/explanation: “The problem [of plagiarism] is as old as journalism,” says Stephen Ward, director of the Center for Media Ethics at the University of Wisconsin. “It’s a systemic issue, … Continue reading →