Well, and it’s time for Vardibidian Predictions (we’re never wrong, unless you count mere factual inaccuracy) to come through with another year’s worth. You know my methods; randomly jot down a bunch of names and hope that I can slap…
After some years of avoiding reading any of Kilgore Trout’s prodigious output, Your Humble Blogger happened on the Collected Short Stories (vol. M) on the new book shelf, and as things were pretty sparse around there, took it home and…
The CJR Daily, née the Campaign Desk, does an excellent job (or so it seems to YHB) of examining the ways the press works and fails to work. They place stories in context, and they also remove them from camouflaging…
Speaking of the ability to create something that simultaneously impresses me with its craftsmanship and with its appearance of spontaneity, take a peek at Monday’s Jon Carroll. Yes, it’s yet another dopey note where a middle-aged computer-illiterate discovers that Microsoft…
It’s not clear how Your Humble Blogger missed this, but the OCLC has a list of the Top 1,000 library books, that is, the books owned by the most libraries in the greatest abundance. It’s not clear to me what…
OK, Gentle Readers, you know how, in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy lands a house on the Wicked Witch of the East, thus freeing the Munchkins from bondage? Right? What evidence is presented to us of that tyranny? The…
Your Humble Blogger is sufficiently traditional to have all of two—two!—glasses of wine on Purim. I find the wine blunts how horrific the story is, although two glasses ain’t enough. Anyway, a;thdpuh O’, scarce;u a teetpta;er, twp g;asses ps ,ptr…
In comments, [name redacted] asks What do you believe are the keystones of fascist rule, and how are they measurable? As I was slow to respond, he wrote a longish but cogent analysis of our own system, and how it…
Gentle Readers will be aware that Your Humble Blogger is generally pretty serene about the political big picture, and although I feel that Our Only President is doing a lot of harm in this country and the world, I try…
I wasn’t going to write about capital punishment for a while, but the latest going around the blogosphere is A-List blogger Eugene Volokh’s comment Something the Iranian government and I agree on. The something in question is public torture and…