Publishers Weekly gives us this handy pie chart breakdown of the hashtagged Twitter votes for Kurt Vonnegut’s greatest book: For the “other” category, Gabe Habash helpfully explains “the following books received one vote each: Hocus Pocus, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Welcome to the Monkey House, Player Piano, Man Without a Country.” You people are all wrong. (more…) Read more
Your diarist pulled the Subaru off Sunset Drive in Bellingham today followed by a cop car with the lights flashing and the siren sirening. The gray matter started totting up an estimate of how much this ticket was going to cost, and what that would do to insurance. The officer peeled out of the east-going traffic and had me dead to rights. I had accidentally run a red light making a left turn onto Sunset because the car was trailing... Read more
Veteran musician Randy Newman has just released the new satirical song “I’m Dreaming (of a White President)” that has your diarist, frankly, baffled beyond belief. It’s terrible. Newman sets out to mock a certain kind of nostalgic white American chauvinism and then rabbittrails off into an explanation for what happened to all the would-have-been African Einsteins. They were eaten by lions! Seriously, watch as much of this video as you can stomach and then scroll down for more comment: (more…) Read more
Q: Why dive back into the John Allison-Cato Insitute-Ayn Rand Institute story with a self Q&A? Isn’t that pompous? A: Because 1) I’ve been putting a lot of little items together and 2) I’ve been busy. Could have peppered Jeremy Lott’s Diary with them as I went but then it would have turned into Jeremy Lott’s Obsessive Scribblings About a Former Employer. Don’t misunderstand: I think the story matters, but readers come here for other reasons, too. Q: You keep... Read more
About to put my thumb out and hitch a ride back north. Before I go, dear reader, let me share an idea that came to me yesterday: Somebody should start up an undergarment store and call it Pomp & Underpants. Read more
True story: The other day, I got two calls from the same 800 number in about an hour. Normally, it’s best not to answer calls from unfamiliar numbers but this one was more persistent than most, so I picked up the second time. The person at the other end of the line, who spoke in unaccented American English, asked to speak with Margie. This has happened a couple of times over the years, so I gather a Margie had my... Read more
Your diarist is in the People’s Republic of Seattle today. Hitched a ride with a friend and the plan is to stick around for Real Clear Science editor Alex Berezow’s talk about his new book Science Left Behind and hitch another ride back to Lynden tomorrow. I say “the plan is to” because there’s a big protest by Occupiers coming up later today and who knows what it will disrupt. My motto for Washington state politics is, “If it’s bad... Read more
This being my one and only day off, I thought I’d take a break from the serious subject of the brewing John Allison-Cato Institute-Ayn Rand Institute scandal to marvel at the jaw-droppingly awesome podcasts of Ayn Rand Institute founder Leonard Peikoff. The man will answer practically any question readers put to him. That openness may be commendable, but it also invites mischief makers and trolls. To see what I mean, here are a few of the questions that he answers:... Read more
Forgot to spin up a song for you yesterday, dear reader. Well how about this, then: Tim Hawkins doing one of the finest parody bits of all time. He listened to that insufferable standard on Christian radio, “Jesus Take the Wheel” and transformed it into “Cletus Take the Reel”! Read more
This month my publisher Thomas Nelson released the book 10 Christians Everyone Should Know (paperback and e-versions here and here). It’s a sort of Reader’s Digest version of the Christian Encounters series of brief lives. Ten bios were condensed into this book by editor John Perry. The eclectic list of subjects includes St. Patrick, Anne Bradstreet, Jane Austen, Seargeant York and my own take on William F. Buckley. The result is a treasure chest of historical trivia and — leaving... Read more
Jeremy Lott's Diary
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