A recent commenter, a teacher, asked for my recommendations for poems for 6th-8th graders to memorize. The thought appealed to me. But when I tried to tackle it, I realized it’s harder than it sounds. Poems with cadence and rhyme … Continue reading →
Fred Barnes seems to be channeling neo-neocon in his latest Weekly Standard article. Towards the end of his piece describing Iraq’s recent progress towards reaching those benchmarks we used to hear so much about, Barnes asks some of the same … Continue reading →
I write some poetry from time to time, And gravitate to forms, I must confess. I crave some meter and a bit of rhyme. Free verse can be illusory progress. The sonnet with its prescribed fourteen lines Presents a special … Continue reading →
Gerard Vanderleun has called our attention to a campaign poster of Obama, created by graphic artist Shepard Fairey in his characteristic retro-Soviet style: It’s really got it all, hasn’t it? The iconic angle of the fearless idealized leader as seen … Continue reading →
[This is a version of a post I originally wrote a while back about the reasons I took on my “A mind is a difficult thing to change” series. I thought I’d publish it again now that I’ve resumed the … Continue reading →
For quite a while now I’ve been impressed by the fact that leading literary lights, for all their creativity and art, can be very dim bulbs indeed when dealing with certain other aspects of human endeavor. I suppose that shouldn’t … Continue reading →
If you ever get a chance to see “Au Revoir Parapluie,” I strongly urge you to do so. The work is impossible to describe, although this NY Times review (and this post of mine) try. It’s playing at the Brooklyn … Continue reading →
I’m in New York for Thanksgiving, and yesterday I visited the Guggenheim. The nice thing about the Guggenheim is that even when the exhibits are awful the Frank Lloyd Wright building is still fun: And in this case the exhibit … Continue reading →
I (heart) my iPod. Regular readers of this blog know I’m not the most technologically advanced of people. But although I may be slow on the uptake, I did finally join the trend a few months ago when I became … Continue reading →
I saw her walking ahead of me on a sidewalk in New York, and I knew immediately. She had the long hair, slicked back into a slightly damp ponytail. The large soft bag, slung over the shoulder. The small stature … Continue reading →
Georgia will be sending 1200 troops to Iraq to patrol the border with Iran to beef up the effort to keep weapons out. No, not that Georgia. This Georgia: This makes it the third largest coalition force there, after the … Continue reading →
A while back I wrote about my plans to move. I put my house on the market in late spring, thinking—the current housing market being what it is (I seem to specialize in buying in a seller’s market and selling … Continue reading →