An American Bride in Kabul
Phyllis Chesler’s new book, An American Bride in Kabul, is described and recommended by John Hinderaker at Powerline. Sounds interesting. Nothing like personal experience to drive a point home.
Continue reading →Category Archives: Arts
Things in heaven and earth
Horatio: O day and night, but this is wondrous strange! Hamlet: And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Case in point, the rainbow … Continue reading →
Poets of the right
British poet Philip Larkin (1922-1985) was a complicated man, like many poets. But unlike most of them these days, he was politically of the right, at least in some respects. Larkin wrote in forms, which is inherently conservative. But his … Continue reading →
The continuing saga of Maynard vs. Salinger
Joyce Maynard has made a kind of cottage industry out of her long-ago relationship with J.D. Salinger, who seduced her when she was a wunderkind of 18 and he a famous writer of 53 and then abruptly threw her out, … Continue reading →
Why attack Syria?
Is Obama really going to attack Assad’s regime in Syria, or is he just talking? And if he does attack, how far will he go, and what is his ultimate goal? There’s no dearth of speculation on all those questions. … Continue reading →
Linda Ronstadt sings no more
The cause? Parkinson’s, which can be a cruel and vicious (and protean) disease. In my mind, Ronstadt is still a slim young thing with a phenomenal voice. Of course, she’s been neither slim nor young for quite some time. And … Continue reading →
You’ve come a long way, baby: beyond “I Want To Hold Your Hand”
The idea that hookup culture hurts both boys and girls, and both young men and young women, doesn’t seem strange or revolutionary to me; it seems obvious. But apparently it still needs highlighting, so I’ll highlight it by recommending this … Continue reading →
This may just be the cutest baby elephant video ever
Of course, I haven’t seen all the baby elephant videos in the world, so we can’t be certain. But I think I’m on safe ground when I assert that it’s probably the cutest baby-elephant-in-an-inflatable-swimming-pool video ever: And it almost immediately … Continue reading →
The most influential female rock star of the 60s you’ve never heard of…
…is Beverly Bivens. I’d never heard her name, either. And although I remember the music of her group We Five very well, I hadn’t thought of it or them for years. A college friend of mine had had their LP, … Continue reading →
Bezos buys the WaPo
The MSM seems to be treating this as a very big story. I can’t imagine why, although for them I suppose it’s a sort of inside baseball. But I’ll provide this thread for those of you who want to talk … Continue reading →
So Yeats, what were you bellyaching about?
The poet Yeats often wrote about how dreadful old age was, especially its physical manifestations. In the poem “Among School Children“, he describes himself as having looked pretty nifty in youth and terrible at sixty: And I though never of … Continue reading →
Introverts of the world…
…just act like an extrovert and you’ll be happier. Well, of course. I’ve been attempting to do that, with a modicum of success, for decades. I call myself an extroverted introvert. And Rogers and Hammerstein were well aware of the … Continue reading →