Ahead of his time …

… Gorgias: Plato’s Guide to Online Discussions ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

Maybe he was right …

… He Was Laughed Out of Academia for This Take About Technology. Turns Out He Was Right. Marshall McLuhan was warning us about the internet long before it was invented. ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

So to speak …

…

What’s Not to Like? On similes, good and bad

(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Plus ça change …

… James Hitchcock and the Continuing Battles over Vatican II (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

A poem for this morning …

… Bernadette Mayer —=Wind Force

Something more to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

Something to think on …

… insiring Quotes

RIP …

… Tom Lehrer, Influential Satirist Whose Topical Songs Poked and Prodded America in the ’50s and ’60s, Dies at 97 (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

A poem for this morning …

… Farid Matuk — Crease

Tracking the decline …

… Now I’ve left Britain, here’s what you look like Lionel used to review for me when I was The Inquirer's book editor. She's as brilliant as she is lovely.

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

The proto-Auden …

… Horace for the Ages ( Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

One philospher on another …

… G. E. M. Anscombe - On Wittgenstein (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Time for some crime …

… Cabahug

RIP …

… Morris, the Movie Star Alligator Who Appeared in ‘Happy Gilmore,’ Dies of Old Age

A poem for this morning …

… Denise Levertov —,Sound of the Axe

The original Augustans …

… Poetry and Power

Good idea …

… Bring Back Quiet Libraries (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Our age of paradox …

… UNFORGETTABLE FIRE(Hat tip, Dave Lull) Ours is “an age in which religious belief seems to be at once in steep decline and surging out of bounds.”

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

A poem for this morning …

… Alberto Caeiro 93

More regarding Jane …

… Jane Greer May 25, 1953 — July 22, 2025 Obituary (Hatip, Dave lull.)

Something else to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

Hitting the road …

… A Beatnik Tourist in Ayahuasca Country ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Spmething to think on …

… Inspiring Quotes

A poem for this morning …

… Alberto Caeiro — 68

In case you wondered …

… The Alto Knights - Why Did The De Niro Mob Movie Bomb?

Time for some crime …

… 'Reeninald Bulan'

In case you windered …

… Who Was Hesiod?

May she rest in peace …

… She’s Gone, She Was Here and Then Gone (Hat tip, Dave Lull}

More than just flitting about …

… Butterflies: Their Fascinating Lives and How to Protect Them ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

QWERT …

… Another newfangled device doomed to become a failure

A poem for this morning …

… Patricio Ferrari —=Alberto

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

And another …

… My Daughter Walks in the Garden (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Another poem …

… Austerity —,by Janet Loxley Lewis (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

If at first you don’t succeed…

… Re-establishing the deserted (lost”) colony

Poems for this morning …

… Álvaro de Campos — Three Sonnets

RIP …

… ISI Remembers Edwin J. Feulner I knew Ed, from back when I worked for ISI. Great guy.

Must-see TV …

… I remember what I watched on television on July 20, 1969

Toiling away …

… Hypergraphia: On Prolific Writers and the Persistent Need to Produce (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Ricardo Reis —= Ode 76

Gotcha

… Spy pleads guilty in Philadelphia

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

Something to think on …

… Happiness

Death by AI …

… One man's struggle with his mortality. (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

New volumes of vintage poets …

… The violets bear them away by William Logan ( Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

On the road with Dr. Johnson …

… ‘A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland’: A Londoner Out of His Element (Hat tipp, tip, Dave Lull)

Special delivery …

… Mail gets to POTUS via an unusual delivery service

A poem for this morning …

… Barbara Guest — East of Omsk

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

Something worth pondering…

… Does this finally solve the mystery of the lost colony?

Good question …

… What is the point of state-sponsored mediocrity in the arts? (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Rowan Ricardo Phillips — The Peacock

In memoriam …

… Connie Francis "Where The Boys Are" on The Ed Sullivan Show

Mihail Sebastian

 

It's an interesting experience to read a novel seemingly at random. This was the case recently when taking up Mihail Sebastian's For Two Thousand Years. Published in 1934 in Romania, this is a book far from my usual tastes and interests. 

Strangely, I'd read another of Sebastian's novels -- Women -- a few years ago, and I'd enjoyed it. But this novel -- Two Thousand Years -- is far darker, far more foreboding. This is a book, in effect, which charts the emergence of a more virulent form of anti-Semitism in Romanian culture. The novel does not makes its way to the Second World War, but the themes which are uncovered anticipate what was to come. Except, of course, that what came was far worse. 

Two Thousand Years is more, though, than a historical novel: it is one profoundly focused on identity, and on Sebastian's conflicting, almost tortured, sense for his own Judaism. There are parts of this novel which are very difficult to read -- in part because Sebastian has allowed that anti-Semitism to encroach on his moral judgments. Much more can -- and has, I'm sure -- be written about this troubling dynamic: as I say, I found it to be quite upsetting, not least because Sebastian seems at moments to negate Jewish contributions to the European past. 

In the end, Two Thousand Years is a novel in search of Romania: of its workers, its ethos, its history and culture. That does seem, truly, to be Sebastian's objective: to describe this place through its people and their conflicts, and their intractable march toward something far more sinister. Sebastian has an aphoristic way of writing which provides rewards to the patient reader. Here is one of the most memorable: 

"Aren't you traveling light for a man who's making history?"

"No. It's all I need. I'm leaving the rest behind." 

The waythese things happen …

… An Organized Retail Theft Story

A poem for this morning …

… Anne Sexton — The Poet of Ignorance

Worth podering …

… Is Bernini’s Baroque Masterpiece the Most Controversial Religious Artwork of All Time?

Sad …

… Philadelphia’s newest and smallest art museum is ready for its close up ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Interesting …

… Updike is referenced in a book of Mark Twain poems (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

A poem for this morning …

… Ann Darr — Everything in the Kitchen Sink

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

I fear so …

… Lionel Shriver: The left has grown adept at gaslighting (Hat tip, Dave Lull) lionel used to review for me when I was the book editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer. she's beautiful and wise.

Anniversay …

… The Erie Canal at 200 (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

A poem for this morning …

… Camille Dungy Poem Revised in a Twelfth-Floor Hotel Room After Seeing a Man in the Building Across the Street Holding What Appeared to be Binoculars

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

Something to think on …

… nspiring quotes.

A poem for this morning …

… Gary Snyder — Oysters

The finish line …

… Poet Mary Jo Bang reaches the end of her 20-year journey through Dante's 'Divine Comedy' (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

More about Updike

… The Complicated Brilliance of John Updike: A Conversation with Biljana Dojčinović (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

One a believer, the other not …

… Reading Two Thomases (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Surely worth reading …

… New Yorker previews upcoming John Updike Selected Letters volume (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Something to ponder at Harper’s Pond

… Thinking about the end…

One can only hope …

… Can Americans Love Poetry Again? ( Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

A tale worth reading …

… My Crime Fiction: 'Mouth'

A poem for this morning …

… Morgan Parker — The High Priestess of Soul’s Sunday Morning Visit to the Wall of Respect

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

Read away .…

… THE PARIS REVIEW Weekly

Read and listen …

… The Weekly Dish.

Take your pick …

… The Huble Essatist. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The last perfect season at Harper’s Pond …

… This was as good as it was ever going to get

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

A time lacking grandeur …

… Tom Wolfe’s Sociology of the Weird (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) From high school on, I have identified with the Beats. I knew some Hippies, of course, but I never thought of being one.

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

Too much preaching ……

… Political Theater Makes Bad Drama (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Hopkins at Harper’s Pond …

… Glory be to God for dappled things —

Ch-ch-changes …

… UP AND AWAY PART III

RIP …

… Mourning the loss of Fanny Howe.

Spare us …

… The Architecture of Arrogance (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

It happened near Harper’s Pond …

… On July 7, 1755, in southwestern Pennsylvania

City of brotherly love

… In Larry Krasner's 'Safer, Freer' Philadelphia, 52 shot in one weekend; six dead

Mark Twain at Harper’s Pond …

… I’m sure he does rise up some days

Someting to think on…

… Quotes To Inspire You

Origins …

… THE WRITING OF TAKE 5: One novelist's big book obsession (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

In case you wondered …

… Was the Bicentennial a boon for Philly? A bust? Or something in between?

A poem for this morning …

… Fanny Howe — Original

Prescience …

… Elizabeth Jennings' poem "Euthanasia" (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Wallace Stevens at Harper’s Pond …;

… The houses are haunted by white night-gowns

Great historian and biographer …

… Celebrating a birthday in Pittsburgh

Appraisal …

… Toni Morrison, Editor (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

In case you wondered …

… Why did the Romans consider butter a "barbaric" food. (Hat tip, Felix Giordano)

Testimony …

… H. L. Mencken On Hot Dogs

Our faithful grounding …

… Nature and the God of the Declaration of Independence (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Preview …

… from “Only Sing: 152 Uncollected Dream Songs,” by John Berryman (Hat tip, dave Lull.)

William Carlos Williams at Harper’s Pond …

… Between Walls

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

A poem for this morning …

… William Carlos Williams — About a little girl

The old order changeth …

… For sale: Wisconsin's first and last Carnegie libraries (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Just so you know …

… “Perfume from a Dress”: How Poetry Persuades (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The week that just was …

… Budget delays, synthetic opioids, and a WNBA team

Remembering the first American casualty …

… It happened on July 5, 1950

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

A poem for this morning …

… Edward Dorn — The Poet Lets His Tongue Hang Down

Appreciation …

… Celestial wisdom: Dr Johnson as a poet (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Classical drama …

… Seneca's "The Madness of Hercules": a stunning performance, a brilliant new translation! (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) Seneca's "The Madness of Hercules" made its debut this month – and San Francisco actress and singer Grace Wade smoldered as the betrayed Juno in Dana Gioia's stunning new translation of the tragedy.

Important moment for Washington …

… American troops get new commander

A matter of style …

… Elmore Leonard’s Perfect Pitch (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

RIP …

… David Rytman Slavitt Obituary (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Something to think on …

… Quotes To Inspire You

Just so you know …

… Male Novel Readers Are Not Fiction (Hat tip, Dave lull.) Liberal politics have destroyed the space for male readers. The women who “dominate the publishing industry” are the same kind of women that dominate Hollywoke — man-bashing, woman-mutating feminists. They’re the reason my four novels thus far aren’t published by major presses like Hachette, Harper Collins, and Random House but by boutique publishers (very discriminating ones).

In visions of the dark night …

I have dreamed of joy departed—

A poem for this morning …

… Tom Clark — Where I Live

A demon in my view…

… I have not been as others were

A poem for this morning …

… Joan Moore — Grace