WHAT’S OPERA, DOC? Two “opera recordings you shouldn’t miss” pieces from the Washington Post. Useful to the opera-impaired like me. (The only one I know I like is “Tosca.”) Via Dappled Things. Read more

SPEAKING OF BAD TIMES: Moving article on Rufus Wainwright’s “gay hell.” Via E-Pression. Read more

BAD TIMES TOO: Good post from Sean Collins on “helpful” people who pressure others to deny their less-comely emotions. He’s writing about eating disorders, but I’ve seen this same dynamic play out in my friendships and in my volunteer job, and I imagine most of you will also recognize it. Excerpt: “I’ve watched family, friends, and lovers attempt to comfort their loved one with ED, all the while transmitting wave after wave of needy ‘please act happy so I don’t... Read more

“Folding the dressing-gown over his heart so that it would not see–be quiet, it is nothing (as one says to a child at the moment of an incredible disaster)–covering his heart and raising himself slightly, Cincinnatus listened.” –Vladimir Nabokov, Invitation to a Beheading Read more

ATTN: JIM HENLEY. Did you get my email from a few days ago? Anyway… I have stuff to say (tentative post headline: “Intertextuality is just another lifestyle choice”), but not right this minute–either later tonight, or tomorrow. Oh, and since my CD player is slightly broken, I’ve been rediscovering all my cassette tapes. I’d forgotten how awesome Severed Heads is. Read more

Oh the year was 1778, how I wish I was in Sherbrooke now, When the letter of marque came from the King To the scabbiest blogwatch I’d ever seen… The Agitator: Statues of Lenin: Where are they now? Fascinating. Amy Welborn and Dappled Things: Posting on Saint Augustine on his feast day. Amy’s right–Peter Brown’s biography is fantastic. (And, in an odd coincidence, the Confessions play a role in my current short story!) Oxblog: How West Germany broke the Iron... Read more

JUDICA ME DEUS, PART FOUR: The penultimate scene from my ongoing short story. Expect the final scene on Monday, probably. You can read the whole thing so far starting here; or just get the most recent scene here. The usual warnings apply–this is neither G-rated nor dolphin-safe. Read more

BAGHDAD, BLOGS, AND BEYOND: Diana of Letter from Gotham writes, “I alternate between wanting to scream at Riverbend [of Baghdad Burning] and saying to myself, ‘Whoa. You haven’t been thru what she’s been thru. You haven’t walked a mile in her moccasins. Nobody’s bombed you. You haven’t lived under a foreign occupation. Albany doesn’t count. And remember — she’s 24. Even if you cannot remember being 24.’ “…Whatever the case, I am positive we are hearing a very Upper East... Read more

ATTACK OF THE MIDDLEMEN: As if specifically to prove me wrong, today brings two examples of comics-industry middlemen acting like total jerks: a publisher and a retailer. Read more

WHEN EVANGELICAL PHILOSOPHY PROFESSORS ATTACK!!!! Go here and click on “Quotations” for some high hilarity. I bet the Old Oligarch would appreciate this guy. Via Mark Shea. Read more