I went apple-picking this weekend. It’s easy to do—just drive about 15 minutes, go to the pick-your-own orchard, buy one of their little bags, walk out on a lovely fall day to where the trees are, and begin. The trees … Continue reading →
[NOTE: This is a post that originally appeared in 2008. I came across it today while responding to a comment, and I thought it worth repeating.] As a child who loved poetry, I memorized it almost without intending to. Just … Continue reading →
Yesterday I read this article by John Hinderaker at Powerline: During our previous wave of mass immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, both immigrants and American officials understood that assimilation into American culture, most importantly learning to … Continue reading →
I’m not all that fond of precious jewels. That’s very fortunate, because I don’t own many. Richard Burton would have gotten off easy with me. When I got married, I wore a plain gold wedding ring, one that had been … Continue reading →
I’ve been going through some old papers and trying to get rid of a lot of them. Sometimes I even succeed in throwing something out. But some things need saving. Sometimes I come across notes I made about incidents I’d … Continue reading →
Commenter “Phil D” has some questions and observations [I’ve corrected one typo in the following]: When exactly did we lose the “courage to see things as they are”? When FDR recognized the USSR in 1933, just after that regime murdered … Continue reading →
I like that word, “prolix.” I first learned it in high school, probably on some vocabulary list meant to prepare me for the SATs. Or maybe it was in studying The Scarlet Letter during my sophomore year. That book had … Continue reading →
I’m a little late to this party, but I wanted to say a few words about the Chrissie Hynde brouhaha: …Chrissie Hynde has waded into another contentious area ”“ the overly sexualised nature of modern pop music. In an obvious … Continue reading →
Here’s Megan McArdle on how the housing bubble and resultant crisis happened: In fact, according to a new paper by Fernando Ferreira and Joseph Gyourko, subprime loans accounted for only a bare majority of defaults at the beginning of the … Continue reading →
I suppose I’ll bite the bullet and watch tonight’s Republican debate, which looks to have some verbal fireworks and a huge listening audience. I may even live-blog it, if I can stomach it. Those of you who read this blog … Continue reading →
From commenter “Eric”: The “LIV” is a conformist. To marshal the “LIV” to your agenda, set the zeitgeist to your agenda. The “LIV” will conform to it. Engineering the zeitgeist is an activist function. I would phrase it differently, but … Continue reading →
There has been so much news lately that it’s hard to keep up with it, much less write about every topic that I consider vitally important and/or entertaining and/or amusing and/or inspiring and on which I have something to say. … Continue reading →