FRANK STRAUS MEYER’S REVIEW OF LOLITA. As usual, the founder of fusionism saw more clearly than most. I don’t actually think fusionism does too much for us right now–it seems to rely on too many shared premises for a crazed and fractured culture–but I really respect it. Anyway: …Vladimir Nabokov writes a novel, Lolita. With scarifying wit and masterly descriptive power, he excoriates the materialist monstrosities of our civilization — from progressive education to motel architecture, and back again through... Read more

WHEN TYRANTS TREMBLE:The Taiwanese ambassador to the Vatican was so impressed with seeing “an inner peace and happiness” in the Catholics he met while living and working in Rome that he decided to convert to Catholicism.more (via Amy Welborn) Read more

AMY WELBORN IS SMARTER THAN ME. So I haven’t been following this whole Da Vinci Code craziness at all. But Amy makes key points in a post which is important for everyone, whether you’ve ever heard the phrase “Gospel of Judas” or not. …I had a long conversation with a magazine reporter this morning about the appeal and impact of this, in which I reiterated the points I made in my piece at the Jesus Decoded website–that there are levels... Read more

IF YOU ARE HET UP (AND YOU SHOULD BE) ABOUT CHINA’S INTERFERENCE WITH GOOGLE, and Google’s collaboration with ditto, read about Tunisia. Read more

Watch all you rambling blogs of pleasure And ladies of easy leisure; We must say “Adios!” until we see Almeria once again… (Oh, what a fantastic song. In my mind, this song plays at all the dances in Heaven.) Hi people. My monitor has decided that now would be an excellent time to wig out, and only works properly for brief intervals prompted by lifting it, pressing on its face, propping it up unevenly on comic books, and other irksome... Read more

[clipped] He wasn’t a plaster sort of a saint. But he swelled men’s minds With a Christian leaven. It takes all kinds to make a heaven. –from “The Thunderer,” a poem on St Jerome. Via Mark Shea. Read more

Theeeeeere’s a blogwatch on the rise… The Agitator: If you’re in the D.C. area, you might consider coming to the Cato book forum I’m hosting this Thursday for Maia Szalavitz’s new book, Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids. Opening remarks are by Evan Wright, a Rolling Stone contributing editor, award-winning war journalist, and a guy who as a teen went through The Seed, an abusive drug rehab program that was a precursor... Read more

KITCHENETTE ADVENTURETTES: WE ARE FANCY CHEESE, IF YOU PLEASE. Some very simple, delicious things to do if you have some cheese. 1. Fake Caprese. So I had this really good Bufala mozzarella, and this tomato that was fairly good but not excellent, and no fresh basil. What to do?? I ended up slicing about half the tomato (see below for what happened to the other half) and sauteing it in ex-virgin olive oil for just a little while–until the slices... Read more

POETRY WEDNESDAY: Better Extraordinarily Late Than Extraordinarily Never edition. A Road in Kentucky Robert Hayden And when that ballad lady went to ease the lover whose life she broke, oh surely this is the road she took, road all hackled through barberry fire, through cedar and alder and sumac and thorn. [clipped] via Angevin2 Read more

I wish I was him, he gets the girls at his feet(with all his cool friends)he gets his blogwatch for freeI wish I was himHe has no enemiesI wish I was him… Um… if I can think of interesting Lenten/Easter reflections, I’ll post them. For the moment I want to get these links up. This thing I wrote a couple years ago is doubtless better than whatever I’d come up with right now. Cacciaguida: A Cacciason is coming home from... Read more