This is a really fun little widget! Via IKM. My birthday word is “gazillion,” as in, “I have spent a gazillion hours winding cassette tape back into cassettes with a pencil eraser.” But it’s fun to just play around with the thing and see which words originated later or earlier than I would have guessed–“celebutante” and “babysitter” are both from the 1930s, for example. Read more
Aren’t we all, really, beautiful animals made from broken CDs? Anyway, this link is via the Rattus, and her kind is represented by a very cute little tufty rat. THE SQUID, BY CONTRAST, IS MAJESTIC. …I’m just sayin’. Read more
For your delectation: I taught a course on Christology last spring, and in preparation I read a lot about St. Cyril of Alexandria. Three books are especially memorable from that time: Cyril’s treatise On the Unity of Christ, Christ in Eastern Christian Thought by John Meyendorff, and St. Cyril of Alexandria: The Christological Controversy by John McGuckin. I also read a few books this year from and about the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, as I continue to try to figure out where... Read more
in AmSpec, on Burke-era popular conservatism: TWO THINGS ALL conservatives love are narratives of decline and talking about conservatism. Put those together and you have the popular argument that conservatism ain’t what it used to be. The chart of that supposed decline, if you were to draw it Ascent of Man style, would start with Edmund Burke looking intelligent and walking upright, followed by William F. Buckley as Australopithecus, slouching. The present age would be represented by some knuckle-dragging, prognathous creature like... Read more
Eight thoughts on Dana Gioia’s “The Catholic Writer Today.” It’s a listicle, because we live in a degenerate age. * Look, let me get this out of my system: We all know that First Things publishes basically this same essay once a year, right? Here’s me teething on the last one I can remember. Gioia’s is the best one I’ve read so far, but I have read way too many of them, and they all have the same GIANT FRUSTRATING... Read more
yeah: As procedural drama TV shows have taught us, every conviction in the U.S. justice system is the product of meticulous DNA testing and forced sexual tension among the detectives. But what happens when the prosecution screws up and the wrong man ends up in jail? Usually they apologize, set the man free, and try to help everyone move on with their lives, like the mature, responsible grown-ups they are. Haha, just kidding — it’s actually physically impossible for people... Read more
at AmCon: In decadent Rome, an aging art critic rides the success of his one, long-ago novel, and wonders if there’s more to life than having the best conga line in the Eternal City. He watches young nuns playing in a hedge maze, drifts into and through relationships with damaged women, and does a lot of eloquent smoking. The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino’s update of/homage to La Dolce Vita, offers a lot of expected pleasures. Our antihero, Jep Gambarella (Toni... Read more
It’s an overview of King’s work plus a review of his two most recent novels: What do you do when you’re in a Stephen King novel, but you’re not a Stephen King character anymore? Or rather: What do you do when you’re Stephen King, but you’re not a Stephen King character anymore? subscribers-only; I do actually think I make some good points here, so if you’re interested in King you might get a hold of it. Read more
Kafka has this great line, “A belief is like a guillotine: just as heavy, just as light.” I could easily have titled a post about Ann Patchett’s memoir of her friendship with poet and memoirist Lucy Grealy, “A Friend Is Like a Guillotine….” Lucy was light, literally–she had jaw cancer as a child, and the chemotherapy, radiation and endless surgeries she endured left her unable to chew and barely able to swallow, so she weighed very little. Ann carries her... Read more
What do you mean, Sunday was the first day of Advent? It felt just like Christmas to me! That’s because I got to attend the MK Young Artist Showcase 4 at the Fort Dupont Ice Arena. Choreographers from otherworldly locales such as Salt Lake City and Austria competed, plus there were exhibitions by local synchro skaters and also 2011 national champion Ryan Bradley, seen here in his “Doublet Your Pleasure, Doublet Your Fun” program and here in his winning short... Read more
Eve Tushnet
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