So you all want a story? ok. I will tell one maybe two. David and I were young then. And we were tentmates. This trip forced us to go without certain items for a period of days. We had to carry what we ate, so we did not shop for junk food or munchies. We all had huge packs that we carried our tents...

At RSB Carey Harrison has a nice post on The Kindly Ones. Carey takes into account Daniel Mendelsohn's lengthy, considered review in the NYRB, and both Carey and Daniel try to understand why Littell has made his book so dirty. Here's some of Carey's take: Mendelsohn’s conclusion grants The Kindly ...

By Dennis D. McDonald This 1957 black and white science fiction movie is nowhere near classics like This Island Earth or Forbidden Planet in production values, but it holds up surprisingly well, if you give it a chance. I hadn’t seen it since I was a kid. I dimly remember thinking even back th...

Tim Martin assesses a daring 'monster' of a novel that is dividing critics across the world...

Ramona and I made her tonight. I was going to work, but Ramona was sprawled so pitifully on the floor, lamenting that no one would play with her, that Betsy would never, ever play Science People with her, and that she had nothing to do, and no one to do it with, and, really, wasn't her life just a h...

So What (Kind of Blue, primera toma) (MP3, 128 kilobits) Me apasionan los esbozos de obras de arte. Me gustan más los dibujos de los arquitectos que sus edificios. Me emocionan mucho más los pequeños dibujos que hizo Picasso antes del Gernika que el propio Gernika. Pero si algo tiene una magia es...

“True compassion is not just an emotional response but a firm commitment founded on reason.� - HH, the Dalai Lama Think of people as a cross between ants and marbles constantly moving in somewhat random patterns. A mass of movement, whirring about, jostling for position and direction going about...

We leave this afternoon for a "faculty-trustee retreat" that my institution holds every few years.  It's a chance for faculty to schmooze with trustees, for trustees to (gasp!) talk to a wide array of faculty -- rather than just the administrators and the (usually senior) faculty...

The Guardian provides the first UK review I've seen of Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones. This is a decidedly positive review, and it provides some extra-literary info that I was not aware of: The first significant work of Jonathan Littell, Francophone son of American spy author Robert, it was an e...

One day we’re chopping it up over career stuff when he says, “I want Screw You money.� I look confused so he explains. Screw You money is checking your bank statement then telling your clients/bosses, “Screw you, I don’t hafta take this anymore.� Screw You money burns bridges now but bui...