If Your Humble Blogger keeps on about the French, it’ll be a running gag, right? Which every blog needs, right? Well, Regis DeBray, a former adviser to Mitterrand, writes in French, translated by Jeffrey Mehlman, in this morning’s New…
I found my sentiments recently expressed by, of all people, John Stewart. He pointed out that he doesn’t trust Our Only President with tricky diplomacy, but that the anti-war movement doesn’t seem to address any of the actual issues. That’s…
The thing that struck me first about the arson in the South Korean Subway was that it could happen anywhere. A guy, probably a nutball (although I wouldn’t necessarily trust the South Korean press not to cover up an…
Yes, very funny. Thank you, -Vardibidian….
In this morning’s New York Times, somebody named Woody Hochswender writes that people should stop giving him grief about driving an SUV. It’s an incoherent mess of an article, chock full o’ logical inconsistencies. I’m going to break it down,…
That’s the problem with reading old stuff… I started reading Louisa May Alcott’s Flower Fables, and realized I didn’t really have any sense of the time they were written in. Middle of the 19th century, yes. Civil War. Dickens. But…
This is my month for coming across the original of things I only knew in parody. I knew they were parodies, but it’s a bit of a shock to see the original referenced in a newspaper or book. Actual: Lives…
This morning’s New York Times web site has a new poll, and that means it’s time for … Meaningless Data! According to the poll, 56% of respondents feel “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track.” This is…
Elie Wiesel, in a recent lecture, said that he had so much difficulty defining what he was for, that he decided to start with what he was against. His list (from my notes): ignorance, hunger, racism, hatred, comparisons, humiliation,…
I’ve been reading Louisa May Alcott’s Hospital Sketches and enjoying it very much. Rather sad, of course, but in a different way than Little Women is sad, or Demi in Little Men saying “Don’t call me Demi any more. I…