Halloween was my favorite holiday as a child. Roaming outside in the dark with your friends (there were no adult escorts back then except for some of the tiniest toddlers), in costume, ringing doorbells and getting loads of candy in … Continue reading →
Phil Ochs was a singer/songwriter, and a leftist of the old sort. Later in his career, he was plagued by mental illness and had a tragic end. But what a beautiful and distinctive voice he had, instantly recognizable. Some of … Continue reading →
Compare and contrast. I’ve cued up a very short (less than 2-minute) excerpt from the beginning of each video of the ballet for the purpose of easy comparison, but you can go to YouTube to watch the longer videos if … Continue reading →
When I got back from my trip out west, I noticed there was a slight smell in the vicinity of my sink. I did the old baking-soda-vinegar thing, flushed down with hot water. But I noticed over time that the … Continue reading →
Ann Althouse has a post on dreaming about clothing. It got me thinking. Many or even most of us have dreamed of the opposite – that is, of going out minus an important article of clothing and walking around embarrassingly … Continue reading →
Like me, you’ve probably seen lots of articles from pundits and bloggers on the right, pointing out encouraging polling for the 2022 election. For a discussion of some examples, see this. And there are plenty more. You may have noticed … Continue reading →
The other day the following little ballet to music by Beethoven, set on three women, appeared in my YouTube recommendations. And so I watched it. I didn’t hate it but I didn’t much like it: too static, very “on the … Continue reading →
This is a fascinating article that discusses the effect of high numbers of women in academia. It’s something I’ve thought about quite a bit, and I had already come to some reluctant conclusions that are in line with the conclusions … Continue reading →
I know that some of you have soured on Paypal since the recent censorship brouhaha. One of the signs is that some people who used to be on auto-pay plans for contributing to the blog have canceled them, and I’m … Continue reading →
I grew up in an era in which we had to memorize scads of poetry, some of it of the patriotic verse variety. I’ve written about the experience here. An excerpt: I think it may be a lost pedagogical device, … Continue reading →
There’s been a lot of talk about Papal’s newly-announced policy on “misinformation”: The financial services company, which has repeatedly deplatformed organizations and individual commentators for their political views, will expand its “existing list of prohibited activities” on November 3. Among … Continue reading →
Being an Everly Brothers fan even as a child and seeing these two names – Felice and Boudleaux Bryant – on so many of their songs, I wondered about them for a long time. Who were they? It’s quite a … Continue reading →