In 1842, Edgar Allan Poe got so drunk on mint juleps while visiting New York that he sent a letter apologizing to publishers J. and H.G. Langley. Will you be so kind enough to put the best possible interpretation upon my behavior while in N-York? You must have conceived a queer idea of me – but th...

Much as I love the extra hour of daylight, losing the extra hour of sleep kind of blows. But enough kvetching, on to the links: Marilyn Stasio has her say on new crime fiction by Valerie Laken, Sean Doolittle, Jedediah Berry and Jacqueline Winspear. Oline Cogdill reviews the new Randy Wayne White no...

Northanger Abbey (Image from Wikipedia ) If Jane Austen is right (and she most certainly is), then my past 25 years as a sort-of 'historian' have been . . . well judge 'sort of' for yourself based on how the young Miss Eleanor Tilney responds when the equally young Miss Catherine Morland, heroine of...

A friend sent me the text of a recent WSJ editorial entitled “Will This Crisis Produce a ‘Gatsby’?� I’ll link to it later—for now I want to recreate my bad-faith reading experience in all its glory.  My first reaction was to the title, even though I know authors never write their own ti...

Faith and Beggorah! Tis only the lucky or the Irish that get to warm up to dear St. Pat with some fine brogue spoken poetry from a lovely lassie and lovable leprechaun. The beer may not yet have the green sheen, but the Literary Café is sure to have the Irish hijinx of Johnny Jameson and Sons o...

Two strong intelligent characters, male and female, who are intellectually gifted, determined to make something "more" of themselves, but would never be romantically linked because of their wrongheaded decisions when it comes to love and marriage. There's little sexual tension between them, but they...

This is not what I planned to write about But this is what happened, and it dovetailed into what I was going to write about which is one of those things that happen and no writer could get away with letting them happen in fiction because it sounds too beautifully coincidental. Last night, well 2 am ...

I have five minutes until it's no longer Seuss day, but if you read one thing about Ted Geisel, read this amazingly tidbit-y article about the political (& personal) stories behind many of Seuss' books. My favorite one is this: 8. "The Butter Battle Book" is one I had never heard of, perhaps wit...

Postlapsarian Paradise Falling or Rising? (Image from Poets Online ) I suppose that's a ball being tossed by John Updike, but I like to think of it as an 'apple' of his postlapsarian paradise and ask myself whether it's rising or falling. In the foreward to John Updike: a Bibliography of Primary and...

So I had a really nice cultural weekend, punctuated by this massive late-winter snowstorm that shows few signs of abating too soon. I spent my time going to a concert and immersing myself in my favorite TV shows: "Mad Men," which is brilliant beyond belief, and "Big Love," which is getting so intens...