When Franklin Roosevelt addressed the Congress on January 6, 1941, he had, only a couple of months before, been elected to an unprecedented third term as President. Since then, Hungary and Romania had joined the Axis, the Italians had shown…
Your Humble Blogger has had pretty good luck with Disneyland. I first visited the Magic Kingdom at about the right age, with older siblings to help guide the way, and enjoyed the Alice in Wonderland rides, the teacups, the Carousel,…
Hello again, Gentle Readers. Yes, I was away for a while, but now I’m back, and although I admit myself to have been uninspired lately even while I was blogging, I am hoping that if I plunge back into things,…
This morning, my Best Reader and my Perfect Non-Reader and I all went to our small-town Memorial Day observation. We cheered for our veterans as they marched (some of them marching very neatly, others staggering a bit with age, others…
Not much to add to my earlier note on Paladin of Souls. I enjoyed re-reading it, and I sucked it down in about a day and a half, putting aside other stuff to keep at it, and still don’t think…
In the middle of Anthony Lane’s nastily hilarious review of The DaVinci Code movie, he observes, “Movie history is awash, of course, with fine pictures that have been made from daft or unreadable books; indeed, you are statistically more likely…
OK, I’ve never been a big fan of Mick LaSalle, but surely his review of X-Men: The Last Stand takes the proverbial. I don’t expect to like the movie much, myself, but surely it’s a little … insane … to…
Most Gentle Readers are aware that the American President has the constitutional obligation to provide the Congress information on the State of the Union, and to recommend policy measures in connection with that information. Our First President determined that such…
A question for my Gentle Readers: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? No, wait, that’s not the question. Your Humble Blogger knows the answer to that one: A woodchuck would chuck all the…
My skepticism about the Hugo-worthiness of the competent and enjoyable Old Man’s War notwithstanding, I was looking forward to reading The Ghost Brigades. I needn’t think a book is all awardable’n’stuff to be a good read, and OMW was a…