Bye-the-bye, Gentle Readers, I’ve just read a fascinating article by Jay Rosen about the, well, about a report (the second link on that page, at the moment anyway) about the media coverage about Trent Lott’s comments about the 1948 presidential…
Ok, John Kerry said something stupid. Not as stupid as what Jessica Simpson said to Gale Norton, but pretty damn stupid. If he said it. Anyway, he either actually said or implied that (a) he’d been talking to leaders in…
Your Humble Blogger has been getting behind in his Book Reports (and further behind in other blogging, but this note is a book report). I’m trying to make sure I don’t miss anything. One of the more missable books was…
I happened to be reminded of Granny D, who is on a voter-registration drive. Her—what, organization? gang? following?—web page, anyway, urges you to “Turn your office desk into a Voter Registration and Get-Out-The-Vote center!” Which is nice, and does some…
My wonderful bloghost Jed wrote nicely about his favorite songs, which reminded me that I’ve been meaning to write about my own music collection. In preparation for moving house, I ripped almost all my CDs to my computer; at the…
OK, so Malcolm Gladwell identifies three rules of social epidemics; I’ve blathered on and on about the Law of the Few, so it’s time to start talking about the Stickiness Factor. I’ll quote: The Stickiness Factor says that there are…
So, Your Humble Blogger mentioned comfort books a while back, so perhaps inevitably, Mary Renault’s The Mask of Apollo (New York: Pantheon 1966) got picked up again. It’s getting pretty thumbed-through by now; I don’t know if this is the…
Your Humble Blogger picked up Bandbox (New York: Pantheon 2004) after hearing Thomas Mallon on NPR. It was, well, OK. It had a bit of that thing that annoys me in historical novels, when Historical Figures are worked in to…
I’ve been reading quite a bit about the arguments, political and social, that have erupted over the marriage question. One thing that I still notice is the absence of sex from the discussion. It seems obvious to me that if…
This is a second draft of a note to Senator Kerry; the first draft was too long, and not clear enough. I hope this version is clearer; I know it’s shorter, and I hope it’s short enough. Further help would…