Show me the way to the next blogwatch bar….Abhay Khosla on the City of Glass comic; me, less ecstatically but still noting its awesomeness, on ditto. eta: HA, I just read to the end of this post, and it’s distilled Abhay spectacularo. Seriously, he grabs one of the reasons “we still like comics,” and this post as a whole is one of the reasons I’ll always like Abhay’s stuff. Click on the link for the bubblegum wrapper, too. Dappled Things... Read more

“Hurry now to your friend’s house and his wine, as drinks go round like the sun to his right. The wineglass purifies the wine’s ruddiness–even rubies are put to shame by its coral glow. It beholds and keeps secret the splendor of its vintage until it can no longer conceal it.” [clipped] –Judah Halevi, “Wine Songs #2,” in Poems from the Diwan tr. Gabriel Levin Read more

“When American life is most American it is apt to be most theatrical.”–Ralph Ellison, via Ratty Read more

HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING, glory to the squid-born king! Read more

Oh yeah, I had sexual intercourse with her. But not in the Biblical sense.—A Bit of Fry and Laurie Read more

“NAKED BUT NOT EXPOSED”: I review the National Gallery of Art’s Edward Hopper exhibit for Commonweal. Read more

The money gets divided–the blogwatch gets excited–Disputed Mutability: Have I mentioned that I end up quoting every other post from this hemi, demi, quasi ex-gay lady? Here, she visits a “Love Won Out” conference, and manages to nail a lot of what I found most awful. She finds the words for the things I struggled to express. RARGH, I can’t figure out how to quote stuff, so just: If you want to hear about the irrelevance of “origin stories,” the... Read more

The Jews of The Magic Barrel and the Jews of The Assistant are not the Jews of New York City or Chicago. They are Malamud’s inventions, a metaphor of sorts to stand for certain possibilities and promises, and I am further inclined to believe that when I read the statement attributed to Malamud which goes, “All men are Jews.” In fact, we know this is not so; even the men who are Jews aren’t sure they’re Jews.–Philip Roth, “Writing American... Read more

Reductio ad absurdum, which Euclid loved so much, is one of a mathematician’s finest weapons. It is a far finer gambit than any chess gambit: a chess player may offer the sacrifice of a pawn or even a piece, but a mathematician offers the game. –G.H. Hardy, something I don’t know what Read more

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS: SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF HOLY MOTHER CHURCH EDITION. Aelred: Well, so I’m a moron. For some reason I thought, on first reading, that St. Aelred didn’t grasp or address the sacrifices necessary for friendship. In fact, he says that friends should endure “crucifixion” for one another (with all that implies). One, I’m an idiot, and two, you absolutely should read Spiritual Friendship, which I think is the most amazing neo-Platonist document I’ve read barring The Confessions which... Read more