What should somebody interested in politics and rhetoric say about the latest screwup by Senator Kerry? I should say botch. Who uses the word botch? Who among us cannot say that we do not leave jokes unbotched? I have not…
I don’t know why I don’t like Halloween more than I do. It’s all about dressing up in other people’s clothes, which I love to do. And, you know, candy. I like candy. No, I don’t like all kinds of…
Chapter 1, verse 4: Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee. Now,…
It looks like I haven’t reported on The Vor Game, which would seem to imply that I haven’t read it in the last three years. This seems unlikely. Far more likely is that I read the thing and then forgot…
See, I’m just cranky. You know how, when I report on having read a book, instead of linking to an evil on-line retailer, or even a less evil (but less widely used) on-line retailer, I go to the effort of…
Chapter 1, verse 1: The song of songs, which [is] Solomon’s. OK, let’s stop there. Is it Solomon’s? I mean, obviously not, speaking with an eye to history. There’s no reason whatsoever to attribute this to Solomon. First of all,…
OK, then. The Song of Songs. I’m having trouble organizing myself, here (not altogether surprising, you say?), so I think I’ll take a moment before we go through the text closely and talk about a couple of general issues. If…
It’s been a while since Your Humble Blogger featured a political speech, here in this Tohu Bohu. In fact, I’ve made it almost all the way through this political season without paying much attention to speeches. I’ve paid attention to…
Well, that’s odd. My initial attempt to Google for the quote I raised in the quiz in my previous note—and the following contains the answer to the quiz, but is intended to discuss Google, not the answer to the quiz,…
I just happened to read this quote from a well-known living American novelist about a particular kind of animal, which I elide here for my own purposes: “Silent, in some ways reserved, they allow us to … project our ideas…