Starting the new semester tomorrow: must redouble my efforts, and be more of an Amundsen than a Scott. What, yes, that is the appropriate analogy, and not at all fantastical or crass. On the drive from southern New York to southern Ohio, with stops in Pittsburgh and Columbus, my mother and I switched off reading Huntford's "The Last Place on Earth ( Read more... )

And I finally realized why Doug Murray has been bugging me so damn much: he is possibly, Joe Hill!

Click to view

(or, if you prefer, Paul Robeson. I am one-hundred percent sure we once sang this in church, now that, you know. English.)As you can see, I have been working diligently and seriously on my various essays. No, not really, the latest masterpiece, ( Read more... )

And here is something really exciting! Michael Ignatieff Twittered this. I got really kind of irrationally excited about that, because, egad, I love Justin Trudeau a LOT, and...it looks like I will be waiting until someone who is actually a member of the Liberal Party tells me about it ( Read more... )

Here is some actual news! Putin 'jiggles to ABBA hits' at gig And, okay, that is actual news defined pretty loosely, in that has happened lately, yet tells us almost nothing about anything. ETA, 23:17 2/9: faded-lilac alerted me to this version. Oh my!

( The alternate title for this post was 'What I Have Lately Learned, Crazy Version.' Embedded clips )

I have some AWESOME news to share.

Body exhumed in fight against fluYes. YES. The world really is this great! You too, can make poorly-considered territorial divisions, and get famous, along with those Picot and Sazonov tools. BUT, wait! Your career is not over, even though you died in a gruesome epidemic, drowning in your own lungs, along with ( Read more... )

My fantastically successful screening of "Lawrence of Arabia" was just that, fantastically successful. It is difficult to express how much I love that film. TEXTUAL EXPRESSION < WAVING MY ARMS AROUND AND SCREAMING. Times a thousand, or so. See, the problem is that there's so rarely such a unity of form and purpose, and when it's encountered, it's ( Read more... )

I had constructed a series of great jokes about myself, Pepin the Short and Joseph Stalin, but I realised that they were a)unfunny and b)kinda hugely insensitive to people who aren't me, and would therefore translate poorly to text. Or, really, anyone else's consciousness; I discovered this after nearly getting into a slapfight during Multifaith ( Read more... )

Ah, I have reemerged. Have not looked at two weeks' worth of f'list, yet. I will get on that, really. Hopefully you're all still well? Mm, okay ( Read more... )

It's International Womens' Day! YAY!

I have a number of fun things for your perusal.

Exhibit A. Professions for Women by Virginia Woolf. This is actually stunningly interesting. I know that at this point, talking about Woolf can seem a little doddering, and perhaps it is. However, prevailing critical attitudes and I have never really gotten ( Read more... )