… Honorary Jew

… Poem for this special Sunday

… 100 years on, T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men is a poem for our populist moment This is an insightful commentary.

… Ghalib — Some Exaggerations

… John Carey obituary: literary critic (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

… The Economic Roots of Grade Inflation At the Jesuit college I attended in the early 1960s there no grade inflation.

… The Need of Being Versed in Country Things

… A Christmas Carol by Christina Rossetti

… Is Everything Always Continuously Changing in Every Respect?

… James Schuyler — Linen

… 14 Colleges Get Fs in '25 StopAntisemitism Report Card

At its core, When We Cease to Understand the World  is a work of fiction. Its author, Benjamin Labatut, dramatizes a set of mathematical dis...

… Tom Stoppard, The Art of Theater No. 7

… in this case, of Britain: Assault Victim Becomes Criminal While Attacker Walks Free

… David Fisher — The Teacher

… The History of the Christmas Card

… Qualia

… Think Before You Click:

… Plaster cast torso of Apollo

… David McCullough’s “History Matters” (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

… HUGH AND GUY (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

… Frederick Tibbetts — Dissonant Interval

… Clouds — BY RÜŞTÜ ONUR

… Inspiring Quotes

… Getting started with great expectations

… Remembering Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

… Brooks Haxton —,It Comes to Me: Concision

… An Advent villanelle from Philadelphia’s Frank Wilson: “one of those memories that are like photographs

… Tom Stoppard, playwright of dazzling wit and playful erudition, dies aged 88 (Hat tip, Daxe Lull))

  I'd read and seen more recently about the Danish author Solvej Balle , and so decided to take on the first installment of her extended...

… Lisa Russ Spaar — The Geese

… God’s Grandeu r ( Hat tip, Dave lull)

… 100 years on, T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men is a poem for our populist moment

… FIRST & LAST VI

… Don’t Be Fooled: Notre Dame’s About-Face Isn’t a Return to Faith

… I've got you under my skin – Nicky Haslam on Cole Porter {Hat tip. Dave Lull)

I woke up this morning after having a wonderful dream that immediately turned sour. In the dream I was having a great time shopping for clot...

… Charles Wright — Roma 1

… Notre Dame University re-adds ‘Catholic mission’ to staff values after backlash

… Bloomsbury's Nigel Newton on Gold-Digging, Fast Cars, Friendship, and Finding Harry Potter

… Jill Freud death: Love Actually actor who inspired Narnia character dies, aged 98 (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes -- Anita Loos's celebrated novel of the inter-war years -- is one of those books I'd been aware of for a lo...

… The Christmas Bos by Richard Tillinghast (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

… Poetry Stories: Mildred's Garden

… Notre Dame removes Catholic mission from staff values, touts new 'refreshed' values I also the media. i will no longer regard No...

… What Started as a Joke About Trump Is Now Filling Therapy Offices, Experts Warn The extent of my interest in politucs is that I keep up ...

… Davis: My Q&A with author C.M. Kushins (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) Dutch was cool. No doubt about that.

… Claribel Alegría — Summing Up

  It had been many years since I last encountered a book by Stefan Zweig, but over the past month, I've read and finished perhaps his mo...

… Lewis Warsh — Drops

… Peter Schjeldahl — Gauge

… Laurance Wieder —=These Anemones, Their Song Is Made Up As They Float Along

… SPECIAL SECRET

… Jack Carr’s thriller Cry Havoc

… 18 Years Later, Ridley Scott's $270M Gangster Masterpiece Is Still Required Viewing (Hat tip, Jon Caroulis)

… Protests Work: How The Satanic Temple Fell Apartee I once spent part of an evening chatting with a professed satanist. i found it very d...

… Saint Augustine, pears, and “mimetic cascades”

… Could Qualia Terms and Neuroscience Terms have the Same Reference?

… Luis Alberto de Cuenca — William of Aquitaine Returns

… https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-critics-who-deny-carpe-diem/ {Hat tip, Dave Lull) i enjoyed Dead Poets Society spmething is...

… Redux

… The Choral (12A). Film Review. By Harry Mount - The Oldie (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Blogging will be sketchy if at all today. i an getting ready to leave rehab and much has to be done.

… Arakawa and Madeline Gins— Untitled

I continue to languish in rehab. i may blog more later today. Right now I am in a mood to ponder, not write. i stare out the window at the t...

… inspring Quotes

… ‘ href="https://archive.is/ykTJY">Nothing is real but sex and death’ — the private world of John Updike (Hat tip, Dave Lull)...

I remain in bed at Saunders House, a very nice rehab facility. My right leg feels much better. So discharge may be near. As someone who has ...

… Silvia Guerra — Presumption of Heaven

… Brad Gooch — H.

… As we grow out of intellectual adolescence, religion’s popularity soars (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

… Bob Dylan’s Superpower is That He Doesn’t Get Embarrassed (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

… Inspiring quotes

… Mind To Me A Kingdom Is - Edward de Vere/William Byrd | Dedicated to Alexander Waugh ( hat tip, Dave Lull)

… Winner of the Petrona Award 2025 announced ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

… Frank O’Hara — Lisztiana, Much Later

i have decided to blog on a more regular basis — observations, opinions, and the like. I have been in the hospital since the operation on Mo...

… John Yau — O Pinyin Sonnet

  I was recently recommended the work of the Italian writer Natalia Ginzburg. I didn't know much, if anything, about her, but I was intr...

sort of — “[At Swim-Two-Birds is] just the book to give to your sister, if she is a dirty, boozey girl.” – Dylan Thomas on Flann O’Brien’s ...

… inspiring Quotes

  It's been many years since I read Gilead , Marilynne Robinson's celebrated novel of history, faith, and mortality. I never loved t...

i won't be blogging todafor a while. i'm in the hospital awaiting an operartion.

… Ashleigh Brilliant (1933–2025) (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

… John Coyne, RIP ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

… Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel Prize in literature

  I recently finished The Loser , Thomas Bernhard's celebrated novel of artistry, excellence, and failure. At its core, this is a book a...

… Jacques Dupin — Lichens

… The Word Dear Alone Hangs on the Upper Verge ' (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

… Thoughts on moving houses (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

… Phillies team that everyone doubted found its way to first World Series win

… Priscilla Becker —/My Stint Among the Beloved

… The Murder of a South Philly Barber

… A Delancey Street townhouse filled with 100,000 books is a bibliophile’s dream — and an epic estate sale (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

… Octavio Paz — Target Practice

… Inspiring Quotes

… Octavio Paz — Letter of Testimony Cantata

… Almost famous turns 25 ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

… Today's quote

… Octavio Paz — In The Middle Of This Phrase