THE RETURN OF THE EVIL SHAKESPEARE OVERLORD LIST!!!! 446. I will not make Richard III dance the cancan while saying “Now is the winter of our discontent.” 495. I will never have The Ghost of Hamlet’s Father appear out of a Pepsi One machine. 504. If I am ever casting Macbeth, even if there are no male actors available whose abilities are commensurate with the title role, I will not have Lady Macbeth carry around a sock puppet. 509. While... Read more

YOU’VE GIVEN ME–GIVEN ME!–NOTHIN’ BUT SHATTERED GLASS: So I had a whole line-up of newspaper movies in the Netflix queue–His Girl Friday (utterly stellar, except for the insane creepiness of the death-penalty/suicide-attempt plot–human lives used as macguffins rather than real characters–so I can’t like this classic “remarriage comedy” even though I wanted to); Absence of Malice (better than I expected, but ultimately not that awesome, and misogynist IMO); and then Shattered Glass. It’s the story of how Stephen Glass snookered... Read more

DC AREA: Went to the first day of the St Matthew’s Cathedral “Theology of the Body” series. Lots of people; lots of food, yay!; looks like it will be a really cool series. You should go! It’s every second and fourth Saturday of the month–thus, the next one is March 11th. For more info, email Tricia at [email protected] or Kimberly at [email protected]. (And for those who need more practical prompting, I noted one chick who looked a bit like a... Read more

“Wealth should be seen less for its own qualities than for the human misery it stands for. The large rooms of which you are so proud are in fact your shame. They are big enough to hold parties, and also big enough to shut out the voice of the poor. The poor man cries before your house, and you pay no attention. There is your brother, naked, crying, and you stand there in a dilemma over a choice of carpets.”... Read more

HAY UNA DISCOTECA POR AQUI?: Some good snippets from the Crunchy Con blog (which has added Jonah Goldberg, Ross Douthat, and Jesse Walker, yay): Mitch Muncy: I suppose I’m thinking of Crunchy Conservatism in the same terms in which Mark Henrie has described [pdf] “traditionalist conservatism”: “It might be said that traditionalist conservatism is not yet a political theory but rather a tradition of social criticism that is working its way to a political philosophy adequate to its deepest moral... Read more

THREE LINKS ON DETAINEE ABUSE, WHO KNEW WHAT, ETC., from Balkinization. One (the most important, by far); two; three. Read more

Leaving the village behind, we followed the heady sweeps of the road up into a land of slow glass. –Bob Shaw, “Light of Other Days”–a haunting, intense SF story you can read here. Via Mumpsimus. Read more

EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT MARRIAGE (but were afraid to ask Stephanie Coontz): The Maggie-nator strikes again. Read more

FRIDAY: Please be outside the Embassy of Denmark, 3200 Whitehaven Street (off Massachusetts Avenue) between noon and 1 p.m. this Friday, Feb. 24. Quietness and calm are the necessities, plus cheerful conversation. Danish flags are good, or posters reading “Stand By Denmark” and any variation on this theme (such as “Buy Carlsberg/ Havarti/ Lego”). link I will try to be there. Read more

I’m at Blogwatch now you know, e-i-e-i-e-o… If you haven’t checked out After Abortion yet, now might be a good time. Personal stories, recent studies, compassion and hope. Camassia: Why heaven?–resurrection, social justice, failure, and “pie in the sky when you die.” A fierce and fantastic post. “Crunchy Con” blog: I’m instinctively unenthusiastic about this book, which might be surprising given my deep dissatisfaction with contemporary categories of left and right. Nonetheless, several people discussing the book here are really... Read more