1) Pope Francis will have lunch on Saturday with some 90 inmates at a prison near Naples, including some that reportedly come from a ward h...

…  Rome Reborn: Take a Virtual Tour Through Ancient Rome, 320 C.E. | Open Culture .

…  Zealotry of Guerin: Kappa (Hokusai), Sonnet #234 .

God is an unutterable sigh, planted in the depths of the soul. — Jean Paul , born on this date in 1763

... Oscar-winner Graham Moore's next novel: The battle over the lightbulb

... Meet the Woman Changing the Lives of Prison Inmates One Yoga Mat at a Time

... In Putin’s Nationalist Russia, a Tolstoy as Cultural Diplomat

…  Extraterrestrial Abductions Day Is March 20th! These Are 5 Of The Most Legitimately Freaky Abduction Stories | moviepilot.com .

…  The Illustrated Correspondence of Artists .

When we were children, many of us (especially those of us in yeshivot) were taught to abominate the Christian Scriptures; they were precu...

For less than the cost of an Apple iPad, Matt McLaughlin started a statewide legal conversation. An attorney from Huntington Beach, McLaugh...

…  The Bibliophilic Blogger: Basil Bunting Award 2015 winner announced . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Making his way home In the snow, the old man sees So much remembered.

Taking the snow's hand, Winter tiptoes his farewell, Spring hours away.

…   Beyond Eastrod: the journey of a Christian malgre lui: "Forgotten Book Friday" - This S/F dystopian mystery asks, "What p...

…  It’s the postmodern experimentation of the New Testament that keeps it new | Books | The Guardian . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) The four persp...

… as Potter Stewart said, you know it when you see it:  Michael Kinsley on Fareed Zakaria's Plagiarizing Problem | Vanity Fair .  (Hat t...

…  One Week Left for Brevity Open Submissions | BREVITY's Nonfiction Blog .

…  Darkness Visible | The Weekly Standard . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) He looked to George Orwell, another writer who had worked in the shadow o...

Love, sought as an escape from the burden of the self, turns rapidly into a captivity. — Hugh MacLennan , born on this date in 1907

…  Paul Davis On Crime: Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary: 'America's Most Haunted Building' .

…  Beyond Eastrod: the journey of a Christian malgre lui: In memorium . . . a Beyond Eastrod remembrance offered by an eternally saddened fa...

…  Paul Davis On Crime: A New Biography Of The Most Famous American Of His Time: Mark Twain .

…  Demystifying the Pope Francis Enigma - Crisis Magazine . Pope Francis has made his choice about how he would like to exercise his office...

I had to be out and about today, but failed to note that here. The day, as it happened, proved  rather productive, in a casual, unintentione...

Little park empty. No squirrels. No birds even. Two guys are gabbing.

I really do think Carpenter's music deserves a serious revival.

…   Paul Davis On Crime: Sherlock Holmes Creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Was The Victim Of A Police Conspiracy .

…   Dylan’s Double Personality: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of ‘Bringing It All Back Home’ - WSJ . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

From an Interview in the NYT about the books he's read: ...If you had to name one book that made you who you are today, what would i...

The artwork exists in that rare stratosphere of images that are both instantly recognizable and internationally famous. “The Great Wave”...

...it's not my job to preach a sermon. Art is anyhow a homily. My job is to speak in living images, not in arguments. I must exhibit li...

... My people in Indian fiction

…  Issa's Untidy Hut: Abra Deering Norton & Ken Sawitri: Wednesday Haiku, #204 .

... Mic Conversations: A Life Full of Potential Is Ultimately "Short and Tragic"

Playing field dry now, But trees give no sign of buds. Time will take its time.

…   U.A.E. Incident Raises Questions for Colleges That Open Campuses in Restrictive Countries - Global - The Chronicle of Higher Education ....

…  The Millions : Five Ways Being a Writer and Professional Skateboarder Are the Same .

…  When All The Others Were Away at Mass tops favourite poem poll . (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

…  10 stunning images show the beauty hidden in pi - The Washington Pos t . (Hat tip, Wendy Emery.)

Gian Francesco Malipiero was born on this date in 1882.

…   "Letters from Evelyn Waugh", by Randolph Churchill, Encounter, July 1968, pp. 3-19 . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

…  The Millions : Will All You Literary Biographers Please Be Quiet, Please?   (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) Don't like 'em? Don't read...

...The predominant varieties of atheist thinking, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, aimed to show that the secular west is the model f...

US sets new record for denying, censoring government files

The pure work implies the disappearance of the poet as speaker, who hands over to the words. — Stéphane Mallarmé , born on this date in 1...

... Judging a book by its title: when books don’t live up to their names

…  Louise Erdrich wins Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction - LA Times .

…  One Unsparing Eye | The Weekly Standard . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) David Ellis’s marvelously engaging memoir relates that the career of a L...

There's also this:

Spring's here on Friday. Today we watch the trailer. How many are left?

…  Episode 110 – Witold Rybcynski: Thru’ These Architects’ Eyes | Virtual Memories .

…  Beyond Eastrod: the journey of a Christian malgre lui: Top Ten Tuesday -- The Top Ten Books on My Spring 2015 TBR List .

…   A Most Unlikely Saint — The Atlantic . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) I won't give it away, but I hope the writer's prayer at the end i...

…  Book Review: ‘Data and Goliath’ by Bruce Schneier & ‘Terms of Service’ by Jacob Silverman - WSJ . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) When it com...

…   Stifled by Success by Tim Parks | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) Cesare Pavese was convinced that any l...

... Spain finds Don Quixote writer Cervantes' tomb in Madrid

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in l...

…   The American Studies Association doubles down on anti-Israel lunacy - The Washington Post .

… Slouching Toward Mecca by Mark Lilla | The New York Review of Books . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

…   Lessons in Community, Rejection, and Doggedness: What I’m Actually Learning in an MFA Writing Program Now That I’ve Finally Gotten Aroun...

THE GREEN LINE CAFE READING & INTERVIEW SERIES PRESENTS A Third- Tuesday  Event: A.V. Christie Signing & Reading from her new chapbo...

…   Zorba the Greek - Nikos Kazantzakis . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) Larger-than-life Zorba can seem too good to be true, but -- despite the ori...

…   About Last Night | The opposite of random . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) …  I am not infrequently drawn to the Parker novels at times when my...

When an Englishman has professed his belief in the supremacy of Shakespeare amongst all poets, he feels himself excused from the general st...

... Dolce and Gabbana should shut the hell up

... Mainstream versus niche: Reporting on LGBT community

… Bruce Charlton's Notions: Who is better - the Christian of solid faith (who never doubts), or one who has doubts ? I still think New...

…  Richard Price | Whad'ya Know ?  (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

…   “A Rather Antinomian Christianity”: John Updike’s Religion | Public Discourse . The upshot was a self-indulgent religion that basked in...

…  Yalom’s Cure: Stanford’s famous psychotherapist onscreen – and it’s fun! | The Book Haven .

…  Robert Durst, subject of HBO documentary, arrested in L.A. writer's slaying - LA Times .

…  First Known When Lost: "Strange How The Count Of Time Revalues Things!"

…   Issa's Untidy Hut: John Martone: a sailing book .

…  Rethinking the Placebo Effect: How Our Minds Actually Affect Our Bodies | Brain Pickings . (Hat tip, David Tothero.) She cites a recent ...

…  Anecdotal Evidence: `The Heroes and Foot Soldiers' .

…  Beyond Eastrod: the journey of a Christian malgre lui: "On the Road Journal" -- Flannery O'Connor's home in Milledgevil...

…  Uncommon Courtesy: Why Do Some People Fear Being Generous? - Daniel Grotta & Sally Wiener Grotta .

… Paul Davis reviews   Richard Price's 'The Whites': bad criminals, obsessed cops . …  Reif Larsen's 'I Am Radar' ...

…  Bruce Charlton's Notions: The Jeremy Clarkson Affair . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

As a rule, men worry more about what they can't see than about what they can. — Julius Caesar , who died on this date in 44 B.C.

…  Watch Me Write This Article | FiveThirtyEight . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)  On this, I'm like Henry Fonda on acting: I don't want to...

… I took my godson John to dinner at the Saloon Restaurant so he could hear his guitar teacher, Andrea Carlson, play a gig. I was very impre...

…  Maverick Philosopher: Happy Super π Day !  (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

…  Zealotry of Guerin: A Dance To The Music of Time (Nicolas Poussin), Sonnet #233 .

…  AWOL from the Summer of Love | The Weekly Standard .

Despotism has so often been established in the name of liberty that experience should warn us to judge parties by their practices rather th...

…  There Is No ‘Proper English’ - WSJ . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) The range of legitimate variation is wider than you would imagine. Yes, you m...

…  John Gray: Steven Pinker is wrong about violence and war | Books | The Guardian . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) The ancient world, along with al...

…  Kelly Sundberg’s Favorite Flash Essayists | BREVITY's Nonfiction Blog .

…  Anecdotal Evidence: `The Pilgrim Steps of Spring' .

…   Beyond Eastrod: the journey of a Christian malgre lui: "Forgotten Book Friday" -- Cross by Ken Bruen .

…   On Opera Essays & Reviews 1959-2002 - New Rambler Review . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) Williams views pseudo-science as a real danger: ...

A joyous work by a great composer.

…  Cinema as Time Machine - WSJ .  (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) I quite agree that the film succeeds regarding the depiction of "the quotidia...