I buy a lottery ticket every now and then on a whim. I once even won the daily lottery. Once, mind you. But I know plenty of of people who buy them daily.and buy a lot of them. Notba good idea.
Wednesday, April 03, 2024
Sounds like it’s well worth watching …
… ‘The Incomparable Mr. Buckley’ Review: Withering Wit and Wisdom. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Bill, in fact, was a very nice man.
Something to think on …
The tongue is the only instrument that gets sharper with use.
— Washington Irving, born this date in 1783
RIP …
… John Barth, towering literary figure and revered mentor, dies at 93 | Hub. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Tuesday, April 02, 2024
Sounds worrisome …
… Rogue Strands: The Elephant in the Poetry Publishing Room. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… sales were already low, but they’re now pitiful.
Something to think on …
Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead.
— Hans Christian Andersen, born on this date in 1805
Monday, April 01, 2024
Where we all find ourselves eventually …
… John Finlay’s Prayer to the Father. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It’s also where I find myself now.
Very worrisome …
… 38 Chaplains Ask Supreme Court To Stop U.S. Military Retaliation.
There does seem to be an anti-religious trend these days.
Something to think on …
What is needed is not a revolution in the opposite direction, but the opposite of a revolution.
— Joseph de Maistre, born on this date in 1753
Sunday, March 31, 2024
Appreciation …
… The Mystery and Grace of Paul Simon. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I think it worth mentioning that Simon did not write “Scarborough Fair.} it’s a traditional English ballad.
Something to think on …
Self-discovery is above all the realization that we are alone.
— Octavio Pax, born on this date in 1914
Poetry and boxing …
… All a Matter of Tense | Commonweal Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave lull.)
The collection opens with an epigraph from Sonny Liston: “Some day they’re gonna write a Blues song for fighters. / It’ll just be for slow guitars, soft trumpet, and a bell.” Here, Ryan has taken two sentences spoken by Liston after defeating Floyd Patterson in 1962 and broken them into two lines. By treating Liston’s speech as if it were poetry, Ryan allows us to see that Liston’s speech is poetry.
Saturday, March 30, 2024
Something to think on …
Remember, all of man's happiness is in the little valleys. Tiny little ones. Small enough to call from one side to the other.
— Jean Giono, born on this date in 1895
The lasting influence of scholasticism …
… Jesuit Britain? | Acton Institute.. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… the deployment of ideas like Suárez’s against the absolutism of writers like Robert Filmer was sometimes covert, since open acknowledgement of their Spanish Jesuit provenance would have been politically disadvantageous.
Connoisseur of doubt …
… Daniel Kahneman Was Sometimes Wrong, and Always Right - The Atlantic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
“We would all like to have a warning bell that rings loudly whenever we are about to make a serious error, but no such bell is available, and cognitive illusions are generally more difficult to recognize than perceptual illusions,”
Friday, March 29, 2024
A poem …
Appraisal
Life’s mystery deepens as time proceeds.
He’s less sure now of everything.
And doubt turns out to have its thrills.
Nearby Muzak — or whatever — plays a vintage tune
Conjuring parties long past, elsewhere some tabloid
Headlines a famous beauty’s imminent demise.
Life’s mystery deepens as time proceeds.
The past catches up as the future recedes,
While deflowered winter courts the barren heart.
Now we need scientists …
… to demonstrate common sense … (18) Scientist dispute stupid with, you know, facts.
Of course, common sense seems increasingly less common these days.
Blogging note …
I am not feeling well today. I may do a little blogging later today, but I’m not sure just now.
Hmm …
… ‘Write Like a Man’ Review: Diana Trilling’s Challenge. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The principal figure here is Diana Trilling, a brilliant essayist and the wife of the celebrated cultural critic Lionel Trilling. Diana, “the more abrasive of the two,” Ms. Grinberg writes, balanced her husband’s checkbook and deftly edited his drafts. But when she offered similar editorial help to various male friends, they took it (as she herself reported) “as an assault on their masculinity.”
Something to think on …
For the essential thing about the work of art is that it is work, and very hard work too.
— Joyce Cary, ho died on this date in 1957
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Hometown …
… Superior Blues. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Superior, I learned as a child, was home to the world's largest grain elevator and charcoal briquet plant. It had the cleanest water, and the highest per capita number of saloons and bordellos. It was the birthplace of Morrie Arnovich, second greatest Jewish baseball player and contained the world's second largest trainyard, second only to Chicago.
Something to think on …
Any writer who knows what he's doing isn't doing very much.
— Nelson Algren, orn on this date in 1909
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Books and war …
… The Pulp of Culture: On Andrew Pettegree’s “The Book at War”. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Something to think on …
Conscience. That stuff can drive you nuts
— Budd Schulberg, born on this date in 1914
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Just so you know …
The basic ways the gov steals your money:
- if you earn it, income tax
- if you live somewhere, property tax
- if you spend it, sales tax
- if you save it, inflation tax
- if you invest it, capital gains tax
- if you start a business, licenses
- if you own a good business, profit tax
- if you give it away, gift tax
- if you die, inheritance tax
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes …
… Words, words, words. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
On the Bard’s four-hundred-year legacy.
Something to think on …
We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.
— Joseph Campbell, born on this date in 1904
Monday, March 25, 2024
Hear, hear …
… Steven Spielberg Decries Anti-Semitism & "History Repeating" At Shoah Ceremony.
The new anti-semitism is something we should all deplore.
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