Read at Daily Herald website If you didn’t know better, you would have thought George F. Will was a run-of-the-mill liberal when he scolded Senate Republicans this week for their refusal to consider any Obama Supreme Court nominee and Merrick Garland in particular. But Will is well-established and world famous, so it’s doubtful many readers Read More …
Category: Blog
These are random thoughts about topics that interest me — including books, rock and roll, philosophy, culture and daily life. I update it whenever the mood strikes me, shooting for at least once a week but often more frequently than that. I welcome your comments on anything I may discuss here and, when appropriate, will reply as promptly as possible.
Sad limerick
Her best friends turned her tune meant for fun To a dirge with two twists on one tongue. Finding what they were after, She choked on their laughter And coughed up her voice ever on.
Thoughts on Sara Bareilles’ “Blessed Unrest”
I like Adele Adkins well enough. Better than that, really. I thought her “21” album deserved every accolade it received. It’s a wonderful album, varied, soulful and bursting with heart. I have wondered how I would feel about her “25” if it had been the first of the two. It’s a fine album, more than Read More …
‘Near-mythical’ rumors stem from violation of a ‘sacred trust’
Read at Daily Herald website It’s not often one would expect to see the phrases “Donald Trump” and “sacred” in close proximity with each other without an “is nothing” in there somewhere, but as the 2016 presidential campaign is amply demonstrating, anything can happen. Unfortunately, this anything involved what Daily Herald Editor John Lampinen rightly Read More …
Twenty-nine poems
Twenty-nine poems. Why not twenty-eight? Or thirty, for a pleasant rounder sum? Enough? Too much? Not mine to calculate, a magic number; sic oraculum. To woo your breast and breath and arms and mind, I offer heartbeats mounting, unmeasured. While cauldrons, crystals, Tarots, chants divined In mute clairvoyance thrash for magic words, Conjure instead through too-neglected modes Of Read More …
Pants Haiku
Cream cotton pants, new. Tom. Viv. Sunset. Giddy talk. Naive vanity.
There’s a reason print newspapers still have imitators
Read at Daily Herald website Ronald Reagan’s famous Cold War maxim “Trust but verify” has too many applications to list, but few are more appropriate than one dealing with print newspapers. The somewhat-less-than-reliable new Lake County Gazette is an extreme case in point. As newspapers bravely soldier through the most bruising in a long history Read More …
Asking the right question about who wins a political debate
Read at Daily Herald website If you ache to learn who won that candidate’s debate you just watched, either you are asking the wrong question or there was no real winner. For the only one who should be a winner in a candidate’s debate is you, the voter. One of the things that most disappoints Read More …
Book Review: All The Light We Cannot See
There is a shortcoming in Anthony Doerr’s beautiful novel, but the book’s abundant strengths are so profound and overarching that it feels wrong to issue even a mild complaint. This is, simply, an awe-inspiring book. Its imagery is lush, its descriptions precise and highly detailed. The pacing of the prose is lyrical and diverse, the story telling Read More …
Book Review: How We Got To Now by Steven Johnson
It’s a real pleasure to take a look at the world through the prism of someone who has taken time to reflect deeply on the historical foundations of advances so ubiquitous that we may not realize the role they’ve played in the development of our comfort and our culture. Johnson’s book takes this approach to Read More …