HAVE YOU LIVED? It’s been a rough week: First, I fail a Turing test, and now the Washington Post tells me I haven’t lived. They’re running a series, “You Haven’t Lived Unless…”, spotlighting various DC-area hidden treasures. I’ve only done seven or maybe eight of the things (National Aquarium–I think? Maybe I’m confusing it with the more famous Baltimore Aquarium?, watched the Supreme Court, Mall at night–this one really is an excellent choice, cherry blossoms, National Cathedral, horses in Rock... Read more

O TEMPORA, ETC. This post about blogging seems distinctly dated, as if June were a long time ago. Faster, pussycat, etc. “Due primarily to cultural reasons, but partly to technological innovations, blogs tend to be less ‘team-player’ish, less willing to bury inconvenient stories or interpretations, than the major media. I stress that this is only a tendency, not a certainty. …Partly, this greater tendency to acknowledge what ‘the other guys’ get right occurs simply because blogs have less credibility than... Read more

TEN BEST BOOKS I READ IN 2002: Sabbath’s Theater; Confessions (Augustine); Notes from Underground; Sweet Smell of Success; Death in Midsummer; Real Choices: Listening to Women, Finding Alternatives to Abortion; Love in the Western World; The Counterlife; The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror; Republics Ancient and Modern, vol. III: Inventions of Prudence: Constituting the American Regime Runner-Up: Miss Manners’ Basic Training: The Right Thing to Say FIVE BEST MOVIES I SAW IN 2002: The Bat Whispers; On the... Read more

If I had another penny I would buy another gill I would make the piper play “The Bonny Lads of Blogwatch Hill”… Camassia asks the old question: “Oh, Loving Madman! was it not enough for Thee to become Incarnate, that Thou must also die?” Answers are requested. On a rather different level, the Cranky Professor has some suggestions for people buying gifts for children. In Lame Watch news, Arthur Silber is furling his blog-flag, at least temporarily. Boo, hiss. However,... Read more

POETRY WEDNESDAY-ISH: Via Tenelux, W.H. Auden’s “O Tell Me the Truth About Love”: [clipped] Read more

SLEEPY. Also dopey, but not especially grumpy. The main thing I had to do today took MUCH longer than I’d thought it would, plus I woke up early, went back to sleep, and promptly overslept, so basically today slipped completely out of my hands. New Year’s was fun (Shamed taught me and Russo to play stud poker; we watched William Shatner host a “One-Hit Wonders” countdown, super fun; we ate cookies, drank champagne, argued about war, generally kicked up a... Read more

THE MARRIAGE MOVEMENT, which I should definitely check in on more often, has been running a series of posts examining fatherhood and fatherlessness and marital discord in movies. Really interesting stuff–just click the main site and scroll as desired. But be sure not to miss this amazing advertisement. If I saw it on a bus shelter, it’d stop me cold. Read more

RACE VII: OLIGARCH GUEST STARS!: The Old Oligarch has a good, solid, basic post about why Kwanzaa is lame. I agree entirely. Read more

LOTS OF GOOD STUFF AT OXBLOG. But then, what else is new? Read more

RACE FAKE POSTSCRIPT: Rob Dakin writes, “If almost everybody acted, almost all the time, AS IF there could be a dangerous, mankilling, rogue unicorn around the next corner, then the mere fact that unicorns are ‘fake’ would be almost (but not quite) irrelevant. So, race does exist. It’s just that once you try to define what any given person’s race IS, it becomes like trying to catch his shadow…” I reply, “Argh! I try for a catchy post title, and... Read more