: A bookplate designed by M. C. Escher
: The Economist: “New work led by Roza Kamiloglu, a psychologist at the Free University of …
: Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), Ferry on the Fuji River. Colour-woodblock print, about 1832
: Here’s a fabulous three-song set by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.
: My colleague Philip Jenkins settles a few persistent myths about the Council of Nicaea. It’s …
: Charles Thurston Thompson, Side view of packing case and horse-drawn ‘van’ for transport of Raphael …
: In which I recommend a lovely new novel. 📚
: Currently listening: Bill Evans, The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961 (Live) ♫. Of the …
: Frank Auerbach — who died last week — “Albert Street II”, 2010
: On a foggy morning, this streetlight in my neighborhood offers a gentle alien-invasion vibe.
: Weather forecasts in central Texas: Five days out: 90% chance of rain Four days out: 80% chance of …
: A brilliant essay on orphans and robots from Adam Roberts. An idea-filled essay that’s …
: I am somewhat compensated for the non-arrival of Fall by continuing blooms (thanks to the gardening …
: Barney Ronay on the likelihood of Saudi Arabia hosting the World Cup: “This will stand as …
: An exhibition of trade catalogs! This is so down my alley.
: Ian Leslie: “Once you start thinking about the distinction between charisma and charm you see …
: It’s true what they say: I would make a darn good Archbishop of Canterbury. But I have too much on …
: Phil Christman: All those “writing in the age of Trump” essays aged like milk. I still don’t want …
: Waiting for a family member to come home.
: Extremely Online and Incredibly Tedious | Rhian Sasseen: We have entered a cultural moment in which …
: Rebecca Solnit on David Graeber: That joy: maybe this is how everyone should feel about ideas and …
: Paul Nash’s woodcuts depicting Genesis 1
: Angus is either unaware of or indifferent to the work I need to get done this morning.
: Ethan Iverson on swing, bebop, and Lou Donaldson.
: Jamie Smith: When I suggest we need more Christian politics rather than less, I can imagine my …
: Pupil at work in Dulwich Mausoleum (1812)
: Here’s a quick post that’s a bit about journalism and a bit about hypertext and the …
: In ev’ry government, though terrors reign, Though tyrant kings, or tyrant laws restrain, How …
: The estimable and always thoughtful A. M. Juster reviews The Shield of Achilles. I am grateful for …
: Based on that new post of mine, my friend Rick Gibson is having a t-shirt made up for me.
: My one comment about the election — or rather the discourse surrounding the election — requires me …
: Mushrooms, drawn by Beatrix Potter
: My Substack account has gotten completely out of control, and I can best deal with that by deleting …
: My thoughts on Nicholas Jenkins’s magnificent new book on Auden, The Island, are in the new …
: Craig Mod – AKA @craidmod.com: Where am I typing these words? I’m sitting in a tiny café on …
: Here I am, as usual, trying to get us to be clear about what questions we’re asking.
: A distinction that it took me a very long time to learn: what I need to write versus what I need to …
: Marian Evans (George Eliot), from a letter to Charles Bray in 1859: I have had heart-cutting …
: Mary Delany, paper mosaic. Ca. 1775
: A decade ago, I wrote an essay about what seemed to me a strange development: the centrality of …
: Gold sword-scabbard button with garnets, Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, early AD 600s
: On my big blog as a Mathom-house.
: I’m always negotiating the relationship between micro.blog and my big blog, but I’m getting closer …
: I despise Man City, but Rodri’s Ballon d’Or is absolutely deserved. He’s been the …
: Nick Heer: “If software is judged by the difference between what it is actually capable of …
: I wrote about Court and Spark, an album in its fiftieth year.
: At the galleys stage of my biography of Paradise Lost — an exciting moment because I don’t …
: I wrote about articulateness — and the lack thereof — in American Presidents and Presidential …
: Nick Cave: I experience a certain vague ‘spiritualness’ within the world’s chaos, an approximate …
: Listening to: Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays the Beatles 🎵
: Researchers say AI transcription tool used in hospitals invents things no one ever said. And some of …
: Adam Roberts has a Substack! This should be cause for general rejoicing, and everyone should …
: Maybe this is a good season for me to re-up my old post on being informed but not absorbed.
: Gecophone crystal detector radio set no. 1, complete with instruction handbook, around 1923
: In the middle of Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett, I came across a funny/insightful passage I thought …
: A very happy boy after playing in the hose.
: Sometimes teaching — or the kind of teaching I do, anyway — forces you to confront certain dramatic …
: I’m delighted that Davide Mascioli, who had first thought of the Space Exploration Logo …
: Truthless. I am psyched. I would be under any circumstances but especially because of my long career …
: My question for those who make an economic defense of the liberal arts is always this: If the …
: I’m going to spend some time with my first-years today discussing the skill of critical …
: At this stage of a campaign season, journalism consists largely of frantically shouting at people …
: Freddie: There’s no major topic in American media that’s covered with less openness to new …
: In which I prove to be over-trustful in news reports.
: At Padre Island National Seashore you can drive on the beach — if you have a 4-wheel drive vehicle, …
: Via this post from Sara Hendren — AKA @ablerism — I see that I need to read Dougald Hine. One …
: So here I am praising David Brooks for … thinking some of the things I think, I guess. But I …
: The response by Gemma M. (whom I don’t know) at my most recent BMAC post is fascinating to me, …
: Mark 7:34. I should get points for biblical literacy instead of being rejected.
: Perfect pairing in the mail today.
: Here in Waco, from 5pm this afternoon to 9am tomorrow morning the temperature will drop fifty …
: Kieran Healy on his Modern Plain Text Computing class: To help address these challenges, modern …
: Phil Christman: I was curious about students’ causal arguments about this sudden eclipse of …
: This Met exhibition on Sienese painting looks wonderful.
: M. John Harrison: The middle aged — that is, those between about thirty five and fifty years old — …
: So a few minutes into the train wreck of the Biden-Trump debate James Carville turned off the TV, …
: Whenever I am tempted to think that all those years I spent on social media were wasted, something …
: Nicholas Carr: It would be foolish to suggest that dead speech will supplant living speech in all …
: Richard Rorty’s bastard children.
: Mandy Brown wrote a wonderful post that I responded to, and now she’s back with an even better …
: Brad East asks “What does an idol promise?” — and then answers the question. A useful …
: It has never occurred to me that someone meeting a philosopher might ask “What are your …
: There’s no way I’ll be watching Megalopolis, but the broader point Matt Zoller Seitz …
: Meaghan Ritchey does a fascinating interview of Nicholas Ma, whose new documentary Leap of Faith …
: Baylor is having an A.I. week and I’m not super happy about it.
: Angus would like you to know that he is two years old today!
: John Naughton on Dave Winer: Like many of us, he realised that what came to be known as the …
: My primary problem as a guitarist: by the time I have achieved, or am on the verge of achieving, …
: Kevin Williamson: There are public housing projects nearby, whose residents complain the local …
: I’m very excited about Ian Leslie’s forthcoming John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs, …
: Angus meekly and gratefully received his blessing.
: I wrote about writing for money and writing for no money.
: David Karpf: Maybe someday Altman’s ideas about AI will prove out, but for now, his approach is …
: From the same story, Oliver at his desk with notebook fountain pen typewriter PC with WordPerfect …
: Oliver Sacks’s notes on Tourette’s syndrome
: Teaching The Nine Tailors to 16 first-year students and they are into it. I am rather shocked by …
: I like to visit the corner of our department where we keep office supplies, which I adore. Pencils, …
: A powerful and much-needed word from Sara Hendren, AKA @ablerism: I think the clamor among young …
: You’ll never hear a better version of “Amazing Grace” than this. Indirectly via …
: Why I’m not blogging much these days.
: My friend and colleague David Corey told me that this is how he explains to his students how musical …
: Yeah, sure, y’all keep looking stuff up on the “internet,” I’ll just be over here with my REFERENCE …
: It seems, my dear friend, that the brains of the greatest men contract when they are gathered …
: I approve of the design and typography of this poster.
: Decades ago I started porting my Desires and Preferences to my Reason, but WOW are there still a …
: Real talk: The best version of Rhapsody in Blue is the arrangement for piano, especially as played …
: Currently reading: Passions of the Soul by Rowan Williams. This book is exactly what I need right …
: Ove at the Hog Blog, I wrote about how Montesquieu teaches us the value of triangulation. (That may …
: The primary work of the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop is letter cutting in stone, and you …
: Stone carving by the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop for Clare College, Cambridge.
: TIL (from John McWhorter) that long ago the opposite of business or busyness was busiless.
: Lord Peter meets Colonel Mustard.
: Justin Smith-Ruiu: And little by little I began to wake up to the fact that I am, like everyone …
: Dominic Armato: “Content Creator” is a title that inadvertently tells on itself. It’s a tacit …
: Josh Gluckstein’s cardboard coral reef
: Two consecutive stories in my RSS feed. Turns out that if culture is being lost it’s also …
: Another fascinating report on trends in American religion by Ruth Graham, the best religion reporter …
: Why my model is POS, not POSSE.
: Mexican prints at the Met Fifth Avenue
: Listening to the readings in church this morning, I couldn’t help thinking that the epistle …
: Eric Fitch Daglish, from Birds of the British Isles (1948)
: Finished reading: France on Trial by Julian Jackson. A vivid and powerful story. What a unique …
: I wrote an update for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.
: Ronald W. Dworkin: The crisis that doctors face in their new working environment is ultimately a …
: Fidelia Bridges, Rooftops, Brooklyn, ca. 1867
: Everett L. Warner, New York from a Seaplane, ca. 1919
: Brad Bigelow: The canon of well-known classics, the books one can find in just about every library …
: I linked to this before, I think, but I continue to listen obsessively to Alec Goldfarb’s new …
: Robin Sloan: My writing project continues, of course. What is that project? The production of books …
: Michael Chabon: I find the continuing mission of Voyager 1 so moving, for the way its name alone …
: Very glad to see that Francesca Gino’s bullying lawsuit against the Data Colada bloggers has been …
: Dan Cohen: A copyright regime that precludes libraries lending scans of books they already own and …
: This report on defamation law reminds me that I wrote an essay on the intellectual and moral history …
: Zadie Smith: “I think it’s important to be a bit more forgiving when they’re being those …
: “Hello, Public Safety? There’s some dude outside my office window, just sitting there and staring …
: Today Robert Caro’s The Power Broker is available as an e-book, and I would love to know how …
: Adam Roberts, “Musée des Prole Arts.”
: I LOL’d while reading this post by Phil Christman because it captures so perfectly a certain moment …
: I wrote this morning about the world’s best copy editor and offered your occasional reminder …
: Christine Rosen’s new book The Extinction of Experience — which I blurbed — is here also, and …
: Jeff Bilbro’s new book Words for Conviviality — which I blurbed — is just out, and …
: Looking at what the next few weeks hold for me 😬 I realize that I need to take a break from …
: I just keep coming back to this one. 🎵
: People love Big Stories, sweeping narratives that seek to describe the whole world or the last …
: I wrote about William Blake’s sleeping giant.
: Ted Gioia on the healing power — literally! — of music.
: Rachmaninoff in Sydney — a report from one of my students.
: I wrote up My Correct Views on Theological Diversity – the title being a nod-and-wink in the …
: You probably have not heard of Mildred Pope, but I bet you’ll be glad to learn about her.
: When I’m writing my back would very much prefer that I do it while reclining in a comfy chair, but …
: Feels good to cross the 10K barrier. (Working on my Sayers bio.)
: Via Damon Krukowski, a reminder that even a basic calendar of events could be a work of art if you …
: Here’s a new post for my BMAC supporters.
: If you slip the cover art out of the plastic box that holds the Criterion edition of Perfect Days …
: China depicted by a 17th-century English artist – at the V&A.
: Very interesting observation from Ethan Iverson: Ross Barkan and Freddie deBoer are prolific on …
: Breaking news: VAR in the Premier League continues to be worse than useless. ⚽️
: I wrote about Adam Roberts’s novel Space Satan!!! — that’s the title Adam’s son prefers and I can’t …
: I find that I’m not at all ready for the return of (European) footy, not after the Euros and …
: I wrote about Sherlock Holmes and Jacques Derrida. As one does.
: My all-time favorite edition of Nick Cave’s Red Hand Files is this one, about an unfortunate …
: Had dinner at Red Herring tonight and the cacio e pepe was, if not to die for, certainly to kill …
: Pochettino: the only football manager on the planet who can look at the USMNT job and think: Well, …
: Chelsea FC: Finally fulfilling its God-given role as a feeder club for American soccer managers. ⚽️
: Oh cool, it’s Emo Dorothy Sayers.
: Via Ethan Iverson, Vinnie Sperrazza gives us the backbeats.
: Plan de l’exposition universelle de 1900. Full-size image here.
: just before I lost that finger
: First the Crush commercial and now this: Apple seems to have decided that the enemy they must …
: This article on the essential Shel Slverstein omits what I believe to be his masterpiece: Uncle …
: I wrote about something I call the diaconal charism.
: I wrote about anarchism as a spiritual discipline.
: Thesis: the first album — as a coherent work of art, not merely a collection of songs — was Frank …
: The thing I love about sports is the way it can bring the world’s top political powers together.
: USA men’s 🏀, gold medal game, shooting in the last 3 minutes: Curry made 3 Durant made 2 FT Curry …
: I’m really touched by Robin’s kind words here. (Also, what a great newsletter issue.)
: So Emma Hayes leads the (formerly quite broken) USWNT to a gold medal and all the Brit footy …
: This new post by Chris Arnade — faithful chronicler of forgotten America — is harrowing. And I come …
: Tradescant’s Orchard (Bodleian Library)
: What a cool idea from Leah Libresco Sargeant: “I’d like to write a Chrome extension that delays …
: I am aware that microtonal jazz-blues might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I love the new Alec …
: I have no idea why, but I have received dramatically more fan mail — that is, messages of …
: I wrote about colonialist owls.
: update on domain issues I still don’t have my domain issues ironed out, but (a) I am beginning to have some hope of …
: I love how for the Times southern Ohio and western Nebraska are both (waves hand) “the …
: There are several annoying errors in this piece, but let me single out one: the claim that Tolkien …
: RE: this list, I am chiefly a bibliophile but also a bibliologue.
: Part of the CBS Television Studio in New York (1978) from the Eyes of a Generation Viewseum
: Plate made in Kütahya, Turkey (1718) in the Jameel Gallery, V&A
: security Since It’s All About Me, when I read this and this about new security features coming in Mac OS …
: Thanks to a bunch of people for kind and sympathetic words about my current technical issues. While …
: On the possible end of my big blog, and my difficulties in getting the help I need to keep it alive. …
: Angus strangely interested in Marvin Gaye. Well, I guess it’s not that strange, considering how cool …
: bookshelves Douglas Anderson, a Tolkien scholar, recently reported seeing one of his books on a shelf in a TV …
: I wrote about how modern identity was effectively created by the Great War.
: My dear friend Charles Marsh’s book God’s Long Summer has just been re-released as a …
: Department of Putting the Best Possible Spin on a Situation: high-jumper Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy, …
: the state and the people A few years ago I published an essay called “Miss Marple and the Problem of Modern Identity,” in …
: The other day I sang the praises of USWNT defender Naomi Girma, whom I’ve been watching with delight …
: Whenever they cut to the beach volleyball at the Paris Olympics, I shout, “Sous les Pavés, la …
: David French’s interview with Justice Neil Gorsuch is great.
: St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Lindsay, Texas.
: WSJ: OpenAI has a method to reliably detect when someone uses ChatGPT to write an essay or research …
: I wrote about styles of acting and styles of being.
: styles of acting, styles of being One of my favorite YouTubers is Thomas Flight, who makes videos about movies. In a recent video, he …
: Currently listening: Danish String Quartet, Last Leaf. One of my most-listened-to records of the …
: I do not have the time to be as into these Olympics as I am.
: My new favorite athlete is Australian high-jumper Nicola Olyslagers, who before every jump looks …
: I’ve been listening to Stephen Fry reading the Sherlock Holmes canon and it’s just irresistible. 🎧📚
: L. M. Sacasas: “My contention, then, is that when we are confronted with the opportunity to …
: crisis! For many years I’ve been writing posts for my big blog using the excellent Mac app MarsEdit, but …
: The final (I think) post of my series on the battle for Guadalcanal is up. Here are links to each: …
: One of the lighter moments from the best and most important day of my life, forty-four years ago …
: Guadalcanal: 6 Around the rim of the shield Hephaestus made for Achilles is the Ocean River, the great water that …
: In a pinch, I could live here.
: Spotify and “corporation-centered design."
: If you want a year’s worth of ideas to explore, just read the most recent issue of Sam …
: Naomi Girma is the William Saliba of the USWNT. ⚽️
: Re: this David French column on why what Christians do matters more they what they (claim to) …
: Guadalcanal, Terrence Malick, Emerson, Horace.
: Guadalcanal: 5 If, as I said in my previous post, to confront another soldier in war is to confront yourself, then …
: Recent listening: Ralph Vaughan Williams’s wondrous Fifth Symphony. ♫
: That admirable journal Current has posted its own list of the 100 best books of the 21st century so …
: The excellent folks at Reclaim Hosting are doing an upgrade today that is not supposed to affect …
: The story of the Nisei linguists — who served in the Second World War as translators, interpreters, …
: Craig Mod on Tokyo: “The saving grace is that Tokyo has a distinct advantage over other cities …
: My multi- and super-talented friend Catherine Woodiwiss, who’s always doing something …
: One of my retirement dreams is to get skilled enough at web design to do with my site something half …
: My series of posts on the battle for Guadalcanal, and artistic representations thereof, has reached …
: Guadalcanal: 4 As I noted in my previous post, the peculiar nature of the Guadalcanal campaign creates a kind of …
: Harry R. Lewis: “Today’s AI-giddy techno-optimists and techno-pessimists might heed Henri …
: Rachel Haywire: “The fediverse is boring! The trade-off for the freedom that the fediverse …
: A fantastic post by Sara Hendren — AKA @ablerism — on how universities ought to, but do not, signal …
: This meditation by Ryan Burge on the closing of the church where he has been a pastor for many years …
: A while back I noted that some enthusiastic recent writing about the great Guy Davenport …
: Barath Raghavan and Bruce Schneier: The [CrowdStrike] catastrophe is yet another reminder of how …
: Guadalcanal: 3 The above is a drawing by Howard Brodie, an artist James Jones much admired. The distinctive way the …
: Google’s search deal with Reddit is yet another of the thousand ways in which the open web is …
: I’m reading Robert Richardson’s biography of William James and I’m struggling: almost every male …
: Here is the second in a series of posts about the battle for Guadalcanal and some artistic responses …
: Guadalcanal: 2 How vividly did the Guadalcanal campaign impress itself on the American imagination? Well, this …
: For the Princeton University Press Ideas blog, I wrote about my critical edition of Auden’s …
: Guadalcanal: 1 From December of 1941 through the middle of the next year, the Japanese Army and Navy enjoyed an …
: victimology I’ve been meaning for some time to write a brief post about Freddie deBoer’s case for forcing …
: On the rise of detective fiction.
: the rise of detective fiction In The Long Week-End, their entertaining, sardonic, and often insightful social history of England …
: Mark Bristol’s storyboards for Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line.
: On renewing the art of biological taxonomy: “With genetic sequences, we can now identify the …
: Anthony Lane on a new book about SF movies released in the summer of 1982: Such is Nashawaty’s …
: Hume's characters In the Oxford English Dictionary, definition II.12.a. of “character” is: “A description, …
: One thing Substack has done very well (from their perspective, that is): Get people who write on …
: Paul Kingsnorth says “everything is myth,” which is true, but if you want to understand …
: Can’t get enough typography analysis.
: “Informed but Not Absorbed” is my new post for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.
: On Hume’s History of England and methodological naturalism.
: Hume puts his cards on the table I mentioned in an earlier post Hume’s purpose in writing this history — or what anyway I believe to …
: The price of liberty from squirrels is eternal vigilance.
: Wonderful meal tonight at Segovia Wine Bar — a tiny family-owned place in downtown Waco. If …
: Charlie Warzel: I put that question — why should people trust you? — to the pair at the end of my …
: Matt Milliner: “Never trust an image — or a savior — without wounds.”
: Escaramuza charra sounds, and looks, amazing.
: On Hume’s History of England as literature.
: Hume and literature As previously indicated, I will eventually return to Moonbound, but I need to think some things …
: I love seeing that this style of SF cover art — so familiar to me from the paperbacks of my 1970s …
: political proverbs Nothing good ever comes from indulging the egos of old men. Nothing good comes from indulging the …
: And perhaps the most contemporary of all, this 1931 portrait of Kay Francis, who, though largely …
: But Steichen could also do more casual portraits, as in this wonderful shot of G. B. Shaw — an early …
: Sometimes he would use this formal-but-not-theatrical mode for Hollywood stars, as in this portrait …
: For literary figures, Steichen would stage his portraits formally, but not theatrically. …
: Or this one of Gloria Swanson. (“Mr. de Mille … I’m ready for my closeup!")
: Or this one of Charlie Chaplin.
: But Steichen is most famous for his portraits, some of which are theatrically staged, almost a …
: If I had to name the greatest photographer of all time, I’d say Henri Cartier-Bresson. But …
: I updated my post on England’s non-football. ⚽️
: Best use ever of the dramatically overplayed “Mr. Brightside”?
: All praise to Sir Ollie of Torquay!! 🏴⚽️
: Here in the second half against 🇳🇱, 🏴 has gone back to non-football. The announcers are …
: In the Dictionary of National Biography, Davidson is identified as “Church of England …
: Sometimes you come across people whose stories you think simply must be made up — but aren’t. Ladies …
: This young fella struggled a bit last year, but our rainy late spring has done wonders for him.
: un-football Barney Ronay: Even England, this England’s version of hole-in-the-head football will give you …
: Jim Groom: “The archaeology of knowledge on the web over the last 25 years is dominated by the …
: When I first read Robin Sloan’s Moonbound, in galleys, I wasn’t, for several reasons, in …
: Moonbound revisited A while back I said that I had read Robin Sloan’s new novel Moonbound and hoped to read it again. …
: I’ve been reading David Hume’s massive History of England, and here’s my first …
: the arc of Hume's history I’ve been reading David Hume’s massive and magnificent History of England, and it’s generally …
: human voices My friend Rick Gibson makes a fascinating argument here. You need to read the whole thing, but a …
: Currently reading: History of England (6 volumes) by David Hume 📚
: Will Baude: The court is motivated by statesmanship, which the country sorely needs today. The …
: I’ve written a kind of mini-manifesto explaining how I’m trying to re-humanize myself, and maybe …
: Steven Heller on typographic New York City
: re-humanization A couple of years ago I wrote about a shift in my writerly focus from a decade-long inquiry into the …
: “To be interested in ‘the future’ is a symptom of demoralization and debility.” — T. S. Eliot, 1927
: donkey work John Gregory Dunne, from The Studio: The Studio was simplicity itself to write. It was mainly a …
: Ted Gioia: “When I first came to Silicon Valley at age 17, the two leading technologists in the …
: I wrote about Fritz Lang’s movie Man Hunt.
: Man Hunt (1941) In theory, Fritz Lang’s Man Hunt faced the same problem that many other Hollywood films of the same …
: Still some wildflowers down here in the Hill Country.
: on the edge Above you see what I believe was the key moment in today’s match between Portugal and Slovenia. …
: Siena Cathedral. (Test post.)
: Very glad to see the NYT printing a lengthy obituary of the great Kinky Friedman, though they …
: I deleted my big-blog post on today’s big SCOTUS ruling. I think I have a useful point, but …
: Just a gentle reminder of a point I’ve often made: if you read the actual text of Supreme …
: “What lies have I ever told? There is no need for lying, seeing that mankind are such fools …
: “Wonderful is the effect of impudent and persevering lying.” — Thomas Jefferson, letter …
: supple and athletic minds Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas (1871): A new theory of literary composition for imaginative works …
: Sometimes I think that the best writing set-up I ever had was 30 years ago when I had a PowerBook …
: Will Republicans Save the Humanities? Jenna Silber Storey and Benjamin Storey: At public colleges in red and purple states like Arizona, …
: Philip Jenkins, who recently wrote so kindly about The Shield of Achilles, has noted how cursory is …
: Just sent this to my friend Adam Roberts.
: The great baptismal font at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Siena has been restored.
: My colleague Philip Jenkins has written a lovely commendation of my edition of Auden’s The …
: Experimenting with B&W film (llford HP5 Plus 400).
: Finished reading: Charmed Lives by Michael Korda. One of the most remarkable memoirs I’ve ever …
: Another Trollope post: the counterpart to Lady Arabella.
: counterparts More Trollopean spoilers here. One of Trollope’s more interesting habits as a novelist is the …
: “The Title I have chosen for this Treatise, is a Reproach universally thrown on this Island by …
: After watching Ukraine-Belgium, I’m thinking that the malaise afflcting England — the English …
: I wrote about Trollope’s bluntness re: money.
: money is magic Spoilers ahead, but come on, you know how books like this end. Trollope’s Doctor Thorne is the …
: VAR check in the Brazil- Costa Rica match is taking so long that I’ve just turned the match …
: I wrote about waiting for people to realize that they’re just eating grass.
: when you're ready to stop eating grass This is a kind of follow-up to my previous post, in which I described this blog as a venue for …
: Finished reading: Vows by Cheryl Mendelson. A remarkable book! I wrote some thoughts here. 📚
: what love wants to say Cheryl Mendelson is a philosopher, a lawyer, a novelist, and the author of a legendary book about …
: Recently bought at auction [CLARIFICATION: But not by me!]
: Fascinating: in China, bookstore book placement as political protest.
: A little post on God’s unconditional love.
: unconditional love Clare Sestanovich: I sat across from the missionary, pretending to drink a beer. I was new to beer, …
: I am interested in the Texas v. New Mexico case because I am fascinated by the perennial shortage of …
: IANAL, but I am fascinated by legal arguments, and will sometimes read and annotate SCOTUS opinions, …
: A stop-motion animation version of Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi? Yes, please. Please, please, …
: I wrote about how to be a non-infantile observer of the Supreme Court.
: a numbers game The Supreme Court of the United States has been busy this week (notes this SCOTUS-watcher, whose …
: It’s Lagerstroemia season here in central Texas.
: the uncanny valley of blogging I used to call my blog Snakes & Ladders, because that reflected my belief that culture – …
: I’m telling you, this kind of thing wouldn’t happen if Gareth Southgate were alive. ⚽️
: Owen Hargreaves, commenting for Fox, was in a lather about England’s passivity even before the …
: I wake up every morning with a song in my head. I never know what it’s going to be, maybe …
: And then there’s too lo-fi … I don’t know what I took this with. My beloved on …
: On Mount Seymour in North Vancouver, 2004. My old Sony Cybershot photos have a certain lo-fi charm, …
: Cathedral Grove, Vancouver Island, 2006; you almost expect to see a therapod from the Jurassic …
: Grown-up Angus is a handsome fellow.
: From Melissa Price’s Monarchy Book 2023.
: I’ve written about the history and future of commissioning – i.e., getting someone or …
: Freddie: “We don’t have a communal sense of entitlement to healthcare in this country; we do have …
: a parable In 1969, when the Beatles were recording the album that became Abbey Road, Paul McCartney would come …
: I love Austin Kleon’s edge indexes.
: I end my new essay on “the mythical method” with a section on the great Nigerian writer …
: Soyinka and the mythical method I have an essay in the new issue of Harper’s called “Yesterday’s Men: The Death of the Mythical …
: My Harper’s essay on the rise and fall of the “mythical method” is now live!
: I wrote about Thomas of London.
: Thomas of London The inchoate and incomplete “theology of the city” that I wrote about last week has always, is my …
: Paramount Pictures studio, back in the day
: Nina Jordan, Untitled, Flooded Home V, 2021
: I gave a couple of chatbots a list of movies with dates and asked them to organize the list in …
: Well, the Euros were shaping up to be a great tournament until England took the pitch. That was dire …
: Currently reading: The Studio by John Gregory Dunne. This little book has a hundred great stories …
: more on beauty Ted Gioia: Ortega y Gasset’s entire essay [on “The Dehumanization of Art”] is brilliant, and should …
: Zach Rausch: “This is the challenge of our time: How do we balance the desire to give kids …
: Why I’m gonna read Moonbound again.
: Why am I shooting film again, after so many years? In part because of what Craig Mod says here: We …
: starting over Around a month ago, I mentioned that I had just read and really enjoyed Robin Sloan’s novel …
: Shooting on film — with a Nikon F100 — for the first time in many years. The natural bokeh is great, …
: Here’s a long post, with many links, explaining how I’ve sorta-kinda-in-a-way written a …
: the wanderers and the city My earlier posts in this series (which began by reading Genesis but has since expanded) are: …
: Also, here’s Robin explaining in a video the language/script/typeface he developed for his …
: Surprising moment from this interview with Robin Sloan: [Gibson-Faulkner] Theory is, of course, the …
: George Lois’s library — in his apartment in the West Village — is my kind of workspace. And …
: An outstanding post by Mike Sacasas about technology and work — the kinds of work we value and the …
: I wrote about character in the Pentateuch.
: character The book of Genesis features a large number of distinct and memorable characters: Adam and Eve, …
: Portishead’s Dummy is equidistant in time from (a) now and (b) A Hard Day’s Night.
: My pledge: I will never ever read an article about “How AI will change X” — no matter what X is.
: What a great post by Sara Hendren AKA @ablerism : “When my teenagers play patiently and …
: A friend sent me this extraordinary music video by RAYE — please do watch the whole thing. …
: I wrote a June update for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters. I’m very grateful for those …
: I made a little outline of the Pentateuch — and explained why it matters that such an outline is so …
: Early Anglo-Saxon shoulder clasp
: the Pentateuch in brief outline Prologue to the whole: The Creation (Genesis 1) The history of humanity (Genesis 2–11) Making and …
: Urgent insistence that I stop reading and play.
: After watching that shameful display by the USMNT today, I would like to remind everyone that Jürgen …
: excerpt from my journal I want to write a post about why my "Cosmotechnics" essay ended up being a dead end for me. Though I …
: A vital point by Zeynep Tufekci: “Misinformation is not something that can be overcome solely …
: What if writing papers and grading papers are bullshit jobs?
: automating bullshit jobs Me, a year ago: Of course universities are going to outsource commentary on essays to AI — just as …
: A sobering post from Rory Smith: “There is no obvious route back to smooth sailing for the …
: Genesis: the country and the city Raymond Williams, in his great The Country and the City, shows how ancient this contrast is, and how …
: New boilerplate terms & conditions for every tech company in the world: “We reserve the …
: Ted Gioia: “When I recently revisited Rick Beato’s studio for our interview, I noted that he …
: The Premier League loves VAR. Why don’t they care about fan frustration? Because neither …
: Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist I: “So numerous indeed and so powerful are the causes which …
: Wood engraving by R. P. Hale
: Currently reading: The Debate on the Constitution. Reading through these documents, so brilliantly …
: I can never quite get over magnolias.
: Charlie Stross on Microsoft Recall: “But this is an utter privacy shit-show. Victims of …
: Robin Sloan on his love for stories that give you checklists. Don’t forget to pre-order his …
: I’ve twice updated my post on highbrow/middlebrow/lowbrow, first with a further thought of my …
: Genesis: fertility If the defining axes of Genesis 1–11 were making/naming and commanding/disobeying, those of the …
: Damon Krukowski: “As a creator who requires more than zero for my content, I seem to be part …
: The first of a few posts on Genesis.
: Genesis: orientation The story begins with creation, and creation is largely a matter of dividing: dividing the region of …
: Angus, enjoying the return of the air conditioning. (As you would, were you a longhaired dog living …
: I decree this Take Your Dog To Work Day, because (a) it’s Sunday and there’s no one else …
: Adam Roberts: “If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well, and that counts double if a …
: We’ve been 36 hours without electricity, and as the temp climbs towards 90 I am getting frayed about …
: Since Elon Musk talks a lot about Iain Banks’s novels about the Culture, I am forced to …
: Genesis I was disappointed by Marilynne Robinson’s Reading Genesis, though that may have less to do with the …
: App-based authentication assumes that you have your phone at hand always. But I don’t and …
: Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic, by Tabitha Stanmore, looks interesting. I wrote my …
: clichés, yes or no Amanda Montell: Since the moment I learned about the concept of the “thought-terminating cliche” …
: Mandy Brown, inspired by Deb Chachra’s brilliant new book: “Optimization presumes a kind of …
: In the last few weeks, all of my weather apps have gone haywire, including ones with multiple …
: Yes, authentication service, this is my device — just as it was when you asked me 45 minutes ago.
: Freddie DeBoer: “For a very large swath of the human population, probably the majority, …
: I wrote about Carol Reed’s 1947 movie Odd Man Out.
: William Deresiewicz: “The notion, floated now in certain quarters, that students and parents …
: Odd Man Out Carol Reed’s Odd Man Out is a brilliant movie about … well, that’s the question. Some people say …
: Thinking about thinking like Ruskin.
: Ruskin revisited What follows is a kind of sequel to the introduction to Ruskin I published several years ago. Ruskin …
: I’ve been reading the story of David in 1 and 2 Samuel, and in this history there is a character …
: Scott Alexander: “So the question — which I don’t see anyone on either side asking in a really …
: Here’s Adam Roberts critiquing my annotations of Auden’s “Winds” – and …
: Journeys Early in Terrence Malick’s masterpiece A Hidden Life (2019), Franz Jägerstätter and his wife …
: Preview of a possible (but not certain) coming attraction….
: If it keeps raining our live oaks may end up festooned with Spanish moss, like the ones in …
: Google’s new ad campaign: “Sure, our search results have been getting worse and worse, but they …
: In which I recall an ancient and petty resentment.
: a petty resentment My paternal grandfather, Elisha Creel Jacobs, was for many years an engineer on the Frisco railroad. …
: My old friend Matt Milliner interviews my former student Amanda Iglesias about church architecture. …
: Filling out some marketing questions for my biography of Paradise Lost. They want some potential …
: If Tuchel ends up at Man Utd — the drama queen of managers at the drama queen of clubs — I will be …
: I wrote about editing and the lack thereof.
: editing A couple of years ago, I decided that I wanted to re-read Norman Mailer’s The Armies of the Night, …
: Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the new part-owner running the show at Manchester United, is ending remote work …
: I wrote about building an attention cottage, literal or metaphorical.
: the attention cottage In the last few days I have come across, or had sent to me, anguished cries from people who have …
: Angus is very content after playing in the garden hose.
: Peer review in academic publishing can be frustrating, especially when frivolous scholars take the …
: A post on why I’m not going to ditch Apple although part of me really wants to.
: crushed again Two of the best things I’ve read in response to the horrific “Crush” commercial Apple recently put …
: This photograph faithfully represents the moment when I haven’t had my coffee yet but Angus is …
: I wrote something about the students-can’t-read-any-more discourse.
: accountability So here’s yet another story on how students today can’t or won’t read: Theresa MacPhail is a …
: Looks like I convinced at least one person to try micro.blog: Brad East – AKA @bradeast.org. …
: What an amazing post by Adam Roberts, on Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” …
: From John Ruskin's Fors Clavigera, Letter 7: You are to do good work, whether you live or die. It …
: last words From Evelyn Waugh’s biography of Ronald Knox: For three days he lay in a coma, but once Lady Eldon …
: Yousuf Karsh’s portraits deserve their great fame, and one of my favorites is this one, of …
: Phil Foden shouldn’t have gotten the Player of the Year trophy because he’s neither the …
: Every year I re-read at least one of John Ruskin’s books, and I’ve just gone through The …
: Ruskin on Color The perception of colour is a gift just as definitely granted to one person, and denied to another, …
: Musa al-Gharbi: “Universities in general, and elite schools in particular, exist largely to …
: I believe every man in a Christian kingdom ought to be equally well educated. But I would have it …
: Ian Paul: “When I became an Anglican (from a background of a different church tradition), I …
: The great Shannon Mattern on cardboard boxes.
: I wrote about a forthcoming essay of mine — and (more important) about a forthcoming novel that …
: Mark Hurst: I have to give Apple credit here: the video is boldly telling us the truth. Other …
: the archetypal future Next month I have an essay coming out in Harper’s called “Yesterday’s Men: The Death of the Mythical …
: Auden’s The Shield of Achilles gets a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly.
: temporary storage Drafts is a fantastic app, so well-designed, so capable, so powerful. For my money it’s the best …
: try not to think Fraudulent academic papers are on the rise, and will continue to be on the rise as long as academics …
: I always like to remind people that the real, legal, birth-certificate name of Blossom Dearie was …
: Austin Kleon’s great newsletter edition on the objects we love and live with reminds me that …
: The most Arsenal thing ever would be for Spurs to beat Man City today and then Arsenal lose to …
: This by Rob Chapman is one of a zillion videos encouraging me to ask whether I’m a beginner, …
: A Dissertation on the Clowns and Fools of Shakspeare
: By the way, if I could belong to one of the London livery companies, I would certainly choose the …
: If you happen to be a Freeman or Freewoman of the City of London, then you may exercise your ancient …
: Perfect Days The Richard Brody review of Perfect Days is a tone-deaf review by the most reliably tone-deaf …
: “The secret of good cursing lies in cadence, emphasis, and and antiphony. The basic themes are …
: I’m old enough to remember when I could say “Hey Siri, play [X]” and get the song I asked for.
: Christian Spirituality: categories The Great Texts program here at Baylor, where I teach about half my classes, begins its course of …
: ‘Interior of Tintern Abbey, Monmouthshire’, watercolour by J. M. W. Turner, 1794
: intrinsic values Adam Kirsch: In his poem “Little Gidding,” written during World War II, T. S. Eliot wrote that the …
: Apple may just have created the most tone-deaf advertisement in the history of advertising. I think …
: Dan Kois: Most alarmingly, kids in third and fourth grade are beginning to stop reading for fun. …
: R.I.P. Steve Albini — a wonder of a recording engineer who had a simple and clear and unshakable …
: Saemoonan Church, South Korea
: Me, a couple of years ago, stating a thesis that I’m still committed to: “In any given …
: Laura Brown, The Great Lakes of North America
: back to the brows After reading various writings about the brows — including, first of all, this unsent letter by …
: I just posted a new letter to my BMAC supporters.
: Playing this morning: Khruangbin’s A LA SALA. ♫
: This from Austin Kleon is great: One of the reasons I didn’t connect with writer Nicholson Baker’s …
: It’s pub day for my critical edition of Auden’s The Shield of Achilles!
: Doug Stowe: “My proposal … was as follows: Start with the basic elements from Greek …
: elegance personified (really) Last night Teri and I watched Swing Time, and afterwards played a little game: We went back to the …
: Hebrew illuminated manuscripts from the Italian Renaissance
: Portraits of 28 Japanese metal artists
: On two novels that describe scientific/scholarly integrity – or the lack thereof.
: the integrity of science I haven’t forgotten about middlebrow matters, but right now my mind is on something else. Something …
: A good introduction to the Mondragón model. We desperately need a version of this somewhere in the …
: Related: the Uncovering Roman Carlisle site is fascinating.
: Apparently the place for relics of Roman Britain is the Carlisle Cricket Club.
: P.S.A. A number of people have asked me for my thoughts about the current university campus protests. I …
: And finally, the Rio Grande as it emerges from the Santa Elena Canyon (whose walls reach 1500 feet …
: The previous photo was of the Chisos Mountains in the center of the park; this one of the Rio Grande …
: This photo from Big Bend made me think about some of my own photos of the park, for instance this …
: refuge Bryan Garsten: Liberal societies, I want to suggest, are those that offer refuge from the very …
: I call my big blog the Homebound Symphony – for reasons explained here – but what does …
: A lovely video of my buddy Jon Guerra, in a clearing above Laity Lodge, singing about Jesus.
: attention please Nathan Heller: “Attention as a category isn’t that salient for younger folks,” Jac Mullen, a writer …
: This is the last day of my Great Texts in Christian Spirituality class, and I’m having my …
: brows illustrated Russell Lynes’s 1949 essay for Harper’s, “Highbrow, Lowbrow, Middlebrow” — about which I’ll have …
: I wrote about Dorothy L. Sayers as a middlebrow writer – in future posts I’ll be …
: Sayers the middlebrow writer Robert Graves and Alan Hodge, in The Lost Week-End (1940), their generally fascinating and …
: Leah Libresco Sargeant: “The struggles of much bigger tech companies to make their AI …
: St. Mark's Place The Five Spot, on St. Mark’s Place in Manhattan, hosted most of the great jazz musicians of …
: Finished reading: Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard. Teaching this today. It is, every time I read it, …
: Finished reading: 3 Shades of Blue by James Kaplan. A brilliant book, but in its later stages …
: Read this by Ted Gioia in conjunction with my everyone knows post. Twenty years from now, nobody …
: more rational choices My recent posts on how I choose what fiction to read and what’s going on with the publishing …
: Brent Nongbri on Candida Moss’s recent work: “Overall, this book has an effect that is …
: If I’m irritible over the next few days, it’s because Apple’s forced reset of my …
: This award-winning building … is a glass cuboid. The world’s ten billionth glass …
: What happened to Michael Tsai also happened to me today. Annoying as heck. All my Apple devices are …
: Re: this list of sites that prohibit your linking to anything but their home page — I wonder how it …
: Like almost every other writer in America, I’ve weighed in on that Elle Griffin …
: advancing Elle Griffin seems to have carved out a niche for herself telling hard truths to would-be writers – …
: Taken in SE Colorado, March 2023.
: Live webcam at Valles Caldera, New Mexico. The webcam is cool but it’s one of those places …
: Reading this because it’s discussed, with considerable energy, in Sayers’s Gaudy Night. …
: This morning I wrote my most boring post ever! It’s about citations of a literary critic.
: influence and citation I have an essay coming out in the July issue of Harper’s which I titled “The Mythical Method” but …
: UW-M Special Collections – one of my favorite Tumblrs.
: more on costs and choices Isaiah Berlin, “The Originality of Machiavelli”: The ideals of Christianity are charity, mercy, …
: Matt Crawford, on Substack: Probing his riding companions, Robert [Pirsig, in Zen and the Art of …
: I wrote about how I decide what literary fiction not to read.
: rational choices The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; but that is the way to bet. — …
: The Guardian: “As people get older, they revise the age they consider to be old …
: Currently reading: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. I wrote a post about returning to this great book. …
: Gilead revisited The way we speak and think of the Puritans seems to me a serviceable model for important aspects of …
: costs A brief follow-up to this post from last week: In our current climate of political assholery, no …
: Me: I just spilled hot coffee all over my chest! My son: Oh no! Is the coffee okay??
: I wrote an extremely spoilery post about Gene Wolfe’s strange novel Peace.
: Peace, Peace N.B. This post is spoilerful. A few years ago I read a fascinating post by my colleague Philip …
: The OED has just added 23 Japanese words, mainly involving food and entertainment.
: High is Adam Roberts in his thriller mode. Think: Mission: Impossible on Mars. Brilliant. So much …
: I wrote a post on how anarchic childhoods can make more politically mature adults.
: Waxahatchee’s new album is great.
: adult children I think there’s a strong causal relationship between (a) the overly structured lives of children …
: The Internet’s New Favorite Philosopher | The New Yorker: Maret is part of a growing coterie of …
: Wystan and Erika The couple above are W. H. Auden and Erika Mann. The photo was taken by a student at The Downs …
: Audrey Hepburn taking guitar lessons — so she can play as she sings “Moon River.”
: Someone asked me today about my micro.blog avatar, which is one of Paul Klee’s hand puppets, …
: More stuff of mine related to that essay on “rewilding the internet”: I’ve written …
: Me on rewilding the internet plus having a home on the open web — and note that micro.blog is part …
: rewilding The essay by Maria Farrell and Robin Berjon on “Rewilding the Internet” is absolutely essential — …
: Daniel Parris: “A New York Times analysis of Spotify data revealed that our most-played songs …
: Nadine Chahine: “A typeface is a series of conversations happening simultaneously between …
: Trying to get a pic of one of our roses, I am confronted by a photobomber
: Start your weekend on a good note: listen to Sweet Honey in the Rock sing “Run Molly …
: From Adam Gopnik’s New Yorker essay on Maigret
: People sometimes respond to my essay on anarchism by calling me a libertarian. But — to give a very …
: Good to hear that txt.fyi will be coming back. It was the best way to post chunks of text that you …
: I wrote about R. K. Narayan’s marvelous Malgudi.
: Narayan's Malgudi In his newsletter today, my buddy Austin Kleon mentions in passing the Hindu concept of the ashramas …
: One of the first reviewers of Tolkien’s Silmarillion was Richard Adams, of Watership Down …
: everyone knows Reading this Jessica Grose piece — so similar to ten thousand other reports made in recent years — …
: I posted an update for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.
: I love to see this terrific profile of Khruangbin, one of my favorite current bands, but I miss the …
: I’m reading Nicholas Jenkins’s The Island: War and Belonging in Auden’s England — …
: The last eclipse: “The last total solar eclipse will occur when the largest-looking moon just …
: The eclipse as seen from a weather satellite (time-lapse photo).
: I’m sorta digging these slightly wrong pictures. (“Wrong” in the sense that I …
: The eclipse, partial right now, is overwhelming my camera sensor, but this photo still looks kinda …
: A justly famous image from Black Narcissus
: I wrote about The Pilgrim’s Progress and maps thereof. This should perhaps be read in …
: to be a pilgrim I’ve been teaching The Pilgrim’s Progress, something that always gives me great joy. I find it …
: Sabine Hossenfelder’s story in this video offers a great illustration of the perverse …
: A life of Benjamin Franklin with wood engravings
: Blake’s illustrations of the Book of Job
: A great post by Sara Hendren AKA @ablerism on places whose architecture helps us to cultivate …
: More on the benefits of handmind.
: FYI: The people at Standard Ebooks produce carefully-edited, well-formatted, free e-books. Project …
: Mikko Takkunen’s photographs of Hong Kong.
: Dorothy L. Sayers: Vitality, bullying and bounce.
: bounce J. R. Ackerley, author of that remarkable book My Dog Tulip, worked for the BBC for many years and …
: My colleague Philip Jenkins wrote about Kipling’s story “The Gardener,” and I …
: The Gardener I am very pleased that my colleague Philip Jenkins has written about Rudyard Kipling’s “The …
: Reading the obituaries for John Barth, I find myself thinking how odd it must be to outlive your …
: And one more: a Marie-Alice Harel illustration from Howl’s Moving Castle.
: Also from the Folio Society, a Clive Hicks-Jenkins illustration from Beowulf.
: The wood engravings of Harry Brockway — this one of the creature made by Victor Frankenstein.
: When Karl Barth wrote to Dorothy L. Sayers.
: a letter from Karl Barth On 7 September 1939, a week after the Wehrmacht invaded Poland and thus began the Second World War, …
: Couple this piece on west Texas “sky islands” with one of my own on the same subject.
: Y’all have heard me say this before, but one of the very best things about my job is seeing …
: Campus is looking nice this cool (for Texas) spring morning.
: Max Read: “It sometimes feels like Instagram designed Threads with ‘context …
: Trimming the abelia this morning, I remembered my old handmind in Covidtide post.
: Classical education vs. the factories of unreason.
: This Ted Gioia piece echoes something I’ve been saying for years: see this tag on my blog.
: against the factory of unreason Dear readers, I have returned! — and I say unto you, it might be interesting to read my reflections …
: After what felt like a very long Lent, I almost achieved liftoff this morning when we got to the …
: Jane Goodall on her 90th birthday: “When I look back over my life, I mean, my goodness, the …
: Angus is so happy when his people come home.
: An Easter present for me — author’s (or rather editor’s) copy. So beautifully made. The …
: Some appropriate Good Friday reading, I think: the third and fourth parts of my conversation with …
: Here’s the second installment of my conversation with Phil Christman about Auden.
: An astonishing carving that may stay in the U.K. — but the art’s the thing, this day, this …
: I talked with Phil Christman about Auden and especially The Shield of Achilles: here’s the …
: Over at my Buy Me a Coffee page, I wrote about what I’ll be up to for the next few years.
: Last post before returning to Lenten silence: I’m really honored to have a place in the new …
: I have learned so, SO much about movies from David Bordwell, and am genuinely grieved to learn of …
: A brief hello before resuming my Lenten silence.
: Gonna be largely offline for the rest of February — see y’all in March!
: Lawrence Keaty, from Taipei (2020)
: Class Notes: Two Renewals In my Christian Renaissance of the Twentieth Century class, we’re reading, back-to-back, passages …
: When Brad East asks his students what, when they visit a church, they expect to see, one of them …
: Kinda thinking that this wireless diagnostics report that’s been running on my Mac for 10 …
: Arthur Aghajanian: “The statues of Armenia’s cultural giants embody a distinctive form of …
: Terry Teachout and the Last of the Conservative Critics | The Nation: But Teachout, whose natural …
: Lindsay Zoladz in the NYT: They traded a few lines and harmonized beautifully on the chorus — her …
: I dunno, maybe I’m an aging sentimentalist, but … the Tracy Chapman / Luke Combs duet …
: It’s been more than a decade since I’ve visited The Cloisters — that’s gotta …
: Ben Werdmuller on Arc Search: “A world where everyone uses an app like this is a death spiral …
: Ceci N'est Pas une Current-Events Post No no no, this is not at all about a current controversy. Hang in there, you’ll see what I mean. …
: The architectural drawings of Richard of St. Victor
: Fascinating from Ethan Iverson on the Duke: “Who even knows the right changes to Ellington …
: I’m on a Duke Ellington kick at the moment — there may be posts and links forthcoming — but …
: When Wes Anderson designs a bar
: I don’t feel the need to repost everything on my Big Blog here, but I’m thinking that it …
: Two fantastic essays on the history of multi-channel audio by J. B. Crawford: one and two.
: Robinson Meyer: This sincere interest in geoengineering and climate modification represents a …
: Wendish Easter eggs – from Texas!
: I rarely say that everyone should read something, but I’ll say that about this post by Mandy …
: Here’s a short post about one of the best Nichols & May comedy routines, which means, …
: timing People often talk about comic timing, but what does that mean, exactly? Well, here’s an example, …
: Just sent a drizzly-February-morning missive to my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.
: I wrote about teaching Augustine’s Enchiridion.
: Walter Crane, Flora’s Train, tile panel, 1900-1901.
: Class Notes: Enchiridion Second in a series of reflections on what I’m teaching. Late in his life, Augustine wrote his …
: I wrote about anarchy in The Man Who Was Thursday.
: We’re dealing with endless displays of Potemkin AI. As Molly White says, we “need to …
: Class notes: Anarchy, Law, Pain I’m thinking that this term, when I’m teaching a number of things I haven’t taught before, or …
: Ted Gioia’s “Nine Ugly Truths about Copywright” is brilliant.
: Cory Doctorow: “AI companies are implicitly betting that their customers will buy AI for …
: Noah Millman: You can’t just hate the present and long for the past, any more than you can make the …
: Adi Robertson: “As I’ve watched the Vision Pro go from announcement to release, it’s also …
: On reading Horace: “In Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce talks of the “human …
: Damon Krukowski: “If not Pitchfork, with more daily visitors than Vogue or Vanity Fair or the …
: I deleted my micro.blog post on whether art makes us better people and replaced it with a somewhat …
: Effectual Art David Brooks: “Does consuming art, music, literature and the rest of what we call culture make you a …
: As a kind of pendant to my previous post, I comment to you this by Adam Roberts, which I thought of …
: Maggie Tulliver and her books.
: Maggie and her Books There’s a really extraordinary moment in George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss, a moment that says …
: A scholar named Isaac Waisberg has put together a vast collection of translations of Horace into …
: I’m really pleased that the new AppleTV series Masters of the Air features a portrayal of …
: I wrote a parable about academics and practical men.
: a small parable Occasionally I find myself in groups populated by business people, technologists, consultants, …
: Tyler Austin Harper: “The first step is refusing to indulge in certainty, the fiction that the …
: a note on plagiarism The Claudine Gay plagiarism scandal — or, depending on your point of view, “plagiarism” scandal — …
: With the Mac turning 40, a question going around is: What was your first Mac? Mine was … the …
: Spatial knowledge impairment after GPS guided navigation.
: In which I endorse Ted Gioia’s theses on progress.
: placing bets The last four of Ted Gioia's seven hypotheses about meaningful progress: 4. The discourse on …
: FWIW I’ve written before about how my own history as a fabulist makes me reflexively skeptical about …
: head start The Vikings was the first movie I ever saw — not in a standard movie theater, but some years after …
: Why don’t Arsenal win every game 5-0? It seems such an obvious solution to their problems. ⚽️
: Noteworthy, I think, that neither this Becca Rothfield review of The Geography of the Imagination …
: In which I explain what I did on the first day of a new class – and then go on a wild-eyed …
: Systematic theology? I don’t need no stinkin' systematic theology – I have Joe …
: ADD revisited On the first day of my Christian Renaissance of the Twentieth Century course — mentioned here — I …
: This $100 million gift to Spelman College ought to be praised to the skies. The megarich need to …
: John Gruber – aka @gruber – on a theme I discussed yesterday, the difference between …
: Robin Sloan says of me, “Alan can make anything sound terrific, when he loves it,” which …
: If, as some think, deepfakes will become undetectable, that just might force a long-overdue …
: I added some links, fixed some bad links, and generally updated things at my home page.
: I think DHH is right about Apple.
: DHH is exactly right: Apple has become too powerful, and with that power has come a sense of …
: Just discovered that Terrence Malick, Marilynne Robinson, and Joni Mitchell were all born in …
: Jaroslav Pelikan: Origen may … have been the first church father to study Hebrew, “in opposition to …
: Something I often think, prompted tonight by seeing Jamal Murray (6'4") standing next to Nikola …
: Damon K: “A positive, progressive change to this system benefiting more people is not going to …
: The mysterious Roman dodecahedra.
: A wonderful collection of Milton Glaser book covers.
: Listening to the legendary Bill Evans Trio Village Vanguard sessions. Forty-five years later, I got …
: I wrote a bit about what I’m teaching this term and how it will affect my blogging.
: looking ahead Lately I’ve been posting in How to Think mode — HTT as the tag here calls it: I’ve been writing …
: Silence, Violence, and the Human Condition I don’t believe that “silence is violence,” ever. And I doubt that anyone else would either, if they …
: Augustus John, “A Glass of Wine” (1902)
: Mary Harrington: “A culture that valorises ‘cool’ sets us up to fail as social …
: “The Arrival,” photograph by Carol Munder.
: Legal Sauce for the Legal Goose From an an interview with Jill Lepore: I’m working on a long book about the history of attempts to …
: BBEdit 15, in addition to getting several interesting new features, has undergone some slight but …
: Currently reading: The Spirit of Early Christian Thought by Robert Louis Wilken. This will be my …
: The Mouth of Orcus, in the Gardens of Bomarzo.
: Yet another really nice one from Adrian Vila.
: Mark Hurst: Marc Andreessen is right – love doesn’t scale.
: Bertolucci Some years ago I read an article about sociopathy – I don’t remember the author or where it …
: Nineteenth-century plans for a chunnel.
: I wrote a mid-season report on Arsenal. ⚽️
: Arsenal mid-season report This side is not a contender for the league title — not even close. At this point I'm not confident …
: From an edition of Kipling’s The Day’s Work
: On going beyond the SCT — the Standard Critique of Technology.
: beyond the SCT My 2021 essay on “cosmotechnics” begins thus: In the 1950s and 1960s, a series of thinkers, …
: Kashmir Hill: “My black clamshell of a phone had the effect of a clerical collar, inducing people to …
: Making an Iron Age-style shield out of willow bark.
: The Next Turn of the Wheel This is the novelist Janet Burroway, writing about her experience making a fifth edition of a …
: A superb essay by Witold Rybczynski on ornament in architecture.
: Strange sights in the pre-dawn fog.
: Model box for ‘Endgame’ by Samuel Beckett, designed by Tallulah Caskey, for the National Theatre, …
: Mark Helprin: “Tending a fire enforces a sense of patience and tranquility. In that way it is …
: How a Catholic modernity killed Dracula.
: The Real Value of a Catholic Modernity In 1996 the philosopher Charles Taylor delivered a lecture – later to be published with several …
: And here is a Tiffany window from a Philadephia church. It and its companion piece were saved from …
: Here’s an Agnes Northrop window, this one at the Art Institute of Chicago.
: The Met has acquired “Garden Landscape,” a window made by Agnes Northrop in Lewis …
: On the last day of the year, I wrote a post on why I don’t do end-of-year posts.
: Who's Counting? I’m not doing an end-of-year roundup of what I’ve written this year, or what I’ve read, or what I’ve …
: Finished reading: The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn. A lovely novel, at once melancholy and …
: I wrote a post for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.
: I wrote about listening to Wagner.
: Venkatesh Rao: Much of the social energy of the old internet has now retreated underground to the …
: on Wagner As part of my ongoing project to understand myth and mythmaking in the modern era I have been …
: Francis Spufford on picking through the ruins of Christendom: Those of us who, despite everything, …
: I wrote about a Christmas present I received.
: Man, Moon, Book My family gave me a wonderful Christmas present: the Folio Society edition of Andrew Chaikin’s A Man …
: More landscape photographs by Charlotte Ladefoged
: Stefan Collini: “Carlyle’s forte as a social critic was not likely to lie in making practical …
: NYT: ”Despite these difficulties, there can be a reluctance among the clergy to talk about their own …
: the good earth Fifty-five years ago, on Christmas Eve 1968, astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders …
: St. John & St. Mark, from the Lambeth Bible
: A post on George MacDonald and Christmas — though be warned, this one’s a bit of a tearjerker.
: Christmas gifts In introducing the writings of George MacDonald, C. S. Lewis made a fascinating point which can only …
: The game Monopoly basically copied an anti-capitalist game created by one Lizzie Magie: The …
: Finished reading: The Corner that Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner. A strangely riveting book, …
: The notebook of Anni Albers.
: My first thought when I read the-fediverse-is-the-future pieces is: Great, now whenever anyone …
: The Morgan Beatus Manuscript
: Brian Eno, from a 1995 diary entry: Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty …
: The Feast of the Annunciation is on March 25, but the lectionary gives us the story also on the …
: Old wine-and-spirit trademarks
: Last night at St. Alban’s, we had an utterly wonderful service of Nine Lessons and Carols. The …
: Charlie Warzel: “A shift away from a knowable internet might feel like a return to something …
: I wrote about library catalogs, analog and digital.
: Pope Francis Allows Priests to Bless Same-Sex Couples - The New York Times: But the new rule made …
: cost-benefit Carolyn Dever, writing about the ransomware attack on the British Library: We’re past the days of …
: Twenty minutes early for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols and the house is already mostly …
: A battle between Sean Dyche’s current and former clubs should be called the Diet of Worms. (Niche, I …
: James Bennet: “My fellow editorial and commercial leaders were well aware of how the culture of the …
: Brewster Kahle: “Why should everyone care about this lawsuit? Because it is about preserving the …
: words, words, words Many of our arguments are fruitless because we don’t know the meaning of the words we use. And we …
: Over at the Hog Blog, I write about why I don’t think there’s any such thing as …
: To the young blonde FexEx driver blasting D’Angelo’s Black Messiah from her truck: …
: multiple social diseases 18 Warning Signs of a Deadly New Lifestyle - by Ted Gioia: — but they’re not all symptoms of the …
: repair as scapegoat Matt Crawford: Superficially, litter and the rusting carcasses of salvaged cars are both an affront …
: Bill Bryson: Imagine a form of baseball in which the pitcher, after each delivery, collects the …
: An amazing new newsletter issue by @ablerism (Sara Hendren) – y’all need to get on this …
: art for humanity's sake Daniel Walden: Criticism of this kind is a misuse of learning to muddle discussion for the sake of …
: Kevin Williamson, typically trenchant: “CLEAR has some fancy high-tech hoo-haw on the front …
: David Byrne: “I think the phrase that was used with My Life in the Bush of Ghosts was ‘cultural …
: Finished reading: The World of Odysseus by M. I. Finley. what an extraordinary book. I am filled …
: Simple snapshot of a totally ordinary sight.
: Chris Beha: “I sometimes think that the modern world’s true cultural divide is not between believers …
: Just learned from my buddy Austin Kleon about Mishka Westell’s art.
: An extraordinary story on how redwoods survive fire.
: exam time! I often give my students take-home exams that ask them to explicate (give a close reading of) …
: self-repair [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“600”]Michael Torevell, …
: Annie Soudain, Winter Glow, reduction lino print, 2017, appearing with this wonderful essay by Adam …
: My problem with “brokenism."
: brokenism “Everything is Broken,” Alana Newhouse wrote in an essay that I see quoted all the time. But of …
: I’ve decided that the social media landscape is irredeemable, but this new project by my old …
: Matthew Crawford on a broken tail light that cost $5600 to repair: On this particular luxury pickup …
: Campus lookin’ real purty today.
: Austin Kleon’s new post on reading is fantastic. I will have things to say about it when I can clear …
: As some of my readers know, the theme of the new issue of Plough — repair — is right down my alley.
: This collection of links by Michael Tsai raises the question: Do I actually own anything I have …
: Future Mann I don’t know how many people read my recent series of posts on Thomas Mann’s Joseph and His Brothers …
: My case for bringing back the blog — though not the “blogosphere.”
: bring back the blog Long long ago, in a galaxy far far away, when I was still on Twitter. I was misquoted there. I’m …
: Advent is the perfect season to begin Auden’s For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio. Just …
: My friend Jessica Martin is a priest at Ely Cathedral, and lately they’ve been having freezing …
: I just posted an update for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.
: a Beatly note One of the many provocative (or brilliant) (or crazy) assertions Ian MacDonald makes is his …
: A worry about the future of blogging.
: Venkatesh Rao: Despite its very different political-economic DNA, the blogosphere has become …
: David French: “I’d argue that the more politically engaged you are, the harder it is to avoid …
: I wrote about what strikes me as a very odd comment by Scott Alexander.
: I wrote about what, until I can find a better term, I’m calling conceptual Marxism.
: Scott Alexander suggesting the criteria that make someone an Effective Altruist: 1. Aim to donate …
: works for me I find this interesting: John Gruber reports that more of his listeners on The Talk Show use …
: conceptual Marxism In most respects, the concerns of Marx & Engels are very different than those of today’s Left, …
: A lovely collection of Christmas writings, edited by my colleague-of-many-years Lee Ryken.
: Bob Dylan is playing geographically appropriate covers.
: Jessica Grose: I’ve spent the past couple of weeks talking to teachers about their experiences with …
: As a counterpart to my post this morning about musical demos, see Richard Gibson’s brief essay …
: I wrote about why musical demos are so often better than the finished product. One of the most …
: Nick Heer: “None of this made the web better for people. This formula of insubstantial content …
: sound and effects I recently listened to a 2020 BBC radio documentary on George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass. Very …
: the personal blog and essayism Brian Dillon: Essays, ancient or modern, can seem precious in their self-presentation, like things …
: Wikipedia: “The tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered in the Valley of the Kings in 1922 by …
: John Stuart Mill: So long as an opinion is strongly rooted in the feelings, it gains rather than …
: Neil Gaiman, as quoted by Cal Newport: “people are leaving [social media]. You know, Twitter is …
: If you don’t shut up I’m gonna give you such a
: writing about the Beatles [I’m taking this one down — didn’t intend to make an enemy, but evidently that’s what I did. And …
: Why I’m inclined to think that the chance of achieving any restraint on AGI development is nil.
: A brief explanation of how, when I teach a class, I try to have a structure and a story.
: two summative thoughts about AI One: There was until recently a battle for the soul of AGI research and development, a battle …
: structure and story I regularly teach in the Great Texts program here in Baylor’s Honors College, which is based on the …
: Matthew Butterick: “If AI companies are allowed to market AI systems that are essentially black …
: The one constant for us at Thanksgiving: butternut squash and leek soup. Anything else I can skip, …
: WSJ: “So it turns out that of the two largest crypto exchanges, one was a fraud and the other …
: costs, continued Once you face the real human costs of your preferred policies in peace or war, you may then Warmly …
: “You have to brace yourself for the bozos.” — Werner Herzog
: Now this is what I call a magazine cover.
: Kinda weird to hear Julian Lage strumming, but this is a sweet tune.
: Good times and bad times for the humanities.
: Jennifer A. Frey: When Zena Hitz explains the Catherine Project (a series of online and in-person …
: an update on motives The other day I wrote: Freddie (like many people, it seems) is critical of the reasons Ayaan Hirsi …
: Paul Kingsnorth: “So: out with St George, I say, and in with one of the nation’s original …
: Great to see this tribute to Philip Johnson’s Chapel of St. Basil, a wonderful building. Note …
: second thoughts, worse thoughts? A week ago I explained that I had written and then decided not to publish a post on Israel and Gaza. …
: In which I respond to Freddie about what religion does.
: candles Freddie: Why do religions comfort? They comfort because the stories they tell involve divine beings …
: I’ve almost completely given up on podcasts, but have become a heavy user of the BBC Sounds app. The …
: Starting the day listening to my friend Sara Hendren (@ablerism) interviewed by Krista Tippett. So …
: I’m rarely envious, but okay, I’m envious.
: David Stoll: “The call to decolonize anthropology sounds as distinctively American as the …
: A significant change in Siri dictation over the past few months: commas. Commas that I don’t ask …
: I wrote about Adam Roberts’s excellent new novel.
: Slanted and disenchanted The most delightful thing about Arthur C. Clarke’s famous comment that “any smoothly functioning …
: I wrote about the importance, when thinking about politics, policy, and war, of learning what …
: what everything costs As long as resources are finite, any political or social policy helps some people at the expense of …
: Many years ago, when I was teaching at Wheaton College, someone put me on the mailing list for the …
: Oh great: “A new study suggests that explosive events in space have the potential to temporarily …
: Jon D. Schaff: “Perhaps the great neglected work of our time is Alan Jacobs’s The Year of Our Lord …
: Me, writing in 1996: In Sartre's political world there were only oppressors and oppressed: fascism …
: Everybody needs an inspirational quotation over their desk, and this is mine
: Kevin Williamson comes to Waco to cover the Texas Nationalist Movement convention. “The Texas …
: My final post – for now anyway – on Thomas Mann’s Joseph and His Brothers. …
: Mann's Joseph: 7 Last post in a series. Previous installments: Prelude One: the invention of God Two: the gods …
: NYT: What’s an example of when a publisher or someone else in the [publishing] business disagreed …
: Premier League players are acclimating themselves to the tyrannous reign of VAR: It’s become …
: Rowan Williams: I would venture to guess that the people we would least like to spend a long time …
: Ian Frazier: “According to the best scientific data currently available, both the average and the …
: I wrote a post but didn’t publish it.
: time well spent Today I spent a few hours I didn’t really have to spare writing a long post about Israel, Hamas, and …
: Charlie Stross: “I’d like to talk about something that I personally find much more worrying: a …
: My sixth post on Thomas Mann’s Joseph and His Brothers is about triangulation.
: AI is a Terrifying Purveyor of Bullshit. Next Up: Fake Science
: Mann's Joseph: 6 Herodotus (II.42) informs his readers that “the name by which the Egyptians know Zeus is Amun.” …
: Dostoevsky’s Demons was being serialized in Russia at precisely the same time (1971-72) that George …
: A new and accurate map of the World (1641)
: “Tommy, you’re cheapening the value of your signature!"
: signatures After Thomas Mann moved to Princeton in 1938, he resumed research on Joseph and His Brothers, and …
: Chipi-chipi this morning. (My wife learned that word many years ago when visiting the Guatemalan …
: A book on a barn. No, I don’t mean a book about a barn, I mean a book literally on a barn.
: The last official lighthouse keeper in the United States is named Sally Snowman.
: So far I have five posts on Thomas Mann’s Joseph and His Brothers: On Joseph and his …
: Mann's Joseph: 5 One of the most fascinating, and to me surprising, elements of Joseph and His Brothers is the way …
: St. Pancras Station has the best Christmas tree evar
: Josh Barro: Land acknowledgements are widely derided as farces and, generally, I agree that they …
: A fantastic post by my buddy Austin Kleon on the artists Robert Irwin and David Hockney and the …
: Edited: 66 minutes in, and I really don’t think Chelsea will score against 9 men. ⚽️
: Cabel Sasser on the DAK catalog
: Mann's Joseph: 4 This is Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, who renamed himself Akhenaten. In every surviving representation of …
: As a long-time Arsenal supporter, I am not happy with the club leadership’s behavior. ⚽️
: time to shut up As an Arsenal supporter who believes that Arsenal did indeed get robbed on that Newcastle goal, I am …
: NYT: “The possibility of collision isn’t the only problem with cramming low Earth orbit past …
: Mann's Joseph: 3 This difference we have identified between Jacob and Joseph is essential to the story that will …
: Paul Davids is a guitarist who, a while back, did a neat YouTube tutorial on Paul Simon’s …
: A very large 1867 Map of the Country Twelve Miles Round London.
: How Jeff Tweedy had his “come to Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid” moment. I don’t think …
: beyond belief Last month I published a piece over at the Hog Blog on biblical and theological illiteracy among …
: A Generall Historie of Plantes should probably be a large book.
: The “rewiring of childhood” and the parents who are enabling it — even when they know …
: ignorance, vincible and invincible ‘Childhood has been rewired’: [Jonathan Haidt:] ‘TikTok and Twitter are incredibly dangerous for …
: Gypsy Rose, an iconic lowrider.
: Malcolm Gladwell thinks the disposable diaper is a “perfect innovation.” Maybe he should …
: Second post on Joseph and His Brothers.
: Mann's Joseph: 2 Joseph, unlike his ancestors, delights in the gods of the gentes: he knows their names and …
: Robin Sloan pitches his forthcoming novel: “The year is 13777. There are dragons on the …
: My first substantive post about Thomas Mann’s great Joseph and His Brothers.
: Mann's Joseph: 1 There’s a long Prelude to the tetralogy — called “Descent into Hell” — which I may discuss later on. …
: RSS access is the only thing that makes reading Substack newsletters tolerable for me. If I had to …
: I wrote a new post for my supporters at Buy Me a Coffee.
: I wrote about Francis Spufford’s utterly wonderful new novel Cahokia Jazz.
: greetings from Cahokia Among the novels written in the 21st century that I have read, my favorite is Francis Spufford’s …
: I’m a big fan of the rooftop lounge at the Austin Central Library.
: My lens was fogging up when I took this one, but I sort of like the effect.
: the smoker They came, as all extremists do In time, to a sort of grandeur … — Richard Wilbur, “The Undead” …
: Why they don’t accept this word I can’t even imagine!
: I’m beginning a series on Thomas Mann’s Joseph and His Brothers.
: A remarkable visual reconstruction of Tenochtitlan.
: Mann's Joseph: Prelude I recently read Thomas Mann’s tetralogy Joseph and His Brothers — one of the more extraordinary …
: Smeagol, philologist I’m sure others have said this before — I doubt I have many thoughts about Tolkien that others have …
: This person with so many open browser tabs – how monstrous! Here’s what I do: See …
: Ezra Klein: “One reason I left Twitter long ago is that I noticed that it was a kind of …
: adjusting expectations One thing we’ve learned over the past few years is that lawyers who are good on social media and …
: Damon Krukowski: “Bandcamp may be a small fraction of the music industry as a whole – digital …
: I wrote (several years ago, but just now posted) about the wayfaring mind.
: the wayfaring mind What follows is a talk I gave some years ago at Smith College. It weaves together some common …
: Rita Blanca National Grasslands in the Texas panhandle; photo by Sean Fitzgerald. Larger photo here.
: Mithraeum of Santa Maria Capua Vetere in Caserta
: BRB, I gotta take all these unused minutes to the
: My old friend Noah Millman with a moving meditation on his own first name – and on “the …
: In which I am ambivalent about Nicola Griffith’s warning to writers.
: one cheer for "negative experience" Nicola Griffith: Once you have the reader’s empathy, though, you must keep it. You must persuade …
: the nature of the transaction Ross Douthat addressing prospective donors to universities, the kind who keep giving to Harvard and …
: FWIW, one of my favorite things I’ve published in recent years is this reflection on the big …
: would it kill you to allow the occasional German word
: I’ve made a case for reading the news less often.
: periodicity This piece from the Dispatch (possibly paywalled) on how The New York Times misled its readers with …
: I’m really worried about Bandcamp, which is a unique and probably irreplaceable service. At …
: A fascinating account of the endlessly variable and thus confusing history of the word …
: Anthony Lane on the science of happiness: Whether there is still a place for the steady …
: Clocks, cathedrals, and one of my favorite poems.
: But even at night ... Tom Johnson: Clockmakers, flush with commissions, let their horological imaginations run wild. They …
: Ida York Abelman, “Man and Machine”
: I wrong a longish and complicatedish post on conceptual screens and diseases of the intellect.
: diseases of the intellect Twenty years ago, I had an exceptionally intelligent student who was a passionate defender of and …
: Hi, we’d like to join your LinkedIn network
: My old internet friend Erin Kissane on Meta in Myanmar: “My aim with this series is to give …
: Mark C. Taylor: I do not think human beings are the last stage in the evolutionary process. …
: My friend Tim Larsen: “Yes, I’m one of those people who had a Netflix DVD subscription right …
: I wrote about the imperative to repair things that are only mostly dead.
: only mostly dead The other day I wrote about the absolute cataract of essays and articles these days proclaiming the …
: This eclipse is pretty weird.
: Just texted a friend: “So much of my life with technology revolves around (a) realizing that what I …
: I wrote a kind of follow-up to my “Resistance in the Arts” essay, focusing mainly on the Beatles.
: begin here The essay that I published earlier this year on “Resistance In the Arts” was largely inspired by my …
: A newly discovered, and shockingly pristine, Tomb of Cerberus.
: Charlie Warzel: “Musk has turned X into a deepfake version of Twitter—a facsimile of the …
: Good to see Brad East’s review of Andrew Wilson’s excellent book on the making of the …
: Abraham Joshua Heschel: “Prayer is not thinking. To the thinker, God is an object; to the man who …
: This is a fascinating story, with a nice bonus element: the phrase “interpretive mowing.”
: I commend to you all the wisdom of Sturgeon.
: the wisdom of Sturgeon It seems that literary fiction is dead — it even has a gravestone. Capitalism? Also dead. Tradition …
: Alexander Chee: “No one is likely to shame you for not having read Dracula, the way they do The Mill …
: I wrote about being a senior citizen who’s ready to own his introversion.
: back to my books Pretty much all my life I have been fighting against my instinctive introversion, and now that I …
: vehicles to devices Here is Ivan Illich, from Energy and Equity (1974), his book written in the midst of a global energy …
: Taking the curve at high speed
: First chiminea fire of the season!
: My old friend Noah Millman has written a very interesting piece on Asteroid City – quite …
: This is what Angus looked like the day we brought him home. Today he’s one year old!
: The goddess and the Madonna — a remarkable essay by Matt Milliner.
: When I’m adding items to our shared Reminders lists, I try to be as informative as possible.
: Great to see Jack Fisk getting some attention he has long deserved. “Genius” is not by …
: I wrote about biblical illiteracy among scholars, and why I think the role model for such scholars …
: I wrote about the murder of Seamus Heaney’s cousin and the two poems he wrote about it.
: the danger of eulogy In 1975 Seamus Heaney’s second cousin Colum McCartney — whom it seems he did not know personally — …
: As I keep saying: Arteta and Southgate between them are trying ensure that Saka’s career will …
: Max Rushden: “Do VARs have to be referees? They are different skills. How much would those in …
: Who is more at fault, the person who always chooses Reply All or the person who, by CCing rather …
: From a 1962 Limited Editions Club printing of Around the World in Eighty Days.
: NYT: “Most major U.S. cities now have at least three times as many security guards on the street as …
: Richard Gibson: “‘Why I Write’ is often handed to students as an encouragement to …
: The problem with this meme is its assumption that, for the people in question, there’s …
: Addressing a letter in the days before standardized addresses could be difficult.
: A complex book needs a complex annotation method: multiple highlighting colors, underlining, …
: Damon Krukowski: “Independent musicians can’t even talk about coordinated collective action …
: I wrote about Jane Austen and parents.
: Austen and parents One of the most notable traits of Jane Austen’s fiction is its gently ironical attitude towards many …
: Many pages read, many notes made, and … a thousand pages still to go. 😵💫
: “There is a militant type of mind to which the hostilities involved in any human situation …
: I’m thinking about anarchism again.
: a path forward It’s certainly true that power corrupts, but it’s more true that the corrupt are drawn to power, so …
: I just came across a writer who says his role is to be a truth-teller. I’d feel better about …
: Printers kinda suck, but printing is great.
: Just a tiny little reminder, should you need one, that Prince Rogers Nelson was a One of One. “You …
: PGMOL: “The goal by Luiz Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match …
: I wrote about an extremely poor NYT piece on the Data Colada / Francesca Gino kerfuffle.
: I'm with "the bloggers" Noam Scheiber’s report on the controversies surrounding the work of Francesca Gino is … well, it’s …
: W. H. Auden died fifty years ago today, and I’ve written a brief reflection, with many links.
: Auden, fifty years later W. H. Auden died fifty years ago today. He is the single most important writer and thinker in my …
: Michael John Goodman: For me (though I am sure others will disagree!), the artistic power of the …
: It took me a long time to find a WordPress theme that (with a few minor tweaks) made my big blog …
: Had I known about this passage from Dorothy Day’s diary, it would have been really useful to me for …
: Looks like there’s a gator on the Brazos, Ma.
: This is magnificent: The Kelmscott Chaucer online.
: Jason Bailey: A phrase like “streaming movie” or “theatrical release” or “documentary podcast” …
: We got new windows in our house today, modern double-glazed windows to relace the single-pane ones …
: Brad East on AI sermons is just outstanding: “Study and writing aren’t a mere means to an …
: department of corrections danah boyd: “Over the last two years, I’ve been intentionally purchasing and reading books that are …
: Wes Anderson: “If you work with people at different ages and you’re giving them a lot to do, …
: Today Angus took his first selfie (with my son). We’re all so proud.
: If you’re a Chicagoan, and probably only if you’re a Chicagoan, you’ll appreciate Anders Erickson’s …
: A little slice of the typographical history of New York City
: SO GLAD to see that Francis Spufford’s Cahokia Jazz is out in the UK. I had the privilege of reading …
: I posted a small piece of autobiography from a book I wrote 15 years ago.
: What happens when you shoot a 50-year-old roll of film.
: my testimony This is an except from my least-read book, a small treatise on narrative theology called Looking …
: If I could make one rule change to American football, it would be: eliminate kicking (punts & …
: This is gonna take a while. Currently reading: Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann 📚
: Good to see this warning from Barney Ronay. A prediction: If Arteta doesn’t significantly reduce …
: A report from Swedish schools: “As young children went back to school across Sweden last month, many …
: Jesus is “the lens in the dark box.”
: Charlie Warzel: “Using Google once felt like magic, and now it’s more like rifling through junk …
: My iPhone: updated, but the new StandBy feature doesn’t work. My Apple Watch: won’t update, which is …
: Legitimate WHOA: Archeologists discover a wooden structure that’s half a million years old.
: Note to makers of Spelling Bee: INANITION, MONITION, and TITIVATION are all English words and ought …
: I don’t understand how Eric Hoel can say that Substack isn’t a walled garden when large chunks of it …
: Freddie deBoer: “Sometimes I think the great American rite of passage is when you go from a youth …
: I wrote about Truffaut’s The Wild Child.
: The Child of Nature and the Citizen Francois Truffaut’s The Wild Child is a truly remarkable movie that has never gotten the attention …
: Angus does love cleaning the faces of his family. Also any other faces.
: Terry Halliday: “In 2008 or 2009, at an early stage of an extensive research program on criminal …
: The Urban Sketchers website is really cool. This drawing is by Ilaria Petrussa.
: Eleanor Doughty’s urban plein air sketches are wonderful.
: I had never heard of takkyu-bin but it sounds great. At least in Japan. Can’t imagine it …
: I wrote 5600 words today so I decided to reward myself with the Queen of Cocktails.
: a silent adventure Whenever people speak in L’Avventura I find their talk intrusive. I imagine a Phantom Edit of the …
: A small post on François Truffaut’s handwriting.
: A letter from François Truffaut to Jean Renoir, telling the old master how much The Rules of the …
: I wrote a post on being the best (kind of) teacher I can be.
: gardening strategies I love this by John Holt, transcribed by my buddy Austin Kleon: You learn to teach by teaching. I …
: Mandy Brown: “Are you a writer or a talker? That is, when you need to think about something, …
: Here’s a September update for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.
: fabulism I was a fabulist as a child, and indeed, well into my adolescence. It was perhaps the signal trait …
: Thirty years ago, one of the great achievements of Western culture appeared. And we have documentary …
: Ted Gioia: “Taylor Swift, you are the one person who can make this happen. I believe this is …
: This week I’m teaching Austen’s Mansfield Park and, honestly, I don’t know of any other novel I’d …
: This seems miraculous: I actually need to wear waterproof shoes today.
: Here’s a shortish essay from me on the literature classroom as a place for “the …
: A brief post about Auden and Ischia.
: A fascinating little fact in this article on declining interest in studying Mandarin: On Duolingo, …
: Auden on Ischia I’m in the final stages of editing my critical edition of Auden’s The Shield of Achilles, and I’m …
: I often think about this Brent Simmons post on “Mac-assed Mac apps” — especially when …
: Sometimes I actually have to do scholarship.
: The palatial Granada Theatre in Chicago, from a book about America’s lost architectural …
: I wrote up a kind of summation of my posts on the desperate-times-require-desperate-measures …
: repetition and summation When you blog for a long time, as I have done, you inevitably repeat yourself. Sometimes this is …
: It’s a great blessing to me that my parish church does Choral Evensong on Sunday evenings, and …
: Bertrand Russell, in his Autobiography: “As an undergraduate I was persuaded that the dons …
: Not everyone is interested in the Oxyrhynchus papyri — IYKYK — but for those who are, this article …
: When Paul Schrader was asked to do a Criterion Collection Top 10, he gave a great response: …
: I haven’t really used Twitter for several years, but now I’m deleting my account.
: x nay I’ve deactivated my X account and won’t be coming back. I’ve despised Twitter for several years, but …
: Joseph Horowitz: “So unnoticed are the American arts that a major American historian, Jill Lepore, …
: Here I wonder: When do competent writers turn to AI for help in writing?
: We see so many tributes when great artists die, but we should do a better job of praising them while …
: Ronald W. Dworkin: “AI without the ballast of intuition represents the tyranny of pure …
: mechanical writing Cory Doctorow: A university professor friend of mine recently confessed that everyone in their …
: Oh boy am I excited about what Robin Sloan is up to.
: Mary Harrington on Burning Man is, well, 🔥: “All this gift-economy joy is enabled by …
: Dr. Drang: “[Judge Scott] McAfee is asking [DA Fani] Willis to make these estimates for a …
: A lovely song and a beautiful video of the live performance: Peter Broderick & Ensemble 0 - Give …
: some thoughts on habitus For quite some time I haven’t been posting here about focal practices, but I’ve been thinking about …
: Victor Mair: “As the creatively piquant online nicknames [for Xi Jinping] of …
: Heads up: I don’t believe my micro.blog weekly digest is working, and I don’t know …
: I love seeing this tribute to the translator Edith Grossman, whose version of Don Quixote is by …
: The decline of fireflies is to me one of the most depressing events of our time. When I was a child …
: I wrote a post about how much Max Ophuls loved dancing. (Also, as a side note, in The Earrings of …
: Ophuls' dancers Above you’ll find a justly famous scene from one of the greatest of all films, The Earrings of …
: Tag of the Week on my big blog: Tolkien.
: J R R Tolkien died fifty years ago today. A while back I wrote an imaginary conversation between him …
: Ted Gioia: It’s true, we are living in the 21st century — at least according to the calendar. But …
: Joseph Epstein: “With Meatless Tuesday in mind, I wonder if the country wouldn’t do well to …
: Some of you may think I post too many photos of Angus, but believe me, if I go a couple of days …
: an exercise in branding I decided to take a flyer on this — and am kinda wishing I didn’t. It’s fun to get a newspaper in …
: An old man’s simple prayer, from Bruce Cockburn.
: This piece on blurbs reminds me of the greatest blurb ever written – almost surely the …
: Movies as old books, by Matt Stevens.
: Kieran McCarthy: “Some of the biggest companies on earth — including Meta and Microsoft — take …
: The Economist’s interactive page on the effects of the London Blitz is a fabulous piece of …
: Cameras are cool, and make better photos than phones, but Om Malik is right: their software is …
: This morning I read yet another denunciation of today’s college students, complete with …
: bureaucratic sustainability Matt Crawford: The example of China’s explosive growth in the last thirty years showed that …
: A word to the wise from Matt Birchler: “Things on the internet can be forever, but you …
: Berenice Abbott, New York City, 1935
: I wrote about the sad story of The Band.
: once brothers The fascinating and deeply sad documentary Once Were Brothers concerns the career of The Band — …
: Cal Newport: “The Internet has become the ultimate narrowcasting vehicle: everyone from UFO buffs …
: Adolphe Appian, from a wonderful exhibition of drawings at the Met.
: One paragraph from me, at the Hog Blog: This is the way your mind ends.
: I love this: Fred Sanders finds an often-cited obviously-bogus quotation by St. Augustine and shows …
: The Scriptural BCP The Scriptural Book of Common Prayer is a wonderful resource that does its job a little too well. …
: I had been drafting a piece on the old prison work song “Ain’t No More Cane on the …
: I love the genre of “alternative movie posters,” and Michael Krasnopolski’s are …
: Ted Gioia: “The only areas where AI is flourishing are shamming, spamming & scamming.”
: I wrote a denunciation of apps.
: against apps, for wander lines In 1980, a curiously polymathic Jesuit priest named Michel de Certeau (1925–86) published a …
: The Cat Concerto (1947). David Thomson: “The great American film about the highest artistic …
: I wrote an essay (now unpaywalled!) on the kinds of resistance that create the possibility of great …
: Finally got Angus to sit (for an instant) for his portrait.
: Tom Eastman: “I’m old enough to remember when the Internet wasn’t a group of five …
: Robert McCabe’s photographs of Greece
: This case for sabbaticals is quite good – and also a reminder to me that, while I’ve had …
: St. John Chrysostom: “Has [Eutropius] inflicted great wrongs and insults on you? I will not …
: Re: my Asteroid City post: I’m gonna write a long essay one day about how Terrence Malick and …
: Abandoned reading: Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews by Jonathan Cott. Dylan, the greatest …
: A Visit to Balzac’s House: “In addition to its garden, the Maison de Balzac boasts a large …
: I wrote a pretty long post about Asteroid City — but it has so many spoilers that you probably …
: what the bird said Many spoilers follow. Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City begins with a framing story: We seem to be …
: Oh, is that what he embodies?
: Cory Doctorow: “ In the Big Tech internet, it’s freedom for them, openness for us. ‘Openness’ …
: Last night I dreamed that Leo Messi lived near me and out of neighborliness did some work in my …
: Chris Arnade: “I’ve also become more convinced that while all suburban bleh might look the same, …
: I wrote a post about the wonderful artist Tirzah Garwood.
: Tirzah Garwood Regular readers of this will know of my fondness for the art of Eric Ravilious. Ravilious was …
: In my early years I was utterly devoted to Ace Doubles, which bound two short novels back-to-back — …
: I have an essay, “Looking Westward,” in the new issue of Raritan. (Paywalled; sorry …
: Love the style of this sign-maker, but I’m not quite sure how Teri would take it if I posted …
: I’m going to be reserving my Old Big Blog for longer essays and things that relate to some of …
: Finished reading: Small Town Talk by Barney Hoskyns. Reading about the music of the Sixties can be …
: James Hill: “Eve Arnold, the wonderful Magnum photographer, used to recount a story about walking …
: I’m having fun listening to The Science of Sound, from 1958. The liner notes are fun also.
: I’m hitting the pause button on my weekly newsletter, but that just means that I’ll be using …
: From a fascinating interview about Georgia O’Keefe’s choice of materials, especially …
: There Babylon is builded in the Waste, founded in Human desolation
: Hilary Hahn plays the Sibelius Violin Concerto — an astonishing performance 🎵
: Cabel Sasser: “Some designers are amazing at imagining things, but not as amazing at imagining them …
: Justine Bateman: “Don’t forget, AI isn’t doing this to us. People using AI to eliminate jobs, …
: I have a page for my students explaining why I won’t use ed-tech software like Canvas and …
: Dylan's conversion Conversion to folk music, that is. From the 1978 Playboy interview: PLAYBOY: Just to stay on the …
: “It’s very tiring having other people tell you how much they dig you, if you yourself don’t dig …
: Here’s an essay (PDF) about my adolescent years that I published 25 years ago. Not how I would …
: We got Angus a new e-collar and he finds it much more comfortable, though he sort of looks like he’s …
: outreach and generativity Over at the Daily Nous, Alex Guerrero, a professor of philosophy at Rutgers, argues that the …
: Nick Cave: ChatGPT rejects any notions of creative struggle, that our endeavours animate and …
: Nick Carr: Well-turned sentences had a decent run, but after TikTok they’ve become depreciating …
: R.I.P. Robbie I’ve written before about the waves of death that are coming for some of our cultural giants, but …
: Every morning I wake up with a song in my head — a different song each day, and it could be anything …
: For those who are concerned — and I thank you! — Angus has undergone an adjustment of his …
: “Just a couple of days ago I was so happy!”
: possible new tagline for this blog
: nurturing Wendell Berry, from The Unsettling of America: Whereas the exploiter asks of a piece of land only …
: Justin Smith-Ruiu: The risk of attempting such a thing is that one will appear unserious and will …
: Reading more poetry? That’s a great thing. Reading a book of poetry a day? That’s a 100% guarantee …
: Prologue to an Anti-Therapeutic, Anti-Affirmation Movement: As a leftist, my core political …
: Encyclopedia Babylonica 6: Ellul Ellul’s The Meaning of the City is a book in six chapters. Though he doesn’t say so explicitly, the …
: Thanks to kind assistance, I now have a books read page. “Currently reading” is featured …
: Not a feature request, just a wish: I’d love to be able to show my reading lists (Currently …
: two quotations on corporations Charlie Stross (2010): Corporations do not share our priorities. They are hive organisms …
: a blessed 89th birthday to the Mad Farmer I have planted by the stars in defiance of the experts, and tilled somewhat by incantation and by …
: Matt Crawford: Today’s Leviathan conceives its subjects as fragile beings afloat in a field of …
: We have a new Spanish place here in town — Segovia Wine Bar — and it’s really good. This is the …
: Storyboard for the dream sequence of Hitchcock’s Spellbound, in the Harry Ransom Center.
: The Economist: Research on solar geoengineering has been side-lined, and its possible role in …
: Encyclopedia Babylonica 5: a brief hiatus I just realized that I need to pause this series for a while. Why? Because I’m reading Ellul’s The …
: And just as I’m posting these I see this from Craig Mod — serendipity!
: And as I look through those photos, I find myself thinking: the Lake District — not unattractive!
: My beloved! Taken on a trail overlooking Grasmere, 2011. Today we celebrate our 43rd wedding …
: Yuval Levin: This is a fact we often miss about our Constitution. It works by setting competing …
: Greenwich Observatory, by Eric Ravilious (1937)
: ignore strenuously Robin Sloan: I want to under score it here: where the internet is concerned, we are in a crisis of …
: Encyclopedia Babylonica 4: System The Bob Marley and the Wailers album Survival (1979) is one of Marley's most politically militant …
: A common experience for me: Someone tweets (or “X-es”?) about something I’ve written, maybe with a …
: on technologies and trust Recently, Baylor’s excellent Provost, Nancy Brickhouse, wrote to faculty with a twofold message. The …
: Here at Laity, I’m staying in a place called Lanier Apartment, which features interesting art …
: Becca Rothfeld on “Sanctimony Literature”: Sanctimony literature errs, then, not because it …
: Ted Gioia: Boredom is built into the [Spotify] platform, because they lose money if you get too …
: I wrote to my BMAC supporters explaining (a) why I’m writing about Babylon and (b) why …
: Encyclopedia Babylonica 3: Daniel As we have seen, D. W. Griffith gives us an image of an effete and dissolute Babylonian kingdom, …
: Peter Gray: Other research has assessed relationships between the amount of time children have to …
: abnegation A brilliant, angry, nearly-despairing essay by Justin Smith-Ruiu, one that grows out of a reading of …
: Encyclopedia Babylonica 2: Belshazzar Let’s talk about about the OG Babylon — not as it was, perhaps, but as we have envisioned it. For …
: There’s the Streisand Effect and now, I say, there’s the Elon Effect.
: excerpt from my Sent folder: favor A friend wrote in response to my addition, at the end of my most recent newsletter, a quote from …
: Back in my happy place. (Unfiltered, unadjusted image — the sky really does look like a painted …
: I have only listened to two or three audiobooks in my life, but some recent struggles with eyestrain …
: Encyclopedia Babylonica 1: welcome Welcome to Babylon! I know you’re not all happy about it, but here’s something I’ve learned from …
: There are people whose intelligence I admire, whose decency I respect, but with whom I feel ill at …
: I saw Oppenheimer. It was okay. The Close Encounters installation in the hallway of the Alamo …
: So the wonderful Dulwich Picture Gallery is beginning a renovation that will add a … big shoebox to …
: I’ll be off to Austin this afternoon to see Oppenheimer, and while I know the Alamo Drafthouse will …
: Unanswered Questions Over the past few months I’ve occasionally made oblique references to a book I’m working on. That …
: This isn’t quite right: Auden would never have been named Poet Laureate even if his …
: a little ride in the time machine Here’s something people often don't notice about Sunset Boulevard: Norma Desmond isn’t old. Several …
: My old friend Noah Millman, who writes and directs: I love actors, and I want to see them continue …
: David Thomson: “The most daring novelty in Citizen Kane was not its deep-focus photography, …
: Mateus Asato plays “Blessed Assurance.”
: New issue of the newsletter out today. I do enjoy making my newsletter.
: How Google Reader died: At its peak, Reader had just north of 30 million users, many of them using …
: David Samuels: The reasons for the Nobel Committee’s snub [of Milan Kundera], which occurred at the …
: Taken a few days ago, when we still had clouds
: my new title I ain’t going nowhere. I’m still here at Baylor’s Honors College, and I’ll continue, mostly, to do …
: personal organization Here’s my one piece of advice about personal organization: (calendars, tasks, planning, tracking): …
: Chisos Mountains, Big Bend National Park. I’ve been longing to get back there but right now …
: starting from zero The young architects and artists who came to the Bauhaus to live and study and learn from the Silver …
: academic bullshit My estimable friend Dan Cohen: Maybe AI tools can help to combat their unethical counterparts? …
: Megan McArdle, with a thought-provoking argument: “Once Musk readmitted the views and people …
: This interview with A. G. Sulzberger on the Dispatch Podcast is fascinating. So informative about …
: Little, Big My friend Adam Roberts wrote recently about John Crowley’s Little, Big, which is (a) one of my very …
: I tried AudioPen today. If you want to have your own words converted into the bland, characterless, …
: “Now Angus, be still, your breeder wants a nice portrait of you.”
: What I want: a universal de-notification button. “Click here if you do not wish to receive any …
: How to read weather forecasts in central Texas: If the chance of precipitation is 100% — …
: Oh, also here’s my handy guide for people who think they might want to read Pynchon but find the …
: My ginormous essay on Thomas Pynchon, theologian has escaped its paywall and is available for all to …
: Me: (excitedly explains something I read about Churchill and FDR) My son: You know, Dad, I think …
: more on SCOTUS and university admissions Just a few random thoughts about the Harvard opinion. (On this blog I tend to avoid opining on …
: If she would only look at me the way she looks at Angus….
: forums David Pierce: As far as how humans connect to one another, what’s next appears to be group chats …
: Baldur Bjarnason: The LLMentalist Effect: how chat-based Large Language Models replicate the …
: This is the second time recently that I’ve found an old lo-res photo on my Mac that caught my …
: The degenerate monarchists at The Rest Is History podcast have done something extraordinary: …
: patriotic effusion for Independence Day I have always, I feel, been somewhat deficient in patriotism — I just don’t have the instinct for …
: George Orwell, review of Mein Kampf (1940): Nearly all western thought since the last war, certainly …
: Would I like to ride on a 1938 London Underground train? Yes I would.
: The actress Theodosia Goodman became a silent-movie femme fatale after she adopted the name Theda …
: reading SCOTUS Some facts: Very few Americans even know what the Supreme Court does; fewer still care. Not all …
: Thomas Pynchon, America's Theologian Today is the pub day for the longest essay I’ve ever published: “The Far Invisible: Thomas Pynchon …
: My beloved reporting from her family’s place in Alabama.
: The best thing you are likely to read about the Supreme Court affirmative action decision — or …
: the system I’m going to begin by quoting a very long passage from Bleak House, one involving a suitor in the …
: Counterman implications Arguing with Supreme Court opinions, as one does — in this case Counterman v. Colorado. Now, let me …
: more on Korematsu The other day I mentioned some famous Supreme Court cases that were influenced by public opinion. I …
: That’s the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle. The lovely photo is by Sean Fitzgerald from this …
: banal utopias JC Niala: cultivating on allotment sites has always been so much more than ‘growing your own’. As …
: public opinion People keep talking about the Supreme Court being “out of step with public opinion.” You know when …
: Currently reading: Essays by George Orwell 📚
: Finished reading: Bleak House by Charles Dickens 📚
: Anne Snyder, the editor of Comment, is doing some really important things: she’s not just publishing …
: Last year I explained why I think Jacques Ellul’s book on Christian anarchism is really bad; …
: In which I defend Esther Summerson, the much-maligned protagonist of Dickens’s Bleak House.
: in defense of Esther Summerson Esther Summerson, the protagonist of Dickens’s Bleak House – insofar as that outrageously ambitious …
: Every winter I think this oleander is dead and every summer it comes back.
: Cities, appendix: Sin City On the thirty-first floor your gold plated door Won’t keep out the Lord’s burning rain
: Jessica Winter: In retrospect, it seems clear that “Inside Out” was when Pixar’s Silicon Valley …
: A new report for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters – in which I ask for suggestions of books to …
: Cities 10: last things Book XXI of the City of God is about Hell, and as a result isn’t very interesting. Now, you might …
: not for me My buddy Austin Kleon and I have often discussed the point he makes in this post: the value of …
: Currently reading: Bleak House by Charles Dickens 📚
: Finished reading: Thomas Hardy by Claire Tomalin 📚
: Currently reading: Thomas Hardy by Claire Tomalin 📚
: Cities 9a: the City of God coming down One brief comment about Book XX: in XX.17 Augustine comments on Revelation 21:2-5: And I saw the …
: Finished reading: Farewell the Trumpets by James/Jan Morris. An extraordinary narrative history — I …
: Augustinian blogging: Cities 9: ends and means
: Cities 9: ends and means One of the most distinctive elements of Augustine’s method in the City of God looks like this: Now I …
: Currently reading: Farewell the Trumpets by James Morris 📚
: Finished reading: Pax Britannica:The Climax of an Empire by James Morris 📚
: Angus was timid and quiet when we brought him home six months ago; now he owns the place.
: In many minds Juneteenth is associated with the great Ralph Ellison, which means that this is a good …
: Augustinian blogging has resumed with Cities 8: parallels.
: New issue of the newsletter featuring Mozart, Lucie Rie, and catfish & spaghetti.
: Cities 8: parallels In Book XVIII of The City of God, Augustine writes a kind of parallel history of the two cities, …
: Currently reading: Pax Britannica:The Climax of an Empire by James/Jan Morris 📚
: Well, where I come from it’s definitely a word.
: Finished reading: Heaven’s Command by James/Jan Morris 📚
: Canna lilies grow like crazy in our garden, but I never quite get used to them.
: TIL that John Le Carré said that he would refuse the Nobel Prize if it were offered to him, which …
: Mark Helprin, many years ago: Tending a fire enforces a sense of patience and tranquility. In that …
: A memory out of nowhere: In Rome for the first time, riding the Metro and seeing across from me a …
: The crêpe/crepe/crape myrtles around here are at their peak.
: Robert Caro on working with Robert Gottlieb: In all the hours of working on The Power Broker, Bob …
: As a person who spends a lot of time in Austin, loves Austin, hates Austin traffic, and can’t afford …
: “From tragedy it is seldom but a step to memorabilia.” — Larry McMurtry in Waco, 1993
: I’m not a collector of anything, but this auction of Larry McMurtry memorabilia had some pretty …
: Currently reading: Pax Britannica by James (Jan) Morris. This Folio Society edition is one of my …
: David Brooks: “If autonomy-based liberals believe that society works best when it opens up …
: I have mixed feelings about the bokeh of iPhone “Portrait” shots. It’s often …
: Douthat bringing some essential Dark Energy to the question of what matters most about Orange Man as …
: absolutizing (slight return) Jon Askonas has responded to my earlier post, and his response deserves a fuller counter-response …
: I will begin to consider the possibilities of the iPad as a work device when I can set a default app …
: Marc Andreessen wrote a terrible essay and I annotated it.
: Finished reading: Mozart by Jan Swafford. An extraordinary life, an extraordinary book. 📚
: The second Goat Rodeo record is fine, but the first one is absolutely sublime, and I’m re-listening. …
: Charlie Warzel: “I reminded myself to chill out, stop being such a doomer, and move on. But about 18 …
: I wrote about people who make apocalyptic or absolutist claims that … I just don’t understand.
: absolutizing and abstraction, conservation and piety Some years ago I wrote a post on what I called “the absolutizing of fright”: I have the same …
: Leah Libresco Sargeant: At Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, administrators were even …
: Charlie Stross on A.I. hype: “The real promise here is that corporations will be able to replace …
: Currently reading: Mozart by Jan Swafford 📚
: Forthcoming: The Shield of Achilles I will be returning soon to my posts on Augustine's City of God, but maybe not for another week or …
: Pro tip: If anyone is more concerned about something than you are, just say that they’re …
: ESPN is now a gambling-promotion network that finds sports useful.
: Watching Reddit imitate Elon’s Twitter reinforces an important point: People who want a …
: Angus was waiting for me to get home from my journey, and don’t tell me or my family that he …
: I like Nick Carr’s description of the Vision Pro as a “face tiara for elite beings of a hypothetical …
: Very excited about this forthcoming book from Deb Chachra. All the hidden places in the built …
: Cities 7: a digression on reading I’ve heard from a number of people, via email, about this series, and almost all of the responses …
: This photo of Mykha (from the Chicago Sun-Times) really captures her spirit.
: I’m back in my old stomping grounds of Wheaton, Illinois today, and I just learned that one of most …
: To me, the Vision Pro doesn’t look like something to use, it looks like something to be sentenced to …
: Cities 6: causes In a previous post I wrote, “The Pax Romana is not a telos, it’s merely an event among other events, …
: Kansas. I was listening to the Eno/Eno/Lanois Apollo music as I drove through this landscape and it …
: Sunrise over Waco this morning
: Ken Myers on music and silence.
: Eric Adler: “It seems a stereotypically American, and perhaps more broadly imperialist, conceit to …
: The poet Tennyson had many siblings. Once a visitor to the family home found a boy lying on a rug in …
: Let me tell you something, friends: This is something special. You’ll have to wait a while to read …
: The American National Biography is not as consistently good, but there are some fine entries there …
: Currently reading: Lots of biographies from the Dictionary of National Biography. I love these: …
: Cities 5: a digression on longtermism Not closely related to my main argument, but just a brief note: Longtermism is the version of …
: In an interview Andy Summers once said “If you’re using alternate tunings, you just don’t know …
: My friend Rick Gibson found this in an old issue of the Bell System Technical Journal.
: Ezra Klein: “Jonathan Frankle, the chief scientist at MosaicML and a computer scientist at Harvard, …
: Cities 3b: City and Church My friend Brad East wrote with a partial dissent to something I say in this post: When you say the …
: Bought this copy in the summer of 1980, for my first semester of grad school. I think it’s …
: Cities 3a: political theology I got an email from a friend regarding this post: “What do you mean ‘Augustine isn’t interested in …
: Cities 4: Secondary Epic My previous post discussed the way Augustine sets up his City of God as antithetical to the Aeneid. …
: A terrific first-hand report/memoir by James Conaway on the rise and fall of Rajneeshpuram, Oregon. …
: Annotating Augustine’s City of God 📚 and listening to Dilla’s Donuts ♫. As one does.
: Brian Phillips: “Talking about ‘prestige TV’ rather than good TV became a way to …
: Currently reading: City of God by Augustine of Hippo. Should’ve added this a week ago. 📚
: Finished reading: Ursula K. Le Guin: The Complete Orsinia by Ursula K. Le Guin. Not Le Guin at her …
: There’s a general sense among athletes that, as Sloane Stephens says here, racial abuse is …
: Cities 3: hypothesis Here’s the hypothesis I’m working with now: The problem with every theology of culture is that …
: It’s newsletter day, and I’ve posted my second entry on the City of God.
: This is good from Matt Yglesias: All political sides are vulnerable to misinformation.
: Cities 2: archetype and antithesis The City of God, which, as we saw in a previous post, claims to be an account of the two cities, the …
: Emily Wilson: “In Epictetus’ version of Stoicism, the self is always the focus, even for the most …
: That first half from Dortmund was shocking, not because they were bad but because they didn’t …
: Ross Douthat: “But for all its influence, social media is still downstream of other institutions — …
: Currently reading: The Complete Orsinia by Ursula K. Le Guin 📚
: I’m starting to write about Augustine’s City of God, with help from (of all people) China Miéville.
: The City and the City Should you happen to want to think about Augustine’s City of God (hereafter CD for Civitate Dei) in …
: Finished reading: The City & the City by China Miéville 📚
: excerpt from my Sent folder: the day of reckoning About fifteen years ago I started moving away from the standard research essay assignment. In my …
: Of all the tributes to Tim Keller I’ve seen, the one that resonates most strongly for me is …
: I'm no Mr. Miyagi My friend Richard Gibson: Emerging adults need to see, as one of my colleagues put it, “the …
: Currently reading: The City & the City by China Miéville 📚
: Finished reading: Mao II by Don DeLillo. Conceptually fascinating but not wholly successful as a …
: Currently reading: Mao II by Don DeLillo 📚
: Phil Christman: “A certain man went down from Athens to Atlanta, and fell among thieves, which …
: Michael Luo in the New Yorker: In June, 2020, Keller announced that he had been diagnosed with …
: Clive Thompson: “The problem is that while we moderns desperately need exposure to nature, it sure …
: Oh cool: Journals having to suspend accepting submissions because they’re being overwhelmed by …
: Abraham M. Nussbaum: “We have all become accustomed to the gun violence plaguing our congregate …
: Taken in 2004 with what was even then a cheap digital camera on a trail on Mount Seymour, above …
: Finished reading: The Spirit of Early Christian Thought by Robert Louis Wilken. I should probably …
: Rory Smith: “Manchester City has the air of a machine, both in the way the project has been …
: Here I creep a little closer to what a genuine theology of culture might look like.
: Matteo Wong: But language-only models such as the original ChatGPT are now giving way to machines …
: Very pleased that my buddy Sara Hendren ( @ablerism ) has joined us here on micro.blog. Check out …
: I managed to write a few halting words about Tim Keller.
: Tim Keller Well, this is a day for tears. I don’t know Tim intimately, but he is a friend, and his presence in …
: the culture question revisited I want to get back to the question of what theologians talk about when they talk about culture. …
: Charlie Warzel: “When I look at a future dominated by generative-AI tools that are embedded in …
: Glad to see that my buddy Austin Kleon enjoyed my recitation!
: Finished reading: The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand. A brilliant book — I should have read it …
: Hit up some used-record stores in Austin today – all these from the 3-dollar bins!
: Gary Saul Morson: “The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, published 50 …
: I read and annotated that new Tara Isabella Burton essay on postrationalism in Silicon Valley.
: From William James’s speech at the dedication of a memorial in Boston to a soldier named Robert …
: Currently reading: The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand 📚
: Finished reading: Richard Hofstadter: Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, The Paranoid Style in …
: Tara Isabella Burton’s essay about post-rationalism in Silicon Valley is a vital read.
: Elon Musk, self-proclaimed “free-speech absolutist,” is happily cooperating with the …
: I wrote about the Three Paths of micro.blog.
: the three paths of micro.blog I’ve written here from time to time about the excellent service known as micro.blog — and I still …
: Currently listening: Ry Cooder - Jazz. One of my all-time favorites. ♫
: Jenny Odell: “I felt like I needed to protect my time more so that I could do things that I …
: Augustine, De Trinitate I.iii.5: “Dear reader, whenever you are certain about something as I …
: People say Arsenal couldn’t handle the intensity of a title challenge, and while there’s …
: A Walk in the Rain A special lo-fi casual episode, never to be repeated. Transcript
: From the remarkable collection of photographs at the Courtauld Institute.
: Currently reading: Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, The Paranoid Style in American Politics, …
: Finished reading: Libra by Don DeLillo. A truly brilliant, and disturbing, novel. 📚
: Finished reading: Heidegger in Ruins by Richard Wolin. A devastating indictment. I wrote a review …
: Book Review: Heidegger in Ruins Richard Wolin’s Heidegger in Ruins is a compelling synthesis of what scholars have learned about …
: Currently reading: Heidegger in Ruins by Richard Wolin 📚
: Study of a Kingfisher, with dominant Reference to Colour, by John Ruskin
: Currently reading: Libra by Don DeLillo 📚
: Some guy wrote a whole Substack post about why books aren’t worth reading. TL;DR, dude. Why do …
: Brian Eno: “This is why the idea of surrender is so interesting to me, because surrendering is what …
: Albert Borgmann – perhaps the most important philosopher of technology in our time – has …
: Erik Hoel: “So if someone regularly talks about IQs significantly above 140 like these were …
: Scott Alexander: If you could really plug an AI’s intellectual knowledge into its motivational …
: Spending some time with Ol’ Blue Eyes 🎵
: WSJ: “In one study, Dr. Strayer and colleagues compared two groups of people strolling an …
: Currently reading: Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays and Lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson 📚
: locating intellectuals In his great book The Spirit of Early Christian Thought, Robert Wilken writes: In an age in which …
: Irony The day I discovered an important concept. Transcript
: without principle ‘The Godfather of AI’ Quits Google and Warns of Danger Ahead: Dr. Hinton said that when people used …
: The list of musical cues in Malick’s Song to Song is hilarious and wonderful.
: cosplaying Kingship In a much-celebrated essay on King Lear, Stephen Greenblatt writes about theatrical costumes: …
: Matt Crawford: We do a lot of clerical labor to register ourselves with entities that have figured …
: Christine Emba: This story idealized detachment, “liberation” from mutual care, ensuring that …
: Why millennial men are turning to the Book of Common Prayer. Very cool! And if they’d like to …
: Tim Keller: “If the Church aims at loving service to one’s neighbor while clearly speaking the …
: Re: those two recent links: TV and movie writers fear that their employers want to outsource writing …
: I eagerly co-sign this from Freddie: “So why write if you hate writing? … But you could …
: Tim Carmody: “A writer in 2023 is disproportionately likely to be working on a script for a …
: Baldur Bjarnason: “Believing the myth of Artificial General Intelligence makes you incapable …
: Richard Gibson: “Current debates about writing machines are not as fresh as they seem. As the …
: Currently reading: The Spirit of Early Christian Thought by Robert Louis Wilken. Another re-read. …
: I want to move to the desert just to escape the leaf blowers.
: Finished reading: Clockwork, Or, All Wound Up by Philip Pullman. A perfect little fable, ideal for …
: Mary Harrington: “We need to re-imagine marriage as the enabling condition for radical …
: I (a) announced that I was shutting down my Buy Me A Coffee page, (b) heard from some readers …
: Klopp pulling a hammy while (a) celebrating the winning goal and (b) shouting at the fourth official …
: Finished reading: Raymond Chandler: the Library of America Edition by Raymond Chandler. Most of …
: I did not write about Tolkien, but I wrote about the return of the King.
: the Return of the King I just finished teaching Susanna Clarke’s marvelous Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and probably my …
: I wrote a while back about the ways that Silicon Valley is structurally sociopathic, but there’s …
: My family tell me they love my veggie soup, but what they really get excited about? The accompanying …
: Freddie deBoer: “We have a prevalent concept of the ‘practical college major’ in …
: Elle Griffin: In 2020, “only 11 books sold more than 500,000 copies — which is paltry when you …
: Greg Afinogenov: Kropotkin’s understanding and appreciation of societies then regarded as …
: “There are days like that. Everybody you meet is a dope. You begin to look at yourself in the glass …
: Currently listening: Oren Ambarchi, Shebang ♫
: I’m rewatching and re-evaluating Kurosawa.
: a revaluation Here is the great Takashi Shimura as Kambei Shimada, the leader of The Seven Samurai (1954): A man …
: Really excited for this work-in-progress by Samuel Arbesman called The Magic of Code.
: Currently reading: Raymond Chandler: the Library of America Edition by Raymond Chandler 📚
: Finished reading: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. A masterpiece. 📚
: New evidence of Rosalind Franklin’s role: “as an equal member of a quartet who solved …
: [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“830”] Early chapter …
: Oklahoma and Muswell Hill Here I’ve joined together two posts that I wrote a decade or so ago at The American …
: Last night when proofreading my newsletter, I saw that I had misnamed the founder of the Paragon …
: Is our society’s Overton window unresizeable?
: This week I did a one-topic newsletter, on Scott Joplin. I rarely do these – they don’t …
: an unresizeable window Does any society ever grow more tolerant? That is: Does acceptance of a position or a group hitherto …
: Finished reading: Looking for the Good War by Elizabeth D. Samet. This one was disappointing: too …
: Currently reading/listening: Glenn Gould - The Goldberg Variations - The Complete Unreleased …
: Currently reading: Looking for the Good War by Elizabeth D. Samet 📚
: Another Sherman Alexie comment: “Self-censorship among writers is a real and serious problem in this …
: Sherman Alexie’s comment that “the right wing are censorship vikings and the left wing …
: Finished reading: Reinventing Bach by Paul Elie. What an extraordinary book — so glad I decided to …
: I get why you need to chew it, but why do I have to hold it?
: Ezra Klein: “Do we want a world filled with A. I. systems that are designed to seem human in their …
: Dr. Bill Gardner: “MAID (Medical Assistance In Dying) is inexpensive, completely effective, …
: “The internet does not recognize the state of Montana, Wheeler explained."
: Spotify Gives 49 Different Names to the Same Song: “The biggest problem on the web today is …
: Here I argue that our Christianity-and-culture conversations are often fruitless because we don’t …
: Christianity and ... ? This essay by Brad East is very smart, and takes the Christianity-and-culture conversation usefully …
: Rory Smith is correct: many of soccer’s problems have easy fixes. Limit the use of VAR, quit …
: Angus likes to show me his kills.
: Didn’t really need another reason to avoid flying, but, sure, let’s have one more.
: “Mr Bergman, I’m ready for my close-up!”
: Apple weather: 100% chance of rain tonight. Carrot (using Accuweather): 0% chance of rain tonight.
: Currently reading: Reinventing Bach by Paul Elie. Read it and loved it when it came out a decade …
: Finished reading: Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard. It seems wrong somehow to say that this was merely …
: I rarely offer advice, but once I gave two items of writing advice, and another time I gave two …
: Currently reading: Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard 📚
: Irina Dumitrescu on the body’s memories, and the comparative ghostliness of digital …
: Something about to happen here.
: What @dave says about Mastodon has been my experience also. I look through Mastodon posts and think …
: Finished reading: Reporting World War II: The 75th Anniversary Edition: A Library of America Boxed …
: Reporting World War II This is the two-volume Library of America anthology of World War II journalism — reports sent back …
: Ross Douthat: “Can a movement for social justice be credible and capable if it’s intertwined …
: Currently listening: Clouds, by Adam Baldych, Vincent Courtois, & Rogier Telderman ♫
: Just a reminder: if a site has an RSS feed and you have an RSS reader, then nobody’s …
: How to read weather forecasts (data from any source) in central Texas: If your app says 100% chance …
: “I see you’re trying to read!”
: Re: this essay on scholars writing papers meant only to game the academic-metrics system: Sounds …
: unstacked Over the last few days I have received several emails from Substack telling me that I have new …
: Ted Gioia: “There’s an ominous recurring theme here: The very technologies we use to determine …
: By Jon Haidt et al., a fascinating overview of studies indicating what young people think about the …
: I wrote this morning about Tertullian, the early church, and the “spoils of victory”; I …
: Via my friend Sara Hendren, further evidence that while the big American universities despise the …
: the spoils of victory In his Apologeticus — written almost certainly in Carthage around 197 AD — Tertullian writes about …
: Giving your money to Harvard is like giving your money to Warren Buffett.
: Currently reading: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Revisiting in preparation for …
: Listening to Gustavo Dudamel, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra - Brahms: Symphony No. 4 ♫
: Finished reading: Charles Ives by Jan Swafford. A superb biography of one of the most peculiar …
: Gregory Nazianzus: “Yesterday I was crucified with Christ, today I am glorified with him; yesterday …
: Currently watching/listening: Netherlands Bach Society, Easter Oratorio ♫
: Our little boy is growing up.
: Currently listening: Arvo Pärt, Passio. A worthy companion and counterpart to Bach. ♫
: I follow several Twitter accounts via Feedbin, & often click through to twitter.com. Twitter …
: Currently listening: Bach, St. Matthew Passion ♫
: I wrote about Le Guin and Tolkien in what is also a Good Friday meditation.
: beyond daylight ethics In a 1975 essay called “The Child and the Shadow,” Ursula K. Le Guin wrote: In many fantasy tales of …
: Took me about two days of using a Mac with a Touch Bar to realize that I would go insane if I …
: Tim Larsen on Philip Jenkins’s new book on Psalm 91: “Sometimes called ‘the …
: Robin Sloan: “I have wanted to greeble something for a very, very long time. Maybe for my …
: Anne Trubek: “I no longer feel a need to prove anything through my choice of book to read. I …
: Listening to All Melody - Nils Frahm ♫
: One common problem with the computational photography of smartphones: it gets overwhelmed by bright …
: Heterodox Academy: “If scientific institutions continue to openly and preferentially support …
: My essay on Oliver Sacks and a “humanism of the abyss” is unpaywalled. I don’t …
: Me: the Oppenheimer Principle revisited.
: the Oppenheimer Principle revisited Eight years ago, I wrote about a dominant and pernicious ideology that features two components: …
: Molly White: “I … don’t think that a company that creates harmful technology should be …
: Damon Krukowski: “Two years ago this month, I disconnected my recording studio from the …
: “Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite spaces, …
: As my son says, Angus is like Michael Jordan: he never takes a play off. Relax for a moment and he …
: Currently reading: Charles Ives: A Life with Music by Jan Swafford 📚
: Finished reading: Murray Talks Music: Albert Murray on Jazz and Blues by Albert Murray. I read this …
: adjustments As many of my readers will know, I am continually fiddling around with my online presence, to such a …
: Listening to Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1 ♫
: Listening to Complete Mozart Piano Trios ♫
: Bernard of Clairvaux: “It is not necessary for you to cross the seas, nor to pierce the clouds, nor …
: Teens on screens: Life online for children and young adults revealed - Ofcom: This year also saw …
: Finished reading: The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula K. Le Guin. What a joy to revisit these glorious …
: Freddie deBoer: This is a very basic point, but I find that it’s consistently under-discussed: to …
: Our new baby dogwood is looking good.
: my proposed law “Any online platform and/or application that delivers content to users may deliver only content …
: libraries vs. publishers Dan Cohen: Libraries have dramatically increased their spending on e-books but still cannot come …
: beseball revisited Five years ago I wrote about giving up on baseball — after a lifetime of fandom. Should the new …
: Finished reading: Chalk: The Art and Erasure of Cy Twombly by Joshua Rivkin. Rivkin is very clear up …
: learning from Hume Last week I gave you David Hume’s Guide to Social Media; today I give you David Hume’s Guide to …
: Technoteachers Lorna Finlayson · Diary: Everyone Hates Marking: Students want – or think they want – more and …
: The Decline of Liberal Arts and Humanities - WSJ: The liberal arts are dead. The number of students …
: Daring Fireball: “When you sign up, Wavelength asks for your phone number. That’s just your …
: Forthcoming from my friend and colleague Philip Jenkins. A kind of intro or overview here. I’m …
: Currently reading: Chalk: The Art and Erasure of Cy Twombly by Joshua Rivkin 📚
: Fear of a Female Body - Jill Filipovic: I am increasingly convinced that there are tremendously …
: Zena Hitz: The traditional monastic rule against particular friendship is the great bogeyman of the …
: Retro Description of the first-year seminar I’ll be teaching in the fall. RETRO: How and Why the Past …
: Miniature Morning Soundscape From Laity Lodge Transcript
: A bluntly powerful essay by my friend and colleague Jonathan Tran: What began as a struggle of and …
: The Jellyfish Tribe - by Paul Kingsnorth: The growing loss of faith across the West in our …
: just purchased An excellent find, in excellent condition, and for eight bucks! Also a neat little window into …
: I get the security concerns that have prompted the move to passkeys, but the new strategy forces us …
: I’m still reading Reporting World War II: The 75th Anniversary Edition: A Library of America …
: humanism renewed I often see quoted a line by Carl Schmitt: The concept of humanity is an especially useful …
: Stanford Law School Dean Jenny S. Martinez: I want to set expectations clearly going forward: our …
: Currently reading: The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula K. Le Guin 📚
: Bison at Caprock Canyons State Park in the Texas panhandle, which I visited a couple of weeks ago. …
: the arbiters The impossible job: inside the world of Premier League referees: An excellent in-depth study. None …
: as it must to all men... When Charlie Watts died in August of 2021, I wrote: “This feels like a big one, and is certainly a …
: It would be very difficult to determine the Platonic ideal of a Steven Wright joke, but I think it …
: Heads up: the Bono & Edge Tiny Desk concert is just fantastic.
: Brewster Kahle, Internet Archive: The dream of the Internet was to democratize access to knowledge, …
: Finished reading: The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Sixth Edition by David Thomson. This too …
: Finished reading: Paul and the Faithfulness of God by N.T. Wright. Didn’t read it all, but …
: Angus has figured out how to get up onto our bed. Returning from the toilet this morning this is …
: slight return I’m back! — well, partially. Posting will be light for a while. But I certainly learned that for me …
: Oh, and you can’t trust Amazon with your newspapers and magazines either. If you want to own …
: The new issue of The Hedgehog Review is just extraordinary. I am especially taken by Malloy …
: Lionel Shriver: “I don’t always want my novels to be focused on the culture wars, but I have used …
: One of these things is not like the others
: James Bridle: “The lesson of the current wave of ‘artificial’ ‘intelligence’, I feel, is that …
: “A group of property developers have been ordered to rebuild a Grade II-listed pub that they …
: Mark Zuckerberg famously said that the Twitter founders drove a clown car into a gold mine. Now it …
: David Stromberg on Israel: “It is really an age-old question: When things turn dark in your country, …
: Here I am on David Hume’s Guide to Social Media.
: Here’s another one of my little experiments in sharing ideas: Paul Kingsworth recently …
: I think if I could use only one recording to demonstrate how good vinyl can be, it would be this …
: Currently reading: Reporting World War II: Library of America 📚
: “A Humanism of the Abyss” — my essay on the 50th anniversary of the publication of Oliver Sacks’ …
: Robin Sloan wants me to ask “What do I want from the internet, anyway?” I’ve been …
: Garden Path by Eric Ravilious (1934)
: Finished reading: The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary, One Vol. Edition by J.R.R. Tolkien. …
: The Guardians A vision on the high plains.
: Our friend David Hooker is an amazing artist, and we’re so excited about this fabulous new pot we …
: Over at my Buy Me a Coffee page, I explain the new ways I’ll be using micro.blog.
: David Thomson on Ingmar Bergman
: Currently reading: The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Sixth Edition by David Thomson. This is …
: Cal Newport: “The open office boom is right up there with the spread of Slack as representing the …
: Finished reading: Analogia: The Emergence of Technology Beyond Programmable Control by George Dyson. …
: I keep taking pictures of live oaks because they have such distinctive interior architectures …
: Every morning when I’m putting my shoes on. Every. Morning.
: hiatus Heads up, friends: I’ll be taking a break from this blog in order to work on several projects — some …
: I wrote for Echoes, the H.E. Butt Foundation’s magazine, about repairing to the canyon to be …
: Currently reading: Analogia: The Emergence of Technology Beyond Programmable Control by George Dyson …
: Finished reading: Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary by David Hume. The moral and literary …
: of bad book reviewers and writerly cults A book can go wrong in a nearly infinite number of ways, but a book review has a narrower range of …
: Dan Wang’s annual letter is always excellent, but this year’s edition may be the most fascinating …
: “Better to talk to people than communicate via tweet.” — Deep thoughts from Elon Musk
: Currently listening: Van Morrison, Veedon Fleece. What a masterpiece. ♫
: A Nighttime Walk with Garnette Cadogan: GC: Night walks are incredibly important. The city becomes …
: Currently reading: Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary by David Hume 📚
: Finished reading: The Virginian by Owen Wister. Not a good book, but a fascinating one – and …
: The Art of Computational Narrative - by Samuel Arbesman: Perhaps there are specific features of …
: The corruption of California - UnHerd: You, tender reader, might be scandalised by the ways of …
: Currently reading: The Virginian by Owen Wister 📚
: Finished reading: Resisting the Bonhoeffer Brand by Charles Marsh. A fascinating brief book (really …
: Angus is a “sable” Sheltie, which is to say he’s tan with white trim – but …
: Melody Moezzi: This brings me to the most embarrassing reason I stayed on social media for so long: …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: progressive I do believe in what Cardinal Newman called the “development of doctrine” — though not precisely in …
: same old song The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression: HB 999 [in Florida] would require faculty to …
: Currently reading: Resisting the Bonhoeffer Brand by Charles Marsh 📚
: Pile of straw! Best toy EVAR!
: Finished reading: Wild Thought: A New Translation of “La Pensée sauvage” by Claude Lévi-Strauss. …
: Currently listening: Julian Lage, View with a Room ♫
: Mary Harrington: Increasingly, wave after wave of young people reaches adulthood armed with …
: unstacked This afternoon, after I got some dreary-but-necessary work done, I took some time to browse through …
: One last photo from that foggy morning in northern New Mexico, chiefly because it has a bit of that …
: Yair Rosenberg: In 2013, Google shut down its celebrated RSS client, Google Reader, citing a decline …
: Currently reading: Wild Thought by Claude Lévi-Strauss 📚
: Finished reading: Wildwood by Roger Deakin 📚
: the sovereignty of mercy In his sixth-and-lastly LOTR post, Adam Roberts graciously responds to my recent attempts to correct …
: Claude Monet, The Thames below Westminster
: “What it will be Questioned When the Sun rises over Amarillo do you not see a series of metal pylons …
: North Lake, in the Sangre de Cristo mountains.
: The four pictures I posted today were all taken this morning in a bizarrely thick fog in …
: Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow Turns 50 - by Ted Gioia: Pynchon may still have many admirers, …
: Trying another photo just as a test.
: Another fun fact: Dalhart is closer to Cheyenne, Wyoming (and five other state capitals) than it is …
: If you did what I did today, drive from Waco to Dalhart, you would swear that the whole drive was …
: Afternoon sky over a gas station in Dalhart, Texas. Couldn’t do anything except grab a quick shot …
: See also one of my favorites among my own essays, “Filth Therapy.”
: I appreciate the respectful tone of this essay, but … I guess I am bemused by the widespread feeling …
: David Hockey, from A Rake’s Progress (1963)
: Dishonor Code: What Happens When Cheating Becomes the Norm?: Most professors, students said, grasp …
: This Arsenal side is playing some absolutely gorgeous football. What a delight to watch. ⚽️
: possibility Over at Plough, the tag is: Another life is possible. This ought to be a mantra for most of us. We …
: Culture as Metastasis - by Mary Harrington: All the way back in 1994, Baudrillard could see that …
: beyond creepiness One thought about that incredibly creepy Snapchat TV ad — so creepy that I’m not even going to link …
: Currently reading: Wildwood by Roger Deakin 📚
: Eduardo Galeano: In the morning, one of the prisoners who hadn’t yet lost track of the calendar …
: Here’s a beautiful meditation by Eleanor Parker on the Cross and the medieval poem “The Dream of the …
: unsimulated Re: this essay by Alexa Hazel — of course people think we’re in a computer simulation. We always …
: Finished reading: The Age of Eisenhower by William I Hitchcock 📚
: in brief If I were a journalist and given the task that Nathan Heller had, here’s the primary (though not the …
: Re: my buddy Austin’s recent post on indexing notebooks, for most of the last decade I have used …
: Currently reading: The Age of Eisenhower by William I Hitchcock 📚
: a better way I’ve often written in praise of RSS — see the tag — as a Better Way to read stuff online than any …
: For Chat-Based AI, We Are All Once Again Tech Companies’ Guinea Pigs - WSJ: Celeste Kidd, a …
: Finished reading: Bad Land: An American Romance by Jonathan Raban. What a superb book – and …
: Currently reading: Bad Land: An American Romance by Jonathan Raban 📚
: Charlie Stross: The thing I find most suspicious/fishy/smelly about the current hype surrounding …
: Finished reading: Dreams of El Dorado: A History of the American West by H. W. Brands. A brilliant …
: Currently reading: Dreams of El Dorado by H. W. Brands 📚
: Great, now I’m singing “If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal” to the tune of “If I …
: The Economist: Wilmore, Kentucky, is the kind of quaint town (population 6,027) you might drive …
: the evacuation of choice A. O. Scott’s reflection in the NYT on the video record of the horrific murder of Tyre Nichols …
: Was getting some work done when Angus discovered that he could climb up into my chair. This could …
: Kevin Williamson: Speaking about the prospect of “national divorce” on his radio program, Matt …
: Cal Newport: Imagine if the Supreme Court threw caution to the wind and radically rolled back …
: Finished reading: The Earliest English Poems by Michael J. Alexander 📚
: Bishop George Sumner: The See of Canterbury combines, impossibly, leadership of the Church of …
: Three Temptations, and Three Triumphs | Philip Jenkins: Psalm 91 was very famous and well-used, and …
: The Castelbarco Tomb, Verona, by John Wharlton Bunney
: Currently reading: The Earliest English Poems edited by Michael J. Alexander 📚
: books as toys C. S. Lewis, letter to Arthur Greaves, 1932: To enjoy a book like [Froissart’s Chronicles] …
: plain speaking Letter to Eric Fenn of the BBC: Magdalen College, Oxford. 7th May 1943. My dear Fenn, Sorry again. …
: Re: this explicit deepening of Pope Francis’s hostility to trad Catholics, let me call attention to …
: Grayson Perry, detail from Print for a Politician (click to see larger image)
: the classics are all right Re: the recent kerfuffle over the vandalism of Roald Dahl’s books, Walter Kirn tweeted “I ran into …
: his harshest critic I recently re-read Ruskin’s The Seven Lamps of Architecture, in the third edition of 1880. Ruskin …
: Currently reading: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien 📚 (I’ve heard good things, but …
: John Ruskin, Study of the Marble Inlaying on the Front of the Casa Loredan, Venice
: Albert Murray and me From my new essay for Comment on Albert Murray’s “blues idiom”: For white North American Christians …
: Claude Monet, The Museum at Le Havre
: Finished reading: The Seven Lamps of Architecture by John Ruskin. Back to it for the first time in …
: Twits It’s been widely reported that the U.K. children’s book publisher Puffin is producing a new edition …
: Currently reading: The Seven Lamps of Architecture by John Ruskin 📚
: Inside the Bro-tastic Short-Term Rentals Upending an Austin Community: Almost anywhere you find …
: Nick Catoggio: Dominion might win its suit notwithstanding the general truth of what Kevin …
: I want this (forthcoming) book just for its cover. Or the cover as a poster.
: Cory Doctorow: “In its nearly 25-year history, Google has made one and a half successful products: a …
: question and answer Question: How bad would the whole AI/search/chat situation have to get — how much real-world harm …
: strings and bows Making the Sausage - Freddie deBoer: That said, I feel that the only value proposition I really …
: Finished reading: The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis. Delightful to come back to this and read it …
: Continuing the recent reflections on fantasy, it me: Like many other fantasy writers, [Hope] …
: tradeoffs David Sax, from The Future Is Analog: “The ideas that come to our mind are around curiosity, …
: Currently reading: The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis 📚
: Costică Brădăţan: As she pondered and internalized the meanings of slavery, affliction, and …
: When it gets something wrong, Bing Chat begins by getting touchily defensive and then escalates to …
: From the Wilton Diptych (National Gallery)
: self-sacrifice and despair Adam Roberts: And in the middle (round about the two-thirds point, actually) there is the odd, …
: Terry Eagleton: For a slim volume, [Peter Brooks’s] Seduced by Story covers an impressive array of …
: Finished reading: Once and Forever by Kenji Miyazawa — a marvelous book of marvelous tales. 📚
: In which the fell beast contemplates the sunrise.
: Finished reading: The Annotated Hobbit by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien 📚
: Currently reading: The Annotated Hobbit by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien 📚
: Finished reading: William Blake vs the World by John Higgs 📚
: 'Satan viewing the Ascent to Heaven' from The Paradise Lost of John Milton with illustrations by …
: Paul Ford: "The real reason Twitter lies in ruins is because it was an abomination before God. It …
: Who among us hasn’t met ChadGPT?
: Culling my RSS feeds this afternoon, I was both saddened and annoyed to see how many museums that …
: Blake domesticated John Higgs’s William Blake vs the World is a real disappointment. Higgs writes vividly and is a fine …
: Currently reading: William Blake vs the World by John Higgs 📚
: Paul Kingsnorth: Everybody is talking these days about the decline of the West, and with good …
: Finished reading: Winters in the World by Eleanor Parker. What an absolutely marvelous, wondrous …
: Finished reading: Essayism: On Form, Feeling, and Nonfiction by Brian Dillon 📚
: Currently reading: Winters in the World by Eleanor Parker 📚
: Finished reading: The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe – for the first time in forty …
: Finished reading: Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees 📚
: Finished reading: The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany 📚
: Finished reading: Phantastes by George MacDonald 📚
: Finished reading: The Sense of an Ending by Frank Kermode (good to return to this masterpiece of …
: Finished reading: For Keeps by Pauline Kael 📚
: To date I have been recording what I’m reading but not when I finish a book. But doing the …
: Just posted a State of My Mind Address to my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.
: frictionless ignorance Andy Baio: Google used to take pride in minimizing time we spent there, guiding us to relevant …
: Ted Gioia’s State of the Culture 2023 “speech” is a feast of provocations.
: Robert Joustra: I think the importance of [Katelyn Beaty’s Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, …
: Operation Diogenes I don’t usually think much about things I have already published, but I have continued to meditate …
: Franciska Coleman: In this paper, I undertake a qualitative exploration of how social regulation of …
: Currently reading: Paul and the Faithfulness of God by N.T. Wright 📚
: My friends Jeremy Botts and Richard Gibson teach a course called Technotexts, and have an exhibition …
: Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor: The philosopher Harry Frankfurt defined bullshit as speech that …
: Kevin Williamson: The point of keeping Trump administration veterans out of positions of public …
: be your own algorithm Damon Krukowski: “I know it can be difficult, with so much choice, to figure out what to focus on. …
: Currently reading: The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe 📚
: FWIW I’m not watching The Last of Us because (a) I don’t have and don’t want HBO, (b) I think all the …
: Wesley Hill: It could be that what we have in Esther isn’t just a theology of divine providence and …
: From my dear friend John Wilson: Ever since I “discovered” book reviews, when I was in high school, …
: Talia Barnes: I traded my smartphone for a dumbphone to simplify my life. Then I revived my iPod. …
: New edition of the newletter, with a movie title sequence, Italian advertising, and Bob Dylan, among …
: From James Agee’s obituary for H. G. Wells in Time (Aug. 26, 1946): It was H. G. Wells's tragedy …
: “I’ve had Holy Communion and four doughnuts, so this has been a great day” – …
: doin thangs I haven’t written much over the years about what people call “productivity,” partly because I don’t …
: When I’m nervous and stressed, few things are as calming to me as fiddling around with the …
: GIGO Freddie deBoer: Elite American colleges are already more racially diverse than the country writ …
: Currently reading: Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars by Francesca Wade 📚
: “The Teleprinter,” Eric Ravilious (1941)
: Currently reading: Once and Forever by Kenji Miyazawa 📚
: I mean, it’s what happened to Eustace Scrubb, so it ought to be a word.
: Lebenswelt Adam Roberts (yes, again): My problem is not that [Miles Cameron’s Against All Gods] gets this or …
: Jahan Ganesh: The controversies of the day expose a problem with the right and it isn’t corruption. …
: inertia Peter Gray: In the late 19th and early 20th century, many people became concerned about the ill …
: weapons and separations Adam Roberts: But the thing that struck me is the way Gandalf comes back invulnerable. The last we …
: more, please Ah, here it is: the musical equivalent of ChatGPT. Cool. I want to see more of this. I’ve written …
: The Media Very Rarely Lies - by Scott Alexander: Suppose Infowars claimed that police shootings in …
: schooled In his brilliant book J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, Tom Shippey spends a good deal of …
: He’s been like this for 30 minutes. I don’t think I’ve ever been that comfortable.
: Tony Cearns explains how he made this photograph.
: I’m not crazy about David French’s going to the NYT, because I think we need more excellent writers …
: Currently reading: Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees 📚
: Hooded intruder thwarted by fierce household defender.
: Another pro tip: While you’re waiting a week for the limoncello to brew, add the juice from …
: Pro tip: when life hands you Meyer lemons, make limoncello.
: the end of the timeline era Glenn Fleishman: With Mastodon, you’re not dealing with a giant, faceless company — or a constantly …
: note to self Repair begins with redirection. Commencing the repair of our cultural ecosphere by shifting …
: Dunsany's games In the class I’m currently teaching on fantasy, we are moving from George MacDonald’s Phantastes to …
: focal practices for pilgrim people: intervals In one sense the question I posed in an earlier post — What are the proper focal practices for a …
: Currently reading: Standing by Words by Wendell Berry 📚
: My buddy Rob Miner bought this for me in Amsterdam – and it sounds great. But I’m …
: burn after reading Dear colleagues, I must congratulate you all on what is, so far, a perfect execution of our Plan. …
: Re: yesterday’s cover art, How to Think has now been translated into: Arabic Chinese (PRC) Chinese …
: reflections Phantastes is all about doubling: reflections in mirrors, a cave of making juxtaposed to a grotto of …
: R. I. P. Lin Brehmer I’m a Texas guy now and proud of it, but Chicago is deep in my heart and always will be — and an …
: There’s a lot of this. Also, Angus is committed to (a) peeing outside and (b) pooping inside.
: Cover for the forthcoming Arabic translation of How to Think.
: Currently reading: The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany 📚
: enshittification The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok | Cory Doctorow: Here is how platforms die: First, they are good …
: the buffered self in Fairy Land A number of years ago I wrote an essay called “Fantasy and the Buffered Self” in which I applied …
: Currently reading: Essayism: On Form, Feeling, and Nonfiction by Brian Dillon 📚
: moderation in consistency: fantasy edition Adam Roberts: I have, I think, a rough model of the broader discursive-etymology of Middle …
: Drives me slightly nuts when I am one letter away from an enormous word.
: I said to Angus this morning, “Certain elements of your behavior are irreconcilable with …
: the post-literate academy and this blog The Post-Literate Academy - by Mary Harrington: When it’s so difficult to imagine the academy as we …
: two views of Iain McGilchrist Andrew Louth: Although McGilchrist is clearly arguing a case (a case that he feels needs to be …
: Currently reading (in one of my most treasured volumes): Mont Saint Michel and Chartres by Henry …
: Kierkegaard, from his Journals: Christianly the emphasis does not fall so much upon to what extent …
: Matthew Loftus: The option to kill always punishes the most vulnerable. Those who are wealthy and …
: It’s good to be back on campus.
: Currently reading: Phantastes by George MacDonald 📚
: Pro tip: When you’re trying to get a portrait shot, it’s important that the subject …
: trouble I’ve got a few posts queued up, but I am expecting serious disruption in service next week — like, a …
: comping Brad Mehldau: I began to learn that instrumentalists and singers often didn’t want or need … …
: … but he’s getting quite comfortable already.
: Angus was a little nervous for the first few minutes here…
: the ed-tech business model NYT: The misuse of A.I. tools will most likely not end, so some professors and universities said …
: Joel Coen: As writers … long-form was never something we could get our heads around. It’s a …
: Giorgio Agamben, Idea of Prose: Study, in effect, is per se interminable. Those who are acquainted …
: peeved This should not annoy me as much as it does, but … here’s a sentence that I see sometimes in books …
: SO cool to see this from my friend (and former colleague) Shawn Okpebholo!
: Richard Hanania: I don’t like inconveniencing others, and for many parents the possibility that one …
: Just posted an update for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.
: Ross Douthat: Liberalism cannot easily renew itself, because despite what certain of its detractors …
: the Christian and the hearth In traditional Roman culture, the focus, the hearth, is all about holding the family together: the …
: Richard Gunderman: Thanks to [Lillian] Gilbreth, workers would be treated not as cogs in a machine, …
: John Warner: Many are wailing that this technology spells “the end of high school English,” meaning …
: Jesus 5: Parabolic On insiders and outsiders.
: Currently reading: The Secret Gospel of Mark by Geoffrey S. Smith and Brent C. Landau 📚
: Currently listening: Emerson Quartet, Bach: The Art of Fugue ♫
: one more word on Kael That’s my copy of Pauline Kael's For Keeps, the enormous collection of the essays on and reviews of …
: I’m 100% with MKBHD on this – or rather, even more critical than he is. I’m taking …
: truth “Oh, it's so hard to be good under the capitalistic system.” — Genevieve Larkin (Glenda Farrell) in …
: For years I’ve been determined to decline invitations in this way, but I always chicken out.
: greatness in film The 2022 Sight and Sound critics’ poll of the greatest films of all time featured a surprising …
: one of the classic blunders A while back I quoted Amna Khalid’s thoughtful response to the Hamline University kerfuffle; now we …
: Currently reading: The Sense of an Ending by Frank Kermode 📚
: Maybe one day I’ll get tired of taking pictures of trees, but not this day.
: Escaping the Malthusian Trap: What an amazing graph-in-motion by Kieran Healy. Malthus believed that …
: projects and methods Perhaps because I write different sorts of books, one of the most important writerly skills I have …
: Finished reading: Why We Drive by Matthew B. Crawford. Fascinating book — I’ll probably blog about …
: Currently reading: Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life by Albert Borgmann 📚
: Hmmm, maybe, given current trends, I should put this little baby up for sale on eBay.
: Italo Calvino: I belong to that portion of humanity—a minority on the planetary scale but a …
: Here’s a wonderful post by Ian Paul on the Epiphany story — what Matthew and Luke have in common and …
: Honestly, I’m glad about this. The team’s behavior was disgraceful — and it starts with the manager. …
: Currently reading: For Keeps by Pauline Kael 📚
: why Kael matters Of all the great movie critics, present and past, I suppose the one whose judgments about particular …
: Damon Krukowski: We are in a far worse situation than we were in 1991. Thurston’s part-jokey, …
: pre-empted About a month ago I started drafting an essay about how Richard Rorty both predicted the rise of …
: [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“2400”] Owens Salvage, …
: Cassiodorus College For a few years, starting around a decade ago, I blogged at The American Conservative. Sometime in …
: Some of the trees around here started turning in November, others in December, and a few are turning …
: Jesus 4: Eyewitnesses Stepping back for a bit of semi-scholarly context. It won’t happen again, I promise.
: Senator Ben Sasse says that the real divide in America is between Pluralists and Zealots; I made the …
: Interesting crop of works and makers entering the public domain this year.
: the home's sacred fire In this book, Ralph Cudworth makes the following fascinating argument: Now the Tabernacle or Temple …
: Dominic Sandbrook: There’s no way our podcast, presented by two white Oxbridge-educated middle-aged …
: When did this practice of writing accusatory and dictatorial headlines begin? It’s universal now. It …
: The Year of Focal Practices I declared 2021 the Year of Hypomone and 2022 the Year of Repair. I have not ceased to need hypomone …
: Currently reading: Why We Drive by Matthew Crawford 📚
: My kind of year-end list: the 10 best films of … 1932.
: Just give me one import from Latin
: Nearly eight hundred people attended the Christmas Eve services at my church, St. Alban’s Waco …
: There’s no current soccer player I dislike as much as Cristiano Ronaldo, but if he had gone to …
: “Standards-based interoperability makes a comeback, sort of” – The best brief overview I’ve seen of …
: removals: a few year-endish thoughts One: I don’t do year-end lists, and I typically don’t read those of others. (Those of you who write …
: at the movies The “movies” tag at the bottom of this post will point you to what I’ve written about that artform …
: Amna Khalid: But most of all, I am offended as a Muslim. In choosing to label this image of Muhammad …
: casting about I recently re-read Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer and experienced an epiphany: the perfect Aunt Emily …
: illusions and their removal In The Point of View of My Work as an Author Kierkegaard explains why he writes sometimes under his …
: Ted Gioia: “This is James Daunt’s super power: He loves books.”
: This NYT essay on Rudy Van Gelder’s famous recording studio is fine, but the photos are great.
: reading Pynchon Some years ago I tried to write a book that I called Anthropocene Theology … well, actually, I did …
: Nick Cave: Grief can be seen as a kind of exalted state where the person who is grieving is the …
: Currently reading: A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Books by Charles Dickens [specifically The …
: movie cards When preparing to shoot a scene, the film director Alejandro Iñárritu prepares note cards to help …
: markets and economies David L. Bahnsen: [Rusty] Reno’s ongoing mistakes are derived from his first mistake — the …
: Where loues are Christmast, with all pleasures sorts
: How Would You Prove That God Performed a Miracle?: J. Ayodeji Adewuya is a professor of New …
: Christmas Eve lunch with my dear ones. ❤️
: the friendliness of objects Roger Scruton: Repair [at an earlier stage of our culture] was not so much a habit as an honoured …
: Jesus 3: A Poem For Christmas Eve “A Christmas Hymn,” by Richard Wilbur
: Ross Douthat’s Advent-themed newsletter quotes Auden and, um, me – so you know …
: I’d like a version of Spelling Bee in which the only acceptable words are proper names from …
: Katherine Rundell: The difficulty of Donne's work had in it a stark moral imperative: pay …
: Tim Carmody: What happens when engineers stop thinking of their interests as fundamentally aligned …
: Matt Crawford: There appears to be a circle of mutual support between political correctness, …
: Currently reading: Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov 📚
: Jesus 2: An Advent Poem “The Coming,” by R. S. Thomas
: what a loss We just watched To Be or Not To Be for the first time in a while. What an extraordinary movie; I …
: Latewood | A Working Library: In the spring, when the weather is (hopefully) warm and wet, a tree …
: beyond persuasion art, not argument | sara hendren: I have thus far assembled a body of work that lists between the …
: two kinds of work Almost forty years ago now, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote to a New York Times reporter to respond to …
: I’ve got some advice for people who might consider moving from Twitter to micro.blog — with links to …
: Currently reading: Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell 📚
: the age of taipa I don’t want to ask whether pop music is worse than it used to me, because that’s an unanswerable …
: It’s a good time to remember Hilaire Belloc’s Christmas card.
: No Other Options — The New Atlantis: One of the greatest reasons for concern is the sheer scale of …
: This is Angus. He’ll be joining our family in a couple of weeks. We’re chuffed.
: I think the puzzlemakers exclude some words simply because they’re too big.
: I just posted an update for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.
: I’m a little nervous about starting this microcast series on Jesus, because I’m not good …
: Jesus 1: I Think I’m a Principal The first in a series of brief audio meditations on Jesus.
: I’ll believe in AI when I can say, “Hey Siri, please hide from me all references to AI. Also every …
: defining immortality down Digital Eternity Is Just Around the Corner: As these technologies develop and become more …
: Current listening: Yo La Tengo, Fakebook ♫ (a grossly underrated record)
: If your Christmas season doesn’t include a viewing of The Shop Around the Corner, it really …
: ‘Luddite’ Teens Don’t Want Your Likes - The New York Times: For the first time, she experienced …
: This has some useful reflections on the (often unfortunate) powers of literary executors — a subject …
: Elizabeth D. Samet, in an interview: World War II gave us a way to look at the world as an …
: Space debris expert: Orbits will be lost—and people will die—later this decade | Ars Technica: Ars: …
: Pelé Brian Phillips’s new podcast episode on Pelé reminds me that, back in the day, when I was …
: Currently reading: The Moviegoer by Walker Percy 📚
: attention and reading In response to my post on my readerly annotations, my friend Adam Roberts writes: I buy a lot of …
: defilement redux What the Hell Happened to PayPal?: Increasingly, it is becoming a police officer. It is deciding …
: my skillz So I just re-read Lewis Hyde’s Trickster Makes This World — a book I read not long after it came …
: Currently reading: Death Be Not Proud by David Marno 📚
: why liberals should read smart conservatives Liberals should read smart conservatives not because they need to be convinced by conservative …
: Currently reading: Henry James: Collected Stories Volume 2 (Everyman’s Library) by Henry James …
: leopards Fifty or sixty years ago, one of the most common genres of nonfiction book in this country concerned …
: Ezra Klein: “A town square controlled by one man isn’t a town square. It’s a storefront, an art …
: Lovely choral Evensong this evening at St. Alban’s. “Lighten our darkness, we beseech …
: May I never be called a rantipole.
: Catastrophic tactical error by Southgate: After an Arsenal legend scored for France, he brought off …
: NYT: “As weird as the story [Pinocchio] is, it’s been made all the stranger by the decision to turn …
: Leo Strauss and the Closed Society by Matthew Rose | Articles | First Things: Strauss was not the …
: The Struggle To Be Human - by Ian Leslie - The Ruffian: Whether it’s music, movies or politics, we …
: The link in the previous post goes to a current Penguin edition, but I’m reading the copy I bought …
: Currently reading: In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin 📚
: In my experience — and I do have some experience with this phenomenon — when a journalistic outlet …
: Whaddya mean that’s not a word? It’s my gamer handle!
: DHH argues that European nations should pursue digital sovereignty. I think this is right. So far …
: common ground and its enemies From the More in Common report on the History Wars: [M]ore than twice as many Democrats agree that …
: Olivia Snow: I’ve already been lectured about the dangers of how using [Lensa] implicates us in …
: imagined railways Matt Yglesias thinks that Amtrak should focus all of its efforts on bringing high-speed rail to the …
: the blog as a seasoned technology For several years now I’ve been writing about the distinctive virtues of blogging, which has become, …
: An appropriate day to remember one of Waco’s greatest heroes.
: Trying out the new global shortcut for microposting in MarsEdit 5 – looks like it works …
: oh, okay, one more post On these matters. This from Roald Dahl’s story “The Great Automatic Grammatizator” (1952): “That’s …
: An anti-slavery medallion by Josiah Wedgwood But: Wedgwood seems to have thrown himself behind the …
: a year of new avenues A year of new avenues: a fantastic post by Robin Sloan, just fizzing with ideas. Here are the ones …
: Currently listening: Van Morrison, Veedon Fleece (one of my favorite records for more than forty …
: In Douglas Rushkoff’s new book, he acknowledges that he was wrong to say, as he was perhaps the …
: When I read crypto-bro stories like this one I always think of Yeats: “The rhetorician would deceive …
: Currently listening: Charles Mingus, Blues and Roots ♫
: Leon Shamroy, writing in American Cinematographer in 1947: Not too far off is the "electronic …
: Currently listening: Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book ♫
: Currently reading: Trickster Makes This World by Lewis Hyde 📚
: This post by Victor Mair on the staggering variation in translations of the Daodejing points to …
: and then? Illustration by my buddy Austin Kleon As I mentioned in earlier posts, Noah Smith wants to …
: Megan McArdle, arguing that trying to use social media’s moderators to crack down on misinformation …
: A game of unforced and amateurish errors by 🇺🇸 ⚽️ — oh well.
: Where’s Brian McBride when you need him? 🇺🇸 ⚽️
: A wonderful idea from Zeynep Tufekci: donate to Partners In Health in memory of the great Paul …
: Much talk in the past 24 hours about Luis Suarez’s deliberate handball against Ghana in the 2010 …
: Foggy morning in the canyon.
: A wonderful list of books for Christmas presents by my friend John Wilson, the most imaginatively …
: two quotations on slow reading The Guardian: But there is power in reading slowly, something the Chinese-American author Yiyun Li …
: I like my job Derek Thompson: “These language models enable the automation of certain tasks that we’ve …
: two quotations on reading books “My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer, and I have my mind…and a mind needs …
: Laity looking especially lovely on this cloudy autumnal day.
: Gruber: “Mastodon is — deservedly! — getting a lot of attention as people re-evaluate their use of …
: words: bashed Noah Smith and “roon”: It’s important to realize exactly why the innovations of the past didn’t …
: ripeness For some reason I haven’t thought about this passage in years, though it is one of the most glorious …
: Finished reading: Stealing for the Sky, by Adam Roberts. A terrific brief SF thriller — fast-paced, …
: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie comes out fighting for freedom of speech: We are all familiar with stories …
: Tyler Adams’s response yesterday to a confrontational Iranian journalist was remarkably impressive. …
: political football Brian Phillips: It seems safe to say that beneath this admiration, there is still, for many …
: I am thrilled to have been so wrong about this USMNT side. What I didn’t expect: their defensive …
: comparative study of real and fictional corbies Carol Rumens: There’s a human narrator, but s/he bows out after three lines. Of the two crows, one …
: It's very hard not to laugh at this: Twitter-addicted journalists decamping for Mastodon only to …
: Real Presence in Sex and Sacrament Jessica Martin: I am not sure that we meant to place the holy eucharist inside the temple to the …
: Currently reading: Murray Talks Music: Albert Murray on Jazz and Blues by Albert Murray 📚
: medical discourse A follow-up on one element of this post: It would be uncharitable and just plain wrong to conclude …
: lies, yours and mine Staying for the Truth | The Hedgehog Review: Bacon … thinks it is good, very good indeed, to be …
: Currently reading: Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie as told to Albert Murray 📚
: hiding your hand I don't know who Noah Kulwin is — someone, I don’t remember whom, linked to this post, which among …
: Barney Ronay: Qatar is not, when you look more widely, some kind of rogue state peopled by a …
: Sam Harris on Whether Religion Really Does Make Everything Worse: Sam Harris: The God of Abraham is …
: I fervently hope that when I’m gone people will say “He was a right rumptydooler, he was.”
: Sun’s out after a few days of (very welcome) rain.
: What We Owe Our Fellow Animals | Martha C. Nussbaum | The New York Review of Books: Behind these …
: Listening to: Bill Frisell, Four ♫
: Final analysis: same as halftime. A solid performance by the USMNT: they were composed and competent …
: Halftime analysis: USMNT dominating in midfield, but has no finishing. ⚽️
: I’m sticking with my prediction, but it would be the most USMNT thing ever to beat England and …
: Even if you hate soccer, listen to the first few minutes of this podcast to discover how my friend …
: My prediction for USA-Wales was 0-0; it finished 1-1. My prediction for today’s match: England 3-1 …
: I hand-write a lot, but I don’t boost it much these days because I’ve come to realize …
: ark head Venkatesh Rao: One mental model for this condition is what I call ark head, as in Noah’s Ark. We’ve …
: Finished reading: Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray: What a …
: Another book to read: Gal Beckerman, too, is interested in political talk. His new book, The Quiet …
: Rules: A short study of what we live by by Lorraine Daston | Book review: All history is, it would …
: A German map of the Valley of the Kings, from the Bodleian Map Room Blog.
: the media ecology of college writing Richard Gibson: Practically speaking, GPT-3 and the like demand that educators reconsider the …
: China wants to change, or break, a world order set by others | The Economist: Nor does Mr Xi accept …
: Michelle Nijhuis: Speakers of Luganda, the most common indigenous language in Uganda, don’t have a …
: I have several pairs of headphones, of varying quality, but FWIW, these are the ones I always reach …
: a change of attention After the killing of George Floyd, my first response — after sympathy for poor Floyd, I hope — was …
: Currently listening: Music for Saxofone & Bass Guitar: More Songs by Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes …
: I just love this post by Imani Perry about how excited her sons were when she won the National Book …
: Definitions: An accurate definition of “influencer” is: a virtuoso of a particular …
: A good overview of the value of deep reading.
: From a lovely profile of Will Arbery by Chloé Cooper Jones: One of the first stories Arbery ever …
: Currently reading: Albert Murray: Collected Essays & Memoirs by Albert Murray 📚
: low anthropology In my new essay on anarchism, I describe myself as “a person with an exceptionally low anthropology” …
: Nothing like listening to the Welsh sing their anthem. 🏴
: I’ve been predicting U.S. 0-0 Wales, but the power of Weston McKennie’s hair is (against …
: After seeing that shambolic defending by Iran, I might have to reconsider my prediction that the …
: Matthew Loftus: The Church universal also has a set of overlapping responsibilities, but how these …
: Barney Ronay: It feels like a theme park. There’s always been this ridiculous corporate circus, but …
: subsidiarity Dale Ahlquist: While the Distributist movement gained a much larger following than most historians …
: Currently reading: Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray 📚
: Charles Spurgeon: “I do not know that the prodigal saw his father, but his father saw him. The …
: Interview with Yiyun Li: Just as you were starting Tolstoy Together, you wrote in The New York …
: Ayana Mathis: When I first conceived of this essay, I imagined it would be purely literary. Then, …
: As an endlessly corrupt World Cup begins, the American college-sports-industrial complex says, “Hold …
: Ralph Ellison in his Harlem apartment, 1986
: Mastodonic thoughts After a brief period on Mastodon: It’s exactly like Twitter. People have taken all their Twitter …
: Corner Club Cathedral Cocoon, by Sasha Frere-Jones: I developed a new way of thinking about how we …
: “Not in word list.” Sigh. It’s not that esoteric a word!
: Twitter right now is mainly about Twitter but also a little about Mastodon. And Mastodon is mainly …
: peaceableness It is noteworthy, and not in a good way, that an essay by Wendell Berry called “Peaceableness Toward …
: Currently reading: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison 📚 (Decided to save Solzhenitsyn for later)
: a right bollocking Well, this is surely Adam's best post title ever, but the post is really fascinating also. A key …
: capitaltruism Effective altruism is an admirable movement, and I hope it spreads. But one of my chief concerns …
: My prediction for Group B in the World Cup ⚽️: 🏴 🏴 🇮🇷 🇺🇸 I mean this. I think the …
: I would watch any NBA game called by Doris Burke (play-by play) and 89-year-old Hubie Brown …
: A student just wrote to ask me about an independent study, and my reply to him called it an …
: Just had the loudest, longest episode of SpaceX thunder ever. Every window in the house rattling for …
: Welp, I’m going in. If you don’t hear from me in a month, call the FBI, or a priest. 📚
: sprawling along the way: a polemic and an exhortation In for a penny, in for a pounding, I always say. I really don’t want to talk about the whole “three …
: showing You'll probably not be shocked to learn that I agree with Adam about this. My agreement is on three …
: Corvo I picked up The Quest for Corvo by A. J. A. Symons secure in the knowledge that I had read it …
: Wendell Berry: There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.
: Finished reading: The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne. Somewhat disappointing; …
: two essays My Harper’s essay on (not?) becoming an anarchist is now online – though paywalled. But why not …
: Currently reading: The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne 📚
: Ronald Blythe, age 100 Rowan Williams on Ronald Blythe at 100: “He’s somebody who is very committed to the Christian …
: a proposal Jonathan Spence, in The Gate of Heavenly Peace, relates that the great Chinese reformer Kang Youwei, …
: Currently reading: Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray by Ralph …
: rethinking work Cal Newport: The battle for telecommuting is a proxy for a deeper unrest. If employees lose remote …
: Ian Bogost: If Twitter does fail, either because its revenue collapses or because the massive debt …
: master to master That’s the very early electric guitar associated with the great Charlie Christian, who died, …
: John Banville: The English language is beautiful. It’s immensely rich and untidy with so many …
: Don’t know why that book info has the author’s name in Russian, but it looks cool so I decided to …
: Currently reading: The Complete Short Novels by Антон Павлович Чехов 📚
: Thomas Harrison: Musil was not the only writer of his time to think of the essay as the method and …
: You Can Forget About Crypto Now: “Imagine your debit card suddenly stopped working because the …
: This Adam Neely video on the ways that intellectual property law is simply unsuited to music is just …
: Currently reading: The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography by A.J.A. Symons 📚
: Prediction: By this time in 2024, Elon will have sold Twitter to people who will pledge to return it …
: The most amazing part of this story is the teacher who says that he used to keep his smartphone on …
: negative worlds all the way down Here's something people have been asking me to weigh in on for quite a while, but I’ve been putting …
: On ne peut jamais quitter les Romains.
: And now, perhaps, time to reward myself with a little light reading?
: Just sent off my critical edition of Auden’s The Shield of Achilles to my editors at Princeton …
: stats Just a quick reminder that the use of statistics to mislead is a never-ending thing: The Guardian, …
: Pevearsion Recently I had cause to remember Gary Saul Morson’s devastating critique of the Pevear/Volokhonsky …
: Finished reading: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Just as I had remembered it: brilliant and …
: Home invasion: For those of us who have been using Mastodon for a while (I started my own Mastodon …
: End-Times Tales Venkatesh Rao — End-Times Tales: We are drowning in a sea of reboots, reruns, and recycled stories …
: From a really helpful essay by my colleague David Corey: Some people I know worry that genuine …
: excerpts from my Sent folder: angels This is from an email conversation with my friend Adam Roberts about a recent post of his. N.B.: …
: Currently reading: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 📚
: Very alien-invasion vibe to the pre-dawn walk in the fog.
: a parable Almost all of Tolstoy’s early stories were published by a journal called The Contemporary. Some of …
: being Russian A. N. Wilson, from his biography of Tolstoy (1988): Being Russian, unless you are preternaturally …
: scale again Monday November 7 2022 - by Sasha Frere-Jones: Scale serves wealth. “Scale” is a polite way of …
: audiences The Struggle With The Audience: By 2020, [Sam] Carter was a battle-hardened veteran of the music …
: Currently reading: Tolstoy: A Russian Life by Rosamund Bartlett 📚
: the foundering of the therapeutic A therapeutic church is an atheist church — Brad East: The more … a congregation becomes …
: Life at the 30th Street Studio of Columbia Records, 1955: Glenn Gould in the morning, Rosemary …
: Glenn Gould’s 1955 recording of the Goldberg Variatoons was so popular that he took the Goldbergs on …
: Yet another reason to love Texas.
: eyeballs Since so many journalists spend most of their time on Twitter, it’s unsurprising to hear the more …
: I keep trying to do the Todd Hido thing but it’s a lot harder than it looks.
: maybe this is the least important election of my lifetime Jonah Goldberg: “You want to know what I think will happen if Republicans have a really good night …
: Struggles to deal with being in the shadow of his more famous brother Bub.
: So our magnificent local Balcones Distillery has been purchased by a behemoth corporation. When a …
: Lev Tolstoy, born in 1828, had a daughter who lived until 1979.
: Currently reading: Interaction of Color: 50th Anniversary Edition by Josef Albers 📚
: the tongues of men and angels Milton, Angels, Mortals: a Story Idea | by Adam Roberts: This will be a very busy day, so I don’t …
: So much fantastic stuff in Sara Hendren’s new newsletter!
: summing up 1943 The following is the text of a talk I was supposed to give three years ago and didn’t because my …
: Current comparative listening: Pet Sounds and Revolver. I’m surprised at how strongly I feel …
: Hey folks: I want to auto-link my WordPress posts to micro.blog – not cross-post, but just …
: I’m sure you’re having a rough day, but consider this: You’re not spending it trying to read Auden’s …
: Ross Douthat: One of the master keys to understanding our era is seeing all the ways in which …
: Sermon for All Souls by Jessica Martin Sermon for All Souls, 2 November 2022 Ely Cathedral, 7.30 pm Canon Jessica Martin NT: 1 Peter 1.3–9 …
: Last night at our local pizzeria, Moroso. So, so delicious.
: refugees from human nature Matthew Loftus: Our communities and households must be active in reaching out to those whose lack …
: Why Ted Gioia thinks that victory, for artists, is assured.
: I’m doing a bit of blogging again, and about weird scholarly stuff – perhaps a sign that …
: Vulcanology Here’s a little offshoot of my work on Auden’s The Shield of Achilles. This painting by Piero di …
: so let's chill Noah Smith: So, Elon Musk bought Twitter. Personally, I’m pretty sanguine about this development. …
: Re: my recent post on antisemitism, this from @lmullen and crew is exciting.
: Currently listening: The Campfire Headphase - Boards of Canada 🎵
: Re: Kyrie Irving, Ye, and others, this remains permanently relevant. Antisemitism is a pathological …
: If I were at the Emirates I’d teach people a song for Tomiyasu: It would be “Tomi Gunner,” to the …
: Derek Thompson’s take on baseball is similar to mine from a few years back, but he adds a …
: Dave Winer: “Why would I leave Twitter? It’s like living in NY and not taking the …
: Trying a little experiment here, which I will explain in a future audio post. Source.
: Currently reading: The History of the Computer: People, Inventions, and Technology that Changed Our …
: Currently listening: Tinariwen, Aman Iman ♫
: Trying to do my part to show people A Better Way.
: Cognitive errors and moral failings A first experiment in microcasting.
: this blog's mission statement Auden, from “The Garrison”: Whoever rules, our duty to the City is loyal opposition, never greening …
: I’m feeling thoroughly moskered.
: Looking forward to this new podcast from my friends at Comment Magazine, featuring Shadi Hamid and …
: SO hard to decide whether to denounce the people who deserve denouncing or denounce the people who …
: Manton Reece - Dear Elon Musk: I agree that we shouldn’t be stuck in our own bubbles of …
: I posted an update on my Buy Me a Coffee page.
: Adam Atheist The other day I emailed my friend Adam Roberts and told him that I would have something to say about …
: My friend and colleague Philip Jenkins on The Great Vampire War of the Enlightenment.
: Currently listening: ¡Ay! by Lucrecia Dalt ♫
: Richard D. Kahlenberg: “Harvard picks classes that look like today’s racially diverse America; …
: Ross Douthat putting the necessary question: As I argued in my inaugural newsletter last week, in …
: Every time Matt Yglesias bangs the one billion Americans drum, I have the same question: Where will …
: I am neither Greek nor Chinese nor a philosopher, but I do often try to go back to the beginning.
: My buddy Austin Kleon tried to ask a question about “merch” but for once autocorrect …
: Finished reading: The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt. Impressive in many ways and often delightful, …
: Riccardo Mori: “I actually quite like most of what Apple is doing with the Mac, hardware-wise. …
: Re: this essay on accelerated and decelerated landscapes, I wonder if we can think similarly about …
: Brad East’s rules for reviewing and being reviewed, are excellent, but the very first rule for …
: Currently reading: The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt 📚
: Maybe this is just an oddity of my brain, but I find the Systems Settings app in Ventura …
: On my first morning at Laity, I always walk to Blue Hole. But it’s 39° this morning so I don’t think …
: In these circumstances, a reminder: You don’t have to go there. You don’t have to do any of that …
: IMO, what this story points to is the difference between people who want to listen to sound systems …
: “Well, we’re the Satanic Temple, not the Church of Satan, because they’re awful.” From a terrific …
: Les Murray: Nothing a mob does is clean, not at first, not when slowed to a media, not when police. …
: WSJ on the Metaverse: “Among the persistent complaints from early adopters and testers, …
: ♫ Currently listening: Hermanos Gutiérrez, El Bueno Y El Malo
: ♫ Waxahatchee’s Saint Cloud was my faithful companion on my recent road trip. What an …
: Darwin Nuñez on for Liverpool. Bringing Darwin on is a … natural selection. #thankyouvurrymuch
: Did I write this solely in order to use that title? You may well think so, but I couldn’t possibly …
: Me to myself: Do not enter. DO. NOT. ENTER.
: Finished reading: The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler 📚. I wanted to love this book but I didn’t. …
: Popular term for a beheaded person — disparaging, though, which I guess is why they won’t let me use …
: Currently reading: The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler 📚
: I wrote about Jean-Luc Godard, whose ideas I think simplistic and silly but whose boldness I admire, …
: C. S. Lewis, from “Lilies that Fester” (1955): The [student] will not get good marks …
: I know from long experience that it’s the hope that kills you, but I’m gonna go way out on a limb …
: It’s Sunday morning in northeastern Alabama and there sure are a lot of guys around here wearing …
: Sara Hendren: “But in rejecting the distorted and gendered version of small-s sacrifice, I …
: Will be doing my thought-experimental Reading the New Testament class again next term.
: Now that I’m taking a break from my big blog and posting many small things here at micro.blog, …
: An extremely raucous murder of crows in the neighborhood this morning is reminding me of lines from …
: What an image. Among the silent trees a Russian rocket finds its resting place. (Taken near a …
: Currently reading: Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson 📚
: Temple Grandin: “Some visual thinkers, like me, are ‘object visualizers’—we see the world in …
: Currently reading: Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance by Ada Palmer 📚
: Noah Smith: “The authoritarians of the world are already making a pretty good case for liberal …
: The Cineaste’s Guide to Watching Movies While Stoned. This was basically my life back in the day. …
: Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt: “One day, a government source informed the synagogue that we would …
: Alternate spelling. Pangram!
: “If these problems are intrinsically linked to consolidated tech giants like Meta, Google, and …
: Announcing a blogging hiatus – though I’ll probably be here at micro.blog more than in …
: announcement I won’t be blogging here for the foreseeable future, for reasons I explain here. I will continue, …
: seed funding for the arts The Nostalgic Turn in Music Writing - by Ted Gioia: There are a hundred non-profit foundations in …
: Translation: “I’m not paying you to teach me organic chemistry, I’m paying you to tell medical …
: Bresson and the power of habit Robert Bresson’s films A Man Escaped (1956) and Pickpocket (1959) are book-matched movies, mirror …
: Esau McCaulley: How do we order society in such a way that increases human flourishing and limits …
: ♫ Currently listening: Time Waits: The Amazing Bud Powell
: Stop Donating to Your Elite University - The Atlantic: “Everything we do in academia is based on …
: de-streaming ‘There’s endless choice, but you’re not listening’: fans quitting Spotify to save their love of …
: forming the public self When I read about what children should be taught at school about gender, I find myself thinking back …
: ♫ Currently listening: Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk. Fabulous record; the …
: Collections on micro.blog On the most recent episode of Core Intuition, @manton and @danielpunkass discuss whether micro.blog …
: unpreparation I’ve kept the links in this important passage from a sobering piece by Ed Yong: In 2018, I …
: homelessness Paul Kingsnorth: When you can no longer grow your own wood or cut your own turf to heat your own …
: ♫ Sweet haul from Waterloo Records today. Grooving to Delvon Lamarr right now.
: it's all content Josh Owens, former employee of Alex Jones: I don’t think there’s a silver bullet when it comes to …
: As Qatar 2022 looms the US look like who they are: Concacaf’s third best team. Too true to be good.
: David French: When the Church leads with its moral code — and elevates that moral code over even …
: comparisons are odorous Don't Fear the Artwork of the Future - The Atlantic: What is so tiresome about the fear of AI art …
: fighting the good fight Some initial axioms: The U.S. has some genuine conservatives and genuine liberals, but not enough — …
: the arts our country requires In a famous letter, John Adams wrote from Paris to his beloved Abigail: To take a Walk in the …
: “The Godfather is shit. But there is a part of me that loves shit.” — Jean-Luc Godard
: defeaters Ukraine Can Win This War - by Liam Collins and John Spencer: Two or three times a day I see an …
: monarchy Having written recently about the death of Queen Elizabeth, I’d like to call attention to some of …
: Made pesto today in this food processor, which is forty years old. I know old people like to say …
: “There are no dull subjects, only dull minds.” — Raymond Chandler, “The Simple Art …
: Sigal Samuel at Vox: The world has no real plan to stop the genocide underway in China. Some …
: name change I decided to change the name of this blog, for reasons that should be clear from recent and future …
: two versions of covid skepticism From a long, intricate, subtle, and necessary essay by Ari Schulman: The skeptical type I have …
: secret ambivalence In an earlier post I talked about how good Pauline Kael’s early film criticism — her pre-New Yorker …
: Donald Trump says that as President he could declassify documents just by “thinking about …
: Russell Moore: Today’s American evangelical Christianity seems to be more focused on hunting …
: Mark Zuckerberg Welcomes YOU to the Metaverse
: an allegory of American political life, especially online Dante, Inferno, Canto XXX (Hollander translation): And I to him: ‘Who are these two wretches who …
: forking paths Deepfake audio has a tell and researchers can spot it — yes, there’s a tell now, but will there …
: Any word in The Lord of the Rings is a word as far as I’m concerned.
: Games, Mysteries, and the Lure of QAnon | WIRED: There’s a parallel between the seemingly …
: the dust that you are After the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, C. S. Lewis wrote to an American friend, You …
: rebellion against stability I’m not a huge fan of the music of Kelly Lee Owens, but I am a huge fan of this interview: “I …
: Look for my forthcoming novel The Queue Towers
: file-selves Sheila Fitzpatrick: ‘Man lives in the real world; but there’s also a parallel world: a paper one, a …
: sequence, 2 Read transcendentally stupid take online Grab laptop, start banging out devastating takedown …
: my little soccer Recently I was watching an MLS match and a familiar scene played out before me: A player comes …
: Very much looking forward to Jamie's latest, which seems the natural — indeed the wonderfully …
: Hmm, a couple of Premier League games at 2 — I wonder how VAR will ruin them?
: Ken Burns’s ‘The U.S. and the Holocaust’ - Dara Horn: Burns has a soft spot for Franklin and …
: Auden, nature, history (A draft preface for my forthcoming edition of Auden's book The Shield of Achilles, with some images …
: redirect I love this from Tom McWright: A script that redirects anyone who comes to his site from Hacker News …
: Currently lstening to: Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue ♫ (It’s good to be reminded what an …
: sequence A: I don’t know, I think we need to get our own house in order before we launch into critiques of …
: shorts I have read a great deal about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and I have many thoughts — and a few …
: Le faux samouraï Criterion describes the film thus: “In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays Jef …
: the King There’s a great moment in the Beatles’ Get Back documentary — the 9 January 1969 session — when Mal …
: how history doesn't work This is great from Freddie: The bigger thing for me, beyond the death of art and criticism I mean, …
: Currently reading: Their Finest Hour (The Second World War) by Winston S. Churchill 📚
: I continue to be interested in how the iPhone software handles low light, especially when using the …
: Blimp The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) is an odd movie, because it’s essentially an argument for …
: My friend Tim Larsen with an interesting thought: In all of human history Queen Elizabeth II is the …
: Joe Mangina: For a healthy balance between the apophatic and kataphatic we should look to the …
: introducing Six Books With Introductions Worth Pausing Over: Well, okay. Since I have tried to be a conduit for …
: Currently reading: The Gathering Storm (The Second World War) by Winston S. Churchill 📚
: Robert Hutton: Had the Queen died earlier in the year, it’s not difficult to imagine Johnson …
: The rain did a lot for this fella.
: What the iPhone software does with very low light (don’t be deceived by the sky in the …
: Maya Jasanoff's idea that “The new king now has an opportunity to make a real historical impact by …
: I told them a while back that this is a word, but they obviously didn’t listen. …
: Currently reading: The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn 📚
: September update for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.
: Elizabeth II: a constant queen whose failings were rare: “She possessed, apparently, the unique …
: God Save the Queen It is a truth universally acknowledged that if we do not suffer from our ancestors’ sins, then we …
: I know this kind of thing is totally normal now — one of the most characteristic ways for …
: The Woman Who Became a Company: Since corporations can claim trade secrets, [Jennifer Lyn] Morone …
: creating the Vernacular Republic Ivan Illich, from In the Mirror of the Past: Rather than life in a shadow economy, I propose, on …
: the history of literacy Mary Harrington: We can also kiss goodbye to the “marketplace of ideas”. This might have seemed …
: Currently reading: Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War by Mark Harris 📚
: the final frame James Agee, the best writer ever to review movies for a living, was never better than in his review …
: An Open Letter Responding to the NatCon "Statement of Principles" – The European Conservative: In …
: Ben Domenech: Too much of a good thing is a real problem — and in its final years, Prestige TV ran …
: time out I’m going to be taking a little time away from watching the Premier League, because VAR is simply …
: Currently reading: Awakenings by Oliver Sacks 📚
: the end of <em>The This</em> Start with Adam’s post about this podcast. In the podcast, Bill, Joel, and their guest Phil do a …
: Michael Gerson: When we are caked with the mud of political struggle, and tired of Pyrrhic …
: Listening to: Mingus Ah Um by Charles Mingus ♫
: The-Sick-Soul-of-Europe Parties In 1963 Pauline Kael — a freelance essayist, five years before her gig at the New Yorker — published …
: Watching Eurobasket this morning (which is awesome) and I just saw a European sports website …
: Currently reading: Mike Nichols: A Life by Mark Harris 📚
: wait, what? I started telling people what a terrific writer Brian Phillips is back in 2008, when he wasn’t yet …
: Letter from Martin Luther King Jr. to Clarence Jordan and the people of Koinonia Farm in Georgia; …
: Colin Burrow: The original Yale Book of Quotations (2006), on which this new edition is closely …
: Stanley Fish, How Milton Works: To those in whose breast it lodges, the holy is everywhere evident …
: Currently listening: summerteeth by Wilco 🎵
: I have always loved rain, but not until I moved to Texas did I really LOVE rain.
: Currently reading: Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark …
: 40-year report When I first started teaching college students, at the University of Virginia forty years ago, I …
: open letter Politics is exceptionally difficult. I mean, think about it: what could be more complex and …
: Barry Moser, St. Jerome and the Lion
: Currently reading: A Light in the Dark: A History of Movie Directors by David Thomson 📚
: quote unquote I have no idea what is actually going to happen before I die except that I am not going to like it. …
: How Moral Panic Has Debased Art Criticism - Alice Gribbin: Artwords are not to be experienced but …
: two quotations on memory holes, present and future Peering down the Memory Hole: Censorship, Digitization, and the Fragility of Our Knowledge Base | …
: Currently reading: Making Movies by Sidney Lumet 📚
: ELEMENT ANTYSOCJALISTYCZNY While I’m in Covid-induced memory mode… This is my beloved, circa 1981, with what I think is her …
: heads up Might be kinda quiet around here for a few days — I (finally) have Covid, and feel like a dim bulb. …
: Remembering Fred Buechner My wife Teri and I first met Fred Buechner in 1984, when he came to Wheaton College for a ceremony …
: speed revisited Consider this a kind of follow-up to my post from some weeks ago on moving at the speed of God. I’ve …
: Currently reading: And How Are You, Dr. Sacks?: A Biographical Memoir of Oliver Sacks by Lawrence …
: W. H. Auden, writing in The Griffin (February 1959): For several centuries after the fall of the …
: An annoyance: Online security systems these days assume that everyone is surgically attached to …
: the publishing monoculture Why We Need Independent Publishers: The process of creating art and then asking others to assign it …
: “Repeated, long-term exposure to standing also has been implicated in the development of serious …
: The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed: Americans could learn simply to do politics …
: taste and judgment Re: Freddie’s post on the various ways you can like or dislike something, I wonder of this from …
: National Parks Lifetime Pass? ✔️
: I’m borderline-obsessed with these differently-angled straight lines.
: revisiting Saul After further reflection: I’m the mark. The easy mark. It pains me to say so, but I fell for it. …
: Lambeth Whither the Lambeth Conference 2022? I’ve been turning that question over and over in my mind, and …
: Kubrick the idealist Diane Johnson, novelist and co-author with Stanley Kubrick of the screenplay of The Shining, writing …
: forgetting and propaganda Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: To the extent that propaganda is based on current news, it cannot permit …
: “Not in word list.” These people are barbarians.
: liberalism vs. centrism, adjacency and action I’ve written often about philosophical liberalism on this blog, because I have a complicated …
: Bit of a scramble to get down to this part of the river, but it was worth it.
: Evening coming on in the canyon
: change In this last season of Better Call Saul, we see Jimmy becoming more reckless in ways that seem both …
: me to Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan
: Laurence Sterne, from A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy: Lord! said I, … — What a …
: Glad to see this thread – the badness of what is now called “System Settings” in …
: Masa tres leches cake, from Barley Swine last night. Would like to have more for breakfast.
: Currently reading: Some Versions of Pastoral by William Empson 📚
: tolerance In Defense of National Conservatism – Scott Yenor: National conservatives would have public and …
: He drew a deep breath. ‘Well, I’m back,’ he said.
: lost causes and places of hope Better late than never, Ezra — props to you for finally coming around. But not many of your …
: liberals believe Stanley Fish, from How Milton Works: Liberals believe that knowledge of an object (be it a piece of …
: heads up I’ve got a number of brief quote-posts queued up for the next week, and a couple of slightly longer …
: There’s a self-regarding preciousness to much of Donald Judd’s work — and to the whole town of Marfa …
: Taylor Dotson, “Unsustainable Alarmism”: Consider alarmism in the climate debate. Presenting …
: The Contingency of Listening - by Damon Krukowski: Albums are mixed in order to be reproduced. When …
: another friendly reminder Here’s the good news: Most Americans are not hateful conspiracy-theorists who want to destroy their …
: trolleys Every day, American politicians re-enact the Trolley Problem, and every day, they find a third …
: exhaustion, its causes and treatments I thought of calling this post, “You’re Exhausted Because You Don’t Have Enough to Do” – which, …
: a friendly reminder A year ago I wrote: “Wondering how to decide what to read? Here’s a simple but effective heuristic …
: Big the-Virgin-and-the-Dynamo vibe going on at the local Methodist church. From this angle anyway.
: Rain everywhere … except in the little circle where I live. It’s like we have a force …
: I always quit Spelling Bee when I get to “Amazing,” because I think it would go to my …
: Currently reading: Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston …
: This is extremely uncomfortable for me, but over at my Buy Me a Coffee page I decided to ask people …
: thoughts, nearing the end The shot above is — in context — one of the most amazing things this amazing show has done. If Rhea …
: Well, I’ve had more than enough of the heat, but this guy seems to like it.
: exousia The Greek word exousia (ἐξουσία) is one that develops in curious ways. In Plato its connotations …
: Albert Murray in his apartment in Harlem, 1970s
: Le Guin and forgiveness Ursula K. Le Guin wrote very few bad stories, but among those few is, surely, The Word for World is …
: It’s the cup of tea that just makes this one.
: Photograph by Stanley Kubrick (1947) — taken, I think, with a Rolleiflex, because he used one often …
: Currently reading: Science and Government by C. P. Snow 📚
: two quotations on church James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time: The church was very exciting. It took a long time for me to …
: enough is enough It’s been said many times by many people, but the state of officiating in the Premier League is …
: "One Manner of Law," by Marilynne Robinson: Hugh Peters, most disparaged of Puritans, wanted to …
: Currently reading: Albert Murray: Collected Essays & Memoirs by Albert Murray – Murray was …
: my new spiritual discipline ... … is: watching Arsenal play soccer. For the past few years I have rarely watched Arsenal matches …
: The Southern Courier was published weekly from 1965 to 1968.
: What is the meaning of ‘transfiguration’? | Psephizo: We are so used to speaking of …
: The New York Times: Born in Birmingham, Ala., Dr. [Freeman] Hrabowski came of age in the thick of …
: Incontestably, alas, most people are not, in action, worth very much; and yet, every human being is …
: Currently reading: Collected Essays by James Baldwin 📚
: violence and boredom Adam Roberts, from an essay that (caveat lector) is full of explicit violence: Be honest: when I …
: representation A while back I mused on a question: What do we owe the more-than-human world? It seems to me that …
: From a Polish performance of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Paradise Lost
: decline and fall TikTok and the Fall of the Social-Media Giants: A very interesting post by Cal Newport. His thesis …
: Noah Millman: The popular series Stranger Things is meticulous about getting details right, but …
: Some lovely photos of the recent Laity Lodge retreat with Sara Hendren and Claire Holley.
: I love how my buddy Austin Kleon uses his newsletter to riff on and extend some stuff I wrote.
: That really was a wonderful meal at Milo last night. Corey’s cooking gets more and more …
: A woman loving her dessert. A lovely woman who has been married for forty-two years – to me!
: incentives Consider this an addendum to my recent post on an influential study of Alzheimer’s that looks to …
: All forms of privilege — including the ones I benefit from — are morally dangerous, but I think the …
: Currently reading: Israel and the Dead Sea Scrolls by Edmund Wilson 📚
: Wendell Berry: I have had with my friend Wes Jackson a number of useful conversations about the …
: Pablo Auladell’s graphic-novel adaptation of Paradise Lost is quite remarkable.
: R.I.P. Bill Russell, one of the greatest Americans of our era — the best team athlete in American …
: smooth things and rough ground There are many links in what follows. I would encourage you to read this through without noticing …
: Sir Hardy Amies was for decades Dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth, and also, in his spare time, designed …
: building what looks right Eboo Patel: When I was in college in the mid-1990s—an era that feels quite similar to today—a lot …
: In those first three tries, I guessed one letter correctly and twelve incorrectly. ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜ …
: Not really where I thought Christopher Fry would take that libretto, but I guess that’s why he’s a …
: "Charge of the Phone Brigade," by Adam Roberts: Is there a text from Nan? What’s up on instagram? …
: My colleagues Byron Johnson and Jeff Levin: According to the 2018 General Social Survey, 6.4% of …
: fish I’m trying to decide how much I agree with this, from the film scholar David Thomson, in the …
: the file system The Verge: “I grew up when you had to have a file; you had to save it; you had to know where it was …
: Critical research on the causes of Alzheimer’s may have been falsified — and as a result, …
: Currently listening: Bach: The Cello Suites — Recomposed by Peter Gregson ♫
: Yes, Social Media Really Is Undermining Democracy - The Atlantic: Social media may not be the …
: Mary Midgley, in a late interview: “The kind of thing that Paul Davies has dwelt on, about the …
: Finished reading: Space Odyssey by Michael Benson – one of the best books of its kind …
: Finished reading: The Railway Children by E Nesbit 📚 (first time in many years!)
: What does my home town sound like? It sounds like Waxahatchee’s “Arkadelphia”. It sounds exactly …
: Ross Douthat: “More Americans should live in the West, and more Americans assuredly will.” Yeah, …
: Mary Leng: Indeed, armed with a new toolbox of Latin names for fallacies, eager students all too …
: no nonsense For the past few weeks I’ve been watching the 2022 UEFA European Women’s Football …
: Yasmin Tayag: At this point, I worry about how much longer it’s going to last. People like [my …
: We only have one weather now.
: two varieties of human frailty Breaking Bad is a story about ressentiment; about a man who feels himself marginalized and …
: normie wisdom 7: politics Towards a Normie Politics - Freddie deBoer: The association with the mainstream and centrism in …
: To people who say that they need to repair and renew and restore themselves before they turn their …
: Currently reading: The Common Expositor: An Account of the Commentaries on Genesis, 1527-1633 by …
: How to Search for Life on Mars — The New Atlantis: Despite what it says, NASA has actually made the …
: capability and collaboration In her book Creating Capabilities Martha Nussbaum writes, What are capabilities? They are the …
: Just playing around here … embedding a video in a post didn’t seem to work on all …
: Currently reading: Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece …
: P. Frankenstein & Sons made a lot of things, including the space suits worn by the astronauts in …
: the invitation to critique A while back, I wrote this: To make promises, to stand by one's words, to be answerable for them, …
: the missing middle Pop Culture Has Become an Oligopoly - by Adam Mastroianni: In every corner of pop culture — movies, …
: One thing about this wild wild country It takes a strong strong It breaks a strong strong mind ♫
: I’m so happy about last weekend at Laity Lodge that I’m posting about it on both my …
: critique and repair in the canyon A number of years ago, when I was teaching at Wheaton College in Illinois, a couple of students …
: convo Me: Good grief, it’s just one thing after another. T: No kidding. Today the plumber spills toxic …
: A Love Letter to the Mountains: In The High Sierra, [Kim Stanley] Robinson is constantly shifting …
: L'aube de l'homme Ever since I learned from Michael Benson‘s excellent book on the making of 2001 that Stanley …
: the ultimate in entitlement I posted this yesterday and then, because I wrote it in a moment of anger, decided to take it down. …
: Andrew Hickey: [Brian] Wilson’s post-Pet Sounds career, like his pre-Pet Sounds career, is an …
: three versions of artificial intelligence Artificial Creativity? – O’Reilly: AI has been used to complete Beethoven’s 10th symphony, for …
: Andy Crouch: What I say to students is, you are not unhealthy people in a normal world, despite …
: Ben Shahn, The Alphabet of Creation (1954)
: Tom McTague: Being in London this week has been like having your home teleported somewhere else: …
: what's done Things without all remedy Should be without regard: what's done, is done. As regular visitors to …
: LOST, NOT STOLEN: The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election …
: Is there a more user-hostile website on the internet than Patheos? I saw that my colleague Philip …
: Currently reading: Collected Poems by C. P. Cavafy 📚
: Posted an update to my Buy Me a Dragon page.
: Om Malik: Instagram’s transformation into QVC is now complete and absolute. Instagram is dead — or …
: Sympathy for my northern European friends. (I could say “At least it won’t last …
: improving Education Doesn’t Work 2.0 - Freddie deBoer: Entirely separate from the debate about genetic …
: indestructible This long post by Jesse Singal makes one key point perfectly clear: People on Twitter may know that …
: My friend Chad Holley — lawyer, teacher, writer — describing a bold pedagogical decision: If it was …
: Didn’t think this guy was going to bloom this summer, but we returned from a few days away to …
: Andrew Scull: Vast resources have been devoted over time to efforts to intervene in, ameliorate, …
: Small detail from Wildflowers (2017) by María Berrío
: At The Modern in Forth Worth today, I was totally captivated by the mixed-media paintings of María …
: Currently reading: Beyond Nature and Culture by Philippe Descola 📚
: Ellul and anarchism This will be my last post this week — I’m off soon to Laity Lodge! I’ve said before that I think …
: the two enemies I have come to believe that almost all of our social pathologies stem from two deeply-ingrained …
: self-limitation Here in McLennan County we’re experiencing a heat wave and a drought. Not altogether uncommon in …
: dehumanizing fun A provocative and disturbing essay by Josh Askonas in The New Atlantis: Many of the systems we now …
: Currently reading: You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup by Peter Doggett 📚
: Paul Kingsnorth: Why would transnational capital be parroting slogans drawn from a leftist …
: How to prevent the coming inhuman future - by Erik Hoel: There are a handful of obvious goals we …
: Currently listening: Fleet Foxes, A Very Lonely Solstice ♫
: Speaking of taste…. I don’t listen to many podcasts, but one I never miss is John Spong’s Texas …
: normie wisdom 6: fear I draw breath; this is of course to wish No matter what, to be wise, To be different, to die and the …
: Chris Stirewalt: There are species of bacteria that actually thrive in the toxic emissions from …
: Bravo. Well done indeed, Economist.
: Robert A. Caro, Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume III: “Whenever I was …
: Matt Yglesias: And I’ve been saying for a long time now that we need to get out of this rut. You …
: 📚 Currently reading, in a copy I acquired in (I think) 1972:
: A heartbreaking and powerful essay from Leah Libresco Sargeant: A previous surgeon had told me to …
: Vicente Manansala, Community
: Caro's LBJ After all these years, I am finally getting around to reading Robert Caro’s biography of Lyndon …
: Currently reading: The High Sierra: A Love Story by Kim Stanley Robinson 📚
: Paris Marx: The Amazon store experience, while presented as frictionless, contains a lot of …
: David Brooks: The great thing about humility tweets is that you’re not trying to show that you are …
: Elvia Wilk: While plants do not demonstrate ESP or identify murderers, the fact that they are to …
: If you could do it, I suppose, it would be a good idea to live your life in a straight line - …
: Andrey Mir: Digital natives are fit for their new environment but not for the old one. Coaches …
: Currently reading: The Passage of Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 4) by Robert A. Caro 📚
: the sheepdog's view I’ve been thinking about the weirdly intense hatred many conservatives feel for people like David …
: Leah Libresco Sargeant: To give an honest accounting of ourselves, we must begin with our weakness …
: annoyance I like Independent Publisher, the WordPress theme you’re looking at, but I’m not crazy …
: My iCloud issue: files I create on my iPhone take roughly 36 hours to show up on my Mac. This has …
: it’s the friends you make along the way
: Iain Sinclair · Diary: The Plutocrat Tour · LRB 7 July 2022: Heading west towards Woolwich and the …
: New ways of war: Adam Liptak on Adam Roberts’s 2010 novel New Model Army — which, as it happens, I …
: Currently reading: Master Of The Senate (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 3) by Robert A. Caro 📚
: Finished reading: Means of Ascent (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 2) by Robert A. Caro 📚
: Finished reading: The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 1) by Robert A. Caro 📚
: habits of the American mind The American Civil War was not that long ago. The last surviving Civil War veteran died two years …
: The Best and the Brightest I’ve been reading David Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest for the first time in 40 years or …
: Blake’s savagely funny annotations to Robert Thornton’s The Lord’s Prayer, Newly …
: Brain Sciences | Is Reduced Visual Processing the Price of Language?: Abstract We suggest a later …
: two quotations on culture wars Ian Leslie: I have long thought it’s a bit odd quite how much people on the left love to bemoan …
: Surely there’s never been a greater album cover.
: Thus a more inclusive definition of Nixonland: it is the America where two separate and …
: weighing in, God help me Weighing in, yes, but doing my usual trick of trying to separate matters that get entangled in The …
: a friendly reminder In times of intense emotional upheaval in our public life, nothing — and I mean absolutely nothing — …
: [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1466”] Alpinia zerumbet …
: Currently reading: The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam 📚
: transcription I like this from my buddy Austin Kleon: A solution to writer’s block: Transcribe yourself — I …
: getting what you ask for More familiar instances of toxic masculinity concern the wanton infliction of violence, especially …
: Re: my recent essay on the dangers intrinsic to any attempt to create a monoculture, I think of this …
: I'll be totally fine if Arsenal don't get Raphinha — I don't think he's worth the amount he’ll …
: Freddie deBoer: It’s very strange to think that someone who murders a convenience store employee in …
: Don’t know why this guy stands more than a foot higher than his friends, but he’s …
: To say, as the Archbishop of Canterbury has, that the bishops at the forthcoming Lambeth Conference …
: Machenesque and Menckenesque From H. L. Mencken's obituary for J. Gresham Machen, the proto-evangelical: There was a time, two …
: Currently reading: Lucky Per by Henrik Pontoppidan 📚
: From Agnes Giberne’s Sun, Moon, and Stars: A Book for Beginners (1879)
: Currently listening: Danish String Quartet, Last Leaf ♫
: Currently reading: Milton and the English Revolution by Christopher Hill 📚
: self-understanding and resistance In The Gulag Archipelago Solzhenitsyn says that whenever people in the Soviet Union were arrested …
: Sonnet 61 (2016). Linocut by Rosie Fairfax-Cholmeley
: Currently listening: Willie Nelson, Spirit ♫
: Lambeth 2022 and African Anglicanism – Covenant: Whatever readers of this blog make of GAFCON, it …
: bodies and stones In Breaking Bread with the Dead, I write about Donna Haraway: There's a fascinating early chapter …
: From my essay ”You Are Not a Server”, on Dickensian characters: To begin to cite examples is a …
: Currently listening: Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring ♫
: I’ve just revised and edited the page where I list the major themes of my big blog and link to …
: Mosaics of San Marco, Venice
: Remembering a visit to Sanibel with dear friends….
: Currently listening: Wood Works by Danish String Quartet ♫
: less Tono, more Bungay After writing my reflection on Tono-Bungay, I read Adam Roberts’s thoughts in his excellent literary …
: I wrote about mechanization, illiberalism, and the attempt to create a monoculture. Part of my …
: Mechanization and Monoculture, by me: Indeed, it seems to me that the one indisputable thing we can …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: nodes I try to make the best of the blogging environment, but I have always been fascinated by Jorn …
: And this Yaupon tea pannacotta with fresh peaches and granola … I don’t even have …
: Odd Duck Austin is one of my favorite eating/drinking places.
: Currently reading: What They Heard by Luke Meddings 📚
: Learning a lot from this FIFA map. For instance, Denver is now where Bozeman used to be; Dallas …
: P.S. I ended up finally reading Tono-Bungay because, at a bookstore in Austin, I found a beautiful …
: Tono-Bungay My friend Adam Roberts has written extensively about this book, but because I knew I wanted to read …
: Silver Jubilee - by Damon Krukowski - Dada Drummer Almanach: [Maurizio Lazzarato:] “Small and …
: Currently reading: Tono-Bungay by H. G. Wells 📚
: Stories by Thomas Mann, published by Equinox Cooperative Press (1934).
: You always try to console yourself. Yesterday I said, “Hey, the temp didn’t hit three digits today!” …
: My friend and colleague David Corey: I share Fukuyama’s hope that liberalism can be maintained. I …
: A really fine poem by Adam Roberts. Adam is a man who writes all things well.
: artisans on video Just as there are an infinite number of reasons to seek God in prayer, so there are an infinite …
: sauce, goose, gander A typically and blessedly thoughtful reflection from Noah Millman: On both sides of the aisle, …
: normie wisdom 5: idiocy A great deal of survey research in recent years points to an important truth: That most Americans …
: book review ethics When my biography of C. S. Lewis came out in 2005, I was inexperienced enough as a writer of trade …
: Sam Adler-Bell: Of course, many good ideas, theories of change, and histories of oppression and …
: From the Eric Gill Collection at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas
: three axioms I don’t think enough attention is given to the three key axioms — typically unstated — of advocates …
: Heading on a letter from Maria Smith Giberne to Gerard Manley Hopkins
: In Times of Tribulation, Prophecy Books Multiply: “We are looking for books that not only try to …
: Rep. Liz Cheney: Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the …
: Squirrel wars escalating. I am injured but I persist.
: a proper goal Joel Lehman and Kenneth O. Stanley (2011): Most ambitious objectives do not illuminate a path to …
: My “productivity system” is … a calendar. That’s it, that’s all I …
: Currently reading: The Women Who Saved the English Countryside by Matthew Kelly 📚
: my essential productivity app … is a calendar. In some seasons of my life it’s a physical calendar, in others a digital one (I’m a …
: When Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (later to be known as Lewis Carroll) was a child, his father was the …
: Currently reading: Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton by Nicholas McDowell 📚
: "She's Funny That Way" “She’s Funny That Way” is a 1928 song composed by Charles N. Daniels, using the pseudonym Neil …
: Here’s a little thing I often think about: On “The Weight” Garth Hudson is on piano, and as each …
: How to give university lectures | Mary Beard: The second [lecturing tip I picked up from …
: Just ordinary morning light, that’s all. But I like it a lot.
: Pretty typical message to my wife, who’s in Alabama with family
: Currently reading: London: A Social History by Roy Porter 📚
: normie wisdom 4: quirky vs. basic Scott Alexander: Right now, our society demands you be a Special Snowflake. Women who aren’t quirky …
: What the West Got Wrong About China – Habi Zhang: The reason why China would brazenly “disregard …
: I wish there were a larger version of this response by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to an autobiographical …
: The other day I put on Richard Linklater’s Heads I Win / Tails You Lose (1991) — four hours of film …
: normie wisdom 3: two quotations on common responses G. K. Chesterton: The vast mass of humanity, with their vast mass of idle books and idle words, …
: Currently reading: John Milton: Life, Work, and Thought by Gordon Campbell 📚
: too good not to be true? Now that the semester is over, I am plugging away on my volume on Paradise Lost for Princeton’s …
: Seriously, these guys are just exploding. They’ve all been in this one patch, but now …
: One of many glorious wood engravings by David Gentleman from a limited edition of Swiss Family …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: "September 1, 1939" In the end, I think, everything has worked out nicely; Auden performed the rite of renunciation that …
: Currently reading: Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World by Leo Damrosch 📚
: Friday 4 July 1662 (The Diary of Samuel Pepys): Up by five o’clock, and after my journall put in …
: contractual and unconditional love We know that when Dickens wrote David Copperfield he had not read Kierkegaard’s Either/Or – …
: From David Copperfield, Chapter XV: Mr. Dick and I soon became the best of friends, and very often, …
: not for me In a recent post that links back to an earlier post, my friend Adam Roberts talks about his lasting …
: There are men who always confound the praise of goodness with the practice, and who believe …
: The Woes of Being Addicted to Streaming Services | Pitchfork: I feel unsettled when I stream music …
: “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.” — Samuel Johnson
: I love it when former students of mine do cool things, and with this book Nate Anderson has done a …
: Currently reading: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins 📚
: ”The Sermon of the Wolf,” by Eleanor Parker: For Wulfstan [preaching in the year 1014] diagnosing …
: normie wisdom 2: philistines A continuation of this post Hugh Trevor-Roper doesn’t use the term normie, of course – his key term …
: two quotations on what has been lost Could the greatest works of literature be undiscovered?: For two millennia, we’ve been haunted by …
: 14 Warning Signs That You Are Living in a Society Without a Counterculture: This is very good by Ted …
: The Architectural Drawings at All Souls College, Oxford: Wren and Hawksmoor
: Currently reading: Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh by Thomas S. Kidd 📚
: Good to see these guys back.
: keeping things on my chest Perhaps the key theme in C. S. Lewis’s book The Abolition of Man is his emphasis on the importance, …
: I spend a lot of time just watching these guys come and go.
: brief hiatus This seems like a good time to go silent for a few days — to pray in silence. I’ll be back, probably …
: When I grow up, I wanna be like Pop. And you should too.
: Pete Wehner: For abuse to happen under any circumstances is gut-wrenching; when it happens in a …
: Reformation in the Church of Science — The New Atlantis: Fake news is not a perversion of the …
: normie wisdom: 1 First post in a series When Hugh Trevor-Roper was a young historian he became friends with with the …
: A festive harvest in the mail today. Listening to Wood Works right now and it’s utterly enchanting.
: Currently reading: The Code of The Woosters by P G Wodehouse 📚 – I almost know this one by …
: Rowan Williams: I have said that I think there is a strong case for the exclusion of the Moscow …
: Another dashed-off newsletter, though with some prime Wodehouse content.
: The heat wave on the Indian subcontinent is making the terrifying opening chapter of Kim Stanley …
: when problems aren't trolley problems A brief follow-up to my earlier post on effective altruism (EA): I have a feeling that what makes EA …
: my business That said, I’m not sure that this is an issue we need to spend too much time on. The genuinely …
: a story In my first years at Wheaton College I had a colleague named Julius Scott. (He retired in 2000 and …
: Going around saying hello to the plants I wasn’t sure had made it through our cold snaps in …
: Robin Sloan: Obviously, no one does this, I recognize this is a very niche endeavor, but the art …
: Currently reading: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 📚 – taking my own advice.
: time I want to connect a post of mine from five years ago — There are always questions. Which ones arise …
: points that don't need to be belabored We know — we all know — That people impose standards on their Outgroup that they never impose on …
: Ross Douthat is a brilliant writer and an old friend, but I wish he wouldn’t participate — as he …
: Finished reading: The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers 📚 Lovely to renew an old friendship.
: Puppets by Paul Klee named the Philistine, Matchbox Spirit, and the Crowned Poet — Source: Zentrum …
: The coming food catastrophe | The Economist: By invading ukraine, Vladimir Putin will destroy the …
: Quanta Magazine interview with Leslie Lamport: One last thing, about another side project of yours …
: Kent Russell: By accident of birth I am a modern, which means I will never know a charmed world. A …
: I very much enjoyed the recent Rest Is History podcast episode on Agatha Christie — and if you did …
: The Incapable States of America? – Helen Dale: State capacity is a term drawn from economic history …
: pandemic and biopower "Permanent Pandemic," by Justin E. H. Smith: When I say the regime, I do not mean the French …
: These beauties arrived: So now the set is complete: Had to do my review from PDFs, so this seems my …
: Finished reading: Anarchy and Christianity by Jacques Ellul 📚
: Cory Doctorow: Writing for a notional audience — particularly an audience of strangers — demands a …
: notes Interesting convo at micro.blog about what people use to take notes. Me? Handwriting in notebooks …
: For what it may be worth: As the years go by my opinion of OK Computer ascends and my opinion of Kid …
: welp More than twenty years ago Malcolm Gladwell published a fascinating essay about two different modes …
: this is your brain on shuffle Every morning — and I mean every single morning — when I awaken from slumbers, my brain serves up a …
: Currently reading: The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie 📚
: Miguel Covarrubias, The Tree of Modern Art (1940)
: Currently reading: The Recognitions by William Gaddis 📚
: reification and metaphysical capitalism I’ve written occasionally here about what I call “metaphysical capitalism” — see the relevant tag at …
: I was very interested in this Jonathan Malesic essay on how college students are or are not coping …
: Currently reading: The Recognitions by William Gaddis 📚
: Self-portrait as I begin eight months of research leave
: Your periodic reminder from Leszek Kołakowski: It’s possible to be a conservative-liberal-socialist. …
: on resembling the Angel of History Okay, so, first we have Andy Crouch’s book The Life We’re Looking For. Then we have Brad East’s …
: Yann Kebbi’s drawings for the movie C’mon C'mon
: nerves Well, the North London Derby will be kicking off in a few minutes, and my nerves are tingling. I …
: mapping the books I love this idea from my buddy Austin Kleon: not listing but rather mapping the books you’ve …
: bloggy A friend of mine wrote the other day to commend some of my recent posts for being “bloggy.” There …
: Just posted an update to my Buy Me a Coffee page.
: ascending In many of my courses I ask my students to explicate certain key passages from the texts we read — …
: From a 1999 interview with the members of The Police: Sting: People thrashing out three chords …
: some thoughts on Tim Keller If you read Tim Keller’s books or listen to his sermons, some things will (or should) become quite …
: zine! Julia Evans makes really cool zines for people who want to know more about computer programming, or, …
: In David Thomson’s The Big Screen, largely a history of movies, there’s a chapter on television that …
: the speed of God Many of the key ideas in Andy Crouch’s new book The Life We Are Looking For emerge from his …
: mid-century modernity Over the past few months, I have been thinking a lot about the remarkable cultural transition that …
: Nick Russo: To wrap up his rowhomes project, Hytha’s planning to sell a collage of all 100 images …
: envelope please Tom Stafford: A slow day at the museum, and the receptionist is sitting at their desk as a stranger …
: Re: those eggs, once I tried Alton Brown’s way of boiling eggs – which is not to boil …
: Happy 92nd birthday to Gary Snyder pic.twitter.com/At40v7B4l7 — Austin Kleon (@austinkleon) May 8, …
: Jacques Pépin calls this dish Eggs Jeannette, after his mother, because she would always make them …
: Edward Heathcote, with a piece that provides an interesting counterpoint to my recent post on a …
: “Another Green World," by Jessica Camille Aguirre: NASA has also dabbled in space …
: “The problem with my life is that I’ve said too much shit in the past and no one forgets it.” — …
: Pop Culture Has Become an Oligopoly - by Adam Mastroianni: We haven’t fully reckoned with what the …
: Last day in my Reading the New Testament class – a semester-long thought experiment in trying …
: Happy 83rd birthday to the McDonald Observatory!
: the old women of Nishapur Talal Asad: My point is simply that when a capability is acquired there is no longer a temporal …
: Barbara Graziosi: Strong readings of the Iliad tend to focus on the final encounter between …
: making a difference This is one of those I-want-to-think-further-about-this posts. A couple of years ago, Shoshana …
: Currently reading: The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies by David Thomson 📚
: Andrey Mir (note Mir's definition: "Postjournalism is journalism that is economically forced to take …
: Currently reading: Death and the King’s Horseman: A Play by Wole Soyinka 📚 (I’ve been …
: My newsletter is intermittent these days, but here’s a new issue.
: the glazing of eyes The older I get, the more common this experience becomes: finding that I am simply unable to read …
: Andy Crouch on invitation and repair From Andy Crouch’s new book: To rebuild households would begin to undermine Mammon itself. If we …
: Currently reading: The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation by …
: The Economist: Migration into the state has remained steady for a decade (it is the number leaving …
: a memory At UVA, they’re stripping Alderman Library pretty much down to the frame, which may mean that this …
: DNA B. D. McClay: It’s natural to find the thought that what we build in our life will die with us …
: I estimate that 73% of my RSS feed is stories about Twitter. Enough is enough, folks!
: uniqueness Ernst Cassirer’s An Essay on Man: An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture is essentially …
: Academics think a public intellectual is an academic who comments on current events. Journalists …
: Happy birthday to Willie Nelson, 89 years young today. Smoke ’em if you got ’em. The Texas Monthly …
: Skyscraper Skyscraper (1959) is a 20-minute documentary film — mainly in black-and-white, though color enters …
: Currently reading: A History of Christian Missions by Stephen Neill 📚
: Thanks for the kind words on my post, folks!
: I generally dislike unsolicited advice, but over at my macro blog I wrote a post offering some …
: a bit of advice Elon Musk’s imminent purchase of Twitter has a good many people scurrying for the exits, and some of …
: “You can't see it so I help you” There’s a lot going on in Edward Yang’s masterful Yi Yi (2000), but I just want to focus on one …
: Currently reading: Picture by Lillian Ross 📚
: I was so annoyed by the size and heft of my iPhone 13 Pro that I traded it to my son for an SE …
: department of corrections My friend Joe Mangina — who, unlike me, is a real theologian — has written to correct something I …
: [caption id=“attachment_42113” align=“aligncenter” width=“946”] …
: DBH: [T]he religion historically called “Christianity” is not a “truth” that exists among and in …
: Watching Scott Alexander try unsuccessfully to grapple with Lacanian thought reminds me of the …
: Alexander Stern on "The Technocrat’s Dilemma": The technocratic response to misinformation and …
: Elon Musk could become the world’s greatest hero by buying Twitter and then immediately shutting it …
: Craig Mod: I wish you all — all of you reading this — could teleport here right now, right in this …
: this and that I am working on some things that will (I hope) be significant additions to my Invitation & …
: Hummingbird clearwing moth visiting my patio – couldn’t get a sharp photo though.
: a tiny rant Recently I listened to a highly-regarded political podcast in which some of the participants …
: Michael Chabon (2006): I don’t know what happened to the Future. It’s as if we lost our ability, or …
: injured My Hedgehog Review essay “Injured Parties” — on free speech, iniuria, charity, social and legal …
: institutions Story here. See also my essay on the need to recover the virtue of piety in order to restore …
: entanglements Science gets entangled with politics; it always has and it always will. And every time it happens …
: hero Wingy Manone was a trumpet player and songwriter from New Orleans who lost part of his right arm in …
: The Lindheimer’s beeblossom is back! – which means that soon the bees will be too. (I …
: Maybe my favorite thing about our house: It sits on a slight elevation, so when we look across our …
: The courtyard of Kéré Architecture’s Léo Doctors’ Housing, 2019, at the Surgical Clinic and Health …
: Ross Douthat, suggesting two ways to reverse the decline of the power and influence of movies: …
: Nora S. Unwin (1907-1982), engravings from Joseph; the King James Version of a Well-loved Tale, …
: Currently reading: Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star: The War Years, 1940-1946 by Gary Giddins 📚
: reading lists Three brief thoughts on this: People are calling it “banning books,” which it ain’t: a book isn’t …
: I had to suspend my regular newsletter – interrupted by Life – but I’m still …
: [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1200”] I am as I am. …
: The Love Feast “The Love Feast“ -- me in the new issue of Harper’s (paywalled, I think?) on the immediately …
: The 9 Biggest Myths About Nonfiction Trade Publishing, Debunked. These are all spot-on. I would only …
: Welles and the newspapers From the Preface to the first volume of Simon Callow’s biography of Orson Welles: He publicly …
: compelling needs In 1957 Vance Packard published The Hidden Persuaders, his famous book about advertising techniques, …
: Michael L. Budde: This book is not an attempt to convince people that Jesus would prefer his …
: two quotations on life beyond self-actualization Freddie deBoer: The simplest argument against a cultural fixation on the individual getting whatever …
: Metafoundry 75: Resilience, Abundance, Decentralization: We mostly only close materials loops when …
: Currently reading: Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams — the Early Years, 1903-1940 by Gary Giddins 📚
: cross and resurrection Lesslie Newbigin: If the cross were the last word in God's self-revelation, then this first …
: Currently reading: The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood by David Thomson 📚
: the great and awful doctrine The great and awful doctrine of the Cross of Christ, which we now commemorate, may fitly be called, …
: Ross's prediction and mine Ross Douthat: I will make a prediction: Within not too short a span of time, not only conservatives …
: waiting for persuasion Leon Wieseltier’s long essay on postliberal Catholic integralists, or whatever we should call them, …
: discounting the past People on the left will typically be amazed and gratified by any good that has been achieved …
: self-Haysing As Nikil Saval pointed out some years ago, “The arc of scientific management is long, but it bends …
: I’ve been watching this regularly for the past couple weeks, and I’ve never been so mesmerized.
: Currently reading: Tristes Tropiques by Claude Levi-Strauss 📚
: We have four mature live oaks on our property, but this is the one I look at the most often. It has …
: The Cosmati Pavement in Westminster Abbey: “In the year of Christ one thousand two hundred and …
: Demons I got a lot of problems with you people, and you know what the top one is? Many of you are possessed …
: I saw this lovely old thing at a friend’s house the other day.
: Currently reading: The Pat Hobby Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald 📚
: scatterings A few brief notes: You’re seeing more posts about movies these days because I have a couple of …
: Callow on Welles It was nearly 30 years ago, I suppose, that Simon Callow began working on his biography of Orson …
: I’m beyond excited that this July Sara Hendren, Claire Holley, and I will be leading a workshop at …
: Moving to Texas eight years ago forced me to think often about water — and the future of American …
: From an interview with Todd Hido at Lens Culture: LC: Your series Homes at Night is one of my …
: neighbors and altruism In my recent post on neighborliness, I quoted from a sermon by Helmut Thielicke, and I want to …
: My friend Ken Myers — of Mars Hill Audio fame — has made a page with links to his several …
: rules, consent, virtues Leah Libresco Sargeant: The search for the perfect rule or set of safety settings does remind me of …
: universal neighborliness Re: my earlier post on an Ezra Klein column, I want to add that the universality of Christianity …
: At the request of … several, I have enabled a subscription plan for my blog. Please spread …
: Ezra Klein: Can the constant confrontation with our failures and deficiencies produce a culture …
: This is my link to my post about my essay on piety.
: Denethor the impious Long-time readers of this blog will know that I am a proponent of what I call the Gandalf Option. …
: Currently reading: Orson Welles, Volume 2: Hello Americans by Simon Callow 📚
: Bunker Hill Imogen Sara Smith: Bunker Hill was film noir’s favorite neighborhood. In the 1940s and ’50s, the …
: I almost always post my photos in square format, but not because of Instagram. This was my first …
: New York City Libraries End Late Fees, and the Treasures Roll In: When New York’s public library …
: My friend Adam Roberts has written a witty and fascinating theological parable. Adam is of course a …
: Currently reading: Orson Welles, Volume 1: The Road to Xanadu by Simon Callow 📚
: a threefold labor This post by the film scholar David Bordwell has me thinking about how I might apply lessons from …
: John Gallagher: The judges asked Thiess why he had become a werewolf – what benefits did it bring to …
: I plan to write about the extraordinary 24 Frames soon.
: I decided not to read the article about the takes about the memes about the exhaustion about the …
: This WSJ article about people returning to landlines and ethernet cables — that’s my tribe, man. …
: Symmetry in nature. Wes Anderson’s gonna love this.
: By pointing me to this interview with Brian Cox, my buddy Austin Kleon has provided me with the …
: Invasion of the Fact-Checkers - Tablet Magazine: The pandemic would shine an especially harsh light …
: Watching the UNMNT and on this Sunday the goals (so far) have been scored by Jesus, Paul, and …
: Matt Milliner: The Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces was sprinkled with holy water by …
: Andrew Hudgins, “The Cestello Annunciation”
: critique and repair Here’s my friend Sara Hendren, a couple of years ago, on critique and repair: We’re seeing critique …
: Sergei and Aimee Another story from Salka Viertel's The Kindness of Strangers: Eisenstein and his friends wanted to …
: two quotations on age Orson Welles: It’s only in your twenties and in your seventies and eighties that you do the …
: A true word from Laura Kipnis: “Rest assured, today’s moral grandstanders will be tomorrow’s thought …
: the power of priors Leah Price: Remembered today as an escape artist who was one of the first Hollywood stuntmen, …
: scissors in the head Ariel Dorfman: And yet the interaction between censors and those they suppress can be complex, as …
: Currently reading: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 📚
: This smoked-pastrami reuben at Milo – amazing.
: Taken as the tornado sirens sang.
: cancel it Ken White’s post on the problems with defining “cancel culture” — or maybe it’s better to say, the …
: The Crimson Pirate If you want to have a good time, watch The Crimson Pirate (1952). It’s absolutely delightful. Years …
: [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1324”] James R. Roberts, …
: I am huge fan of the wines made by Steve and Jill Matthiasson, and one of their most remarkable …
: complete control Allow me to tell you about a memorable scene from Salka Viertel’s compelling memoir The Kindness of …
: Currently reading: The Kindness of Strangers by Salka Viertel 📚
: Ambersons Last night, for the first time in decades, I watched The Magnificent Ambersons, and three points …
: lagniappe Like Lincoln Michel, I have a soft spot in my heart for little literary magazines, and worry about …
: Currently reading: Always Crashing in the Same Car: On Art, Crisis, and Los Angeles, California by …
: Finished reading: Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks 📚
: Those trees Texans call “mountain cedars”? They’re junipers. See?
: Gary Saul Morson: “You have Putin’s Russia and Pushkin’s Russia,” Krielaars observed. To blame a …
: [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“634”]Richard Cattermole, …
: beyond grumpiness I suspect you have noticed that many old people are grumpy. I think the explanation for such …
: Leah Libresco Sargeant, in a post called “Defining Human to Leave Out Almost Everyone”: …
: Mars Hill Audio One of my favorite experiences is to be interviewed by Ken Myers for Mars Hill Audio. Ken is both a …
: Doubt may be considered one of the consequences of original sin, but it also protects us against its …
: “Money clarifies; so does war.” — me, over at the Hog Blog, on Realities Soon To Be …
: Professional musical instrument storage and display
: unresonant Every serious acoustic guitarist will have thoughts about how a guitar’s body — its shape, its …
: Pommes de Terre Persillade. IMO, the best way to eat potatoes.
: The Monday morning ritual: reviewing whatever inchoate ideas emerged during the past week and …
: [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]Lwów, Poland, …
: aspiring to realism Adam Tooze: Adopting a realistic approach towards the world does not consist in always reaching for …
: [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“720”]Neil Young (1967) …
: [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“700”]Imiri …
: civil heart, disinterested charity Well, it was very odd what Mr. Sammler found himself doing as he lay in his room, in an old …
: I am experiencing the worst thing that an Arsenal supporter can experience: Hope.
: "We know the next planet outside of our solar system is at least 5,000 years away," [Werner Herzog] …
: sounds [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“820”]“The worst …
: Harmonized Region (1938), Paul Klee; Art Institute of Chicago
: Source: UW-Milwaukee Special Collections
: What a lovely tribute to Willie Nelson’s sister Bobbie, the heartbeat of his band for so many …
: The Embankment Railway never happened -- thank God.
: consecration to culture Culture is the child of each individual’s self-knowledge and dissatisfaction with himself. Anyone …
: Sometimes I think the OED is just pulling my leg.
: a useful distinction C Thi Nguyen: An ‘epistemic bubble’ is an informational network from which relevant voices have …
: How to Discover the Life-Affirming Comforts of ‘Death Cleaning’: Professional home organizers are …
: Graeme Wood: Various journalists complained that I described MBS as personally “charming” and …
: ”It’s Not Your Fault You’re a Jerk on Twitter,” writes Katherine Cross for WIRED. That …
: original thinking and academic codes Kant clung to his university, submitted himself to its regulations, retained the appearance of …
: no power on earth From Edwin Muir’s Autobiography: During these years I began to grow aware of the people round me as …
: Currently reading: An Essay on Man: An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture by Ernst …
: Currently reading: The Wood that Built London by C. J. Schüler 📚
: Currently reading: Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer 📚
: Currently reading: Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot 📚
: Currently reading: Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee 📚
: Currently reading: The This by Adam Roberts 📚
: I keep vacillating about whether or not to record the books I read here; it’s interesting in a …
: revisiting architectural blogging I think a lot about blogging, about why I like it, what I think I can accomplish through blogging …
: Most people want to hear two things from politicians: First, that the problem they’re most concerned …
: education, more or less Andrew Delbanco: There is a third — and perhaps the deepest — problem with the futuristic vision of …
: self-knowledge, self-help Ernst Cassirer, An Essay on Man: An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture (1944): That …
: nothing's perfect The only Bluetooth device that has ever worked reliably for me is the first-generation Apple …
: news-resilient The most recent issue of Oliver Burkeman’s excellent newsletter The Imperfectionist focuses on …
: There’s a remarkable amount of useful information about the attack on Ukraine in this one map from …
: Took me this long to get it in two. Will I ever get it in one? Doubtful.
: dystopia now From my publisher:
: Ian Bogost: The risks of netwar and cyberwar are consequences of convenience. Communications …
: from the TLS: On my first visit to Moscow, I met one of Lenin’s embalmers. “When I began, the body …
: doing your own research Leo Kim: In 2016, director Dean Fleischer-Camp — known for his work on the viral hit, Marcel The …
: Injured Parties I have an essay in the new Hedgehog Review — behind a paywall, but shouldn't you subscribe? Yes …
: Tom Stoppard in 2013: Half the point I want to make is that I have had a charmed life. I was …
: Big Bend National Park, taken a while back.
: The mothership … um, I mean the newsletter has landed.
: Antonio Stradivari, the ‘Davidoff’ cello (1712)
: songs you're entitled to sing Edwin Muir was born and raised in the Orkneys at the end of the 19th century, and in his …
: Adam Roberts, “Ozymandias Replies”: So, friend, you think my face and legs in stone Are signs that I …
: Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, from Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away: Socrates …
: When the skylight in your bathroom enables photo-as-abstract-art …
: hard things with friends There is a line from Tom Stoppard that I like to quote, one that I suspect is important to Stoppard …
: R.I.P. Paul Farmer I am absolutely gutted to learn of the death of Paul Farmer, the only contemporary, I believe, that …
: An amazing story by a public defender named Yassine Meskhout. A big wide disturbing window into the …
: unified Czeslaw Milosz, from Unattainable Earth (1987): I don't like the Western way of thinking. I could …
: Currently reading: Constellations by Govert Schilling 📚
: Currently reading: Unattainable Earth by Czeslaw Milosz 📚
: William Davies: Before March 2020, I was unfamiliar with the phenomenon of ‘guided reading’. My …
: Martha C. Nussbaum: Behind these biases lies a more general failing, which the Dutch primatologist …
: Richard Gibson: Work, [Adam] Smith points out, is a reciprocal process: Workers form goods, and are, …
: cunning “Cunning” is a very interesting word. What follows comes largely from rummaging around in the OED. …
: Chris Townsend: Let’s face it: we largely privilege Shakespeare more than other writers today …
: Daring Fireball: Spotify isn’t just trying to become the biggest name in podcasting (which has …
: this vs. The This C. S. Lewis, from The Discarded Image: If the reader will suspend his disbelief and exercise his …
: Currently reading: The This by Adam Roberts 📚
: the low bar An excellent post by John Siracusa (a) outlining the most elementary features that the UI of any …
: Matt Yglesias: A normal person can tell you lots of factual information about his life, his work, …
: useful thinkers in three kinds Useful thinkers come in three varieties. The Explainer knows stuff I don’t know and can present it …
: soma Adam Roberts, back in 2014: There is, I think, a genuine human fascination with outer space. Apollo …
: Currently reading: The Gnostic Religion by Hans Jonas 📚
: Senator Josh Hawley: To start, large social media companies should be required to become …
: seeds and means of renewal In a recent column, David Brooks writes extensively and thoughtfully about the prospects for the …
: Blake Smith: His apocalypticism may be disturbing, or indeed mad, but it is not compatible with …
: I stay away from almost all current kerfuffles, so maybe that’s what I was struck by a couple of …
: A fantastic point by my friend Noah Millman in response to the question of whether Pulp Fiction …
: A wise and useful reflection by Gabrielle Bauer on the "precautionary principle": Two years into …
: Alan Shapiro: For good or ill, I have spent more time reading and writing poetry than doing …
: Pope Benedict XVI: Quite soon, I shall find myself before the final judge of my life. Even though, …
: public and private Jürgen Moltmann: It is from community life that we draw the strength for discipleship and courage …
: In a reasonable world, most people would be able to distinguish misinformation minority opinions …
: attentional norms Me at the Hog Blog on “attentional norms” and Zoom: It has been interesting to watch over the last …
: Gorgeous day on campus today.
: Currently reading: A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf 📚
: the view from Poppy Hill When I talk about invitation and repair, I think the concept of invitation is a pretty simple and …
: Preview of coming attractions
: It’s clobberin’… um, I mean, newsletter time!
: Monday morning, at the desk, preparing to clear my head.
: the graveyard of ideas What Was the TED Talk? - The Drift: The story goes like this: there are problems in the world that …
: Martin Niemöller, writing to his wife from Moabit Prison in Berlin, 18 August 1937: “You don't have …
: tenants Megan McArdle: Zuckerberg had shifted his company away from the open platform of the browser and …
: Christianity in sum I’ve mentioned in my newsletter how deeply I have been touched and healed in recent months by the …
: makers and making Let’s think about three ways in which technological making can go wrong, using some Ludlumesque …
: Currently reading: The Metamorphosis: And Other Stories by Franz Kafka 📚
: Nicholas Carr: It’s revealing that, before the arrival of the net, people didn’t talk about …
: I like this photo of the renovations being done at my church because it reminds me how the nave of a …
: two quotations: ears to hear James Wood: This objection to the free will argument seems decisive. It raises the most …
: Let’s be clear about the meaning of this silly practice of hosting international matches in …
: Ilana Horwitz: When it comes to performance, religiously restrained students who live their life …
: myths and counter-myths A while back I wrote a brief essay on the relevance of Emile Durkheim’s sociology to an …
: orienting principles Many thoughts led to my beginning this Invitation and Repair project, but two of the major ones I …
: I do not criticize Josh Wardle, who deserves to get paid for his work — and I can’t even imagine …
: Currently reading: Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the …
: Newsletter: Harmonies and Dissonances.
: excerpt from my Sent folder: dominant Anyway, don't you realize that yesterday was a fantastic result for the USMNT? I read our coach's …
: Currently reading: The Time Machine by H. G. Wells 📚
: eating people is wrong I’m sure what I’m about to say has been said by many before me, but I’m counting on Adam Roberts to …
: Tolkien’s own drawing of Sauron’s fortress Barad-dûr, with Mount Doom in the distance.
: If Christians are ever again taken seriously in this country, it won’t be because they own the libs …
: Musa al-Gharbi: In the wake of the 2016 election, Trump claimed to have had higher turnout at his …
: Well, this was different. ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟨🟨🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
: Currently reading: The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells 📚
: I sort of hate my office, but I just yesterday (after eight years!) realized that the windowsill …
: Currently reading: The Road to Middle-Earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology by Tom …
: scouring In one of his Prefaces to The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien notes that many early readers of the book …
: trying About to watch the USMNT v. El Salvador, and having a thought: When you watch a well-managed team, …
: Rowan Williams: We are used to plaintive cries that not enough students opt for scientific …
: Currently reading: Early Christianity and Greek Paideia by Werner Jaeger 📚
: your questions answered Was Dorothy Day Too Left-Wing to Be a Catholic Saint? No. Was the Life of Dorothy Day Too Catholic …
: free and forever I want to write here about something I don’t understand. My friend Robin Sloan alerted me to this …
: on Wells Stefan Collini’s review of Claire Tomalin’s book on H. G. Wells is very strange indeed. For one …
: I was a teenager working in a bookstore when this book, with this cover, came out. One day a lady …
: Currently reading: The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien 📚
: Newsletter: Sir Shi and the Wanderer
: Currently reading: Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud 📚 (trying to remember to put …
: undefended, unprotected This post on being defenseless has nagged at my mind, reminding me of something, and I finally made …
: the power of ideology Gary Saul Morson: How did Dostoevsky anticipate what would happen? For one thing, he took the …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: Morgenbesser I have many, many thoughts about Morgenbesser. I have often thought of writing little vignettes …
: intractable I keep thinking about this by Rivka Galchen in the LRB: Berman is keen to dispel the notion that …
: Currently reading: Vermeer: The Complete Works by Karl Schütz 📚
: From Alan Lee’s illustrations for the Mabinogion
: John Ruskin, The North-West Angle of the Facade of St Mark’s, Venice
: Guess I won’t be visiting the McDonald Observatory – one of my favorite places – …
: Jamie Zawinski, formerly of Mozilla: “Anyone involved in cryptocurrencies in any way is either a …
: CD Rob Sheffield: I’ve always loved CDs, and I never junked my collection, even when the format fell …
: runs In footy (aka soccer) it is possible for players to make the following kinds of run: Mazy …
: albeit WIRED: Why do you call the metaverse dystopian? John Hanke: It takes us away from what fundamentally …
: covid in four states STATE Cases/100k Deaths/100k California 18,260 198 Texas 19,466 268 Florida 23,995 295 New …
: Remember how I said that there are some trees around here that think it’s still autumn? (Photo taken …
: defenseless Juliette Kayyem, who among other things is a security consultant: But what if the essence of a …
: drawing a narcissus Ruskin’s instructions to his students: Suppose you have to paint the Narcissus of the Alps. First, …
: Newsletter: on fakery and Hittites.
: Currently reading: Andrey Tarkovsky: Life and Work: Film by Film, Stills, Polaroids & Writings 📚
: the whys and wherefores of humanistic study Louis Menand: Reading Weinstein and Montás, you might conclude that English professors, having spent …
: Okay, time to get this second career started.
: The Homebound Symphony Much of Emily St. John Mandel’s novel Station Eleven — set largely in Michigan some twenty years …
: Can't stop? Won't stop. It's not just Wordle, the App Store is a total mess | Macworld: It’s would be a trivially small …
: Currently reading: The Complete Works of W. H. Auden: Poems, Volume II: 1940–1973 by W. H. Auden 📚
: Currently reading: The Complete Works of W. H. Auden: Poems, Volume I: 1927–1939 by W. H. Auden 📚
: summing up and moving forward What are the key elements of this ongoing project I’m calling Invitation and Repair? And of what I …
: This article by Cal Newport says it’s about “slow productivity,” but as far as I can tell it’s …
: all I want to know is ... … How many would be too many? Just give me a number. How many times does this have to happen before …
: revisiting Richter A couple of weeks ago I compared Sviatoslav Richter’s playing of Bach unfavorably to Glenn Gould’s. …
: moral infections That it is at least as difficult to stay a moral infection as a physical one; that such a disease …
: When the Pandemic’s End Means the Return of Anxiety - WSJ: Taking an absolutist approach means …
: The Year of Repair One year and one day ago, I wrote: “I declare 2021 The Year of Hypomone.” As you’ll see if you read …
: circumlocution A memorable moment from Dickens’s Little Dorrit: ‘May I inquire how I can obtain official …
: A number of trees here are convinced that it’s still autumn.
: practices In an earlier post I mentioned Lauren Winner’s book The Dangers of Christian Practice. Let me try to …
: The Virtual Sir John Soane’s Museum is great. I love the Model Room.
: two quotations on web3 Ameera Kawash: Web3 aims to seize on the communicative motives of social media and fuse them more …
: Currently reading: Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens 📚
: “The Wood of Error,” from Robert Rauschenberg’s drawings of Dante’s Inferno
: formation and martyrdom Continuing here to lay the groundwork for future reflection, opening questions rather than answering …
: Sidney was right Sir Philip Sidney: I conclude, therefore, that [the poet] excels history, not only in furnishing …
: Currently reading: History of England (Volume I) by David Hume 📚
: Against Champagne Socialists: The reality is that for many people, publicly expressing ideology is …
: We found our old friend Nelson! – missing for many years. (Long ago a friend from South Africa …
: Currently reading: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins 📚
: Chilly and lovely morning in the neighborhood today.
: William Deresiewicz: No, secularism cannot reassure us that the universe is governed by a …
: Rowan Williams: Our ancestors, right up to the modern age, knew they were fragile. A brief period …
: I don’t often read the New York Times, but when I do, I prefer to use lynx.
: Karth Barth, in a 1934 talk: For what we have experienced in Germany during these latter days — …
: Currently reading: The First Kingdom: Britain in the Age of Arthur by Max Adams 📚
: 361 years ago today Later they “affirmed to the last that if they had been deceived, the Lord himself was their …
: equipment In his great essay “Literature as Equipment for Living,” Kenneth Burke argues that proverbs may be …
: Phatic Pharting In Ozu’s late film Good Morning, the primary engine of conflict, which is also to say the primary …
: Currently reading: The Selected Letters of Wallace Stegner by Wallace Stegner 📚
: Really glad to get this fine book in the mail. Isaac has pulled off a very difficult task here: his …
: why? Let me just say a bit more about why I’m doing this Buy Me a Dragon thing. My thinking can be …
: the cross-pressured self In a key passage of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor writes: Although we respond to it very …
: First newsletter of the new year!
: an artifact of scale David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters: We tried this strategy [telling people about the incorrect …
: Special Relationships If I had another lifetime at my disposal, here’s a book I’d like to write. Special Relationships: …
: FYI: I am doing Big Blogging again, and if you want to support that you can buy me a dragon.
: It was 80º here an hour ago – tomorrow morning it’ll be 22º.
: Buy Me a Dragon If you look to the top of this page, you’ll see something new: a Buy Me a Dragon link. Now, before …
: Glenn Gould had a famously complex and dynamic personality; Sviatoslav Richter was, by contrast, …
: Cheers, London. Wish I were visiting you right about now.
: readers reading, disagreeing I have decided that I want 2022 to be a Year of Re-Reading — it would be rash for me to say that I …
: Weil and justice Jacqueline Rose: As Zaretsky points out, there is no one thread running through [Simone Weil’s] …
: Currently reading: Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens 📚
: The Jesuit church, Mount Street Gardens, London (a few years ago). Looking through some of my London …
: Currently reading: Freud: The Making of an Illusion by Frederick Crews 📚
: the mirror The good folks at Plough have produced an e-book featuring two early Christian texts, and Rowan …
: two kinds of writer the design of time - by Sara Hendren: The learner, whether student or reader, can come with you from …
: Currently reading: The Control of Nature by John McPhee 📚
: Super-Fancies from Caught by the River
: intimacy Edward Mendelson: Many academics are far too sophisticated to take seriously the thought that …
: here I am again Well, my abandonment of this blog lasted less than a month. Here’s why, in a word: tags. When I …
: reviews and essays, hidden I have reposted here on this site a number of my essays and reviews, originally published elsewhere, …
: Here’s a terrific conversation at The New Atlantis about whether it’s possible to write …
: Currently reading: The Sound of Mountain Water: The Changing American West by Wallace Stegner 📚
: A Christmas edition of the newsletter.
: Renovations to our parish church continue apace, including a lovely new rose window.
: Joan Didion, “Holy Water” (1977): Some of us who live in arid parts of the world think about water …
: Matt Mullenweg: “As more and more of our lives start to be run and dictated by the technology we …
: Currently reading: Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the …
: Scott Alexander: Science communicators are using the same term — “no evidence” — to mean: This …
: I got an email from the University of Austin saying: “Since we launched last month, our promise to …
: Matt Stoller: “The amount of utopian bullshit and fake promises on a technology that doesn’t really …
: James Rebanks, English Pastoral: One morning as I was waiting by the church with the other boys and …
: Currently reading: English Pastoral: An Inheritance by James Rebanks 📚
: Cecilia D’Anastasio: “The idea of the metaverse has reemerged under a new sky. The current …
: From Alex Ross’s terrific interview with Jonny Greenwood: There are scenes in “Spencer” that …
: “In God We Trust” should be retired as our national motto and replaced with Homer Simpson’s line: …
: Maybe it’s just because I live in Texas, but when I read techno-optimistic pieces like this one I …
: This essay in the Economist gives a pretty good idea of what level of social control would be …
: N. S. Lyons: At this point, you might be wondering why Communist Party media apparatchiks now sound …
: Katharine Park: “Every time I read something in The New York Times that Leonardo da Vinci had to …
: New issue of my newsletter – featuring fakery, a cathedral builder, and an Advent poem – …
: Friedrich Kittler (1992): “I am adamantly in favor of the clean separation of the inorganic from the …
: Treat ev’ry man according to his deserts, and who should ‘scape a scathing takedown?
: My local coffee shop (Dichotomy) takes Christmas very seriously.
: Brilliant essay by Mark Lilla on Julien Benda: “Our century will properly be called the century of …
: Kevin Kelly: “Security on a network is equivalent to pollution coming from a small source. If …
: Samuel Johnson, from his “Life of Milton”: It is told that in the art of education …
: Finished reading: The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David …
: Currently reading: Stone Age Economics by Marshall Sahlins 📚
: 12 Get Back Moments You Need to Know to Act Like You Watched the Whole Thing — I mean, yeah, if …
: My colleague Perry Glanzer is 100% correct: The reality is, when it comes to faculty formation, the …
: David Brooks with a shrewd inquiry: Donald Trump is the near-opposite of the Burkean conservatism …
: James Hankins: “One clear change [in historical scholarship] was the coverage of what my …
: Here in Waco we get “SpaceX thunder”: reverberations from the rocket testing site …
: Lovely New Yorker -ish image on the cover of the LRB.
: Adam Roberts again: I argue that how we configure the birth of the genre [of science fiction] has …
: New issue of my newsletter today – and as always, the version on the Comment website looks …
: Adam Roberts: Let’s say Hogarth sees religion less in terms of mystic or transcendent aesthetic …
: The Tufte theme by @pimoore is just amazing. With its shortcodes you could use micro.blog as a …
: As someone whose guitar playing is severely compromised by damage to my fingers – thanks to …
: heads up I’ve been re-thinking my approach to blogging, and here’s my decision: Blogging has been rather …
: Hogarth Ferdinand Mount on the new Hogarth exhibition at the Tate Britain: Here we need, I think, to notice …
: language, language Ian Leslie: Capitalism, fascism, neo-liberalism, structural racism, transphobia, wokeness: these …
: tribulation Hannah Anderson in Christianity Today: Just as we do not choose our biological families of origin, …
: A brother once came to one of the desert fathers saying, "My mind is intent on God." The old man …
: imagination Adrian Vermeule: The radicals, the extremists, the idealists, the critics, the dissenters, the …
: From this lovely profile of Miyazaki. Also, I definitely need a Totoro and a Catbus for Christmas.
: Raymond Tallis, making a profound point: “Irrationality is a luxury that can be enjoyed only because …
: The Coddling of American Children Is a Boon to Beijing - WSJ: My son is not a genius, but he …
: How Facebook and Google fund global misinformation | MIT Technology Review: Over the last few …
: two quotations on disagreement Michael Oakeshott: The view dies hard that Babel was the occasion of a curse being laid upon …
: I don’t think that Freddie needs to, or for that matter should, reply further to any …
: symbolic manipulation Matt Yglesias: A lot of today’s politics is taken up with issues that are not just cultural, but …
: incremental Ross Douthat: Both decadence and chronic ailments cut against the human tendency to imagine a crisis …
: O God, who endowed your servant Hugh with a wise and cheerful boldness and taught him to commend to …
: against the state Justin E. H. Smith: Who among these groups is “Indigenous”? We might in this case feel this is the …
: FiveThirtyEight: I asked each of the interviewees what they would do if I waved a magic wand and …
: corruption From a brilliant essay by Matt Crawford: One of the most striking features of the present, for …
: representation Adam Roberts: Representation in the sense of ‘how texts figure and inscribe the world and its …
: a way forward An outstanding contribution to my Invitation and Repair project (see the tag at the bottom of this …
: unbribed The Magnificent Bribe — Real Life: Nearly 50 years ago, long before smartphones and social media, …
: alliances George Scialabba: [Wendell] Berry is a serious Christian, and also a serious reader of poetry. His …
: Freddie deBoer: Those institutions that actually hurt the oppressed you can only oppose with the …
: Katharine Hayhoe: We think of climate change as a separate issue on our priority list, but the only …
: Wendell Berry (1991): I. Properly speaking, global thinking is not possible. Those who have …
: Gladden Pappin: Many conservatives tend to assume that economic outcomes in capitalist economies …
: UATX Pano Kanelos: We expect to face significant resistance to this project. There are networks of …
: John Tooby: To earn membership in a group you must send signals that clearly indicate that you …
: This by Kevin Kelly is useful: “Class 1 problems are caused by technology that is not perfect, and …
: The complexity of our present trouble suggests as never before that we need to change our present …
: No one is sure what Blake meant by mentioning ‘dark, Satanic mills’ as part of what Jesus would have …
: Charlie Eaton: Between 1980 and 2016, the wealthiest 1 percent of university endowments had already …
: Michael Lind: The contemporary American university is an enormous Kafkaesque bureaucracy teetering …
: two quotations on the metaverse Nick Carr: Facebook, it’s now widely accepted, has been a calamity for the world. The obvious …
: hiatus This will be my last post on this blog in 2021: I’m shutting down for the rest of the year. I’ll …
: topics This is related, in a way, to my previous post: After reading yet another invitation-disinvitation …
: motives For more than 20 years now, I’ve been writing occasionally on the theme of motives, always making …
: 'Cause this life is a farce I can't breathe through this mask Like a fool
: engagement Marianna Spring, BBC News: All the main social media companies say they don't promote hate on their …
: mediocrity and acceptance This reflection by Tim Stillman articulates a lot of what I, as an often unwilling but helpless …
: bad dispensations The idea that we must choose between two intolerant illiberalisms, one on the Right and one on the …
: It is not that the documentary hypothesis is necessarily wrong in substance; Genesis is clearly made …
: “This time the old mother has forgotten the old creature’s birthday, which if I am not mistaken …
: the beginning of politics Leah Libresco Sargeant on an “illiberalism of the weak”: To give an honest accounting of ourselves, …
: Arnold Kling: If you use your economics, then no matter how complex the supply-chain problems might …
: There’s a lot of talk around here about Baylor’s being “an unambiguously Christian university.” I …
: a brief note on narrative Recently I've come across a number of pieces dismissing or critiquing the idea of “narrative” – the …
: Am I a different person when I travel? Yes. A stressed and unhappy person.
: My friend Matt Milliner: Christians have long credited the pagan poet Virgil, in his fourth …
: a Black cop's son It turns out that one of the most essential cultural commentators in America today is a 74-year-old …
: Nobody today could write Cassirer’s Essay on Man, just as nobody could write Pico della Mirandola’s …
: the Noriko Triptych (In what follows I’m not saying anything that’s not well-known to film buffs, but, as always on this …
: Justin E. H. Smith: To say that On the Situations and Names of Winds is a “pseudo-Aristotelian” …
: Paper Electronic Literature It’s cool when a friend publishes a new book: And even cooler when that book contains a chapter on …
: From a New York Times correction: The article also misstated the number of Covid hospitalizations …
: Vertigo Recently I re-watched both Citizen Kane and Vertigo, with the purpose of trying to understand how it …
: I am of course WEIRD, but it just occurred to me that as a Cis-Het Able-bodied White Man I am also a …
: Kareem weighs in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, on his Substack: Clearly, [Andrew Wiggins is] afraid that the vaccine will …
: the perils of translation I had been very much looking forward to Sarah Ruden’s translation of the Gospels, but now that I …
: trainings My friend and colleague Elizabeth Corey and her co-author Jeffrey Polet have written an essay for …
: David French: We cannot be empathetic only to our allies. We cannot allow fear of law enforcement …
: The Greenwald has a point about the current anti-Facebook energy: The social media giant hurts …
: governance by image In Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936), the factory in which the Tramp works in the opening scenes …
: poem and antipoem David Lowery's The Green Knight is a wonderful movie, but it shouldn't be thought of as an …
: Hire this man for the School for Scale!
: Trying and failing to capture a beautiful crescent moon this pre-dawn I accidentally made an …
: Nothing has caused the human race so much trouble as intelligence. — Stella (Thelma Ritter) in …
: speaking truth to power Daring Fireball: From a usability perspective, every single thing about Safari 15’s tabs is a …
: Criterion The other day Teri and I were streaming an old movie and had to give up after half-an-hour or so. …
: Christians and the biopolitical Matthew Loftus: Christians must develop and encourage practices of suffering that accompany those …
: deracination Paul Kingsnorth: This process accelerates under its own steam, as Weil explained, because “whoever …
: End titles for A Hard Day’s Night
: medicine as religion Giorgio Agamben: It has been evident for quite a while that science has become our time’s religion, …
: compliance Jeannie Suk Gersen: If, in the face of scientific findings, one lets go of the view that trigger …
: taverns and churches Nicholas Orme: Looking at the rows and rows of seats in an English church, some of them dating back …
: news as religion Matt Taibbi: Surveys found a third of Republicans think the asymptomatic don’t transmit Covid-19, …
: indices Lots of enjoyable coverage of Dennis Duncan’s new and wonderfully titled Index, A History of the. …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: strawberries Adam, I have a story to tell you. It concerns strawberries. When I was a boy in Birmingham, Alabama, …
: The Washington Post: “The metaverse, to Sweeney, would be an expansive, digitized communal …
: random Foundational thoughts There was absolutely no reason to believe, at any point in the development of this series, that it …
: A fun little acquisition. Text by Arthur C. Clarke.
: waiting I made an interesting discovery yesterday. (I’m sure others have already noticed it, but the insight …
: neighbors Samuel Goldman: While it's not much like European nation-states, the U.S. has plenty of …
: So let me get this straight: From plants you’ve developed sentient chickens, and you expect me to …
: the Mondragon moment In 1990, for a then-new magazine called First Things, the historian Christopher Lasch wrote about …
: James O’Donnell: Detachment and objectivity are not to be found in the Confessions. Analysis of …
: underwriting democracy From an interview with James Davison Hunter: In this tangle between very powerful institutions and …
: How does Le Carré get higher billing than I do?? UPDATE: My essay is now online.
: John Shelby Spong John Shelby Spong is dead. If he had been an intelligent man, he would have developed more coherent …
: scholars A scholar can never become a philosopher; for even Kant was unable to do so but, the inborn pressure …
: On the one hand, your noble and essential work is being mocked. On the other hand, it’s being mocked …
: a church in crisis Russell Moore: First-century Athens, Greece, was just as intellectually averse to Christianity as …
: When you’re teaching Thomas Aquinas and are trying to fill in the theological background, you need a …
: Envoy repeat old incantations of humanity fables and legends because this is how you will attain the good …
: numbers Paul Kingsnorth: The impacts of a society predicated on boundless economic growth via boundless …
: Very nice to see from Crossway these lovely new editions of some of Jim Packer’s books.
: The Honky-Tonk Nun of Ethiopia Via Ted Gioia. “There is no genre for funky Ethiopian nuns.”
: Mid-century modern lives on.
: ebooks bad This Ian Bogost essay on e-books is an oddity, in the sense that about a decade ago we had thousands …
: R.I.P. Norm You know, I think about my deathbed a lot. What do you think about it? I think I should never have …
: “Hemorrhoids are not to be feared, as human nature is much more fearsome than hemorrhoids.”
: This by Jonathan Liew is beautiful: Certainly this final felt like a turning point of sorts: a …
: where have you gone, Hamburger University? I just spent a few days in Chicagoland, visiting dear old friends and my very dear son. I got a deal …
: Katherine J. Wu: Eventually, all discussions about sterilizing immunity become nerdy quibbles over …
: One thing I don’t understand (and I’ve read a good deal of legal commentary on this issue) about …
: beyond the strongman In a previous post I wrote: This tension between the ancient vessels of culture and what they …
: we all know but won't say Freddie deBoer: I just don’t believe people, on this issue. When they say that they think all …
: the coolest people from my home town
: the breaking of the inherited vessels But the Enlightenment has for us a strange form of continuing life: everything about it seems alien, …
: Well now, this is a more innovative adaptation than I thought it would be. As I said, research is …
: afterwards This lovely post by my friend Wesley Hill on carrying and using a Bible reminds me of a question I …
: Elon's plan Charlie Stross: Musk owns Tesla Energy. And I think he's going to turn a profit on Starship by …
: just for the record Matt Taibbi has posted a newsletter edition in which he complains about what he calls a …
: on me Wyatt Mason on Jon Fosse's Septology: The practice of prayer, the practice of painting, the …
: Across the Borderline “Across the Borderline” was a big hit for Willie Nelson, and when Willie covers a song it’s usually …
: and so it begins This feels like a big one, and is certainly a harbinger of things to come. We’ve had major rock …
: If we do not now have evidence that Mikel Arteta is incapable of managing this side, then what would …
: Me to my wife: Hey babe, I have good news and bad news. Teri: Give me the good news first. Me: The …
: Lady Day and Coleman Hawkins
: As I write, all of the ICU beds in McLennan County, where I live, are occupied. The vast majority …
: hubris David French: A conservative doctor recently told me that after January 6th he “unplugged.” He …
: Or 0.07% of those vaccinated. This is so depressing, bc it reflects that we can’t cover any sort of …
: The issue of Oliver Burkeman’s newsletter The Imperfectionist reminded me of something he …
: too lazy for long marches The phrase “long march through the institutions” is often attributed to Antonio Gramsci, but in fact …
: Proud, brave, honorable by its lights, courteous, personally generous, loyal, swift to act, often …
: Adam Roberts: I’m wondering if we could theorise Twitter itself as a huge, sprawling and continually …
: George MacDonald, “The Voice of Job”: In the confusion of Job’s thoughts — how could they be other …
: Our social science may make us very wise or clever as regards the means for any objectives we might …
: bookmarking Since 2009, I’ve been keeping my bookmarks online in service called Pinboard. It’s a …
: Letter Makers [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“560”]lithograph from …
: Dangerous Work at Low Tide [caption id=“attachment_40577” align=“aligncenter” …
: Duty Boat [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1418”]Duty Boat (1940); …
: a new theory of propaganda (An idea for a book I’ll never write) One of the most famous scenes of George Orwell’s Nineteen …
: thoughts on Glass And by Glass I mean this. Holy cow is it beautiful. I’ve seen people saying “This is what Instagram …
: the Stupids Garret Keizer: More than the parade of people walking into lampposts while gawking at their phones; …
: We thought the nightmarish winter storm we had in February had killed our oleander, but we cut it …
: Maybe it’s time to bring these out of mothballs?
: two quotations on innovation and influence Joseph Bernstein: Facebook is full of ugly memes and boring groups, ignorant arguments, sensational …
: Permanent Crisis Paul Reitter and Chad Wellmon’s Permanent Crisis: The Humanities in a Disenchanted Age will be on …
: thinking and rationality Reading this Joshua Rothman piece about rationality, I finally realized how my account in How to …
: A random note: early in Shakespeare’s Henry V, the Archbishop of Canterbury constructs an elaborate …
: departments of knowledge Every department of Knowledge we see excellent and calculated towards a great whole. I am so …
: Wes at his first Cubs game, 30 June 1999. He’s singing “Take Me Out to the Ball …
: Tolkien and Auden J. R. R. Tolkien and his wife Edith with their grandson Simon, at their home on Sandfield Road, …
: When it gets hot and dry the Lindheimer’s beeblossom seems to become very happy.
: Orbanistas [I had here an Andrew Sullivan quote about the recent right-wing fascination with Viktor Orban and …
: assessment Brentford 2-0 Arsenal: A fair result, accurately reflecting the quality of the two sides and their …
: caricatures We enjoy caricatures of our friends because we do not want to think of their changing, above all, …
: more on geoengineering As a follow-up to my recent post on climate change and the various means of addressing it, see this …
: The Deep Places I’ve just read Ross Douthat’s forthcoming memoir The Deep Places and it is truly exceptional: a …
: Bible reading II This is a follow-up to my recent post on not reading the Bible. There I quoted Heidegger on the …
: Roberts on Taylor My friend Adam Roberts is doing a read-through of Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age, and I started to …
: pure speculation Kim Stanley Robinson’s most recent novel, The Ministry for the Future, begins with a long and …
: by the numbers Here in Waco, as in many parts of the country, COVID–19 cases and hospitalizations are spiking. I …
: gratitude From an essay of mine about Terrence Malick: In 1978, the year I turned twenty, I was a film buff — …
: When I read this story, I had one immediate thought: Facebook will close the loophole that allows …
: Milo again I’ve written before in praise of our wonderful local restaurant Milo, but we haven’t been able to …
: Forty-one years ago today this wonderful woman married me. I still can’t believe it.
: As a follow-up to my recent posts on vaccination — one and two — I just want to say that it’s …
: unknown unknowns In the first printing of my biography of the Book of Common Prayer, I say that Thomas Cranmer was a …
: An Italian born in Texas named Jacobs has just won an Olympic gold medal … this Italophile Texan …
: open letter from a distinguished surgeon I confess to experiencing not merely disquiet but also exhaustion, in the face of endless demands …
: good Sarah Perry is trying to be good: she trained as a vaccinator, sought to help. But being good is …
: On Not Reading the Bible The title of this post is the title of a book I have, for about twenty years now, thought of …
: the fault This is prompted largely by Robin Sloan’s comments on comments. A decade ago I was active on …
: beats me Over the past ten days I’ve been thinking a good deal about my friend Michael Brendan Dougherty’s …
: separate ... but equal? Arnold Kling: I don’t want to see politicians get involved in what should and should not be taught. …
: two questions After reading Elizabeth Bruenig’s remarkable article on a recent contretemps at Yale Law School — …
: So grateful for the time at Laity Lodge with these dear people.
: citizens I’ve just returned from Laity Lodge, where I had a glorious time with my dear friend Wesley Hill: …
: Every time I’m at Laity Lodge I take pictures of this Japanese maple, because the light is …
: He likes parsley, I have too much parsley. So we’re cool.
: the Campanile of Giotto John Ruskin, Tracery from the Campanile of Giotto in Florence; in The Seven Lamps of Architecture
: tablets When the iPad came out, more than a decade ago, I tweeted that I didn’t especially want an iPad but …
: Shadow Kingdom An amazing show, but too short. The best versions I’ve ever heard of “Queen Jane Approximately” and …
: Sant'Andrea al Quirinale From the Met. Bernini’s Sant’Andrea al Quirinale in Rome is to me the most beautiful of churches. I …
: asymmetrical charity I mean my title to describe a peculiarity of the current Pope, who speaks often of the need for …
: passing Freddie deBoer writing about his sense that what Wesley Yang calls the “successor ideology” might be …
: Earlier this year we planted this burgundy-leaved crepe (or crape) myrtle and (a) it’s …
: literary journalism In the preface to Continuities, a collection of his reviews and essays written for magazines, the …
: linkages As Eve Tushnet has reminded us, “Mercy to the guilty is the only kind of mercy there is,” which is …
: evasions and approaches Above is a painting on the wall of the Commandery, a building said to have been built as a hospital …
: dialogue In an age when the word “dialogue” has acquired so potent a charge of verbal magic, it is worth …
: two quotations: great words and grand themes Connie went slowly home to Wragby. 'Home!'...it was a warm word to use for that great, weary warren. …
: a reminder When social media companies say they can’t do anything about filthy, racist abuse on their …
: thoughts after 90 minutes Southgate set up to play for penalties, and he just might get his wish. Chiellini spent the entire …
: Ross Douthat: By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one …
: One thing about this wild, wild country It takes a strong, strong It breaks a strong, strong mind — …
: orbital obliquity SciTech Daily: Planets which are tilted on their axis, like Earth, are more capable of evolving …
: revisiting People keep asking, but I don’t have anything to add to the current brain-dead kerfuffle over …
: le mot juste Will Oremus: Asked for comment on Facebook Bulletin, Substack spokeswoman Lulu Cheng Meservey said, …
: more on sexual difference My friend Adam Roberts’s response to my Tiptree-and-difference post pushes me to clarify a few …
: difference Lately I’ve been re-reading the stories that Alice B. Sheldon wrote under the name James Tiptree, …
: credit Thomas Tuchel is known as a skilled practitioner of modern atacking football, but when he got to …
: tales of technocracy The chief theme of my book The Year of Our Lord 1943 is that, in the midst of World War II, a series …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: the Hitchens unit You know, we could really get into the spirit of modern administration and come up with a way to …
: DEI Alex Small: That brings us to a final problem with [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] statements in …
: the rotting internet Jonathan Zittrain: Some colleagues and I joined those investigating the extent of link rot in 2014 …
: writing a Life Over at the Hog Blog, I've written about Herman Hesse -- more specifically, about a passage from The …
: the real Adorno Alexander Stern: Because of his influential analysis of fascism, his complex critique of capitalist …
: economies When, in August 1860, John Ruskin published an essay in Cornhill Magazine – an essay that would …
: on re-reading Acts I’ve been re-reading the book of Acts, and my chief response this time is: It’s wonderfully …
: editing tools The kind of work I’m doing right now — my critical edition of Auden’s book The Shield of Achilles — …
: civil disagreement John Rose, on classes he teaches at Duke University: To get students to stop self-censoring, a few …
: two quotations: work Erin Griffith (2019): Welcome to hustle culture. It is obsessed with striving, relentlessly …
: Are you still there? Nick Carr: Late Tuesday night, just as the Red Sox were beginning a top-of-the-eleventh rally …
: Bible reading in style I’ve written on several earlier occasions — e.g. here — about the delightful creativity of the good …
: Little Platoons Matt Feeney's Little Platoons: A Defense of Family in a Competitive Age is a fascinating and …
: Barney Ronay: Chekhov came up with the idea of the shotgun above the mantelpiece. If there’s a gun …
: two poems in support of my recent posts If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction, we lessen the importance of their deprivation. We …
: A tiny pendant to the previous post: One of the ways I try to maintain the very possibility of …
: managers and givers I have written frequently on this blog about what I call metaphysical capitalism, and that …
: two constitutions Michael Lind: Today Americans live under two constitutions: the political constitution and the …
: giving breath back to the dead Justin E. H. Smith: History in general is easily manipulable, and can always be applied for the …
: Attention! (a summary) I obviously write about a good many things, but over the last decade my work has been largely …
: Thoughts on the Euros: 1 1. The Christian Eriksen story, of course, continues to loom large. It was a beautiful moment when …
: chirography Dear reader, I’m sure you have a tough job, but reflect on this: You don’t have to try to decipher …
: This was quite the find at the used book store. Wild Flowers of the United States was a 15-book …
: Texas FM 187 (one of the prettiest drives in the Hill Country) above Vanderpool
: Betjeman & Burnham You probably don’t expect to see an essay that links John Betjeman and Bo Burnham. I certainly …
: Gorey as designer Rosemary Hill on Edward Gorey: Gorey’s first book, The Unstrung Harp, was published in 1953, the …
: MbM People get paid to do minute-by-minute reports on matches, but they’re never as good as the …
: Sourdough Auden used to say that he had a kind of guardian angel who was always there to tell him what to read …
: Thanks be to God that Christian Eriksen is alive, and I pray that he will make a full recovery. But …
: Wondering how to decide what to read? Here’s a simple but effective heuristic to cut down the …
: a kind of parable In yesterday’s post I mentioned the upsurge in the British public’s interest in art during the …
: Out of Chaos Jill Craigie (1911-1999) was an extraordinary and (in my country anyway) insufficiently well-known …
: Bird Basket Henry Moore, Bird Basket (1939)
: All Saints Chapel John Piper, All Saints Chapel, Bath (1942); Tate Britain: "Piper already had a reputation as a …
: Covehithe Church John Piper, Covehithe Church (1983); Tate Britain
: not giving up One way to describe the Invitation and Repair project is to say that it’s for people who haven’t …
: Conservatives tell me that we’re right on the verge of a hard-left takeover of the entire country, …
: le mot juste Maurice Bowra was an Oxford don legendary for his social activities, his malicious wit, and his …
: Light Perpetual And speaking of novels by friends, Francis Spufford’s Light Perpetual is now available in the U.S. I …
: the meaning of Purgatory I read Adam Roberts’s Purgatory Mount in draft, and struggled to know what to make of it. I have now …
: Berlins One of the best stories in Michael Ignatieff’s biography of Isaiah Berlin involves a luncheon hosted …
: Collett's England One of Auden’s favorite books was Anthony Collett’s The Changing Face of England (1926), and it’s …
: In the Hebrew school, sitting on plank benches with timber-cutters' children, Isaiah received his …
: re: Foucault A brief and belated thought on Ross Douthat’s column on Foucault and conservatism: It’s worth noting …
: habituation We all know — though we don’t think of it often enough — that through highlighting and repeating …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: mythos About that Current Affairs essay ... I think it’s pretty much wholly wrong. It’s true that …
: Kevin Williamson: On Memorial Day, we remember those who took up arms because they thought their …
: It has rained so much in the past month that our live oaks are getting moss on them as though we …
: partners Whenever I hear someone refer to their husband, wife, spouse — even their Significant Other, a …
: the death of journalism From Charlie Warzel’s newsletter: Julia Marcus: I’m fairly new to Twitter but it’s felt to me that …
: Last year, over at the Hog Blog, I wrote a post on my sudden love-affair with garden shears. Now I …
: abandoned From Katie Wignall’s new book Abandoned London
: Hockney's Rake David Hockney’s set designs for the 1975 performance of The Rake’s Progress at the Glyndebourne …
: I have long had an intense hatred of the telephone — even in the face of eloquent testimonials like …
: When, in the 1930s, Auden was teaching at The Downs School, he decided that the students should …
: Yet the noble despair of the poets Is nothing of the sort; it is silly To refuse the tasks of time …
: ”The intellectual arrogance of clever people, intolerable though it often is, is nothing to the …
: linkage “Now there’s this fame business. I know it’s going to go away. It has to. This so-called mass fame …
: goods and harms Jonathan Zimmerman: A few years ago, I invited Mary Beth Tinker to meet with my undergraduate class …
: China's intellectual future Epistemic confidence level: very low. I don’t really know what I’m talking about here, though I’m …
: plus ça change Most poets in the West believe that some sort of democracy is preferable to any sort of totalitarian …
: pluralities One of the most fundamental ideas that Auden held in the 1950s — the period of his career that I’m …
: next steps Work on the Invitation & Repair project has basically come to a halt, and there are three major …
: thick and thin I taught for many years at Wheaton College, which has a detailed Statement of Faith that everyone on …
: David French: In white Evangelicalism the true challenge of “wokeness” isn’t that congregations …
: step by step Jonah Goldberg: For five years now, we’ve watched as one political and psychological levee after …
: changing priors, changing life I taught a a class last term called Philosophy and Literature, and for our last book we read Plato …
: Ted Gioia: I’m not a Hollywood scriptwriter, but if I were, I know what screenplay I’d write. …
: Underworld I tried to read Don DeLillo’s Underworld more than 20 years ago, and got about 500 pages in before I …
: From an extraordinary essay by Paul Kingsnorth: It kept happening, for months. Christ to the left …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: orbit These are things I think about a lot. I can only answer briefly now, because having returned home I …
: bits and pieces I am just back from a visit to my son in Chicago and the rest of my family in Alabama, and am still …
: My sister lives out in the country, in the ridge-and-valley terrain of northeastern Alabama, so this …
: This is my sister’s dog Bella. Bella is a rescue and a very good girl.
: Cardinal Newman distinguished between notional and real assent to a given proposition. Since I wrote …
: This is either the cover of the Turkish edition of Breaking Bread with the Dead or else the album …
: Re: the Substackfication-of-journalism stuff I’ve been writing about lately, this interview with Ted …
: expectations A few times over the past several years I have written to organizations of various sorts to ask them …
: three characters in search of forgiveness In his online notebook, my friend Adam Roberts is reflecting on a certain kind of fictional …
: When you’re out for a walk but really don’t want to have to deal with people. Very relatable.
: exhaustion Freddie might be indulging in a bit of exaggeration for rhetorical effect here, responding to the …
: how to read stuff posted online Very few sites on the internet are meant to facilitate reading — most are, in fact, designed to …
: first signs Recently I wrote a post for the Hedgehog Review on the Substackification of journalism and whether …
: acoustic renown Kleos means both “glory” or “fame” and also “the song that ensures that glory or fame.” The noun is …
: follow the links This is the sort of thing the world needs more of. Matthew Sweet saw a tweet claiming that a …
: a bit of friendly advice Here’s my suggestion: Assume that everything everyone says on social media in the first 72 hours …
: Rome fell in a day A couple of thoughts about the collapse of the so-called European Super League. First, it’s …
: updates on this and that In the wake of the jury’s determination that Derek Chauvin is guilty of the murder of George Floyd, …
: Seventy-three years I can’t help being moved by the juxtaposition of these photographs.
: transnational capitalism in boots Jonathan Liew: Perhaps once all this has shaken out, once the imminent threat of a breakaway …
: The achievement of coherence is itself ambiguous. Coherence is not necessarily good, and one must …
: We planted this Lindheimer’s beeblossom last year, and we’re delighted that it survived …
: "the church itself does not believe" This by Russell Moore is incisive — devastatingly so: Where a “de-churched” (to use an …
: a bit of pedagogy College students are busy, so they practice triage: they decide (a) what must be done now, (b) what …
: hoti's business “Kakos really ought to suffer for doing hoti!” “Kakos did hoti?” “Of course! Haven’t you heard? It’s …
: the sprawling toolbox In one of his notebooks Wittgenstein wrote, “I don’t believe I have ever invented a line of …
: I found this to be a moving, frustrating, painful, and yet somehow also heartwarming story about a …
: touch not the unclean thing I pay for four Substack newsletters, but am on the free tier for several others, and the writers I …
: mercy Paul Kingsnorth in his new newsletter “The Abbey of Misrule”: I will attempt to write here without …
: imagine Ian Leslie: Imagine if this virus had emerged two decades ago - perfectly plausible, and nothing in …
: it's Palmer Eldritch's world, we're just living in it I’m teaching Philip K Dick’s The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch right now, and in my …
: the method It was in that class that I first began to learn that every problem, whether serious or trifling, …
: to sum up "I am neither an optimist nor a pessimist. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!" — Lesslie Newbigin …
: the spoils When, therefore, we see in Him some things so human that they appear in no way to differ from the …
: what we need Jessica Martin's Maundy Thursday homily at Ely Cathedral. From Ely today, The Preaching and …
: The Rock Church, Cranfills Gap, Texas
: strategy and vocation It’s rare for me to disagree with Ross Douthat as thoroughly as I disagree with this reflection on …
: It’s only the ambidextrous who are truly pure! As an ambidextrous person, I endorse this …
: three lessons I’ve known Erin Kissane virtually for around a decade now — our IRL paths almost crossed a few years …
: Can’t tell y’all how excited I am about this.
: Left Purity Culture Like many other people, I’m not happy with the terms “woke” and “wokeness,” but I haven’t been sure …
: stocking up Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has a problem. Their business depends almost wholly on showing movies …
: rewilding Re: this plan for rewilding large chunks of Great Britain, I like the focus on a handful of very …
: culture and value This book is written for those who are in sympathy with the spirit in which it is written. This is …
: judging capitalism This post by my friend Adam Roberts is precisely right about the total disappearance of anything …
: more on invitation So far in these posts I’ve said a good bit about repair but very little about invitation. Let me …
: R.I.P. Larry McMurtry Whatever you think of McMurtry as a writer, it’s worth reflecting on this plain fact: No other …
: indiscriminate acceptance I said grace cannot prevail until law is dead, until moralizing is out of the game. The precise …
: powers and demons The chief enemies of a culture based on invitation and repair are, in general terms, Powers and …
: Welcome, small stranger. Live long and prosper.
: a new old Prayer Book Samuel L. Bray and Drew N. Keane have produced a volume that, I may say with confidence, I will be …
: Keep your eye clear of their For and Against! There is much right there, and much wrong: whoever …
: A four-magazine mail day is my equivalent of finding a four-leaf clover.
: two quotations on the miraculous Alan Lightman: Given some ostensibly miraculous event, almost all scientists will insist on a …
: Isolatos In his brief 1949 book The Enchaféd Flood, Auden writes of what happens when communities — …
: blogging and the blogosphere Robin Sloan’s reply to my last post, which was a riff on something Robin wrote … ah, you’ll figure …
: vendoring culture Software often has dependencies, and the bigger the codebase the more dependencies the software is …
: biographies and brands This is a fascinating essay by my friend Charles Marsh. For me, there are two major elements of …
: beyond repair In his review of Ross Douthat’s book on decadence, Patrick Deneen writes: Classical authors …
: So excited about the arrival of this one.
: more on invitation and repair Rita Felski's book The Limits of Critique primarily concerns literary criticism, but its argument …
: Invitation and Repair This is the first installment of a diffuse and ill-defined project I am calling Invitation and …
: This story reminds me of an experience I had in Manhattan a few years ago. I was walking crosstown, …
: I was 100% sure that this little tree had died in the recent big freeze, but here we are!
: the new heretics Last July I wrote that we were just a few weeks away from a #BoycottSubstack hashtag, and while …
: the wait This piece by Don McNeil (which in a sane world would have appeared in the New York Times, but …
: Not everything was killed in our Big Freeze (but I fear a lot was).
: premises There’s a great story about the famous wit Sydney Smith. He was walking with a friend through one of …
: indoctrination I don’t blame people for getting alarmed by stories like this one from Bari Weiss. But there’s one …
: syllables I read once that Jorge Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda, an Argentinian and a Chilean, a conservative …
: Malcolm My friend Holly Fish made the above image for me. Call me indulgent, but I wrote today’s newsletter …
: franchise service I loved WandaVision right up to the last episode, which except for a few wonderfully moving moments …
: for another view, please see... At an especially important moment in Tim Keller’s lovely and honest essay about confronting death, …
: We said goodbye to our best friend this morning after fourteen years of endlessly delightful …
: you want it darker Damon Linker: We have stopped believing in reason's power to persuade. The right thinks the …
: This by Oliver Burkeman is exactly right: The confused public conversation about [Jordan] Peterson …
: Malcolm has become increasingly contemplative in his old age.
: My newsletter seems not to have gone out this morning, so while I’m trying to find out what …
: Currently reading: At Home by Bill Bryson 📚
: Currently reading: Either/Or: A Fragment of Life by Soren Kierkegaard 📚
: Currently reading: A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf 📚
: Currently reading: The Epistle to the Romans by Karl Barth 📚
: two quotations on technological impermanence (plus commentary) Jason Snell: Every time an app I rely on exposes its mortality, I realize that all the software I …
: not through me If you are using Clubhouse, and you agreed to their not-quite-but-almost demand to share all your …
: This story, interesting in itself, is a reminder that the only thing that anyone knows about The …
: up the Amazon I find that life is full of lines, lines I may not even know the existence of until I cross them. …
: free speech under technocracy In a recent post I commented that Amazon’s deleting of Ryan Anderson’s recent book is not a …
: I have a theory: Google has changed how college students interact with their teachers. I estimate …
: Damnatio memoriae Let’s be clear: Ryan T. Anderson’s book When Harry Became Sally has not been banned, and there are …
: two quotations on conspiracy belief Ian Leslie: The US-based online conspiracy cult QAnon played a central role in last month’s violent …
: the warming center When power was out all over Waco and the temperatures were dropping into the single digits, the city …
: Conservatism Inc. Ross Douthat, in an exceptionally insightful column: As Conservatism Inc. became more of a world …
: trade-offs It seems to me that human beings in general, and Americans in particular, stubbornly resist the idea …
: Why do Democrats want to forgive student debt but not, say, the debt that someone incurs by buying a …
: Bandcamp should be Substack for musicians I’m sure someone else has written this, but it’s on my mind, so… I'm waiting and hoping for some …
: the next wave We’re spending much of the day harvesting snow so we’ll be able to flush our toilets when the …
: two quotations on journalism Michael Brendan Dougherty: [James] Poulos holds that the old mass-media mandarins are trying to …
: cold Texas Some years ago, when I read Kim Stanley Robinson’s outstanding Science in the Capital trilogy — …
: mendacity on Eighth Avenue The other day I posted what I thought was a rather witty little aside in which I said that the New …
: Kafkaesque Is it just because I was teaching Kafka last week that I keep having these Kafkaesque experiences? …
: weighed in the balance I have never watched Fox News, but I used to read the New York Times. I therefore view both from a …
: two weather forecasts Accessed right now. I know which one I hope is correct.
: excerpt from my Sent folder: forgiveness (Reply to an email from a friend who engaged with my recent posts on this subject) Thanks so much …
: Paul, our contemporary [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“615”](The inside front …
: Much-used books are beautiful books.
: grace not abounding I want to knot some strands of rope here. Some folks have responded to my recent posts on Christian …
: negation and affirmation [Re: the writers of Job, the Psalms, Isaiah:] Their theme — and it is the proper theme of history — …
: presentism and the Present One of the major themes of my book Breaking Bread with the Dead is the danger of presentism. But …
: clarity I think peace often arises from clarity. So let’s be clear about a few things: Arsenal are a …
: qi On the one hand, it’s good to stretch yourself intellectually; on the other hand, when you do so you …
: your periodic friendly reminder of a very inconvenient truth This is a word for myself as well as for my fellow Christians. I’ve said things like this before, …
: Daoism and Cosmotechnics My recent New Atlantis essay on the way beyond what I call The Standard Critique of Technology is …
: katharsis culture A great many people have criticized the use of the term “cancel culture,” but have done so for …
: offside, handball, and VAR Nobody, and I mean nobody, in the world of soccer knows what the offside rule is. Nobody, and I mean …
: Reading this story about an obsessively malicious online troll I’m reminded that when the big tech …
: In A Writer’s Notebook (1949), Somerset Maugham wrote: “I am like a passenger waiting for his ship …
: For Malcolm, affection is like being groomed: something to tolerate if there’s a biscuit at the end …
: These are the books I’m teaching this term.
: Yesterday I posted, and then almost immediately took down, a reflection on the most recent public …
: calculations I wrote a post about love and death. UPDATE: A helpful comment from my friend Tim Larsen about …
: three quotations on journalism Matt Taibbi: People like [Margaret] Sullivan would have you believe that “balance” is a mandate to …
: the three paths The active life: The contemplative life: The social-media life:
: couldn't have said it better myself Megan McArdle: “Will is a friend, so naturally I’m dismayed by what happened. I’m also …
: Auden on education in America Reflecting on T.S. Eliot’s book Notes towards the Definition of Culture, W. H. Auden identifies what …
: la crisis del humanismo cristiano There seems to be a pretty lively conversation going on in Chile about the new Spanish translation …
: Light Perpetual I had the privilege of reading this extraordinary novel in manuscript, and I recommend it to you …
: ashes I have been clinging for months now, and expect to be clinging for years, to this word from Beth …
: unity Here’s a terrific essay by my friend Rick Gibson on George Washington’s farewell address, national …
: two quotations on prophecy Washington Post: When one QAnon channel on the chat app Telegram posted a new theory that suggested …
: why not with love? A reader of my book The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction — in which I have some harsh …
: two quotations on form We will be back in some form. — Donald Trump It seemed to be a sort of monster, or symbol …
: peacemaking Can I get an amen for this powerful reflection by Justin Giboney? It gets a hearty amen from me. …
: Now taking pre-orders for my new book, Republicans Are From Mordor, Democrats Are From Isengard.
: a little moral clarity My homie Daniel with a dose of moral clarity: At the Texas Capitol, pro-Trump protesters gathered as …
: do I feel fine? My friend Adam Roberts has recently released a delightful and provocative little book called It’s …
: I’m sure others have said this, but the best favor anyone ever did for Donald Trump was …
: two quotations on recent events The Economist: Stand back, for a moment, and consider the enormity of his actions. As president, he …
: Manorial Technocracy This morning I have a post up at the Hedgehog Review on “Our Manorial Elite.” The core idea, as …
: a time of reckoning This essay by my dear friend James Davison Hunter is absolutely essential for our moment: It is …
: The Year of Hypomone A twofold something I already knew but that I re-learned this past week: During a crisis one turns …
: for the record First time I’ve seen anything like this in my eight years in central Texas, and I strongly …
: essential reading for skeptics (and others) Some of my readers will have friends and family members who believe that the 2020 Presidential …
: looking backward I’m blogging too much, focused too much on the things of the moment, but I think the circumstances …
: scale, cont'd. The other day I published, at the Hedgehog Review site, a little dialogue on scale, and the common …
: opportunity Michael Gerson: The collapse of one disastrous form of Christian social engagement should be an …
: the new strain of covid My friends at The New Atlantis have posted an informative and slightly worrying Q&A about the …
: frivolity Dostoevsky’s Demons is often read as a denunciation of a spineless liberalism that makes way for a …
: Well, it’s nice to see how much more peaceful and orderly things are now that we’ve …
: clarity The events occurring in the United States Capitol building as I write offer a certain clarity about …
: I wrote about a new kind of school: The School for Scale.
: more education, more motivated reasoning Musa al-Gharbi: In fact, the more intelligent, educated, or rhetorically skilled one is, the less …
: Planet Earth I have a policy that I recommend to you. When I hear a politician who wants my vote, or a pundit who …
: against Trumpistan Yuval Levin: The post-election political spectacle has put the question of reality and fantasy …
: My newsletter features Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merryman.
: UMaster In a recent edition of my newsletter, I mentioned that I am something of a fanatic about sound …
: Malcolm wishes you a Happy New Year.
: a reflection Þere parfit treuthe and pouere herte is and pacience of tonge, Þere is charitee. — Piers Plowman …
: samizdat My take on this is simple: It is better for a good book not to be taught at all than be taught by …
: guilt Freddie deBoer: “That you should never feel guilty is a commonplace in this world; guilt is never an …
: gruel Francis Fukuyama: Liberalism deliberately lowered the horizon of politics: A liberal state will not …
: CRT Three hundred years ago Daniel Defoe wrote, “I believe there are a hundred thousand plain country …
: unlived This essay by Joshua Rothman has a lot to say about “unlived lives,” lives we think we might have, …
: One of Eric Ravilious's illustrations for Gilbert White's Natural History of Selborne
: muting Goodness, this post from Noah Millman is challenging. It’s about those complicated situations when …
: My local coffee shop/cocktail bar, Dichotomy, does Christmas better than anybody. Even an Advent …
: The Return of the King In Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell Susanna Clarke imagines an alternate history of England, one in …
: Two years ago, autumn in central Texas was spectacular; last year, wan; this year, pretty darn nice!
: sifting the words I have decided that reading the news in America is like listening to Gollum. Gandalf: “What I have …
: testing the spirits There is no infallible means for discerning when a religious believer has been spoken to, directly …
: the two parties The United States of America has long had a two-party political system, but it now has a two-party …
: Cosmotechnics My essay in the just-out edition of The New Atlantis — if you want to read it now, please subscribe …
: clarification I normally don’t respond to reviews, either positive or negative, but because I’m getting a good …
: Palaiphobia I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the idea of the present moment as a Power, a power in the …
: under pressure Technology Review has a good article on ex-Google employee Timnit Gebru, an AI researcher who …
: an intractable problem For anyone who thinks about the relations between the past and the present, intellectual maturity …
: re-reading Categories: Books I have read and know well and want to re-read precisely because I know them well. …
: incomprehension For decades now, James Wood has been writing about his Christian upbringing, but he has gotten …
: the Qoheleth of Austin Texas Monthly has a terrific podcast called “One by Willie," each episode of which features a …
: In which I announce Gospel of the Trees 2.0.
: I was, am, and will be here for Richard Polt’s Analog College.
: Yeah, I’ve been doing this a while. What I like about this is that it shows that I’ve …
: Theo Epstein: Baseball “is the greatest game in the world, … but there are some threats to it …
: Things many people who haven’t published don’t understand: We writers rarely have any …
: Just discovered that a fairly generous except of my biography of C. S. Lewis is available online — …
: I think this post by Ilya Somin, especially if you follow up its many useful links, raises the …
: It’s just wonderful to me that friends of mine (Erin, Amanda, Alexis, Rob), have been doing this …
: In recent weeks I’ve expressed my gratitude to my students, who have been so faithfully disciplined …
: Currently reading: A Promised Land by Barack Obama 📚
: Currently reading: The Children of Men by P. D. James 📚
: Well, I knew this was coming. And let’s be clear: Krebs was fired for telling the truth. (The …
: That’s right, I’m playing Monument Valley 2 on my Mac.
: 48º, AKA perfect napping weather for a Sheltie.
: And speaking of newsletters not on Substack, I have posted an issue this morning.
: Overall, I think the move by some of our most provocatively interesting journalists to newsletters …
: two quotations on American politics Barack Obama: The point I’ve always made to Ta-Nehisi, the point I sometimes make to Michelle, the …
: Barack Obama: “ If we do not have the capacity to distinguish what’s true from what’s false, then by …
: Cheating-detection companies made millions during the pandemic. Now students are fighting back: …
: Cheakamus Lake, Garibaldi Provincial Park, British Columbia, 2006
: Someone’s not ready for autumn.
: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has an excellent page debunking rumors of …
: I just gave our student assistant Ifeoma a boring sorting-and-filing job to do, and said, …
: mistrust An update on this post: I occasionally read NYT news stories now, for a very particular reason: the …
: All my photographs are of trees and my dog, but, you know, I yam what I yam.
: odds Chance that even one of the election lawsuits will be decided in Trump’s favor: 3% Chance that …
: Excerpt from my Sent folder: quarantine and quizzes Hello friends, A handful of you have told me that you’ll need to be quarantined for a while — I’m …
: back to the urbs Many years ago I wrote a post about living in a suburb — Wheaton, Illinois — but having a life that …
: weakness and isolation Two random, one relatively significant and one relatively trivial, thoughts on this op-ed by Ian …
: Leaves just beginning to turn, but the autumn light angles are here.
: I think we’re all bozos on this bus For the last few weeks I’ve been tinkering with a draft of a post on American incompetence — on the …
: From Baylor’s covid tracking page. My students have been amazing: their consistency in doing the …
: it’s time I read stories like this almost every day: banned from Twitter for no good reason; banned from …
: Very excited to get this little treasure from my dear friend Tim Larsen!
: rediscovery Via Patrick Rhone, I discovered this newsletter by Mo Perry, in which she discusses the Triumph of …
: the college experience Ian Bogost, speaking truth to both power and powerlessness: Without the college experience, a …
: If Then There are many books that I admire and love that I never for a moment dream I could have written. …
: Currently reading: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky 📚
: Making lunch, gazing out back, thankful for these gifts but waiting and hoping for better days for …
: When I’m on on campus I always like to spend some time chilling under the live oaks.
: I wrote a post on some features of micro.blog that more people should know about. (Maybe many of you …
: hidden features of micro.blog Micro.blog has some cool features that many users are not aware of. (They’re not really hidden, but …
: Cool enough for a hoodie on the morning walk 😯
: Currently reading: The Elementary Forms of Religious Life by Emile Durkheim 📚
: Currently reading: If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future by Jill Lepore 📚
: simple XKCD is rarely wrong, but this: — this is wrong. During that nine nine hours and fourteen minutes …
: the Great Crumping revisited A surprising number of readers of my previous post have written out of concern for my state of mind, …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: crumped I think regularly about Orwell’s “Why I Write,” and especially about the fourth of his four reasons …
: civility revisited My friend and colleague Elizabeth Corey has written a lovely defense of civility as a political …
: Let’s never see this sight again. Let’s win them all for the big green guy. ⚽️ …
: Mesut Özil, Arsenal legend and hero of humanity. ⚽️ Also, #JusticeForGunnersaurus is the single …
: individualism For the past hundred years or so, we have had a vast multifarious culture industry devoted to the …
: That’s it, Arsenal. If you don’t want Gunnersaurus you don’t want me as a supporter.
: Currently reading: Murray Bookchin Reader 📚
: Currently reading: Fear And Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard 📚
: Currently reading: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen 📚
: “not living merely for himself” In Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, Tom Bertram — the feckless, selfish, wayward elder son of Sir …
: I know there were people last night watching the debate and then live-tweeting their responses — …
: Not sure why, but our September roses are blooming with much more vivid colors than they had earlier …
: Proudhon to Marx Lyon, 17 May 1846: Let us seek together, if you wish, the laws of society, the manner in which …
: readings Gary Dorrien: Here is where Temple still matters as a theorist of guild socialism. In the early …
: two thoughts David French: “In the contest between the rights of a woman to sleep peacefully in her own home and …
: David Jones, “The Terrace” (1929)
: bundles I wonder how long before Substack starts offering discounts for subscriptions to bundles of …
: shy Geoffrey Skelley: If “shy” Trump voters were a thing, for example, you might expect a difference in …
: Well of course it’s expensive, it’s a 350-year-old book.
: Gaslighting One of the more pernicious quirks of English usage to arise in the past few years is the employment …
: limiting power As I noted in my previous post, there is no political system, no ordered social life, in which one …
: an alternative A couple of years ago Corey Robin wrote, Under capitalism, we’re forced to enter the market just to …
: advice for journalists Andrew Sullivan writes, Online is increasingly where people live. My average screen time this past …
: My son and I are sorting through the Big Issues
: disparities If Ibram X. Kendi did not exist, it would be necessary for a certain kind of conservative to invent …
: I’m a huge fan of Leuchtturm notebooks, but I’m a little concerned about their pricing.
: lessons for activists from Edmund Burke We do not draw the moral lessons we might from history. On the contrary, without care it may be used …
: the failings of biographers In this interview, C. S. Lewis’s stepson Douglas Gresham reveals facts about his upbringing, and …
: This is so cool from my buddy Austin Kleon.
: sexual politics Nick Cohen: When I canvassed working-class northern neighbourhoods for Labour in the 1980s men told …
: brand partnerships Anne Helen Peterson: The testimonies I collected last week made one thing clear: institutions …
: fascist architecture Continuing my recent habit of seeing The Lord of the Rings as the, um, One Analogy to Rule Them …
: how he got away with it In a lovely remembrance of Kołakowski, Roger Scruton muses on the question of how the Polish thinker …
: My beloved on the Rhine last fall (photo by her friend Fran).
: critique and myth In a famous footnote to the Preface of his Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant wrote, Our age is …
: Now I can intimidate my students by looking like Immortan Joe
: why racism is wrong My friend and colleague Frank Beckwith is singing my song in a recent blog post. Responding to an …
: Had to give myself a reward after my first class.
: This morning’s newsletter is about silence, and a legendary young woman of the Lakota Sioux.
: on being Bombadil I am not privy to anything that happens in the upper reaches of Baylor University’s administration, …
: Looked all over the place for my beloved this morning. Finally found her in a tree.
: summary, with tags I’ve spent some time recently sorting through my online writings, and it’s not easy, given my …
: iPad update Herewith an update to this post. Since I still don’t have a Mac I can easily use without broiling …
: so sue me I have developed a theory about academic life in America today, one that started as a kind of joke …
: wokeness as Counter-Reformation My old friend Jody Bottum thinks that the various Woke movements amount to a kind of …
: a message to my students I have been starting school each August for the past fifty-six years. A great many things have …
: This spindly rose bloomed a bit in the spring, after which it offered no blooms at all for three …
: Campus was looking lovely this morning except for the ongoing construction of tent cities.
: Texas City As several people have pointed out, the recent explosion in Beirut bears many eerie similarities to …
: hoisting the flag I mentioned on my micro.blog that I’ve been reading Stephen Harrigan’s magnificent Big Wonderful …
: shaken I have to admit that I am a bit shaken by Rod Dreher’s post yesterday — and more by the vehemence …
: putting this on the record I thinkthis post by my friend Rod Dreher is horrifying. I think Rod ought to be ashamed of himself …
: Taken on the plane back to Alabama. She was with me then, and with me through the difficult years to …
: Honeymoon over; in the airport and about to return to Alabama. If I look a little worried, I …
: Reader, she married me. Forty years ago today. I still can’t quite believe it. (Photo taken …
: I’m happy for all Gunners today, but happiest for this guy. What a class act and first-rate keeper. …
: South Fork, Guadalupe River (2017)
: This monstrous thing is ten feet tall now.
: when you feel you can't win In response to my recent post I have heard from a few (white) people who say something like this: …
: Race at Baylor Rod Dreher has a post today about a letter from Linda Livingstone, Baylor’s President. Rod’s post …
: kneeling It’s remarkable how quickly we’ve moved from a situation in which people wanted to punish athletes …
: HEY I was pretty excited when I learned about HEY, because it’s been a long time since anyone did any …
: more on the Dish Since I wrote about Andrew Sullivan’s renewed Dish, Andrew has reported that subscriptions are near …
: proportional representation Jill Lepore wrote, “One study suggests that two-thirds of Americans between the ages of fifteen and …
: plurality and unity In this essay from a couple of years ago and today’s post at the Hog Blog — the first for a …
: Remembering Jim Packer I am grieved to hear today of the death of J. I. Packer, a great evangelical Christian and a great …
: return of the Dish I’m really glad to learn that The Dish is returning — especially in a form that will allow Andrew to …
: tolerating corruption, or not Everyone knows that professional sports around the world are utterly and unfixably corrupt. Was …
: The Shield of Achilles I’ve prepared two critical editions of long poems by Auden: The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue …
: the emotional intelligence of long experience Reading this for reasons unrelated to our current kerfuffles, I came across an interesting passage: …
: Mindslaughter and the united front Isaiah Berlin’s famous essay “Two Concepts of Liberty” (delivered as a lecture in 1958) begins with …
: high time It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by …
: dog whistles A friend kindly explained to me that this post was quite badly written, so I have fixed it. Sort of. …
: out-wrathing In 2017, I was interviewed by Emma Green of the Atlantic about my book How To Think. Here’s an …
: Freddie is right Freddie deBoer: So how can someone object to an endorsement of free speech and open debate without …
: as essential as bread People often talk about the death of the humanities, or hard times for the humanities, but when they …
: Mammon Eugene McCarraher’s The Enchantments of Mammon is a remarkable book, beautifully written and …
: betwixt and between My employer, Baylor University, graciously provides me with a computer, a MacBook Pro; but it also …
: the circle game A year-and-a-half ago or thereabouts I deactivated my Twitter account and was very happy to escape …
: I wrote about sharing a typewriter (model) with Carl Reiner.
: Carl Reiner and me In a career spanning seventy years, Carl Reiner shaped the nation’s sense of humor through his …
: learning from Rod Dreher My buddy Rod Dreher has a book coming out soon called Live Not By Lies, and it’s about what American …
: Went down to the river today to make sure it’s still there. ✔️
: no, this isn’t about deconstruction Everyone’s got their wishlist, and mine, like yours, starts with an effective vaccine for COVID–19 …
: punishing the innocent Re: Yascha Mounk’s article on leftist mobs punishing the innocent: For the ones doing the mobbing, …
: Couldn’t possibly be more delighted with the blurbs for my forthcoming book.
: Jacob Epstein’s great sculpture of St. Michael’s victory over Satan at Coventry Cathedral — a …
: A more peaceful image from the same room
: Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2016)
: Hard to imagine a more damning chart. But what we will never be able to decide is who, primarily, …
: the web as it ought to be I use Safari as my default browser on the Mac, and the feature I am most thankful for is Reader …
: First tomatoes from the garden, full-size + cherry.
: Not just reading David French’s newsletter, I’m annotating it.
: unsolicited advice Here in America, it’s a news week like any other. The President retweets, for political effect, a …
: Dear Apple Dear Apple, I bought my first Apple products — the original (512k!) Macintosh and an ImageWriter …
: Ascending Wansfell Pike, 2011
: Malcolm wishes to register his approval of Dr. Kelly and her place.
: Took Malcolm to his vet, Dr. Kelly, today. She works mainly on horses and so her place is out in the …
: Jemez River, New Mexico, 2017
: last word on critical theory In these posts on “critical theory,” I’m doing what I pretty much always do: I am separating and …
: Christians and critical theory Here’s the question I mentioned in my last post: What should be the Christian’s response to critical …
: more on “critical theory” This is not the promised follow-up to my recent post on fear, but it certainly concerns related …
: fear In the most recent issue of his newsletter, David French writes, The fear of the Christian “best” is …
: Malcolm has just had an exciting game of garden hose to celebrate his birthday. He’s 13 today! …
: getting back to the open web via micro.blog I was a Kickstarter backer of micro.blog and an early enthusiast, but I eventually drifted away from …
: more on the mania for unanimity Theodore Dalrymple writes, Lewis Hamilton, the six-time world champion British Formula One driver, …
: stochastic resonance in reading Stochastic resonance (SR) is a phenomenon where a signal that is normally too weak to be detected by …
: not so much On January 25, Joe Biden tweeted that “Transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time.” …
: a green thought in a green shade
: I’m just taking picture after picture of my garden because (a) I like growing flowers and (b) …
: tiptoe stance I’ve read several articles and posts recently featuring the same conceit: that COVID–19 and police …
: two quotes by Jesse Singal One: I am not arguing for a return to some sort of view-from-nowhere style of journalism. I have no …
: technocracy is impossible I’m re-reading Kim Stanley Robinson‘s magnificent Mars trilogy right now, which might be something …
: A Canticle Yesterday I got a sweet email from my friend Francis Spufford, expressing his prayerful concern for …
: public health and economic balance Public health depends on economic balance. Basil and Ambrose both condemned as toxic the economic …
: in the day of trouble Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech thee that we may …
: lessons from the past Once I saw how things were going I got away from Twitter and stopped checking my RSS reader. I …
: my expert opinion Americans have never more desperately needed reliable knowledge than we do now; also, Americans have …
: St. Mark’s I love these pencil sketches by Ruskin that he later filled in with watercolor or colored pencil
: Loggia of the Doge’s Palace John Ruskin
: “Titanic insanity” And among such false means largeness of scale in the dwelling-house was of course one of the easiest …
: “I hated it with, like, a powerful hate” David Lynch
: on misunderstanding critical theory Recently there’s been a lot of talk among conservatives about “critical theory,” and it’s been …
: fifteen years ago Teri took this picture of Wes and me on our visit here This is where we were headed (photo by me)
: serious questions for churches The question I would ask churches that are re-opening without masks or distancing, but with lots of …
: thread Nothing is stupider than using Twitter to write anything longer than, you know, a tweet. This we …
: Wittgenzen In a new and extra-special edition of his newsletter, Robin Sloan writes about why he likes texts …
: deep literacy? The problem here is the lack of evidence that “deep literacy” really is in decline. Decline from …
: mail time When I was writing my previous post I dug through my ancient folder of correspondence — which …
: what to say about First Things? People keep writing to me about the Reno Incident, usually wanting to know what I think it says …
: QAnon: costs and benefits Adrienne LaFrance on QAnon: In Toledo, I asked [a woman named Lorrie] Shock if she had any theories …
: how hard I know that one of the most frustrating things you can say to a software developer is “It can’t be …
: free as in more coffee I use the Freedom app to keep me off Twitter for 22 hours a day. I get an hour in the morning and an …
: another case for the humanities Samuel Johnson was impressed by the intelligent and ambitious structure of learning that Milton laid …
: Ravi Zacharias When I was a college student and a brand-new Christian, I attended a talk by Ravi Zacharias at a …
: sticky The best thing about paper sticky notes is that they’re sticky — that is, you can easily attach them …
: against “the common good” Wendell Berry once wrote, “Community is a concept, like humanity or peace, that virtually no one has …
: enlightenment for ninepence I know you didn’t ask — and you’re not going to read this anyway — but all the same, I have some …
: after the storm We had a massive thunderstorm around 3 this morning: crashing thunder, torrential rain, and …
: Shira Ovide: “This will sound weird coming from a professional tech writer: Technology will not end …
: the seductions of prediction Derek Thompson is an outstanding journalist, but this piece strikes me as way premature. I mean, …
: breaking habits Reading this post by Jonathan V. Last, I find myself meditating on the role that habit plays in our …
: le mot unjuste I’ve written before about the dual and mutually reinforcing social problems of (a) stupid resistance …
: why Blake is terrifying Last December, when I was in London, I spent a good deal of time at the Tate Britain’s big …
: Saul: Season 5, final comment In an earlier comment on this season I noted that Jimmy’s character arc is basically complete by the …
: thinking during Covidtide Content warning: the second half of this post is mainly for my fellow Christians For me, this …
: Saul: Season 5, Comment 3 Earlier in this season, Mike Ehrmantraut is so disturbed at the way his life is going — at the …
: My newsletter this Easter week is devoted to Arcabas.
: Tom Holland: That a man who had himself been crucified might be hailed as a god could not help but …
: Arcabas, <em>Le retour du fils</em>
: I have some questions My questions concern Adrian Vermeule's already-much-talked-about argument for “Common-Good …
: ecclesial bricolage I see a whole bunch of Christian pastors and intellectuals going online to articulate a Theory of …
: why death is bad: a primer for Christians It has come to my attention that some among you don’t believe death is a very bad thing; or at least …
: the post-truth thought leaders at work Giorgio Agamben: The other thing, no less disquieting than the first, that the epidemic has caused …
: a remarkable convergence I am teaching three classes right now, distance-learning style. My students and I are isolated from …
: Saul: season 5, comment 2 Super-spoilery. I think my earlier prediction that Season 5 would not primarily be about Jimmy/Saul …
: motte and bailey and coronavirus Nicholas Shackel: A Motte and Bailey castle is a medieval system of defence in which a stone tower …
: choices Rusty Reno: That older generation that endured the Spanish flu, now long gone, was not …
: comfort food: a recipe When it comes to comfort food, our number 1 go-to in the Jacobs household is a thoroughly …
: livestreaming church I disagree with pretty much everything in this post by Ephraim Radner. I don’t think consolation of …
: the definitive guide What if I made for my students a guide to Auden’s “Horae Canonicae” that looks like this?
: Attaboy Sometimes I get obsessed about something and can only manage the obsession by writing about it. So, …
: extended families I have written before about the experience I had growing up in the same house as my paternal …
: Morning Prayer Each weekday at 7:30am, my parish church, St. Alban’s, is livestreaming Morning Prayer. It is a …
: rocketing the mind In his glorious poem “Advice to a Prophet,” Richard Wilbur begins: When you come, as you soon must, …
: folly Folly is a more dangerous enemy to the good than evil. One can protest against evil; it can be …
: incuriosity and indifference Incuriosity and indifference — intellectual laziness and the absence of compassion — are vices that …
: Stonehenge 1947 Bill Brandt. Warren Ellis posted this somewhere.
: reading in a time of anxiety One of the first things to go in a time of stress like ours is concentration. We know so little …
: who you gonna believe? Rush Limbaugh says, “Yeah, I’m dead right on this. The coronavirus is the common cold, folks.” Dr. …
: "a sad bit of fair play" Shai Held: Earlier today, a friend posted on Facebook about an experience he’d just had on the …
: choose Near the end of The Code of the Woosters, Bertie sagely comments of Roderick Spode that one can be …
: Saul: season 5, comment 1 Spoilers ahead. Watching the first episode of Season 5 of Better Call Saul, something occurred to …
: A Long Defeat, A Final Victory Here’s something I wrote several years ago at The American Conservative, something I still …
: We planted this Monterey oak in our front yard three years ago, and it has flourished, but it has …
: still Tony Tanner, in his great essay on Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, comments extensively on the …
: the unpundit In what has become a famous passage, G. K. Chesterton wrote, "At any street corner we may meet a man …
: ayjaytopia Needless to say, I don’t want anyone to get sick, much less die, but if we could remove that …
: hurt Politics is hard, and one of the most intractable rules that governs the implementation of any …
: the default assumption [I’m taking this post down not because I think it was wrong — I think I made a good and important …
: Mantel's Cromwell Freya Johnston on Hilary Mantel's new novel: The Mirror and the Light, like Wolf Hall and Bring Up …
: productivity My friend Richard Gibson today called my attention to this 2013 column in the Economist: The most …
: what to do on Saturday night when you have a cold Why, you read Prince Kropotkin’s article on Anarchism from the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia …
: what's in my bag The Cool Tools site does a regular series in which people describe what they carry around and what …
: one more post about Twitter I deactivated my Twitter account more than a year ago, and set a recurrent reminder to log in every …
: a perfect ratio There is no shortage of water in the desert but exactly the right amount, a perfect ratio of water …
: loss and grief To go from Ray Kurzweil's The Age of Spiritual Machines to the Dark Mountain Manifesto is to take a …
: oscillations Here’s a brief summary by Charles Taylor of a contrast that’s vital to his thinking: porous vs. …
: reading Paul: 2 Nota bene: This is not a scholarly exercise but rather a readerly one. My students and I are not …
: reading Paul This blog has been on hiatus, mainly, but now I’m thinking that I should return from time to time. …
: nature and freedom The notion that we "have a nature," far from threatening the concept of freedom, is absolutely …
: Oh, how this northern Illinois boy misses the snow he used to play in. So this morning he sits in …
: understanding Christians (and others) on social media The Devil chooses to deceive some people in the following way. He will marvelously inflame their …
: a few items added One little project that I’ve been working on as time allows — and time very rarely allows — is to …
: The chief texts for this semester — good companions for the journey.
: summing up I said in my previous post that I would be taking a break from this blog, but it occurred to me that …
: unforthcoming attractions This is why algorithmic time is so disorienting and why it bends your mind. Everything good, bad, …
: a partial fix Still lots of weird things going on in my WordPress installation; a complete fix would take, …
: something strange Some very strange stuff is happening to my blog right now. Many posts, at least recent ones, have …
: one man's view of Christmas Christmas to me is the remnant of an evaporating culture to which I once belonged. I am not a …
: attention and sympathy The Richard Brody review of Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life is a reminder of something that’s quite …
: FWIW I want him out. I was happy to see him impeached and I would dance for joy if he were to be removed …
: a sacrifice Albert Camus once wrote that the attitude of the French intelligentsia towards the pieds noirs — the …
: on not owning my turf When I bought this domain name I joked that the “.org” in this case stands for “organism,” because …
: … is the name of my new band
: Putting my toe back in the water here … it’s the best imaginable version of social media, but …
: wealth distribution Watching all these big sports clubs scrambling to appease the Chinese regime, and punish the coaches …
: hidden A. O. Scott on Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life: Franz is not an activist; he isn’t connected to any …
: oh for the normally bad There’s one rhetorical tic to which Trump supporters are addicted that I desperately wish I could …
: Messrs Bumpus From now on, this is how I will think of my dear friend John Wilson: as “John Wilson of Messrs …
: Lucy Ellmann and old books We’re at the copy-editing stage of my next book, so it’s too late to add anything, but …
: futurity: an Advent thought It seems to me that most of those who don’t think Christianity is true believe that it will soon …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: to my editors Oh, don’t worry, y’all, I’ll be a pro. (Remember, this is my 15th book, or …
: Martin Luther and the Second Advent But you say I would indeed await his coming with joy, if I were holy and without sin. I should …
: letter from a reader In response to this post, Christopher Evatt wrote thoughtfully and incisively (I post with his …
: a better internet Annalee Newitz: What would “internet realists” want from their media streams? The opposite of what …
: My preferred pronouns? None. You should use nouns only when referring to or addressing me.
: motivated reasoning, part gazillion If I had to name only one thing I have learned in my many years of making arguments, it would be …
: genealogists wanted Much of my written work has focused on stepping back from whatever it is people in my field — or …
: an exercise in interpretation The meaning is so obvious: “The black clothes represent Hong Kong, the mask represents Hong Kong, …
: resuming normal activities A Guardian reader speaks for me: Unai Emery Already a distant memory The master of underachieving …
: Automata, Animal-Machines, and Us What follows is a review of The Restless Clock: A History of the Centuries-Long Argument over What …
: I'm okay with this Something rather dramatic has happened to my Local Mainstay, Dichotomy Coffee and Spirits: But …
: Raising Kael Over at LitHub, I have an essay called “Raising Kael,” in which I pay homage to Pauline Kael’s …
: how people change The Mister Rogers No One Saw: At the luncheon, Fred stood at the lectern between Bush and Senator …
: obliviousness Radiolab just re-posted a 2017 episode on technologies for creating fake audio and video, and I …
: so much goodness Another amazing meal at Milo last night — this is grilled pork loin on a bed of sweet potato purée, …
: If you had told me in January that the best article about Christianity I’d read all year would …
: Here's further evidence that this three-year-old post was correct.
: Triode The Iconfactory has just released an app called Triode, and I’m loving it. In essence, Triode …
: the command to be reconciled One of the chief themes of my book How to Think is the vital importance of characterizing the …
: on lost causes There’s a scene early in Neal Stephenson’s new novel Fall: or, Dodge in Hell, in which a …
: My colleague Philip Jenkins asks: “What are the most influential Christian books of the past …
: revelation It was said of one of the elders that he persevered in a fast of seventy weeks, eating only once a …
: Volume Control David Owen’s new book Volume Control is pretty good, but it made me think way too much about my own …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: poor It’s time. International break coming up. And if it doesn’t work out, bring Rafa Benitez back …
: Fish on freedom Stanley Fish’s new book The First consists largely of repackagings of ideas Fish has already …
: Tim Cook's master plan One of the fascinating subplots of Kim Stanley Robinson’s great Mars trilogy — though it’s not so …
: Just remember, I’m busting my hump reading and writing books so y’all can Netflix & chill. I’m …
: two points about A Hidden Life Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life is a great, great masterpiece, and you must see it. It is his most …
: the call “I call bullshit.” I used to see that a lot on social media, back when I was on social media. But …
: this is the future Arsenal supporters want
: it's official ... … MacOS is now more stable than iOS/iPadOS. Which I wouldn’t have believed even a couple of months …
: My beloved is in Prague right now and the evidence suggests that it is hard to take a bad photo …
: on blogging Brent Simmons is right: It’s weird to see people bemoan the decline of blogging and do it on …
: Xhaka is not the problem Granit Xhaka is nothing like the player Arsenal supporters thought he was, or could become, when the …
: options Sometimes I think: What if I had to write my next book based on just one of my piles of books?
: toss them out of the window I don’t think I’m becoming a grumpy old man, but I am, I know, increasingly inclined to heed that …
: credit, blame, and the unrewindable tape Most political discourse is epideictic, which is to say, it’s about credit and blame. For instance, …
: teachers at the margins Lisa Marchiano, a psychoanalyst, describing her encounter with a student who had a “panic attack” …
: I just love this by the Rev. Sarah Condon.
: what really matters in this vale of tears
: iPadOS iPadOS has rendered my iPad unusable, with a very strange combination of errors. For instance: The …
: against lectures At the very heart of the academy we find a series of genres — discursive genres, which are also …
: all fears unwarranted Social Media Has Not Destroyed a Generation: Anxiety and panic over the effects of new technology …
: This is encouraging by Adam Silver. Maybe that NBA League Pass is not out of the question after all?
: A couple of months ago I told my son that this year, for the first time, I would definitely be …
: where the USMNT is headed Tom Dart: Since Berhalter’s appointment was announced last December there have been no results that …
: the most important public issue My buddy Rod Dreher: “If religious liberty is the most important public issue to you — and, as a …
: I wasn’t a huge fan of Kevin Williamson before the whole Atlantic fiasco, but since he has returned …
: A mystery partly resolved A while back I wrote about a scholarly mystery: what appears to have been the sale of certain …
: ethical evaluation I’ve been trying to think about Apple’s deep embedding in a corrupt and tyrannical Chinese regime, …
: (Of course, the problem for me in all this is that I am as implicated in Apple’s ecosystem as Apple …
: I can see clearly now I thought this day was coming, but I didn’t expect it to come so soon. I don’t believe Beijing …
: China syndrome follow-up Adam Silver is standing by NBA employees’ free speech rights, though he doesn’t sound happy about …
: the new China syndrome John Lanchester: First, the Weibo accounts of prominent critics were ‘harmonised’ – in other words, …
: Church Repair: 1 Of all the peculiar traits of the church, perhaps the most peculiar is its double character as …
: This is and always will be one of my favorite album covers
: excerpt from my Sent folder: criticism Well, first of all, it’s important to remember that a lot of criticism of your work really doesn’t …
: alternative headline Richest University on the Planet Still Getting Richer While Other Universities Are Threatened with …
: look at what came in the mail This is a lovely and wise little book.
: Monk’s specs If you’re ever tempted to think you’re cool, just remember that Theolonious Sphere Monk was wearing …
: John Mitchell David Steele: Tide offensive lineman Jimmy Rosser recalled that before [Wilbur] Jackson enrolled and …
: I’m going to say something I never ever believed that I would say in earnest: I think Arsenal should …
: intellectuals and influencers Both the public intellectual and the public influencer play an instrumental role in shaping cultural …
: evangelicalism redux Another topic I’ve written about frequently here — though with less pleasure than I’ve had writing …
: about Ruskin There are many posts about John Ruskin on this blog — click on the relevant tag below — but let me …
: climate hope At the end of this interview, the environmental historian Jason Moore says, “Capitalism … had its …
: Malcolm is very happy when he’s wet.
: consolidation One of the ongoing themes of my online life is accidental dispersal — I inadvertently accumulate …
: confuser I wrote recently about software that’s hostile to users who lack an ideally functioning sensorium, …
: I’m very pleased that my eminent colleague Philip Jenkins is working on a book about the …
: monosyllabic At the excellent Futility Closet I learn of a nineteenth-century fellow who wrote a sermon entirely …
: Reading this story, I find myself remembering that a few years ago my wife sat next to Bart Starr on …
: unsure I don’t often on this blog write from a position of professional expertise. Mainly I’m writing about …
: inequality If you listen to politicians on the left, and especially those who call themselves socialists, …
: Slightly worried as I ask myself just how much bigger this thing can get….
: Latka My post earlier today puts me in mind of something. Think of it as an allegory of social media. In …
: what can’t be changed Many outlets have reported in recent days that Facebook is testing the removal of Likes from posts. …
: terror and history This excellent post by my colleague Philip Jenkins reminds us of an earlier era — just 25 years ago! …
: presentism revisited A follow-up to my recent post on a certain variety of chronological snobbery: I see that Louise …
: inaccessible Of all the many task-management apps available for the Apple platforms, the one that fits my needs …
: chronological snobbery The novelist Hannah Beckerman was asked, “I’m an English lit postgraduate who’s slipped into a …
: compromises In yesterday’s post I quoted from Deirdre McCloskey’s work on bourgeois life, and I want now to …
: Christianity and capitalism reconsidered David Bentley Hart’s essay on the incompatibility of Christianity and capitalism, featured in the …
: Our dear boy Malcolm has always had trouble with stairs and steps, but it’s gotten worse …
: eyeballs The issue of my newsletter that I posted today is concerned largely with the Hong Kong protests, but …
: nationalism and religion We conservatives, however, have our own preferred division of the political universe: one in which …
: Well, my fancy(ish) integrated amplifier died today — but never fear! I have a backup. This tiny …
: the most dreadful of gods Am I the only reader who sees, in Eliot’s twinned stories of Dorothea and Lydgate (originally two …
: vengeance How much of fantasy, I wonder, is revenge fantasy? I’m asking this question, of course, because …
: posture Was Adorno right? This is perhaps the wrong question to ask, because philosophy at its best offers …
: great Yesterday my son, who works in the Chicago Loop, saw a woman on a bicycle get hit by a car. She …
: a road not taken Lately I have been reading some of the wartime letters of Dorothy Sayers — who, I have just learned, …
: And one of the desserts: corn mochi with blackberry sorbet and various delicious accessories.
: A highlight from last night’s anniversary dinner at Barley Swine: fried buns (like a steamed bun …
: 39th anniversary dinner at the amazing Barley Swine in Austin. So, so grateful for my beloved.
: here and there As some of you may have noticed, I’m not posting here very frequently. I think for the …
: First the Eucharistic Feast, then the Breakfast Pizza at Moroso Feast.
: the airless room This is an interview with Kathryn Scanlan about her very peculiar new book, which is made up of …
: on social acceleration Recently I’ve read two of the most stimulating, provocative, generative books I’ve read in a long …
: bookmaking After writing my recent post on my enthusiasm for the writing of C. V. Wedgwood, I realized that I …
: I’ve probably taken too many pictures of our huge oleander, but I think its combination of …
: Some of our container plants have been struggling a bit in the heat, but this little pairing has …
: Malcolm is relaxed but hopeful that there might be more play.
: the most literary decade Popular radio shows featured literary critics talking about recent poetry and fiction. The New …
: neighbors When I awoke I could barely move for the pain; I didn’t know where I was, and I didn’t know how I …
: the greatest of the Wedgwoods National Portrait Gallery Cicely Veronica Wedgwood (1910–1997) was the most distinguished of the …
: this is your mind on presentism As a person writing a book about the need to cultivate temporal bandwidth, I am so pleased when …
: Jamesian aphasia I’m reading Henry James’s late unfinished novel The Sense of the Past for the book I’m writing, and …
: LOVE it when my local (Pinewood) has a new beer on tap and it’s one of my very favorites (in …
: this sickness is not unto death People ask me about it all the time, but I have nothing to tell them. I was very ill; I closed my …
: Chapter 43 The old man sat on his porch and looked out across the green fields. Another good harvest coming …
: I dub thee SQUIRRELBANE 🗡 🐿 😵
: Unscoured Frodo and his friends knew that the Shire would be changed, but they were not prepared for how …
: a scholarly mystery As far as I can tell, people are accusing a distinguished papyrologist named Dirk Obbink of selling, …
: ruin Let’s agree, per argumentum, that the Boomers ruined everything. Why? According to the STBP …
: This is a little on-the-nose, don’t you think?
: disobedience Law professor David Skeel in the WSJ: “I do think simple disobedience may sometimes be the …
: Cliff swallows going to and from their nests.
: And the flowers strewn across my path.
: It was all worth it for the views.
: And of course I did it, I’m a manly man
: They said the trail is “a little technical in places,” but I didn’t know that meant I’d have to use …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: localism More broadly, you should understand that I am a deeply committed localist and doubt the legitimacy …
: after the platforms Ross Douthat: Yes, it’s understandable for conservatives to worry that if Silicon Valley censors the …
: trying A little less than a year ago I wrote a post about cultivating my blog as a kind of garden. I made …
: I really can’t get over this oleander. It’s 10 feet tall now and may soon eat my neighbor’s house.
: excerpt from my Sent folder: civility I think the question [of whether civility is a Christian virtue] hinges on whether “civility” is a …
: responsible scholarship and the growth of Christianity I’ve talked a bit lately about what Christians today might be able to learn from the early church. …
: Rusty Reno: Many of my friends find Donald Trump intolerable. I tell them, “He is a symptom, not a …
: the theater of concurrence Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House was one of the sensations of the nineteenth century because of …
: Realpolitik The Epistle to Diognetus is a second-century letter, a brief work of Christian apologetics. In the …
: Quick addendum to my previous post: As much as I am convinced that hegemonic liberalism will never …
: fair play to you I’m getting a good bit of email today, most of it saying, in cleaned-up language: How dare you …
: Ahmari revisited This morning I have a post up at the Atlantic website on the scuffle Sohrab Amari kicked off with …
: Welp. It’s time for some Serious Editing.
: So, Wired, it has come to this.
: to put the point plainly Nolan Lawson: Get off of Twitter. You can’t criticize Twitter on Twitter. It just doesn’t work. The …
: Middle-Aged Moralists When C. S. Lewis gave the Memorial Address at King’s College, London in 1944 — the occasion being …
: activists and administrators Conor Friedersdorf on “an under-appreciated tension in the approach of today’s student activists, …
: waking into the world Auden’s single greatest poetic achievement, I think, is his sequence “Horae Canonicae,” which begins …
: Malcolm ten years ago today.
: HyperCard I very much enjoyed this tribute to HyperCard. I kept all the research notes for most of my early …
: death recorded This is certainly an embarrassing moment for Naomi Wolf, but I ain’t gloating, for reasons I spelled …
: plain text and WordPress Here’s something I often find myself wanting to do: write plain-text files in a text editor using …
: Musée à croissance illimitée Thanks to that excellent blog Futility Closet I’ve learned about Le Corbusier’s idea for a Musée à …
: voting with the Sparrows From the new issue of the Economist: A recent study by the European Council on Foreign Relations, a …
: the shy voter problem Tom Switzer: In 2016 U.S. pollsters had to deal with the “shy Trump” factor. People feared …
: indie web in the New Yorker As a consistent and perhaps obnoxious advocate for the open web — see here and especially here — I …
: ♫ I got friends in low places ♫
: reasonably worthwhile blog posts from last year It occurred to me recently that I do a lousy job of keeping track of my own blog posts — I regularly …
: “the corporate monster is always the corporate monster” That’s the basic idea, that power is power always and that it’s exceedingly unwise to presume that …
: I first saw this as “Biblical Safety Glasses” and now I’m thinking that there should definitely be …
: This essay by James Carroll arguing for the abolition of the Catholic priesthood — and, along the …
: Malcolm is very happy after he has played in the garden hose.
: James Madison Last week when I was in Virginia I got to visit James Madison’s home Montpelier. Madison has long …
: advice Almost everyone knows that one of the great banes of online life is unsolicited advice. The …
: These pictures are from the eastern side of the Skyline Drive this morning. The air was clear …
: Back to my old stomping grounds. Those Grounds haven’t become less beautiful.
: ways books go awry When you publish a book and look back over it later, you will find that some things are wrong. Those …
: #ShunTheTake Last week I walked into one of my classes to discover fourteen students sitting in complete silence. …
: working the refs Last Sunday afternoon, in the aftermath of the first game of the NBA playoff series between the …
: what dogs think The spate of dog mind-focused books raises the question: After at least 14,000 years of living with …
: Les Murray is dead I am grieved to learn that Les Murray has died. For many years, if anyone asked me to name the …
: the strange pleasure of the mob What would Freud make of group minds in the digital age? I don’t think he’d be surprised by the …
: plugged into the machine Alexis Madrigal: As the platforms age, their devotees become more and more distinct from the …
: debt and forgiveness For me, the obvious question about the proposal to forgive student loans — as made, for instance, by …
: Before you take seriously Bret Easton Ellis’s claim that millennials don’t read, look at the tag on …
: Malcolm is a very good boy. As you can see.
: Amazon’s Project Kuiper, with its plan to put thousands of satellites into low-earth orbit to …
: the building on the Île de la Cité Today I found myself thinking that someone should perhaps inform French Prime Minister Edouard …
: “Entering his eightieth decade he hasn’t lost his taste for that whiff of adventure, either in his …
: This reflection by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson makes me think that churches should regularly run Bible …
: scale is the enemy Jeffrey Zeldman: Along those same lines, can the IndieWeb, and products of IndieWeb thinking like …
: "Lord, make me an idiot" NB: I’m writing this only for my fellow Christians. In this blog post, my buddy Rod Dreher says …
: British eco-fascism The website for the 2017 documentary film Arcadia says that it’s “a sensory journey into the beauty …
: Readingthis Vulture piece, I took a while to grasp that, for the musicians interviewed, touring — …
: Rodger Sherman: What if the UMBC loss was Virginia’s last major letdown before the dawn of a …
: extremists Erasmus: The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is concerned …
: Buruma reflects One question that Ian Buruma has never faced — not when he ran Jian Ghomeshi’s essay, not when he …
: taxonomies If you’re a writer for the Economist: the people to the left of you are socialists, and the people …
: getting a new Mac up and running Things I do when I get a new Mac, more or less in order: install Homebrew use Homebrew to install …
: intersections Re: “intersectionality”: Intersections can diminish as well as intensify. Take Kamala Harris as an …
: the right side Ben Shapiro’s book, The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great, …
: The third thing I do when I get a new computer.
: The second thing I do when I get a new computer.
: The first thing I do when I get a new computer.
: Lovely morning at Lake Waco Wetlands — though the wetlands are still waking up to springtime.
: when political prophecy fails In his column today, Ross Douthat writes: A good many members of the opposition to Donald Trump — a …
: Apple News vs. RSS What Michael Tsai says about Apple News is correct: I continue to find Apple News to be …
: I look like I’m singing “Old Man River.”
: cost-benefit ratios Now that Apple has announced its next-generation AirPods, I see that I can get a charging pad that …
: a legal clarification Let me expand on something I wrote in yesterday’s post: Copyright law is not relevant to the legal …
: in memoriam Send me out into another life lord because this one is growing faint I do not think it goes all the …
: a return to Narnia (I had the privilege of reading Francis Spufford’s The Stone Table in draft, with what I believe the …
: interim tech report Over the past year I’ve been making some significant changes to certain elements of my technological …
: success robots I go to schools a lot, have taught at universities and seen a ton of great kids and professors …
: a case of simple theft I subscribed to the digital edition of the late, lamented Weekly Standard before its owner killed it …
: on rum and baseball For decades, late February and early March were for me a season of preparation: preparation for …
: academic wishful thinking Elite Colleges Don’t Understand Which Business They’re In, says John Fabian Witt of Yale. Alas, they …
: a clarification, eighteen years later I was at work, in the LRB office, when I first watched the first plane fly into the first tower: …
: Remembering David Martin The great sociologist of religion David Martin has died: you may read an overview of his incredibly …
: a plea to journalists Peter Hamby: Candidates who make policy-by-Twitter, the ones who chase every micro-news-cycle, risk …
: futurists and historians Martin E. P. Seligman and John Tierney: What best distinguishes our species is an ability that …
: liturgical reform here; see also this
: Merton and the quest for God I warmly encourage you to read this lovely and thought-provoking essay by my friend Matt Milliner. …
: I think of this as two imperative sentences.
: Diderot “Rameau’s Nephew” is, in this way, the first debate between two such materialists, both of whom …
: a very, very great deal Men's ultimate ends sometimes conflict: choices, at times agonising, and uneasy compromises cannot …
: out on the town The combination of Corey McIntyre's food and Matthiasson wines is one I won't forget for a very long …
: A really special night last night at Milo. (That’s duck fat salted caramel popcorn, which you …
: nested I just came across this chart I made for my students a few years ago when we were reading the …
: placeholder for further reflection The one central and indispensable axiom of metaphysical capitalism is “I am my own” — I am a …
: Kathryn Tanner's altar call Consider this a follow-up to my recent posts on metaphysical capitalism and some stories about the …
: three stories to reflect on Ross Douthat: The sexual ethic on offer in our own era should make Catholics particularly skeptical. …
: stock and flow in newsletters A few years ago my friend Robin Sloan wrote a post in which he applied the economic concept of …
: the fish in the fish store window A writer was invited to teach a religion-and-literature course at a prestigious divinity school, but …
: teaching the <em>Gorgias</em> Tomorrow I’ll be teaching Plato’s Gorgias, and today I’ve been reviewing it. It strikes me, as it …
: two thoughts on Twitter After being away from Twitter for a few months, I have two thoughts. The first is that I wish I had …
: furthermore.... An addendum to the previous post: Not many people on the left seem to realize it, but the …
: on cultural socialism and metaphysical capitalism My buddy Rod Dreher is talking a lot these days about “cultural socialism.” I wish he wouldn’t. Rod …
: welcome to the new Twitter Hi, and welcome to the New Twitter™! Over the years, many of you have told us how tiresome and …
: defilement and expulsion A couple of years ago I wrote this: When a society rejects the Christian account of who we are, it …
: Fabulous new issue of The Point.
: Been around the block with this one a few times.
: the beginning of the end of the republic of podcasts For the last couple of years I have been hearing — from Marco Arment quite regularly — that podcasts …
: Nietzsche and Montaigne Today I had the privilege of participating in a panel discussion of my friend Rob Miner’s new book …
: the deviant’s tale From this article by Kathleen McAuliffe: Using a far cruder tool for measuring sensitivity to …
: My son and I doing a postmortem.
: I’m needing to get back to Rufi’s Cocina for the incredible tacos (especially al pastor …
: Roberts’s Churchill All my adult life I have had a strong appetite for books about Winston Churchill. It began, I …
: insincere controversialists Genuine controversy, fair cut and thrust before a common audience, has become in our special epoch …
: I love these old editions. I don’t really use them any more, but I like to take them out and …
: Update: PDFpen is just as good as ScannerPro at OCRing my handwriting.
: Scanner Pro does an amazing job of recognizing my handwriting.
: Plutarch and the end of the oracles In my History of Disenchantment class, we’ve been discussing Plutarch’s essay on the cessation or …
: Working on Lucretius, Plutarch, Charles Taylor — and being reminded of how blessed I am to read and …
: Europe To the authors and signatories of this letter I have one thing to say: “The Faith is Europe, and …
: all the productivity guidance I got I have very little time for the productivity cult, and think it especially injurious to the craft of …
: “Gen Z” and social media Christopher Mims of the WSJ has talked to a few members of Gen Z and is here to define the entire …
: “the instantaneous awareness of so much folly” The instantaneous awareness of so much folly is not, I now think, healthy for the human mind. …
: social media, blogs, newsletters Tim Carmody: The blogs I’ve written for (Kottke notwithstanding) have only had so much ability to …
: Count Malcolm as: intrigued but uncertain
: Christie and the mystery After reading this fascinating essay by John Lanchester, my first thought, I will admit, was that he …
: can’t stop, won’t stop VP Mike Pence says, “Criticism of Christian education in America must stop.” No it musn’t. Nobody …
: these people now run the world Venkatesh Rao: I suppose there’s a 2×2 here: sane versus crazy, alive versus dead. The possibility …
: The Stone Table One of the best books I read last year is The Stone Table, by Francis Spufford. But don’t look for …
: SRO for Jemar Tisby at Baylor
: It’s fun, but it’s also work.
: it’s worse than you thought Alternative headlines: Karen Pence Is Teaching at Christian School Where They Believe “that God …
: Sure, go ahead and reject the only person who can fix this mess. (Via Nina Massey)
: most popular people EVAR Kevin Berger: Hidalgo is among the premier data miners of the world’s collective history. With his …
: when they find a leader We have a new bourgeoisie, but because they are very cool and progressive, it creates the impression …
: Not that guy, presumably, but rather this guy.
: humans, humanity, humanism At the outset of my book The Year of Our Lord 1943 I describe my narrative method using a cinematic …
: the emperor and the boy scout What was presented to [the young G. B.] Shaw as the Christian faith was not Christian but unitarian, …
: I think I’ve figured out how to deal with my overflowing inbox.
: Nobody yawns the way Malcolm yawns.
: This is my heart, right here.
: Didn’t really expect this editorial shift, but okay.
: and now to sum up it occurred to me this morning that almost all of the books and essays I have written for the last …
: the circulation of <em>Roma</em> Those who say that the personal is the political are wrong, but the error is understandable, and …
: Farewell, John Burningham The author of Mr. Gumpy's Outing, one of the most essential and beloved books of my family's life …
: newsletter ICYMI, I have a newsletter now.
: request for permissions Justin E. H. Smith: Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse looks essentially the same to me as these …
: scruples I’m no expert, but it seems to me that writing an eight-thousand-word world-historical explanation …
: Serial, Season 3 I made it through three episodes, set it aside, came back to it, set it aside again. My problem: How …
: he’s always the boss LARRY: Well, she's, she's seeing Sy Ableman. RABBI SCOTT: Oh. LARRY: She's, they're planning, that's …
: aversion, general repulsion from A Manual of Gesture, by Albert M. Bacon (thanks to Richard Gibson for the link)
: Science and the Good Science and the Good: The Tragic Quest for the Foundations of Morality, by James Davison Hunter and …
: a Christmas letter from David Jones
: Festive post-church brunch at Milo
: advice for <em>Der Spiegel</em> In Der Spiegel’s report on how their star reporter Claas Relotius got away with fabricating stories …
: the Book of Job from Old Stile Press
: Arthurian Legend David Jones's chart of sources for Arthurian Legend, from the Tate. Click image for a larger …
: knowwedge is what bwings us togeddah today I’ve explained before why I believe generational thinking to be more harmful than helpful. But …
: it's all very simple First, insist in a very loud voice that you are a vigorous supporter of religious freedom. Second, …
: newsletter news A note for those of you who don’t look at my micro.blog: I have deleted my TinyLetter account and …
: Knuth, Lutheran This is a nice — not a great, but a nice — profile of one of my heroes, Donald Knuth, but it does …
: the late history of modernism first outline of some ideas to be developed later The long-standard account of literary modernism …
: Speech-craft In 1878 a man named William Barnes published a book called An Outline of English Speech-Craft. …
: The Four Last Things: Hell (a sermon by the Rev. Jessica Martin) 3rd Sunday of Advent, 16th December 2018 Old Testament: Zephaniah 3.14-20 New Testament: Phil.4.4-7 …
: TinyLetter woes Well, I was excited about my new newsletter until, four days in, I got the above message. TinyLetter …
: Derrida's Margins Derrida’s Margins is a remarkable project: a digital unpacking of Jacques Derrida’s library, …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: Twitter I left Twitter because I watched people who spent a lot of time on Twitter get stupider and …
: Christians, Pagans, Jews Richard Schragger and Micah Schwartzman discern a renewal of Christian critiques of paganism and …
: argumentum ad Hitlerum Graeme Wood: Less persuasive, though, are Sullivan’s two other claims about New Religions, in the …
: neopagans Neopagans come in many styles, from celebrants of white-supremacist revisions of Norse religion to …
: excerpt from my Sent Folder: to someone who wants to be a writer Here are some thoughts: Wanting to “be a writer” is, generally speaking, not a good sign. That …
: praise and worship This long article about the state of praise and worship music today provokes several thoughts: Very …
: Sincerely, Edward Abbey Edward Abbey to a correspondent: The ideal off-road journey? I’ll tell you: under water. I would …
: counsel for preachers (and other Christians) From a letter by John Wesley, written in August 1760 to a preacher named John Trembath: Certainly …
: why you need to take a break from social media Imagination is strong in a man when that particular function of the brain which enables him to …
: Mr Wellmon’s university For the last couple of years I’ve read several essays by my friend Chad Wellmon about the state of …
: one person here understands what Easter is all about Mikhail Svetlov / Getty
: Tending the Digital Commons Facebook is unlikely to shut down tomorrow; nor is Twitter, or Instagram, or any other major social …
: Warhol Despite its subtle and not-so-subtle ravishments, a Warhol canvas is expressively vacant. “There’s …
: maybe it’s time to give up For the past few years I have taught a first-year seminar, here in Baylor’s Honors College, focusing …
: the BAD problem As it happens, a large amount of carbon sits in American dirt. If that carbon escapes into the …
: two comments on a review Two brief thoughts about David Sessions’s review of my recent book: I don’t treat the works and …
: how Steve Reich discovered his own Judaism I was brought up a secular, Reform Jew, which means I didn’t know Aleph from Bet. I knew nothing, …
: I’m thinking that from here on out I’m gonna imitate Steve Reich’s commitment to the baseball cap.
: excerpt from my Sent folder: Gollum ... let me tell you why Gollum has been on my mind for the last 24 hours or so. Once Gollum takes …
: My son helping me get perspective
: asyntactic Trump is not inarticulate, though people often say that. Rather, he is hyperarticulate in the mode …
: enough with the "Cultural Marxism" already Alexander Zubatov tries to rescue the term “Cultural Marxism” in this post, and I …
: the imperative of silence The casual way that American Christians have of talking about God is not simply dispiriting, but is, …
: the impeded stream I remember sitting in an empty classroom at Washington and Lee late into the night, working on a …
: tallgrass prairie [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1116"] Bluestem grassland, Chase County, Kansas, 31 …
: the position of power redux Robin Hanson begins this post by quoting a passage in Tyler Cowen’s new book Stubborn Attachments in …
: This is my sixth Texas autumn, and by far the most colorful. I suspect the key is that we’ve had a …
: bird [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1024”] Coralie …
: I seem to have accidentally taken a photograph of a masterpiece of abstract art.
: Spanish Is the Loving Tongue One of the most surprisingly interesting, and moving, moments on Dylan’s More Blood, More Tracks …
: my Zettelkasten Over the last few years I have adopted, with increasing confidence and pleasure, a new means of …
: maintaining lines of connection Warren Ellis: I feel like I want to see some more thought around getting the fuck off social …
: We’re not completely without autumn color here in central Texas. (No filters.)
: totalitarian presentism Senator Ben Sasse doesn’t read modern fiction, only old books, and people on social media are …
: This is going to be hard to believe, but these pastries from @milowaco taste just as good as they …
: race and ethnicity in the Potterverse Race and ethnicity are pretty weird in the Potterverse because of the peculiar ways that fictional …
: the call to maintenance I’m full of ideas after reading this amazing essay by Shannon Mattern, “Maintenance and Care: Fixing …
: what I hear in church The Episcopal Church, on the other hand, couldn’t trick me with promises of divinely ordained …
: I love pretty much everything about Anglican worship, but I have a special fondness for the …
: Tim Larsen on John Stuart Mill My friend Tim Larsen has written an absolutely fascinating brief biography of John Stuart Mill. (It …
: Not really what I expected when searching for “Christian calendar” …
: Interesting data from Kieran Healy.
: A sermon by the Rev. Jessica Martin, for Remembrance Day Solemn Orchestral Requiem Eucharist, 11 November 2018, Ely Cathedral Epistle: 1 Peter 1.3–9 …
: Amazon’s exploitative lust Alana Semuels writes, If nothing else, Amazon’s HQ2 decisions may accelerate America’s great …
: the imminent collapse of an empire Writers generally don’t get to choose the titles of their pieces, but the confusion in the title and …
: how I drew my mental map of politics Over at Rod Dreher’s joint, he’s got a great series going in which people explain how they have have …
: And here’s something else new I want to try either tomorrow or Friday….
: The food-truck scene in Waco is getting better and better. Today I had a fabulous huarache al pastor …
: Psalm God, give me enough light and will To say just what I see, See what I do, Do what I say, Say what …
: Kingdom [caption id=“attachment_36107” align=“aligncenter” width=“700”] …
: the contingency of collaborative art Big day for me yesterday: More Blood, More Tracks arrived. It’s extraordinary — could be the best of …
: This is not a good book, this is a truly great book. I hope to find time soon to say why I think so, …
: academic labor as social media The current argument about whether scholars should cite the work of nasty people — here is the …
: what's the point? Tim Burke: It’s hard to feel like there’s a point to public writing at the heart of Trump’s …
: it’s not gonna change Kara Swisher: Social media platforms — and Facebook and Twitter are as guilty of this as Gab is — …
: Warren Ellis is extremely correct Usual Hermitage Bullshit Notice – MORNING, COMPUTER: On Saturday at 1201am I turned off my social …
: how could we be convinced? George Scialabba is one of the best essayists around, but his review of John Gray’s Seven Types of …
: Waco Creek [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“677”] Erika Huddleston, …
: Durham [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1407”] Dennis Creffield, …
: web design is getting worse and worse For instance, ESPN’s site is so ugly, so crowded, so impossible to navigate that when I really …
: Breaking Bread with the Dead I tweeted this news a while back, but am only now finding time to write about it at greater length: …
: Writing well ≠ dumbing down This by Ian Bogost is exactly right: I suspect that what scholars and other experts really mean when …
: angel [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“544”] Lichfield …
: "drive out the wicked person" Michael Ramsey, from The Anglican Spirit: While holiness is both a fact and a potentiality, it is …
: back to the Mac I’ve spent a lot of time in the past year trying to leave the Mac behind and move full-time to iOS. …
: American Airlines rejects my reality and substitutes its own Yes, this is a kind of rant, but it’s also something more: an account of how transcendentally weird …
: WE REACH FOR A BOOK [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“700”] William …
: ancient feelings Why doesn’t ancient fiction talk about feelings? “I’d often wondered,” says Julie Sedivy, “when …
: Hastings House Book of Hours The lovely Hastings House Book of Hours, from this great I Love Typography post, which has other …
: extremely spoilery thoughts about Better Call Saul I’m a deeply committed fan of Better Call Saul, to the extent that after each episode I listen, …
: a parable for our moment In this moment when more and more people are calling us to denounce family members who vote the …
: two quotations on democracy and the judiciary Samuel Moyn, 2018: In the face of an enemy Supreme Court, the only option is for progressives to …
: I have so many questions These are all serious questions — not gotchas - they’re questions I don’t know the answers to and …
: the lustful sex Faramerz Dabhoiwala: This is a point in history where the old idea that women are the more lustful …
: [caption id=“attachment_35998” align=“aligncenter” …
: credibility When a person testifies about some past event, and his or her listeners have no external evidence to …
: “in fact the mind was poorly understood” Astounding, really, that Michel could consider psychology any kind of science at all. So much of it …
: “a large superfluous establishment of words” We talk about the tyranny of words, but we like to tyrannise over them too; we are fond of having a …
: the methods of the Official Straighteners Two recent stories — one involving a Chicago priest named Paul Kalchik and one involving Marine le …
: is it okay to share praise? Philip Jenkins in the Englewood Review of Books on my book The Year of Our Lord 1943: Alan Jacobs …
: Christian language policing Mary Eberstadt: The word gay and related terms like LGBTQ should be avoided for a deeper reason. …
: remembering Doc I am grieved to hear of the death of Donald Sniegowski, known to one and all as Doc. Doc is father …
: on wrath and the feast day of St. Jonathan Swift Here’s an excellent review by John Wilson of Martha Nussbaum’s new book. With John, I too doubt that …
: a clash of cultures in London Bridging Home, London, 2018 © Do Ho Suh
: how to evaluate a strong but disputable claim This from John D. Cook is a great example of how to respond to strong but highly disputable …
: the instrumentalist chain Earlier I wrote of goods that can’t be aimed at directly, and here’s another example of that. Like …
: on conversation Tim Herrera’s tips for having better conversations are not tips for having better conversations. …
: Yahweh’s unearthly patience The impression we get from 1–2 Kings is not that God is a stingy disciplinarian with an anger …
: on firing Ian Buruma Damon Linker thinks the firing of Ian Buruma is taking the #MeToo movement a step too far: Buruma …
: on Sloan and Sherlock The super-cool Robin Sloan has a super-cool newsletter — only occasional, alas, but Robin has many …
: dare to make a Daniel In a review of Patrick Deneen’s Why Liberalism Failed, Adrian Vermeule offers an alternative to …
: “earthquakes and hurricains of the moral World” Revolutions are sudden to the unthinking only. Political Disturbances happen not without their …
: the tools to survive I’m an edge case. I want an untangled web. I want everything I do to copy back to a single place, so …
: words and deeds Pope Francis has issued several excellent statements on sexual abuse. But his actions haven’t …
: that’s what I want Our love is all of God’s money What is money? Hard to say, really. It’s easier to document what it …
: the report of the Reform Commission This extraordinary ‘ministry of all the talents’ was shaped into a Reform Commission, to produce a …
: homes by mail I loved this 99pi episode about houses sold through the Sears catalog, because my family and I lived …
: quirky NYT: Frisch’s former students describe him as eccentric, nerdy, prone to lengthy classroom …
: "money is a medium of exchange" The king has set up his mint by Thames. He has struck coins; his dragon’s loins germinate a crowded …
: hostages This from Andrew Sullivan is the single best metaphor I have yet seen about what it’s like to live …
: the face-blind portrait artist Our ability to recognize faces resides in the right fusiform gyrus of the inferior medial temporal …
: the poet's house One summer many years ago, when I was leading a study tour in Britain, we paid a visit to Sir Walter …
: the cult of the virtuoso theologian Michael Root: A curse of recent theology has been the cult of the virtuoso theologian, the creative …
: not our fault Chuck Todd: Reporters, I fully acknowledge, bring their own biases to their work. The questions they …
: "religious myths recycled as ersatz social science" John Gray: With the referenda on same-sex marriage and abortion, tolerance and personal freedom have …
: My David Bentley Hart Problem Though I think David Bentley Hart is a brilliant man, and I have learned a great deal from reading …
: René Girard, please call your office About Alice Flaherty: Years later, she consulted on a pilot for a television drama based on her …
: the strange world of graduate study In an article on the Avita Ronell controversy, Masha Gessen quotes a Facebook comment — apparently …
: a clear choice Matthew Schmitz: If the church really does believe that homosexual acts are always and everywhere …
: how change happens There’s a general principle that underlies yesterday’s posts about the Catholic Church’s current …
: populist leaders and the defiance of norms After the release of the Vigano letter detailing Pope Francis’s rehabilitation of Cardinal …
: big news, no action The story Rod Dreher reports here would in a certain kind of world be catastrophic for the Catholic …
: after Catholic fusionism, what? Kevin Gallagher’s essay on “The Eclipse of Catholic Fusionism” is elegantly written, incisive, and …
: from Welles to Saul Here’s a passage from the Preface to my new book The Year of Our Lord 1943: Touch of Evil, that …
: once more on generational thinking Reading this post by Rod Dreher, I am moved to say a couple of things I’ve said often before: I …
: I have one question Avital Ronell is “original and inspiring.” I’m sure. But did she sexually harass her graduate …
: episcopal feelings One of the more curious aspects of the fallout from the recent revelations of sexual abuse by …
: the “gradual decay” of Twitter Am I finally done with Twitter? After years of leaving and coming back, leaving and coming back? If …
: going big, going small Here’s the promised follow-up my recent post on the university. In one sense I want to think bigger …
: another look at Daniel, Wellmon, and the future of the university Adam Daniel and Chad Wellmon respond to my response to their essay. (They respond to Cathy Davidson …
: on necks that need millstones around them In the Diocese of Allentown, for example, documents show that a priest was confronted about an abuse …
: more to come I am very grateful to Jeffrey Bilbro for this extremely thoughtful and thorough response to my new …
: A brief addendum to the previous post: It goes a long way towards explaining why in my writing I so …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: on exhausted languages What I really am, by vocation and avocation, is a historian of ideas, and when you’ve been a …
: on sharpness and gentleness I appreciate this from Joe Carter on the times when theological correction needs to be “sharp” — …
: saving America from exploding Cadbury bars “What do you do for a living?” the supervisor asked. I knew this question was coming. I detest this …
: not for fun At the beginning of Two Serious Ladies, the great Jane Bowles novel, one little girl asks another to …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: authority There are three models of writing I despise: “I am old and have seen everything and therefore can …
: The Profumo Option The other day, in one of his many recent posts on the waves of sexual scandal that are afflicting …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: LP & MTD One of these days we’ll be drooling in our wheelchairs in the old folks’ home and saying, “Remember …
: addendum Re: the previous post, I often wonder whether the people who claim to reject proceduralism (a) …
: nostalgia for proceduralism One of the classic critiques made against the liberal social order is that it is philosophically …
: an apology A few days ago I wrote a post in which I sought to express solidarity with what many of my faithful …
: the Clientele, the Public, the Person Adam Daniel and Chad Wellmon: The multiversity [Clark] Kerr described was not the result of any …
: getting real about Facebook Nikhil Sonnad: The solution, then, is for Facebook to change its mindset. Until now, even Facebook’s …
: the end of hypocrisy Today, many critics on the right are noting that the New York Times is extending to Sarah Jeong …
: the value of emotional resilience “Trigger Warning: Empirical Evidence Ahead”: Participants in the trigger warning group believed …
: insensibly Careful writers of narrative, whether that narrative is fictional or historical or journalistic, …
: the threefold order of ministry This is a topic I find myself thinking about surprisingly often — surprisingly because it’s so far …
: Sustainability and Solidarity Sustainability and Solidarity – Kathleen Fitzpatrick: There is absolutely an institutional …
: political mistrust in the long term Elizabeth Bruenig: The gravity and legality of the two exercises in meddling differ, certainly. But …
: common prayer I have many faithful Catholic friends who are hurting right now — who are in deep pain, even …
: saving journalism: Megan McArdle: What can be done? Start figuring out how to make journalism work as a philanthropic …
: pronoun trouble Political philosopher Jason Brennan on the case for epistocracy: Here’s what I propose we do: …
: Chuck Berry, 1958 Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images[/caption]
: The Second Vatican Council Lothar Wolleh
: do not make room for the devil Wesley Hill: If you’ve never been told by your fellow Christians that the personal object of your …
: our airport future Two quotes from this interview with Stéphane Degoutin and Gwenola Wagon. One: SD: The airport is …
: For the Love of Mars For the Love of Mars: Once we come of cultural age into a mature, considered love for Mars, and see …
: the church in Imminent America My colleague Philip Jenkins: So just as an intellectual exercise, let’s make a bold prophecy for …
: the point of the sword Sarah Smarsh: What my father seeks is not a return to times that were worse for women and people of …
: CPU from Introduction to IBM Data Processing Systems (1968)
: the moral ideal When the guide of conduct is a moral ideal we are never suffered to escape from perfection. …
: truth and lies I’ve always had great admiration for those who, in the chaos that generally characterises the …
: unforeseen consequences Another follow-up on my baseball post. I’m getting two kinds of feedback: (a) you’re a moron, …
: converging on rational standards: not always bad! This is a follow-up to my just-posted essay on my unchosen-but-apparently inexorable declining …
: suffering and not triumph Are we then to deduce that we should forget God, lay down our tools, and serve men in the Church – …
: The Event An eye-opening post from Douglas Rushkoff, describing what happened when he was asked to give a talk …
: Trollope and Brexit Trollope’s Phineas Redux, like the other Palliser novels, has a domestic plot and a political plot, …
: Boxes Peter Tarka, Boxes; via Things Magazine
: the blog garden My friend Dan Cohen recently wrote, Think about the difference between a blog post and a book: one …
: new uses for old blogs More ideas about ideas: Given my current interest in intellectual gardening rather than …
: we work in the dark Tom Phillips
: control and surrender, architecture and gardening Tom Phillips, Brian Eno oil on canvas 35.6 x 25.4 cm 1984-85 collection: the artist Tom Phillips …
: also Just one more quick thought about yesterday’s post: I’ve done this kind of thing before, but usually …
: victory paper Made by the Randolph Novelty Company in Chicago during World War II; via the Newberry Library’s …
: Letterbugs William Moran, from the Newberry Library
: thanks and a plea I’m already getting some emails in response to my earlier post, and they’re incredibly generous and …
: Episcopalian exclusionism Andrew McGowan: It is worrisome that despite the soaring temperatures of Austin, the current Prayer …
: ages of revolution If a man in the fullness of his days, at the end of his life, can pass on the wisdom of his …
: soccer and the impediments to success Brian Phillips: Soccer is beautiful because soccer is hard. Most popular sports artificially enhance …
: and he cried when he realized that there were no more stars to exploit MIT Technology Review: The cosmic horizon is changing. Hooper has worked out how this will affect …
: Milton’s God (and Google’s) Franklin Foer: What is God? It is only a subject that has inspired some of the finest writing in the …
: The Rings of Saturn On Monday Robert Macfarlane will be hosting a Twitter book club on W. G. Sebald’s The Rings of …
: the Ministry of Amnesia I’ve just read, with great interest, John Lanchester’s latest essay on the global financial …
: re-reading Trollope I am re-reading the Palliser novels, for the first time in 20 years, which means I have largely …
: Principalities, Powers, and BLM Eugene Rivers: For the most part, BLM activists – like the post-1965 SNCC activists, the Black …
: signed with that cross Al Raboteau: African-American Christianity has continuously confronted the nation with troubling …
: where citizens were, there shall users be Farhad Manjoo: The real problem is that [the scooters] just appeared out of nowhere one day, …
: The Atomic Theory of Human Life To me, the most interesting and significant element of the opposition to Amy Coney Barrett is the …
: Alan Jacobs is a writer who Alan Jacobs is a writer who has a degree of talent in this app that I would love for you haven’t …
: a position in life It happens that I have practically some connexion with schools for different classes of youth; and I …
: the social utility of religious freedom Reading this post by Rod Dreher, which considers (among other things) the extent to which overt …
: intra-Anglican ecumenism Bishop George Sumner: TEC and ACNA are still suing one another. The day, now foreseeable, when the …
: but how far Underground? This is amazing. Daniel Silva has created a series of maps showing just how far underground any …
: the Aspen Tech Solutionism Festival I have long loved the Atlantic and am proud of my association with it, but every time the Aspen …
: memory and invention In her book The Craft of Thought, Mary Carruthers identifies the purpose of memorization in medieval …
: why hospitality matters: ancient poetry edition WI’m reading Emily Wilson’s marvelous translation of The Odyssey this summer, and its emphasis on …
: quality of life Sara Hendren: When does a life worth living cease to become so? When one can no longer eat and must …
: viewpoint diversity and religion Religion: A Viewpoint Diversity Blind Spot?: How could Heterodox Academy address this lacuna? It …
: American Legothic [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] (click link for …
: when critique dissolves From Ross Douthat’s column today: But perhaps the simplest way to describe what happened with the …
: the world of the deal In Trump’s world, you fit into one of three categories. You may be a mark, you may be leverage, you …
: tragic humanism Terry Eagleton: The distinction between Hitchens or Dawkins and those like myself comes down in the …
: Richard Powers and the third kind of story An interview with Richard Powers:: The modern human assumption that trees, plants and all other …
: more on temporal bandwidth Two comments about my essay in the Guardian today, both of them regarding points that had to be cut …
: on the sky island Earlier this week I drove from my home in Waco to West Texas: first to the little town of …
: the whole of the law Sanders comments on family separations at the border: “It is very biblical to enforce the law” …
: cashin' in the bonds Why Lorrie Moore Writes | The New Republic: “How to Become a Writer” begins with the urge to write …
: VR for bear attacks This sounds really useful! Unless, well, you happen to read Bill Bryson: Now imagine reading a …
: credit and debt David Bentley Hart: The Law not only prohibited interest on loans, but mandated that every seventh …
: the mission “We men have an important but-as-yet-unknown mission." Can’t wait to find out what …
: proportion When a famous person commits suicide, there are roughly ten million words of sympathy and pity for …
: Tolkien and the possibility of healing This is a typically rich Adam Roberts post, bubbling over with a range of wonderful ideas, any one …
: how Rebecca West set fire to everything Sam Jordison on Rebecca West: She had written troubling accounts of the Nuremberg trials, spoken up …
: Facebook wants to matter Siva Vaidhyanathan: There’s no one to punish Facebook if Facebook fails. Facebook’s trying to head …
: “What are they going to break this time?” Riccardo Mori: The WWDC will start in less than a day at this point, and I have no wishlist to …
: knowing and acting Freddie deBoer sent me this: In Roman times, “belief” in the gods, as we understand it, was …
: meritocracy, schmeritocracy David Brooks: The real problem with the modern meritocracy can be found in the ideology of …
: Corey’s grandma’s biscuits This morning after church we stopped at Milo All Day to pick up kolaches, a cinnamon roll, a pain au …
: Di•a•graph•i•a, by Sarah Hulsey
: Karl Barth to his critics Wesley Hill posted this recently. It’s a brilliant letter, and below I am going to put in bold …
: members of the family C. S. Lewis, from “Membership”: The very word membership is of Christian origin, but it …
: I’m always for the dogs Jonah Goldberg: It’s worth bearing in mind that dog ownership — when done right — gets you out of …
: campaign slogans The two greatest campaign slogans in history are: Jimmie Davis, songwriter ("You Are My Sunshine") …
: good-bye Instagram Instagram is very pleased with its algorithm. Good for them – but that algorithm is the reason …
: seeds of renewal (I had a great time last month speaking at the Mockingbird conference in Noo Yawk City. What follows …
: delete Jaron Lanier: If you have good experiences with social media, nothing in this book invalidates those …
: unexpected moderation Wesley Yang: Peterson is virtually always more nuanced than the straw target his detractors have …
: where have the readers gone? Jürgen Habermas: The public sphere is crucial to the intellectual, though its fragile structure is …
: anti-biblical evangelicals Michael Gerson: According to a recent Pew Research Center poll, white evangelical Protestants are …
: how I strive for this consistency of outlook “I don’t like the present,” he said. “But I didn’t like the past, either.” — here
: Kuhn’s world This is very good by Philip Kitcher on Errol Morris’s rather misguided attack on Thomas …
: Aristotle the colonizer Agnes Callard: Recently a historian of philosophy named Wolfgang Mann wrote a book called The …
: the story of Francis Ross Douthat, in this interview with David Moore, sums up his hopes for his new book concisely and …
: the higher selfishness and the long defeat Here’s a typical passage from Jordan Peterson: We have two general principles of discipline. The …
: Milo All Day I’m hanging out this morning at a new local place, Milo All Day. Corey MacIntyre, the chef/owner, …
: counternarratives For each movement of modernity, there has developed a comprehensive counternarrative. The idea that …
: Reclaiming Jesus This is a great statement, and I agree with every word of it. But how I wish it were possible for …
: POTUS, tweetblocker Maybe there’s some legal element I don’t understand, but this ruling seems wrong to me. Not that I …
: a Communist and a Tory Clive Wilmer on Ruskin: This Toryism, comparable to that of Swift and Johnson and Coleridge, is …
: the right not to be addressed To engage in inventive thinking during those idle hours spent at an airport requires silence. But …
: contemplation Contemplation is not simply one possible form among others of the act of knowing. Its special …
: listening in museums Khoi Vinh: The [David Bowie Is] exhibition itself is designed thoughtfully and executed with a fair …
: polyglot politics Peter Leithart: Contemporary politics is polarized between multiculturalists and (for lack of a …
: children v. books If I had followed the great man's advice and never burdened myself with the gift of my children, or …
: privileges and rough rides I hate Twitter threads and really wish people would turn them into blog posts instead, and I’m never …
: all us exiles More than once already in the preceding pages mention has been made of the obliteration of English …
: a brief comment on stories There’s a lot of sentimental and just plain dopey talk about “story” these days. “Tell me your …
: liberalism and democracy This is very shrewd and thought-provoking from Adrian Vermeule: Liberalism both needs and fears …
: just for the record There are no ideas, no beliefs, no positions that reliably correspond to the phrase “cultural …
: time machine I longed for the loan of the Time Machine — a contraption with its saddle and quartz bars that was …
: two quotations I ate my breakfast, checked my email, and stood up to head to my gate. As I did, I looked down at …
: deracination by decree Thomas Chatterton Williams: Is Coates seriously arguing, as he seems to be, that the desire for …
: ride-hailing and restaurants It’s interesting sometimes to reflect on the major cultural trends that have completely passed you …
: no quiet mornings It’s ten minutes till eight on Sunday morning. It’s a lovely and cool and I have my …
: addressing biases Nick Phillips: Intellectual diversity addresses a fundamental problem in human cognition: we seek …
: studies prove Kevin Williamson: Studies have a way of ceasing to be studies once they are taken up by …
: everyday people : 1 : On a summer day in 1978, when I was an undergraduate at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, …
: How the Beijing elite sees the world How the Beijing elite sees the world: The Chinese have developed a state system run by a …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: my goal in life My goal at this stage of my life is to get to the point where I don’t know who any public figure is …
: "Poetry makes nothing happen" Alexander Chee: My generation of writers — and yours, if you are reading this — lives in the …
: "I like this God" When years ago, I finished reading [John Crowe Ransom's] God Without Thunder , I threw it aside, …
: Christianity and Evangelicalism Kristin du Mez: The second, and harder, task of [an imagined book called] Christianity and …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: the Mortara case No, Cessario is quite explicit about this: “Both the law of the Church and the laws of the …
: reasons for decline Alex Reid: From a national perspective, the number of people earning communications degrees (which …
: Steve diBenedetto [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1600”] Steve …
: you have no idea how frustrating it is ... … to have my name misspelled on my very own book. 😉
: apologies and clarifications (re: First Things) I have had many discussions with readers of First Things, some of whom are good friends and many of …
: the sad compatibilist Sohrab Amari writes in Commentary about two kinds of Christian response to the dominant liberal …
: The Huntsman [embed]britishmuseum.tumblr.com/post/1206…[/embed]
: Christians and the academic humanities This post, describing the experience of a friend of my friend Rod Dreher, makes universal judgments …
: the just and redemptive image of God As America in its present incarnation, with its present leadership, teeters toward an arrogance, …
: phrenological examination [caption id=“attachment_35327” align=“aligncenter” width=“700”] …
: more on "rhetorical Leninism" When I wrote in a recent post about “rhetorical Leninism,” what did I mean? I recently read Victor …
: eye massager [caption id="attachment_35322" align="aligncenter" width="700"] This eye massager from the Wellcome …
: academic patricians and plebes Stanford has 7000 undergraduates. Next quarter I'll be teaching 5% of them (350) in classes that …
: Craigie Aitchison, Crucifixion 9
: a Holy Week thought on rhetorical Leninism If you’re the kind of writer who works to be generous and fair-minded; if you admit that you have …
: what philosophy is for Jean-Paul Sartre was working furiously on his second play, Les Mouches (The Flies), while finishing …
: harmonic convergence In one of my classes today I’m teaching the Dark Mountain Manifesto and in the other I’m …
: children's crusades One clever little specialty of adult humans works like this: You very carefully (and, if you’re …
: speaking truth to the professoriate I’m probably going to write more about Scott Alexander’s take on Jordan Peterson, but …
: hope When I see young people out there marching and demonstrating and making their voices heard on behalf …
: Prescription: Poem [caption id=“attachment_35283” align=“aligncenter” width=“675”] …
: The History of Life Through Time Austin Kleon’s post about his son Owen’s book — finished before Dad’s book has …
: Levi van Veluw: Veneration charcoal drawings
: exegetical puzzlement Much of Paul Baumann’s review of Ross Douthat’s new book is devoted to intra-Catholic disputes that …
: Madonna della Misericordia [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“2500”] (click image for …
: radio voices, ranked Phoebe Judge Nate DiMeo Roman Mars everybody else in roughly any order
: brain [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1233”] A drawing of …
: the Berlin sketchbooks of Keir Edmonds [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“750”] (click an image …
: Annihilation The best thing about Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy is its uncompromising weirdness — its …
: The World Is a Ghetto One of my favorite album covers
: engagement 24/7 I’ve talked about this before, in bits and pieces, but just for the record: My wife Teri and I …
: farewell to Twitter? (Cross-posted, with edits, fromText Patterns) A few weeks ago I deleted my private Twitter account …
: The Waco Empire The newest outpost of Chip and Joanna Gaines’s local empire is Magnolia Table, and Teri and I …
: dignity I went down where the vultures feed I would’ve gone deeper, but there wasn’t any need Heard the …
: I'M AN ARTIST YOUR RULES DON'T APPLY [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1240”] (click photo for …
: and I thought John Wilson had many books
: Oxford and Cambridge It was very interesting next day to see Cambridge. In many ways it is a contrast: there is …
: bad trailers For what it’s worth, I have never seen trailers that look as bad as Ready Player One and A …
: Venice in snow [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2048"] New York Times[/caption]
: Portobello Road Market (1960s) Norman McCaskill
: The Year of Our Lord 1943 [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“860”] Available for …
: Photostat [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“675”] Mitch Fraas …
: this one’s for Austin Kleon It will be asked, How is imitation to be rendered healthy and vital? Unhappily, while it is easy to …
: biblioteca [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“600”] Susannah Hays, …
: well, back to work [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1352”] Daniel Stier, …
: Correggio's deception It being lawful to paint then, is it lawful to paint everything? So long as the painting is …
: house An abandoned house on the Isle of Scalpay
: this is the future liberals want
: some clarifications Over at Mere Orthodoxy, Jake Meador responds to this post of mine — but I believe Jake …
: text three ways When my buddy Austin Kleon posted his notebook turducken I realized that I have a three-part system …
: On Erik Stevens I am breaking my Lenten silence because (a) I am a poor excuse for a Christian and (b) I can’t stop …
: three things Yes: ban porn. Ban it. A blessed Shrove Tuesday to you all. I'll be back in Eastertide. Ciao for …
: religion and public life revisited I’m late to this party, but there’s something to be said for taking time to think things over. The …
: making life simpler A great many intellectual positions are obvious and incontestable to people who are ignorant of and …
: between vanity and avarice In studying your own pages I find that the great majority of the names which are quoted as those of …
: the gifts of the Owner of the World To some of us the Owner of the World has apportioned the gift to tell their fellows that the time to …
: Constable: Trees on Hampstead Heath
: The Black Prince of Burgess and Roberts So: Anthony Burgess, back when he was alive, thought that a movie should be made about Edward the …
: choice You can’t understand the place and time you’re in by immersion; the opposite’s true. You have to …
: Frank Lloyd Wright, draftsman In Huxtable’s biography of Wright she often comments on the beauty and precision of his pencil …
: hide your work To maintain his Olympian position as the self-described inventor of modern architecture, he could …
: the pilgrimage towards Home Dear Dott. Franco, I was moved that so many readers of your newspaper would like to know how I am …
: annotated Wakes [caption id=“attachment_35135” align=“aligncenter” width=“700”] …
: the ed-tech snake-oil salesmen This year we in the Honors Program at Baylor were told that we could no longer submit our annual …
: “That’s the reality” The reason I lost my church was not specifically because I spoke up. It was because we were …
: Embrace the Pain: Living with the Repugnant Cultural Other This is the text, more or less, of the talk I gave at Duke University last Monday afternoon. The …
: the invariant ed-tech sequence Some company creates a new "killer app" for Academic Task X that is supposed to make the machinery …
: The Bible you carry You spoke of praying for forgiveness. But Larry, if you have read the Bible you carry, you know …
: reading, annotating, quizzing, teaching
: religion as politics, part 2 I get tired just thinking about what David French does here, which is to walk his way patiently …
: religion as politics, part 1 Daniel Cox writes on FiveThirtyEight.com that white evangelical Protestants may be neglecting their …
: Most influential public intellectuals? A lot of talk about this among my online friends lately. As a semi-private pseudo-intellectual who …
: “It just became so obvious” When Colleen Malloy, a neonatologist and faculty member at Northwestern University, discusses …
: an earnest prayer Missionary work indeed in heathen countries was being carried on with some energy, but Theobald did …
: notify me — NOT Farhad Manjoo: Another idea is to let you impose more fine-grained controls over notifications. …
: the horror of homeschooling Damon Linker has a recommendation for dealing with the enormous social problem of homeschooling: …
: David Bentley Hart's grocery list The notion that there is any milk in this house is a laughable error, one that could be committed …
: the future of Christian educational institutions Carl Trueman writes about the future of Christian higher education: Thus, for Christian educational …
: why Zadie Smith writes To speak personally, the very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire …
: Adam Zagajewski, "The Self" It is small and no more visible than a cricket in August. It likes to dress up, to masquerade, as …
: The Paige Compositor [caption id=“attachment_41392” align=“aligncenter” width=“509”] …
: gold dust and hero props Annie Atkins is an immensely talented graphic designer who specializes in work for film — the image …
: "The Lord is with you" Sermon by the Rev. Jessica Martin Ely Cathedral, Advent 4 (24th December 2017) Old Testament: 2 Sam. …
: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: 8 [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1313"] image from the one surviving manuscript of the …
: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: 7 If you look closely at the picture above (by John Howe, the famous Tolkien illustrator) of Gawain’s …
: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: 6 As I noted in my previous post, Gawain’s deal with Bertilak is simple: What each takes during the …
: David Jones, <em>in festo nativitatis</em>
: excerpt from my Sent folder: myth I still think my analysis in that essay is useful, but I wrote it before what happened in …
: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: 5 At several points in the poem Gawain is referred to as “Mary’s knight,” and it certainly seems that …
: David Jones, <em>dum medium silentium</em> [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]David Jones, Nativity with Beasts and Shepherds …
: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: 4 At several points in the poem Gawain is referred to as “Mary’s knight,” and it certainly seems that …
: David Jones, Nativity with Shepherds
: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: 3 Once the voice has quietly spoken, every knight must ride alone On the quest appointed him into the …
: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: 2 All the visitor wants is to play a little “Christmas game” — but it appears that no one at Arthur’s …
: A Child is Born [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“837”] Althea Willoughby, …
: Nativity in Ivory This carved ivory polyptych was made in the early 1300s in France. It shows scenes from the Life of …
: Sir Gawain Is Rising The estimable Robert Macfarlane has helped to organize a group reading on Twitter of Susan Cooper’s …
: Craigie Aitchison, "Nativity and Angels"
: Les Murray, "Animal Nativity" The Iliad of peace began when this girl agreed. Now goats in trees, fish in the valley suddenly feel …
: Pirate and Traveler [caption id=“attachment_34924” align=“aligncenter” …
: over the bluff and not-so-far away I’ve been spending a few days of retreat and reflection at the amazing Laity Lodge, whose ministry …
: Eight Donkeys Huang Zhou (1997)
: Gate [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“510”]門 (Mon, Gate), …
: Crowley, Pynchon, and the hippies In The Solitudes, the first volume of John Crowley’s Aegypt series, the series’ protagonist Pierce …
: a medieval brooch Found with a metal detector in Llangattock-Vibon-Avel, Monmouthshire, in 2014. Donated by the finder …
: Vegetation of the Old and New Worlds [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“2000”] Tableau comparatif …
: Mars Royal Museums, Greenwich: A manuscript globe, hand painted and lettered, representing in …
: "folks" David Von Drehle writes: I say this with love: Folks in Alabama do loyalty and clan as well as …
: Faustus's good angel From my book Original Sin: A Cultural History: In 1974, the famous theatrical director John Barton …
: more marvelous puppetry The Tin Drum, at Shoreditch Town Hall
: By day, a mild-mannered civil engineer ...
: Moomins in winter How I would love to see this puppet show at the Dulwich Picture Gallery.
: the politics of long joy Ten years ago I briefly wrote an online column for the late lamented Books & Culture, and what …
: the habitual passenger The habitual passenger cannot grasp the folly of traffic based overwhelmingly on transport. His …
: keep the body receptive I think that Bob Dylan knows this more than all of us: you don’t write the songs anyhow.... So if …
: I'm listening Like many people of my generation, I did a lot of damage to my hearing in my youth, but I can still …
: autumn textures (central Texas edition)
: Teresa Bejan on free speech I simply don’t understand Teresa Bejan’s argument here. To wit: While trigger warnings, safe …
: unmanly emotion In my squandered youth I was a friend of Ian Hamilton, the biographer of Robert Lowell and J. D. …
: my response to Douthat's response to my answer to Douthat's question Ross Douthat, responding in part to this post of mine, writes: But it’s also possible that …
: Joe Posnanski wises up About 15 or 20 years ago, I realized that talk radio was wrecking my writing process. I would be …
: leaving the Oasis I’m pretty sure my body has a peculiar electromagnetic field that wreaks havoc on the batteries of …
: Babette the Artist This is a slightly edited version of a post I published a long time ago at The American …
: on evidence and the life of the mind: a follow-up A twofold follow-up to yesterday’s post: Some people have written to ask me what my evidence is for …
: Ray's Yellow Plane [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1920”] Ray’s Yellow …
: where young evangelicals are headed A long, long time ago, Ross Douthat tweeted this: Reading this makes me wish for an @ayjay take on …
: Auden adapted The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews, Not to be born is the best for man; The …
: Hazlitt hating In private life do we not see hypocrisy, servility, selfishness, folly, and impudence succeed, while …
: the enlightenment of books I think all the time about alternative ways of organizing my books, but am always thwarted by the …
: Verticals [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1600”]Anni Albers, With …
: the poison of consequentialism Fromthis conversation: Rebecca Traister: ... the argument for keeping Clinton ... was in part that …
: the casting game Everyone who loves movies plays the Casting Game: Who would you cast if you could make a movie based …
: silver lining! As horrible as these revelations are about sexually predatory men at the highest levels of our …
: free speech for me ... This is a really good evisceration by Jesse Singal of some recent leftist takes on free speech on …
: a law that applies always and everywhere People vary widely in their proclivities and needs alike, so it’s usually impossible to offer …
: friendly critic or critical friend? The other day Rod Dreher referred to me as a “friendly critic” of the Benedict Option. I prefer to …
: Catholicism and Protestantism The Christian doctrine which Protestantism emphasizes is that every human being, irrespective of …
: Vladimir Nabokov on his mother’s religion She found a deep appeal in the moral and poetical side of the Gospels, but felt no need in the …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: on Rod Dreher and the BenOp … I just don’t think the question of whether Rod is “the right messenger” for the …
: reconsidering "evangelical" Once more about this word “evangelical.” A number of organizations, of various kinds, around the …
: accountable As a Christian, I am accountable to God, and, as I understand things, that means I am also …
: the "decline of religion" Here’s something C. S. Lewis wrote in a 1946 essay called “The Decline of Religion”: The `decline of …
: A plea for The Replicant Edit I do not believe that there are any exceptions to the rule that big-budget Hollywood action movies …
: a thesis about politics In almost all democratic countries today, the ruling party appears rudderless, spiritless, bereft of …
: waveforms A recent Song Exploder episode features Rostam — best known for being in Vampire Weekend — talking …
: making God To develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on artificial intelligence and through …
: seasons This is a terrific post by Matt Thomas on living by the seasons: “when you think of things in …
: politics Politics is the art of living together and being ‘just’ to one another — not of imposing a way of …
: Oakeshott on education and culture A culture, particularly one such as ours, is a continuity of feelings, perceptions, ideas, …
: guides to the current moment This is just a placeholder for a future, more-properly-thought-out reflection: since last …
: the rad-trads and ecumenical hope Many typos and missed auto-errors now fixed; sorry about those I find myself thinking often about …
: Bruce Chatwin at Sotheby's For me, his great gift – on the page and in person – was visual generosity. He made you see …
: Le Guin's golden age Between 1968 and 1974 Ursula K. Le Guin published • A Wizard of Earthsea • The Left Hand of Darkness …
: you say Brexit, I say Euroapoculamus There are various methods applied to translate hapaxes that aren’t conventional words. In the case …
: Dear Jenny Dear Jenny: The way to do a piece of writing is three or four times over, never once. For me, the …
: Twitter: not actually a company Twitter [is] not actually a company, it’s a dysfunctional non-profit that accidentally provides a …
: "we" A brief follow-up to yesterday’s post: Another interesting element of Kevin Kelly’s rhetoric is his …
: Jasper Johns New show in London.
: Paul Nash [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“725”]Paul Nash, Night …
: two quotations on technological power A vigilant, eyes-wide-open embrace works much better. My intent in this book is to uncover the roots …
: forgiveness Meaning comes not from systems of thought but from stories, and the Jewish story is among the …
: Dr. Dinosaur This is going to sound terrible, but Dr. Dinosaur always reminds me of David Bentley Hart. They have …
: litmus tests and revulsion In trying to explain to National Review why she doesn’t apply a religious litmus test to …
: Richard Thompson: creativity from resistance Many years ago now John Updike noted his response to much modern art: “we feel in each act not only …
: you and I, dear reader If one reads through the mass of versified trash inspired by, for instance, the Lidice massacre, one …
: The Democrats' religious tests for public office I write, as a university president and a constitutional scholar with expertise on religious freedom …
: Altamira [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“2048”] “After …
: movement It’s a very odd experience to hold precisely the same theological positions that I have held for …
: nothing to see here A crack reporter for the Los Angeles Times will later write that they were arrested for charging the …
: how to read biblical scholarship when you’re not a biblical scholar I’ve spent many unedifying hours reading books by biblical scholars in ways that have not been …
: at the edge of your range Yesterday afternoon I was listening to Fresh Air with Terry Gross, an episode featuring a replay of …
: Raphael's apostles [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1128”] Ashmolean Museum, …
: Another Week Ends (in Charlottesville) Well, for starters, I am (we are) still very much dealing with the local fallout. I’m referring to …
: my writing advice Given that I’ve written a book about reading, and a book about thinking, maybe I should write …
: agenda Reflecting on all the social and political chaos of the past week, journalists are asking — I see …
: Mermaid Avenue etc. Mermaid Avenue is a curious and delightful musical collaboration featuring Billy Bragg, Wilco, …
: guidance for my students (& others) As a new school year is about to begin, I’m going over the things I want to say to my first-year …
: animated Pelicans More Covers from Henning M. Lederer on Vimeo.
: writing with the prospect of being hanged In the preface to his great — and I do mean great — book Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, Richard …
: the NYT's rhetoric of authority This Vulture profile of Michiko Kakutani is a little too inside-baseball for me — perhaps because …
: appropriate musical technology Very soon after Exile, so much technology came in that even the smartest engineer in the world …
: the freelancers’ merry-go-round Freddie deBoer is pretty tired of the freelance-writing merry-go-round: I just find, at this point, …
: the post-Christian culture wars In his great book God’s Long Summer, Charles Marsh demonstrates that the Civil Rights struggle in …
: ways and means of debate On the current debate among “small-o orthodox” Christians about sexuality and orthodoxy, I warmly …
: "this is what you no longer understand" We live in an era in which the overwhelming majority of filmgoers will have no experience of …
: the mystery of Google’s position Google’s position could be: All studies suggesting that men-taken-as-a-group and …
: orthodoxy, heresy, and definitions Maybe this will help to clarify some matters concerning the definition of “orthodoxy.” Jamie Smith …
: addendum Quick addendum to this morning’s posts: I’ve already heard from several Catholic friends and …
: “Why is this even a question?” Imagine a pacifist to a just-war theorist: “Jesus says, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’ Jesus says, …
: on sexuality and the grammar of orthodoxy Alastair Roberts says that Jamie Smith “den[ies] the place of the creed in teaching us Christian …
: life among the crackheads Damon Linker: After six months of unremitting chaos, lies, ignorance, trash-talking vulgarity, …
: a brief quote and a brief thought John Stuart Mill once wrote of the English, “It appears to them unnatural and unsafe, either to do …
: Hommage à Bernanos [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Arcabas[/caption]
: Sainte Anne instruisant Marie [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2276"]Arcabas[/caption]
: the supper at Emmaus [caption id="attachment_34532" align="aligncenter" width="700"]Arcabas[/caption]
: “first epistemological impressions” God appeared very early to me. His hair was parted down the middle. I understood that we were …
: Perugino A post shared by National Portrait Gallery (@nationalportraitgallery) on Aug 1, 2017 at 1:52am PDT …
: London’s “nightmare scenario“ Before Britain voted last summer to leave the European Union, Crossrail was conceived for a London …
: Karma Police, arrest ... well, pretty much everybody The woke world is a world of snitches, informants, rats. Go to any space concerned with social …
: bad academic writing? Inconceivable! This very essay gets published, with only slight variations, every year. I always wonder whether the …
: how being rich wrecks your soul As stratospheric salaries became increasingly common, and as the stigma of wildly disproportionate …
: murdered by the sky I have a screenplay to write, several issues of comics, three lectures and a handful of other …
: impairment Trump hasn’t had a stroke or suffered a neurological disaster, and his behavior in the White House …
: “an expression of what we are” “The pseudo-Gothic was much ridiculed, and nobody builds like that anymore. It is not authentic, not …
: The Shadow knows I’ve already had some people asking me what I think about this review. The answer is: Not very much. …
: the Old South and the New Left The influence, which has not been sufficiently noted, of Southern writers and historians on the …
: FastMail update A quick follow-up to my previous post on ditching FastMail: After telling tech support that I had …
: a homily to remember by Jessica Martin The preacher in most Anglican traditions works under strict time constraints: what one has to offer …
: the wisdom of Xún Zǐ On his blog this morning, Rod Dreher publishes a fascinating letter from a reader in China, who …
: London Bridge Imagined reconstruction of old London Bridge; pencil drawing by Paul Stroud
: Dick Whittington’s Cat There’s an argument on the Wikipedia page for the story of Dick Whittington and his cat about …
: "I have Calculated and the time is nigh" — Brenna Bychowski, via John Overholt on Twitter
: Gog and Magog, Guildhall, London
: faith We’re in a society that thinks entirely about faith, because of our sense of encroachment by Islam, …
: conservatives and health care In his influential “The Road to Serfdom,” the economist Friedrich Hayek argued that the state should …
: coda to my previous post Everybody knows there is no fineness or accuracy of suppression; if you hold down one thing, you …
: writing by the always-wrong Please read the whole of this beautiful post by Sara Hendren — and then I want to reflect on its …
: Goodbye FastMail For several years now I’ve enjoyed using FastMail, a paid email service. Email is sufficiently …
: the healing to come The fact that the body, and locality and locomotion and time, now feel irrelevant to the highest …
: two minutes The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but, on …
: free speech ≠ chronic stress The articles Barrett links to are mostly about chronic stress — the stress elicited by, for example, …
: Cheri Smith, The Art Room Stone (2016); watercolour on paper, 504 × 666 mm
: sacraments I often think I’m the only person in the world who cares about this, but … here’s a very nice …
: Claremont-McKenna statement In the aftermath of the blockade on April 6, the College learned important lessons that must further …
: Handy-Dandy Benedict Option Flowchart I see Rod is still engaging his critics, and now we’re into the deep weeds of just how …
: civility rethought What contemporary theorists of civility can and should take away from [Roger] Williams is his …
: late-career Papacy: two models It strikes me that the future of the Roman Catholic Church in my lifetime, and perhaps well beyond, …
: Sinaia Monastery [caption id=“attachment_34274” align=“aligncenter” width=“700”] …
: a scholar "under attack" [Nancy MacLean] has continued this narrative of being “under attack” in various interviews, and most …
: Steven Pinker on Harvard’s proposed club ban 1. A university is an institution with circumscribed responsibilities which engages in a contract …
: the Great Red Spot Source: The Closest-Ever Look at Jupiter’s Great Red Spot - The Atlantic
: blaming the media Now, more than half of Republicans think that colleges and universities have a negative effect on …
: universities under threat? Meanwhile, in my very large network of professional academics, almost no one recognizes any threat …
: sandwiches You learn a lot about people by noting what trivial things they obsess over, and today’s David …
: writ in water This man comes to Peili Square in #Lanzhou every morning (at least every morning I've been here) …
: no feelings may be hurt Suppose, I asked the students, an observant Jew has a florist shop. One day, a customer, who is also …
: the shooting gallery Day and night addicted people come and go by the dozens through once-boarded windows. Some get high …
: writerly priorities Usually when I write a post, it’s not because I think the subject is the most important thing going …
: on not being excluded from a stupid narrative I wrote recently about not writing about politics, but I have been reminded this morning that such …
: Chief Justice John Roberts to the graduates of ninth grade Now commencement speakers are also expected to give some advice. They give grand advice, and they …
: the weakness of religion I am by most measures a pretty deeply committed Christian. I am quite active in my church; I teach …
: Lake Waco Wetlands These wetlands aren’t on the lake as such, but are just off one inlet of it. They are remarkably …
: against epistocracy Only those narrow few who benefit from today’s system of elite rule could possibly see such rule as …
: an image After Henrik Ibsen became a great man, a great artist, one of the most famous people in Europe, fans …
: why copy editors matter The ugly secret of newspapers is that copy editors do a great deal of what non-journalism people …
: [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“690”]Pfeiffer Chapel at …
: The Burial of the Dead The Christian church has another narrative, but we must teach it to ourselves over and over …
: revolutionary products When Jobs announced the device, he called it “a revolutionary product”, one of those that comes …
: enough already I’m trying to make myself stop talking about politics, for the most part — I will make the very …
: the Gospel as narrative attractor What I am finding is that the gospel, as a narrative, seems to function as a kind of attractor for …
: Hogwarts School of Art and Music: A Refutation of Ross Douthat It’s rare for me to disagree with my friend Ross Douthat as strongly as I do when reading this …
: definition as poetry ABER, adj., sharp, acute, as an edge-tool; clear, well-defined, as a cloudless sky; eager, as a …
: Anglicans and the echo of history There are impulses at work in the Church, on both the right and the left, a desire to sweep away the …
: transcendent experience I became interested in ecstatic experiences when I was 24 and had a near-death experience. I fell …
: books and bookness On artist’s books
: China’s “fairy bridge” [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“700”] via …
: Vengeance When a society rejects the Christian account of who we are, it doesn’t become less moralistic but …
: how not to headline a story on religious freedom Earlier today I tweeted this: Lede: accurate Dek: misleading Hed: utterly ridiculous …
: Firestacks Julie Brook. Via Austin Kleon on Twitter, I think.
: PROUNEN [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“936”]Ross …
: roots and crowns Before coming back I had been willing to allow the possibility — which one of my friends insisted on …
: Jonathan Swift clarifies his purpose I I hope no reader imagines me so weak to stand up in the defence of real Christianity, such as used …
: Fuschia and Steerpike [caption id=“attachment_30159” align=“aligncenter” …
: a tribute I should think, computing moderately, that 15 angels, several hundreds of ordinary women, many …
: inward isolation Are we to live in an age in which every mechanical facility for communication between man and man is …
: walking apart, walking together When Christian communities decide that they must, for whatever reason, walk apart, then the question …
: two quotations on the shape of lives The problem of meaning is created by limits, by being just this, by being merely this. The young …
: a useful bit of perspective for the fururists I’m not convinced that a civilization that is struggling to cure male-pattern baldness is ready to …
: Malcolm is ten years old today
: Las Conchas Trail A mile or so down the road from one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen — theValles …
: Palo Duro Canyon So you’re driving through the panhandle of Texas with the land flat as a bedsheet as far as …
: Pelphase, Interphase, Gusphase “Now,” he said, swiveling his head to look at his pupils, “here is how the cycle …
: Augustine and Pelagius No doubt the spiritual and moral standards for the Christian life had relaxed quite a bit since the …
: the public interrogation of Tim Farron Farron’s religious beliefs may be publicly interrogated, even if he has an immaculate history of …
: Trump and Constitutional Law This is a great idea for a podcast: What the Trump presidency, with its manifold eccentricities, can …
: The Gospel of Taylorism in Truro Via Archbishop Cranmer I learn that the Anglican Diocese of Truro in Cornwall is looking for a new …
: The long slow work of combatting ignorance As our cultural elites lose even the most elementary biblical literacy, this is going to happen more …
: thought, speech, writing A continual negotiation was going on between thought, speech and writing, thought having as a rule …
: from the Galloway Hoard [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“700”]the Galloway …
: Sports commentary follies, 1/3749 As you can tell from my title, I am planning to provide an exhaustive inventory of dumb things that …
: from the Staffordshire Hoard Stunning.
: Hypocrisy? Darryl Hart says I have accused my fellow evangelicals of “hypocrisy” in voting for Trump. Well, no. …
: Ravilious The upcoming Eric Ravilious exhibition at the Towner Art Gallery will apparently include his …
: Ware on Steinberg Saul Steinberg, “The South” (1955). Chris Ware on Steinberg here.
: building walls What we have here, in other words, is a piece of pornography written in order to stimulate the …
: Hud [caption width=“470” id=“attachment_30080” align=“aligncenter”] …
: "the social obligation to be happy" Modern society, as a whole, tends toward a sort of institutional optimism, espousing Hegelian …
: goonery It’s dismaying to see some conservatives defending or making excuses for Gianforte’s assault — I …
: the wrong side So today I want to speak about why we chose to remove these four monuments to the Lost Cause of the …
: "the spoils of death's conquered empire" Since, therefore, we see in [Jesus Christ] qualities so human that they stand in no way apart from …
: Gary Snyder on poetry Poetry as a tool, a net or trap to catch and present; a sharp edge; a medicine; or the little awl …
: the smell of strawmen burning I enjoy talking with Rusty Reno — as I did just yesterday, here in Waco! — but he is, I have learned …
: populism and conservatism Bret Stephens is so, so right about this: “Populism is not conservatism, which by definition entails …
: "a benevolent green nationalism" This, by Paul Kingsnorth from his new book, speaks for my politics about as completely as anything …
: now that's a true writer After my wife goes to her office, a day of uninterrupted work yawns ahead. Musicians wake up knowing …
: comprehension The conviction that everything that happens on earth must be comprehensible to man can lead to …
: the best emoluments clause We consider it an impious deed to take away anything from the teachers of our youths, since they …
: social dissolution “If the president continues to act in this way, we shall rapidly descend into a terrifying …
: taboos “If you’ve read Walkaway (or my other books), you know that I’m not squeamish about taboos, …
: 15 hours Russell Berman tweets: “15 hours later, not one of the top 4 House Republican leaders have …
: Lucretius annotated [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“2000”] De Rerum Natura and …
: on dialogue and normalization You hear a lot these days from people who refuse to engage in dialogue with others who hold certain …
: remix? culture? “Everyone can see it,” she told me. “It’s identical except for the signature. I was very shocked. …
: all hat, no cattle T. S. Eliot and his sister Marion, during Eliot’s 1958 visit to the U.S. with his new wife …
: life in Texas Just enjoying my usual tableside refresher here as Teri returns from H-E-B, where she bought another …
: The BCP and me I’m pretty happy with my biography of the Book of Common Prayer. It has some typos and other …
: Michael and Jemele Just for the record, this old socially conservative white guy thinks Michael Smith and Jemele Hill …
: hurt the people first Among the many takes I’ve read on yesterday’s ESPN layoffs, the most incisive, I think, is this one …
: the great distillery tour! My former student Gabriel RiCharde is now working for the pride of Waco, Balcones Distilling, and …
: ANNOUNCEMENT: The Charles Murray Award for Inciting the Hatred of People Who Have Never Read a Word You've Written and Never Will This year’s winner: Rod Dreher!
: the absolutizing of fright Farhad Manjoo: In Silicon Valley, current events tend to fade into the background. The Sept. 11 …
: ANGELS ANGELS ANGELS ANGELS ANGELS Back in the day (i.e. the 1970s) when I worked in a bookstore, it was fairly common for people to …
: Jimmy Wales and journalism “If we have a community guiding the work and we have people who are paying to be monthly supporters …
: Church of the Loaded Arms Nothing says “Come unto me, all ye who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” like an armed …
: Baylor's nonexistent cliff I’m not happy with this story about Baylor’s new president, Linda Livingstone, by my friend Ruth …
: travel Always rather embarrassing to wonder what one gets out of travel to make up for its privations, …
: conservation [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“481”] The Stavelot …
: chicks [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“800”] by An …
: choices From all the irrefutable testimonies of human misery there is no logically sound path to the great …
: Lenten silence Friends, there will be no posts here (or on Text Patterns, or on Twitter) until the Easter season. …
: the Map of Peace A post shared by British Library (@britishlibrary) on Feb 27, 2017 at 5:58am PST
: Barth: great hope and little hopes Hope seizes, or rather is seized by, the promise of the future. To that extent, it is the great …
: "the death of gods is a chain reaction" A mythology, if it is to be effective, must be all-encompassing. The death of gods is a chain …
: advice to teachers Just a quick follow-up to my last post: So you’re a teacher, and your students don’t meet your …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: kids these days The percentage of young people willing to entertain a genuinely countercultural Gospel has always …
: one more note on motivated reasoning This is something I’ve been worrying over, specifically as a Christian, for a long time: … It …
: on spears, throats, and motivated reasoning Some really good words from Matthew Loftus here: I want the BenOp to succeed because I do think …
: hate + stupidity Christians who want religious liberty only for Christians are managing the remarkable twofer of …
: unfair, unbalanced, and afraid I admire British journalism and have always thought American papers should be more like the British. …
: Eno's rough drafts An iTunes playlist of rough drafts contains 4412 tracks; the most recent of them, something called …
: good to go My social media are either deleted or shut off in some way, but it’s not hermitage, because friends …
: on narcissism Allen Frances writes: Fevered media speculation about Donald Trump’s psychological motivations and …
: Dust The first two books of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy offered some of the most …
: two descriptions of the university It is not that I wanted to know a great deal, in order to acquire what is now called expertise, and …
: resourceful Christianity Rod Dreher has been asking lately whether various Christian traditions possess the resources that …
: Tom Waits 15 years ago, me today Austin Chronicle: Where are you, in an office or a small room fielding calls? Tom Waits: I’m …
: Mr. Penumbra in Japan [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“854”]Japanese cover for …
: good times in Waco I live in Waco, Texas, which is a relatively small city and a relatively poor city, a city with its …
: What We’re Fighting For If we choose to believe in a morally diminished America, an America that pursues its narrow selfish …
: dealing with lies Here is what we are supposed to do: rebut every single lie. Insist moreover that each lie is …
: productive smudging “Another thing he talked about that’s actually useful, and this is my favorite one, he said that …
: New Atheist axioms The progress of science will make religious belief less and less plausible; that is, science …
: the experience of free will I think it’s generally known that one wing of the New Atheism, led primarily by Jerry Coyne, has …
: theatrical memories Recently, Teri and I have been watching both Victoria and The Crown — an interesting pair of …
: The Christians of Nigeria A terrifying and tragic story from the Spectator: Nigerians have their own view as to what is really …
: judging judges It has long been frustrating to me that the only criterion by which Americans — almost without …
: Henri Nouwen’s Weakness Was His Strength Initially Nouwen looks like a poster boy for activism. Climbing the ladder to the highest echelons …
: a necessary coinage Drumpfengeworfenheit: The condition of finding oneself “thrown” into Donald …
: Jeremy Begbie on Roger Lundin He cared about words – or better put, he cared for people through words: his students, colleagues …
: Holocaust [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1704”] proposal for a …
: Krazy Kat [caption id=“attachment_29851” align=“aligncenter” width=“545”] …
: Pope Francis and Donald Trump: the same man? There’s a very unfortunate moment in Jason Horowitz’s account of the conflict between Pope Francis …
: "Where would we go?" I look at them and I see us, sitting in that strangely-lit room with the Immigration and …
: you know who you are It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by …
: a lesson from France Not content to expose [Eric Zemmour's] exaggerations and fabrications, their instinct — a deep one …
: idolatry Christians have a word to describe the worship of that which is not God: idolatry. Idolatry, of …
: Doomsdumb Doomsday Clock Moves Closer to Midnight, Signaling Concern Among Scientists - The New York Times. It …
: Donald Trump wants to build a wall here The Rio Grande at Big Bend National Park
: a dialogue on punching Frankly, I’m glad Richard Spencer got punched in the face, and I hope that happens to people like …
: the Pevensies and puberty A comment on “the problem of Susan” and more particularly this post by Adam Roberts: My …
: The London Necropolis [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1000”]The London …
: want to know what "begging the question" means? Here you go: So most likely when Trump refers to “the media” as the most dishonest people on the …
: The Evenings [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1567”]wonderful cover …
: George Mackley [embed]thingsmagazine.tumblr.com/post/1562…[/embed]
: everybody got some The black bloc guy got a moment he’ll treasure for life. Richard Spencer got an aching jaw, but he …
: youth and age Among other pleasing errours of young minds, is the opinion of their own importance. He that has not …
: interviewing Eno “I just don’t want to talk about history. All that shit! You can find all this in other interviews …
: pity the poor referee There were so many bad calls in the Arsenal-Burnley match I just sweated through that I can’t figure …
: gonna be a fabulous four years Media: We are outraged by the behavior of the Trump administration! Trump administration: We are …
: Reading Calvin Lately I’ve been trying to read John Calvin, and I’m struggling. When I was in graduate school I …
: a helpful reminder of the way we were Imagine if this happened today: Hundreds of young Americans—white, black, and Hispanic—disappear …
: sage quotation for the new political era Did you ever feel that there was a net cast over us and we were all held in this net by a hegemony …
: no pleasant harmony Those who hope in Christ can no longer put up with reality as it is, but begin to suffer under it, …
: fighting Kruse: Michael, in your book, and other places, too, he has talked about how much he enjoys …
: A Lover's Question One of the wonderful things about the music of the late 1950s is the way that it can blend the …
: performative anxiety If you say that the election of Donald Trump to the presidency is an existential threat to this …
: fake news, 1902 edition A doctored photo claiming to show the moment that the campanile of St. Mark’s in Venice collapsed. …
: soccer Saturday I’m looking forward to the Gunners' inevitable draw with Swansea this morning (presumably with …
: mea maxima culpa I spent a bit of time and energy trying to convince my Catholic friends that Pope Francis’s …
: autópsia [embed]50watts.tumblr.com/post/1557…[/embed]
: translation (2) “Everything is political” = “Everything is political when people whose politics I …
: translation “You may not have said it, but you implied it” = “I continue to insist that you …
: The Tree [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1240”]Wistman’s …
: a thought on Endo's Silence (a comment on this post by Adam Roberts) … let me just offer one thought about Silence (the …
: Horizontorium John Jesse Barker after a design by William Mason (active 1822–1860), Horizontorium, 1832. …
: rosie roses [embed]fromwithinabook.tumblr.com/post/1544…[/embed]
: John Fuller This is a really lovely profile of the poet and critic John Fuller, whom I admire greatly in both of …
: jon klassen [embed]jonklassen.tumblr.com/post/1554…[/embed]
: Valhalla [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1920”]Anselm …
: turf The message is clear. The only web site that you can trust to last and have your interests at heart …
: the limits of pluralism Much of the history of religion in America has been written to emphasize the triumph of pluralism. …
: my Premier League mid-season awards Goalkeeper: David de Gea Central defender: David Luiz (can't believe I'm saying this) …
: reading Perlstein Here’s a typical passage from Rick Perlstein’s The Invisible Bridge — and apologies in advance for …
: The Glass House, fogged [caption id=“attachment_29714” align=“aligncenter” width=“592”] …
: monastic warfare Satan, issuing orders at nightfall to his foul precurrers, was rumoured to dispatch to capital …
: how the Premier League has changed Jürgen Klopp
: what Twitter does to journalism Earlier today I tweeted: “Gap that needs to be filled: the journalism that journalists ignore while …
: we have to talk about Mesut Mesut Özil creates an impossible situation for his manager. He can go for long periods — and by …
: a theology of culture Another photo from that NYT story on the restoration of the Ghent Altarpiece. I have long dreamed of …
: restoring the Ghent Altarpiece Story in the New York Times. Click the photo for a larger image.
: reading cybernetics old-school When I discovered, as I related in a Text Patterns post, than Thomas Pynchon claimed to have been …
: the problem is ... 4-year-old was screaming on our walk, so I gave him my notebook and pen and told him to write down …
: a listening Pope? Speaking as an interested outsider to recent intra-Catholic disputes, I find this article completely …
: re-litigating the Reformation With the 500th anniversary of the Reformation coming on, I’m already seeing pieces — they …
: Hauerwas on Mary If [Charles] Taylor's characterization of our time as empty - a characterization I suspect many of …
: now this is a crèche [caption id=“attachment_29635” align=“aligncenter” …
: dependence God's gift at Christmas is relationship, not just another human relationship but relation to God the …
: a friendly reminder Even in the beginnings of this one and only Church of God there arose certain rifts, which the …
: ecumenism in action The prayer shared, and said in earnest unison, by writers for Catholic and conservative evangelical …
: story Every few days, it seems, I come across that ridiculous claim that there are seven kinds of story. …
: against consequentialism an unspoken Advent sermon, of sorts In my recent involvement in the ongoing debate about sexuality …
: "This is the prayer of Christian hope" Euthanasia and physician assisted suicide are not a “solution” to suffering, but an elimination of …
: "the stately monuments of superstition" Adams never tired of quoting the supreme phrase of his idol Gibbon, before the Gothic cathedrals: "I …
: <em>The Hobbit</em> as prequel Prequels (and reboots) also threaten to over-explain: learning just how Anakin Skywalker turned to …
: Light Masonry [caption id=“attachment_29602” align=“aligncenter” …
: fences and funnels I haven’t said anything about American politics since the election, largely because I don’t …
: bad soccer I’ve read a number of stories this morning about last night’s MLS Cup final between …
: Dash Shaw, map [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“534”]Dash Shaw, Boney …
: Perry Steindel, map [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“864”]Perry Steindel, …
: The Feast of St. Nicholas [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“480”] Via Rod …
: why it matters I’m sure I haven’t read all the responses to my recent ecclesiastic posts, but of the ones that I …
: a response to replies to responses to ... Thanks to an email from a friend, I just discovered that I am part of an ongoing controversy in ways …
: on wheat and weeds In the early 1950s Helmut Thielicke preached a series of sermons at St. Michael’s Church in Hamburg …
: "such an obvious thought" All you then have to do is to keep out of his mind the question “If I, being what I am, can consider …
: the church and the present moment What is the ‘present moment’ of the Church’s life like? Well, it is all too like the response of the …
: who I am Matthew’s narrative does not allow the believer — in particular the articulate and educated …
: Beautiful Minecraft [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]images from the …
: common ground Well, at least we’ve found one thing Democratic and Republican leaders can agree on: …
: a brief response to Andrew Wilson I’m not altogether sure why Andrew Wilson includes me in this post — he says, “I’ve deliberately …
: Travelin This is the tombstone next to my dad’s at Hopewell Cemetery in Hanceville, Alabama.
: The Prayer Duel “Well, there is precedent,” Pravuil said. “I mean, if you look at it in a certain way.” I asked him …
: leagues [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500”]Mahendra …
: the more things change... The night of May 7, after a chase that began in Watts and ended some 50 blocks farther north, two …
: the history of flight — CABINET // Through the Vaste Spaces of the Aire: An Interview with Clive Hart
: George Widener The art of George Widener
: easy answers to hard problems Now, this is comical, though in a sad sort of way. The post is based on the Moral Foundations Theory …
: thanks to Vincent Lloyd … for two important reflections on the possibilities and perils of the black Christian …
: save these for later via Waxy
: The Guardian plumbs the depths (I hope) I gotta say, Rod is right: The Guardian has published a guide to conservative websites that … I …
: Dialogue “I just don’t believe that this should even be a question!” “Neither do I, and neither do many who …
: On False Teachers: Bleat the Third Steve Holmes recently wrote of his experience defending the traditionalist view on homosexuality at …
: The Sacraments and the Honey of Love: A Second Bleat In one of his posts on the possibility of a Benedict Option for Christians, Rod Dreher made a …
: Anglicanism and Eucharistic Discipline: A Bleat For some time now I’ve had reflections on theological and pastoral controversies — some in the …
: so it's like this For years now you’ve been hanging out with your friends at a nice little bar, a place you’re all …
: English as she is spoke The text of a Colorado ballot initiative: Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution …
: social media strategery All partisan logic is precisely the same: Strategy 1: Practice deflection by whataboutism. When …
: thought for today American politics is now nothing more than rival assertions of tribal identities. There are no …
: wisdom for Christians from Jacques Maritain It is not enough for a population or a section of the population to have Christian faith and be …
: construction [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]Louis …
: thanks for the Ed's up From Ed Yong’s newsletter: After the last newsletter, one reader wrote in asking me to stop …
: midnight [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500”]Frederick …
: just a reminder I almost never look at the replies to my public Twitter account. I only need to hear so many times …
: flipping the script Donald Trump spends eighteen months stoking the fires of racial and ethnic resentment and now says …
: a curious absence, explained This long and characteristically thoughtful post by Alastair Roberts — you should read it all, it …
: Brother Bill and those who scorned him Annie Karni in Politico: But in general, Bill Clinton’s viewpoint of fighting for the working class …
: thoughts, mostly in tweet-like form The Bush/Clinton era in American political history is definitively over. Reaganism is over. It is …
: looking ahead If the political and media establishments were merely out of touch with much of the country, that …
: to everything there is a season And we are about to commence the season of recriminations. The election won’t end anything …
: please pause in your praise of Janet Reno Reno was no drama queen, but she participated in a number of dramas: the Waco siege of the Branch …
: election-eve selfie I shall not cease from mental fight Nor shall this axe sleep in my hand Till we have built Jerusalem …
: the bigger killer: Joseph Stalin or George W. Bush? [caption id=“attachment_29406” align=“aligncenter” …
: Wesley Hill on being an Anglican I view my Anglican confession of justification by faith as, in this sense, a gift to the Church …
: the invisible regime Ross Douthat is trying this morning to bring some perspective to American liberals: Liberal analysis …
: the philosopher as troll Positionality is the gathering of the drive’s plundering of the constancy of the orderable, which …
: self-portrait [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“1074”] via Beware the …
: Do you suppose ... … (I wonder as I read this) First Things would ever run an interview with a former Catholic …
: unlikely bedfellows It’s interesting — and, to me, encouraging — to note how much overlap there is between the …
: Parents fear that religion will make their children outcasts If you decline to pass your religious beliefs on to your children because you think such beliefs …
: no need for explanations As I’ve been saying for months now, I plan on Election Day to do what I’ve done since 1992: …
: Dark Sky, you used to be decent
: Dylan paints I tried to create the two dimensional image using a mathematical system. At times, the background …
: The Feast of All Souls It was Odilo’s stroke of genius to place his new holiday as the matching bookend of All Saints’. For …
: Baylor University - Message from Dr. David E. Garland Many journalists continue to demand the release of the "Pepper Hamilton Report." You should know, …
: Habitat 316/D [caption id=“attachment_29345” align=“aligncenter” …
: Andy Baio with some useful reminders Last week, Twitter announced they’re shutting down Vine. Twitter, itself, may be acquired and …
: the story of All Saints' Day Peter Brown, that great historian of early Christianity, has given the most cogent explanation for …
: bookstores, illustrated by Bob Eckstein — Lithub
: P. D. James [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“800”]P. D. James by …
: Kandinsky [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“737”]via …
: heresy and schism I believe that it is in the question of schism rather than heresy that the key to the problem of the …
: counting my blessings The very best thing about having been born into an economically marginal family in Birmingham, …
: [gallery] bibliolectors: Un baño de libros (ilustración de Joost Swarte)
: Wars, hot or cold, are also missing from standard science fiction versions of the future. …
: thingsmagazine: Hoxton Square, by Adam Dant
: the conspiracy is real W/the unprecedented & now documented corruption at the dark heart of HRC campaign, why would …
: and then when it's convenient they'll change back No group has shifted their position more dramatically than white evangelical Protestants. More than …
: Pentti Lumikangas Venetsian muisto 1984
: Pentti Lumikangas Kupolit 1980 35 x 25 cm
: [gallery] rare-posters: Cycles Brillant. 1925. A. M. Cassandre. 30 3/8 x 46 1/8 in./77.1 x 117.2 cm …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Minor White - Waterfall, Stony Brook State Park
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Pentti Lumikangas, etching, 1985
: David French is correct When Metaxas votes for Trump, and when I write in my choice, we’ll both be voting for losing …
: Voyage of the H. M. S. Beagle Yesterday I stopped by South Congress Books in Austin and picked up this gorgeous 1957 Heritage …
: [gallery] mikidora: Victorian morphine set
: One cold spring night, the promise of summer held back as if in spite, I emerged from a subway …
: a vote for X is a vote for X I keep hearing from Trump supporters that if I vote for a third-party or write-in candidate — for …
: When a reviewer starts explaining how the preparation of a quiche Lorraine at the restaurant he has …
: [gallery] wesleyhill: David Robinson, Speak (1980). This piece is displayed at Regent College in …
: [gallery] kafere: Warsaw - Łazienki Palace
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: The Red Barn
: [gallery] Library of Congress, via John Overholt on Twitter
: [gallery] (via the foot of a diving beetle)
: things have changed Matthew's "judge not" passage is a warning to Christians not to judge self-righteously, …
: New York provincialism, alive and well When people say, as they sometimes do, that New Yorkers are the most provincial people on the …
: True Confessions (Wheaton College edition) This long article/essay/meditation by Ruth Graham on the disturbing events at Wheaton College last …
: answering letters (to <em>Harper's</em>) Thanks to those who responded to my Harper’s essay by writing letters to the editor — or to those …
: so why not Hillary? So why am I not voting for Hillary Clinton? I think she’s seriously afflicted by dishonesty and …
: Nobel Dylan I bought my first Bob Dylan record 45 years ago, and I’ve been listening to him closely and …
: the counsel of Eric Metaxas I have a few thoughts about this op-ed by Eric Metaxas. (FYI, I don’t know Eric well, but I do …
: I think I've finally grasped the logic We must set aside our Christian convictions to support Donald Trump so he will protect us against …
: John Wilson and <em>Books & Culture</em> This morning, in the weekly newsletter of Books and Culture, John Wilson announces that the coming …
: [gallery] drawingarchitecture: Mario Ricci, Residui D’Architetture
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Cross-section of the Cordouan lighthouse
: Jeremy Corbyn is no Donald Trump, and vice-versa. But the moral lesson is the same. This tale of two …
: "the wisdom of repugnance": a test case In this post I want to connect my earlier post about what needs to be done to reclaim the term …
: historical addendum to the previous post The word ‘Protestant’ ... originally related to a specific occasion, in 1529, when at the Holy Roman …
: Steal It Back The always-thoughtful Alastair Roberts asks: In light of the ignominious behaviour of leading …
: Douglas Coupland: ‘I’m actually at my happiest when I’m writing on a plane’ Douglas Coupland: ‘I’m actually at my happiest when I’m writing on a plane’ If you told me I had to …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Tulio Cralli
: [gallery] archidrawings: © roberto burle marx - site plan - late 50s / early 60s
: Yet the author of The Age of Anxiety and the author of The Gutenberg Galaxy turn out to have more in …
: I find it amusing to reflect on the idea that mankind may sometime soon grow tired of reading and …
: The education of German youth, however, proceeds from precisely this false and unfruitful conception …
: Betrayed by Our Leaders: A Young Conservative Responds to Endorsements of Donald Trump Betrayed by Our Leaders: A Young Conservative Responds to Endorsements of Donald Trump I think what …
: [gallery] pupdesign: Today we say goodbye to the eminent graphic designer, Elaine Lustig Cohen …
: [gallery] alphonsopeluso: My @IITArchitecture Advanced Modeling student’s 3D prints. The theme was …
: The aesthetic challenge of slow TV is less about attention, in other words, than about use. Yes, the …
: the luxury of dismissal Some American Christians say they fear a coming persecution. When they start working across …
: I don’t trust this stuff anymore. It was the very reliability of it — in user-friendly design, as …
: [gallery] Alexander Gorlin Architects’ Boston Road Supportive Housing (2013-2016), Bronx, New York; …
: I think Lewis is also the most beautiful writer. The clarity is so fine. And the intimacy. If you’re …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“16588”] The Bible Design …
: imagining history A lot of the lure for me in peeling away the skyscrapers was the way this ancient New York I was …
: There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that …
: It seems a category error to expose a pseudonymous novelist as if you were acting in the public …
: [gallery] architecture-drawings: Tadao Ando
: [gallery] bauhaus-movement: Lego’s homage to Mondrian
: [gallery] sosbrutalism: Collage for a proposal for a British New Town with a million people from …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16614”]
: [gallery] houblon: Planter linear lighting
: [gallery] conceptmodel: Memory notebooks: conceptual architectures based on memory and …
: How often, for instance, we hear the following commonplace repeated: ‘Whether Catholics, …
: Many conservatives—including many friends and fans—don’t like that answer because they think I have …
: [gallery] Léon Stynen & Paul De Meyer, architects, in collaboration with prof.-ingenieur André …
: [gallery] The Canterbury Psalter
: [gallery] archdaily: #brick ?? #Tsinghua University Canteen by Song Und Partner Atelier ???? …
: [gallery] itscolossal: Buildings Shaped Like Letters of the Alphabet Made with Photographic Collage …
: Trump and incommensurability Dismayed by the recently announced list of “scholars and writers” supporting Trump for President, I …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16643”]
: A Tradinista! Manifesto A Tradinista! Manifesto I’m interested in how points 11 and 12 are related. If you “uphold the value …
: It has been hard not to notice that whereas John Paul II spoke of “the culture of death” and …
: Bryant has seen many familiar faces on the embalming table. He embalmed his mother, honoring one of …
: The search for a stable definition of melancholy is itself melancholic, because the emotion is …
: The right to vote should be restricted to those with knowledge – Jason Brennan | Aeon Ideas The right to vote should be restricted to those with knowledge – Jason Brennan | Aeon Ideas Until …
: Scholars & Writers for Trump - American Greatness Scholars & Writers for Trump - American Greatness A few comments about this: Some of the …
: P. D. James — one of my favorite faces. I look at her and think It would not be possible to keep …
: I would have things as they were in all the days of my life, as in the days of my longfathers before …
: Envisioning Trump as the restorer of heroic Western life — whether imperial, kingly, or mythical — …
: Church tower of the village of Graun in Lago di Resia - Italy; by Martin R on Flickr via …
: [gallery] The city of Liège, Belgium in 1914, under siege, and in 2009. When, in August 1914, the …
: Francis is a Jesuit, and like many members of Catholic religious orders, he tends to view the …
: One thing can hardly come under the Hush Hush — I mean the beautiful planetary conjunction last …
: Greek kings, Egyptian pharaohs britishmuseum: The general Ptolemy founded the Greco-Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled Egypt …
: Trump announced that he considered saying something ‘very rough’ about Hillary Clinton or her family …
: what would you do? what would you do? It’s odd to me that so many people other than Freddie have an opinion about …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16669”]
: [gallery] architecturevii: Church of the Saint Apostles: Peter and Paul in Siedliska, Poland. …
: [gallery] architecture-drawings: CONCEPT ART, WALK HOME, WALL·E, 2008 Pixar: The Design of Story …
: Wodwo Vergil: Eclogue 4 This thing of ours. You ever look at the world, like, really look at it? It’s a great dome, some …
: My correspondent felt that my argument betrayed a failure to understand his generation. ‘I’m a …
: [gallery] biblipeacay: ”The Italian Futurist Fortunato Depero’s 1927 monograph Depero Futurista, …
: Convergence My friend Wesley Hill recently posted a wonderfully concise and elegant outline of what we might …
: Nostalgia Whenever you suggest that history is a matter of losses as well as gains, whenever you call …
: [gallery] arquigraph: Takefumi Aida ’ It’s impossible to make architecture move, although i’d like …
: Leaving the EU is no small affair. It probably will have enormous effects on the UK, Europe, and …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16700”] …
: patriotism true and false On all sides we hear to-day of the love of our country, and yet anyone who has literally such a love …
: Until about 30 years ago, writers like [Graham] Greene were not at all accessible to the reading …
: We have learned to find our identity in our velocity. And that’s not just physically dangerous, but …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16709”]
: [gallery] Lin employed an equally timeless form for the nearby Riggio-Lynch Chapel of 2004, a …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: execution I’m absolutist about these matters, I guess. I think universal rules for police should be: If …
: Do you remember those kids in high school who used to brag that they laughed while watching horror …
: I want us to be free – just long enough – that I have time to tell my brothers and sisters who do …
: [gallery] Mat Bingham, the badgers and foxes of Cutlers Rough
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: The Mysteries of Nature and Art, 1635
: As women have taken greater positions of leadership in the United States, they have also left a …
: pigeonholes One of the most frequent comments I’ve heard in response to my essay in Harper’s is that …
: If the churches came to understand that the greatest threat to faith today is not hedonism but …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16729”] archidose: …
: [gallery] rickinmar: Monticello…..designed by Thomas Jefferson, and drawn for him by Robert Mills …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“16735”] Illustration from …
: humility, shame, etc. I want to follow up, briefly, on yesterday’s post. The presiding spirit of the ESV, from its …
: My own kind of incrementalism draws on a different attitude than a lot of what you hear on the right …
: [gallery] archimaps: Plans and elevation of the First Congregational Church, Danbury
: [gallery] Churches painted by John Piper
: [gallery] Baptismal font at St. Basil, Toller Fratrum
: The Frozen Standard Version Beginning in the summer of 2016, the text of the ESV Bible will remain unchanged in all future …
: [gallery] houghtonlib: Stokes, Will. The vaulting-master, or, The art of vaulting, reduced to a …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16757”]
: [gallery] gurafiku: Japanese Poster: Secondhand Book Expo. Satomi Tanaka. 2010
: Each New Year begins for me not on January 1, not on Rosh Hashanah, but on the first day of classes. …
: [gallery] cover of the book prospectus; book description here
: [gallery] All About Lettering
: That, I suspect, is what really rankles those who gnash their teeth when someone lectures them about …
: [gallery] Every new banknote deserves its very own explanatory website.
: [gallery] bibliolectors: Vamos preparando las lecturas de otoño (ilustración de Eva Vázquez)
: [gallery] archidose: 1/ Cross-section of the Rotunda in Leicester Square in which Barker’s panorama …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Emiliano Ponzi
: [gallery] clawmarks: Cyprian Leowitz - Eclipses luminarium - 1555 - via BSB
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16802”]
: Life is rough in Dallas right now. They’ve got no district attorney, no quarterback, and they’re …
: Read good writing, and don’t live in the present. Live in the deep past, with the language of the …
: Where would this train of logic lead? How many other associations to which students belong might be …
: [gallery] blue-electrode: How to get married, although a woman, or, The art of pleasing men by a …
: [gallery] Princeton University Press has posted online all the images from Roger Penrose’s new book …
: [gallery] discardingimages: announcing angel ‘Emerson-White Book of Hours’ (detached leaf), Ghent …
: [gallery] Making ink from car exhaust
: [Geoffrey Hill] always was, of course, a Christian poet, and much of his poetry is about wrestling …
: [gallery] World’s highest bridge nears completion. Watch the video at the link, if you like vertigo.
: [vimeo 169673676 w=250 h=141] casualoptimist: The Last Punchcutter - One for the letterpress …
: [gallery] rare-posters: Bugatti. 1930. René Vincent. 38 x 54 3/8 in./96.5 x 137.8 cm
: Wallace had his reasons for grammatical zealotry in the classroom, but it wasn’t about being …
: But of all the marvellous and mighty acts related of Him, this altogether surpasses human …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16839”]
: [gallery] Late-summer Sunday morning back garden action
: Isn’t that just about the most paralyzingly unrapturous question you’ve encountered in any textbook? …
: [gallery] todaysdocument: Shadowy Towers of the World Trade Center rise behind St. Paul’s Chapel, …
: Whatever one makes of the current claims about the effects of our supposed Age of Distraction, it …
: [gallery] larameeee: Water Purification Plant, W. G. Quist, Berenplaat, 1959-1965 Photo: Kim Zwarts …
: [gallery] openmarginalis: Four Leaves from the Arabic Version of Dioscorides’ De materia medica, …
: [gallery] paperholm: 608. Current status
: excerpt from my Sent folder: liturgy I only attended low-church evangelical congregations for a few years after I became a Christian, but …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16867”] A Plan for the …
: outsider language, insider language Obviously, a huge compliance failure at Wells (where I worked from ‘05-'09). But also a cautionary …
: [gallery] Legendary graphic designer Michael Bierut, a Pentagram partner who’s created visual …
: [gallery] rare-posters: Les Beatles. 1962. Paul Colin. Maquette for a potential French release of …
: It’s hard to ignore the hideous character failings at the core of the man, and for this purpose …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: US of A, 1575 (Bonhams)
: The Flight 93 Election I do not understand why this essay is getting the play it’s getting. It simply recycles every cliché …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16882”]
: [gallery] drawingarchitecture: Jarosław ”Viking” Olszewski
: [gallery] “And then, when we least expected it, the ghost of Steve Jobs made its fateful entry….”
: [gallery] plansofarchitecture: Kay Fisker, Jagtgården, 1924, Copenhagen, Denmark
: [gallery] plansofarchitecture: Caruso St. John, New Station Square, 2016, Lausanne, Switzerland
: [gallery] fragmentosnomadas: La imaginación y el sueño son fuerzas de cambio y vida. Josep Maria …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16903”]
: [gallery] bibliolectors: Mumin lector (ilustración de Kate Alizadeh)
: [gallery] Pont Minllyn, Afon Dyfi, Wales
: [gallery] (via Greasepaint | Simon Beattie) Guidelines for Soviet Russian theatrical companies. Via …
: As American cities expanded during the Gilded Age, city planners pushed for tree-lined streets and …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16925”]
: writing and failure Indeed, this is the (unexpected) discovery I have made. It is that having been holding out against …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16929”]
: [gallery] austinkleon: “The Worst Thief Is He Who Steals The Playtime of Children” stickerette …
: [gallery] A Sea of Glistening Solar Panels Photographed at the Nevada SolarReserve by Reuben Wu (via …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16938”]
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16941”]
: US Edition! golden-hill: I’m delighted to report that Golden Hill will be published in hardcover in the United …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16945,16946”] (via …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16949”] …
: To the extent that we look on our wounded division and blame only other parties, seeing no good in …
: 12 Romans walk into a bar... I’ve been thinking a good bit lately about this passage from Julian Baggini’s review of Martha …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“16953”] nypl: Enter the …
: dissidents, not intellectuals These and other trends have made me sensible of how different our circumstances are from those in …
: the writer steps up to the plate Sports metaphors are of course overused, but it occurs to me that one particular set of them — ones …
: Waugh Christopher Sykes, in his biography of his friend Evelyn Waugh, recalls how Waugh treated the …
: Stackhouse on Jacobs What Jacobs doesn’t happen to mention, however, is the attitude of most Baby Boomers toward …
: Cal Newport, a professor of computer science at Georgetown and author of the book How to Win at …
: Me: ‘Hey, Siri, find me a Catholic Mass to go to.’ My phone: ‘I don’t know how to respond to …
: Kaepernick’s decision to sit for the anthem did not rely on disruption. In fact, it was so …
: Selfie Takers are not snobs, at least as far as I can see. In fact, they seem pretty indiscriminate …
: crooked neighbors Onward we went, asking people everywhere we stopped about the Flushing Remonstrance. None of them …
: The Christian intellectual tradition is alive and well The Christian intellectual tradition is alive and well With the caveat that this a rather different …
: choices Fusion’s Patrick Hogan counted 47 institutions and industries that millennials have been accused of …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Marklin building set
: Fox News went on the air in October 1996. Since that time, the GOP has won the popular vote for …
: In 2003, a study allegedly demonstrated that ‘conservatism is a syndrome characterized by rigidity, …
: I must introduce a parenthetical protest against the abuse of the current term ‘social justice.’ …
: Now how about this: We know that greenhouse gases are producing destabilizing changes in the Earth’s …
: Alien contact thinkpiece ideas based on this How disappointed they’ll be in us when they learn about Trump Why the only person …
: Virtually every writer I know has [a ritual]. One claims to sharpen half a dozen pencils. Another …
: At one time, the University of Chicago might have been thought to be the one place above all others …
: journalism A person whose financial requirements are modest and whose curiosity, skepticism, and indifference …
: [gallery columns=“2” size=“medium” ids=“16981,16982”] When I …
: There’s no way we could ever carry out any experiment to test for the multiverse’s existence in the …
: John Ruskin, 65 Casa Contarini Fasan, Venice (1841). Ashmolean.
: John Ruskin, Abbeville: Church of St Wulfran from the River (1868). About the moment in the …
: missingozu: Ozu’s notebook for End of Summer(1961)
: hypocrisy If there were a Nobel prize for hypocrisy, then its first recipient ought to be Mark Zuckerberg, the …
: But when you divide the brain into bitty bits and make millions of calculations according to a bunch …
: There’s a nesting doll quality to many of the game’s recipes. Early on, for example, I had to build …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17019”] — Glen Baxter
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17022”] “Picturization”
: What I learned as a hired consultant to autodidact physicists My clients know so little about current research in physics, they aren’t even aware they’re in a …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17026”] Malcolm wishes …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17032,17030,17031”] …
: Jacobs’s effort is thoughtful and well worth engaging. But I am not sure we have a shortage of …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17036”] Zsofia Schwenger
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17039”] the white egret …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17042”] design-is-fine: …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17049”] …
: a question for David Gushee My favorite moment in this column by David Gushee comes when he says, “I have been a participant in …
: Italy’s Fragile Beauty Italy’s Fragile Beauty - The New York Times. Earthquakes are not the only threat to Italian beauty. …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17052”] …
: The Hugh Hewitt argument Vote for Trump because IF he nominates to the Supreme Court one of the judges that he has put on his …
: The NPR.org audience has grown dramatically in recent years, to between 25 and 35 million unique …
: You can barely get a hearing anymore unless you plan to burn everything to the ground (as long as …
: The soil-collection project is part of a plan to erect the first national memorial to lynching …
: [gallery] dzajn: Architektura na ścianie? Fantastyczne ozdoby wykonane przez braci Chisel & …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: Wendell Berry About Berry, first of all, I don’t think he has ever had an especially broad audience — his …
: excerpts from my Sent folder: whaddaboutism Thanks for this response. One of the things I have inadvertently done with that essay is to make …
: Brett Foster, “Back to School Rondeau” It’s almost time to set aside the waning distractions of first youth, the life contained for years …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17067”] thingsmagazine: …
: take it to the bank Whenever a college or professional football player commits some act of violence — against a woman, …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17070”] …
: Cambridge University Press recognizes the importance of making its web services available to the …
: Packer and Stott 1.) Lots of people accused J.I. Packer and John Stott of being “soft” because they stayed in the …
: [gallery] bibliolectors: Observación al natural y bibliogràfica (ilustración de Manon Gauthier)
: [gallery] archidose: Mina Gospavic BERLIN ARTSPARK, Berlin, Unit 21, 2012
: [gallery] fromwithinabook: Take a seat
: [gallery] Yesterday morning at 8:00 a.m. local time, in five cities around the U.S., the anarchist …
: Colossal head of Serapis britishmuseum: This head depicting the Greco-Egyptian god Serapis is from a colossal statue that …
: [gallery] the-book-design: www.facebook.com/Kolektiv.studio
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Kim Boske
: I was going into town one day and had gotten as far as the gate when I realized that I had odd shoes …
: Francis Schaeffer and subaltern counterpublics I am truly grateful for all the responses my essay in Harper’s is receiving, and I’ve been doing my …
: [gallery] archidose: Samuel Ball Platner, Detailed Maps of the Forum, Palatine and Capitoline …
: once more around the Christian intellectual block So, let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. My essay Owen Strachan’s first response …
: [gallery] lustik: Kate Bowles.
: [gallery] robsheridan: Selected stills from Phase IV, a gorgeously filmed sci-fi movie from 1974, …
: A response to Owen Strachan I’m very grateful to Owen Strachan for his thoughtful response to my recent essay on Christian …
: [gallery columns="1" size="full" ids="17125"] In my recent essay on Christian intellectuals, I say …
: An estimated 10 billion people will inhabit that warmer world. Some will become climate …
: if I could... If I could edit my essay on Christian intellectuals as I saw fit, I’d make it a lot longer, of …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: singing the Lord's song in a strange land … I would say that openly Christian writers are often welcome at the WSJ, as long as they …
: from “The Critic’s Art”; “Windows of the Fifth Order,” drawing by John Ruskin from his Modern …
: Drawing from a Photograph of Part of Santa Maria della Spina, Pisa, John Ruskin
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17139”] drawingdetail: …
: John Ruskin, Decoration by Disks: Palazzo dei Badoari Partecipazzi, 1851, Vol. 1 of The Stones of …
: the easy road of the Christian intellectual On Twitter, Joseph L. Boston is arguing that I’ve written Martin Luther King, Jr. (among …
: [gallery] fragment-12: Alexander Rodchenko, Studies for construction, 1921 Crayon on paper 48.3 x …
: "Intellectual" is not a term of praise I’m getting lots of feedback on my essay on Christian intellectuals, and because there’s a great …
: [gallery] bibliotheca-sanctus: Livreria Lello in Porto, Portugal
: excerpt from my Sent folder: on Constantinianism [in response to an email from a reader of this essay] But in answer to your question — “isn’t …
: [gallery] paperholm: Crossing to Paperhom. (detail) The exhibition Alt-w: Blush Response, featuring …
: [gallery] front elevation of the United Church, New Haven CT
: The Watchmen Half a century ago, such figures existed in America: serious Christian intellectuals who occupied a …
: [gallery] robertogreco: Four crows flying in a snowstorm, Maki Sozan, Taishô era–Shôwa era, 20th …
: [gallery] untappedcities: NYC That Never Was: Trinity Church Gets Eclipsed by a Massive Skyscraper …
: [gallery] Plan for the University of Victoria campus
: Slavery in New York golden-hill: We have it so firmly fixed in our minds that slavery was a southern thing that it …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17170”] Anonymous Italian …
: [gallery] Atelier LOIDL Landscape Architects
: But [Montrell Jackson’s [“ethic of mutuality”] ought to unsettle us too. In extending his offer of …
: [gallery] cafeinevitable: Reading by Eleni Kalorkoti
: [gallery] freakyfauna: The Wrexham coverlet by James Williams (completed in 1842. Found here and …
: [gallery] The art of Victoria Crowe, whose amazing work I just discovered.
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17190”] Gian Paolo Panini …
: [gallery] Mr. Silva of Libreria Books said “an old-fashioned space” is clearly appealing to book …
: Every human action gains in honor, in grace, in all true magnificence, by its regard to things that …
: God has lent us the earth for our life; it is a great entail. It belongs as much to those who are to …
: [gallery] paperholm: Paperholm group 8.
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17201”] …
: [gallery] “Hawes Water,” Henry George Alexander Holiday, about 1859, at the V&A
: [gallery] Drawing of an ancient Egyptian garden, Thebes, 18th Dynasty
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17210”] betonbabe: SEVEN …
: [gallery] (Posting ironically, given that it hasn’t rained here in Central Texas in weeks and we’re …
: John Ruskin’s house, Brantwood. There is a sanctity in a good man’s house which cannot be renewed …
: [gallery] teachingliteracy: little house on the bookshelf.
: [gallery] Michael Graves, from the post just cited
: Truro [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17225”] Designs for Truro …
: [gallery] Baskerville’s Vergil
: [gallery] Baskerville’s Bible
: Ancient Egyptian board game britishmuseum: This is a 3,000-year-old games box from ancient Egypt. Board games were very …
: These mobs are an alarm. They are telling you something has gone wrong in the system; something was …
: [gallery] The cover of the Queen Mary Psalter
: [gallery] “Bracken Cave is the summer home of more than 15 million Mexican free-tailed bats …
: [gallery] shihlun: 20th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival
: [gallery] The Essex House Psalter
: [gallery] The first page of the Doves Press Bible from the collection of Southern Methodist …
: [gallery] What remains of Rival, North Dakota
: [gallery] bibliolectors: Inmersión en la biblioteca (ilustración de Victoria Antolini)
: [gallery] bibliolectors: Hay una cierta magia que se produce cada vez que leemos (ilustración de …
: [gallery] bibliolectors: Cada cual elige sus libros favoritos (ilustración de Elise Gravel)
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17264”] Philip Webb, …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17267”] Ionisch basement …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17270”] Richard Norman …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17273”] Richard Norman …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17276”] Richard Norman …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17279”] bonitavista: La …
: [gallery] This has always been one of my favorite album covers. Wonderful music as well.
: [gallery] The new Ferrari California T. Possibly even cooler than the one Cameron’s father owned.
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17295”] lostinurbanism: …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17298”] polychroniadis: …
: [gallery] Christos Pantocrator in South Carolina
: Imagine Imagine if Hillary said, “What I did with that private email server was stupid and wrong. I am sorry …
: [gallery] sovtime: Мурманск начала 1970-х. Волга ГАЗ-24 рядом с гостиницей Параллель. Murmansk in …
: Eric Hoffer on Trump I have recently been reading Eric Hoffer’s 1950 bestseller The True Believer, and it’s a fascinating …
: It would be amusing to watch any one who felt an idle curiosity as to the language and secrets of …
: Trump and women. This isn’t new. This is something old that has recrudesced, an atavism that has …
: On August 2, 1100, the English king William Rufus was killed by an arrow while hunting in the New …
: this is how crazy things have become As a #NeverTrumper would you take that deal? Donald exits on condition that @RNC nominate Donald Jr, …
: I had some bad moments with him. I hadn’t been there more than a few months when he caught me …
: The Museum at war The British Museum: Britain officially entered the First World War on 4 August 1914. This is a look …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17318”] wordsandeggs: Way …
: [gallery] nortonliterature: If you can’t get enough villains in your life through The Cursed Child, …
: [gallery] John Latham, Film Star (1960). A lovely profile of Latham’s work may be found here.
: Lakoff on evangelicals Those whites who have a strict father personal worldview and who are religious tend toward …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17328,17329,17330,17331”] …
: [gallery] This Japanese map of Shanghai is color-coded to indicate who lived and worked there. Green …
: Every time Ryan talks about patriotism, every time he talks about conservative ideals, the orange …
: [gallery] jonklassen: from a new series of books Mac Barnett & me are working on. This is from …
: Starting out from the fact that the frustrated predominate among the early adherents of all mass …
: The love of humanity is a thing supposed to be professed only by vulgar and officious …
: Consider the Khan affair. Were Trump’s remarks tasteless? Absolutely. But no more so — I’d actually …
: Cypriot female sphinx britishmuseum: This Cypriot incense burner was discovered in the lost ancient Egyptian city of …
: The Satanic Temple — which has been offering tongue-in-cheek support for the fallen angel in public …
: The sexual assault scandal that took down Baylor University’s president and revered football coach …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17347”] …
: The essay (or the essay-affect) at its best interrogates these questions of truth and verification, …
: [gallery] The frontispiece (above) offers a striking visual image of a “comprehensive” organization …
: I put this appeal before any other observations on Dickens. First let us sympathise, if only for an …
: [gallery] bauhaus-movement: Bauhaus Movement
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17358”] thingsmagazine: …
: the Bread of Life A sermon preached to the Episcopal clergy of Dallas , April 13, 2016. The texts were the martyrdom …
: back when he was famous “Well, God is almighty, I guess. But I think he’s on vacation right now because of all the crap …
: martyrs This op-ed by Paul Vallely is one of the more contemptible things I’ve read in a while, and …
: Isn't it pretty to think so? A lot of times in our culture there’s this de facto humanist swagger that says, “Oh yeah, religion. …
: Eliot at the Institute for Advanced Study Finally there was T. S. Eliot, who had long been both Oppenheimer’s favorite poet and [Oppenheimer's …
: DFW on "our literary culture" It’s actually not true that our literary culture is nihilistic, at least not in the radical sense of …
: how partisanship disables thinking A perfect example: Here's a screenshot of that @NCGOP tweet about @timkaine, since they deleted it. …
: Candidate keywords Keywords more likely to appear in Clinton’s corpus include women, families, economy, together, work, …
: how little do we know How little do we know how other people live in the houses close to us! We see the houses looking …
: TrumpWords [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“800”]Zachary …
: two parties My friend Ross Douthat disagrees, mostly, with Avik Roy’s contention that the Republican Party is …
: Wolfe on Chomsky I won’t vouch for the scholarly accuracy of Tom Wolfe’s skewering of Noam Chomsky, but …
: júlia sardà: This is the cover of “The Liszts”...
: a memory Reading this essay sent me down the twisted paths of memory…. When I was twenty and in …
: Whose Fault is Trump? Trump. A Republican Party that for decades has, in its sycophantic panting after a hyperrich donor …
: the limits of our mourning Robert Macfarlane and Adrian Cooper write, It is still shocking to read that 46 per cent of ancient …
: Mac status update Last year, when I upgraded from Yosemite to El Capitan, my MacBook’s wi-fi stopped working. I …
: Angkor Wat This transformation of legend into fact has been a theme of the LiDAR surveys. Angkor's huge …
: playing Todd I think Todd Rundgren is one of the great pop songwriters, and it occurred to me recently that …
: Nicolas Mourot [embed]drawingarchitecture.tumblr.com/post/1475…[/embed]
: Klee - Ad marginem [embed]theegoist.tumblr.com/post/1467…[/embed]
: wheels [embed]darksilenceinsuburbia.tumblr.com/post/7563…[/embed]
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” …
: [gallery] drawingarchitecture: Javier Cardiel
: [gallery] houghtonlib: Ituarte, Julio. Ecos de México : (Aires nacionales) : capricho de concierto …
: [gallery] theegoist: Paul Klee - Ad marginem, 1930 https://frieze.com/event/kleeagueli
: [gallery] robertogreco: One of the highlights of my summer has been reading Luke Pearson’s Hilda …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17387”] momalibrary: …
: [gallery] ccadrarebooks: Continuing with our seasonal Grasset postings, July means it’s time for …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17395”] hamonikakoshoten: …
: A magical stela britishmuseum: This so-called ‘magical stela of Horus’ (a stela is a large tablet, usually made of …
: If certain words and turns of phrase habitual in today’s journalism do not inspire physical disgust, …
: [gallery] fromwithinabook: Village Corner Wire, Wadding & Vintage Books
: Liberty! except for, you know... The good news is that both libertarianism and the LP have roughly arrived at places where that kind …
: the classiest of class acts Thanks for everything, Timmy. May you enjoy the decades of Dungeons and Dragons and paintball that …
: Hanif Kureishi on Matthew Evans Matthew was a charismatic man who could lead without being bossy and was ruthless without cruelty. …
: Travis Bone [caption id=“attachment_16157” align=“aligncenter” …
: bear this in mind A Department of Justice study revealed that a whopping 84 percent of police officers report that …
: Proust proofs [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“540”]Proust …
: again Here we are again — seems it was only yesterday … Oh, right, it was. Yesterday’s prayer is today’s …
: Alton Sterling and "thoughts and prayers" Alton Sterling was shot and killed by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A great many things will …
: Frank Stitt and company: doing it right I was just chatting on Twitter with my friend Chad Wellmon about our favorite restaurant, Highlands …
: The Lord of Limit: Geoffrey Hill, R.I.P. The poet Geoffrey Hill has died, age 84. As a token of my esteem for him, I’m posting here a …
: I think that sums it up [caption id=“attachment_16134” align=“aligncenter” …
: democracy FAIL Since ancient times, philosophers have tried to devise systems to try to balance the strengths of …
: on the reckless lending of megaphones Everybody knows that there are people like this — smug, self-satisfied, massively condescending …
: Farewell, Michael Bradley? Not so long ago, Michael Bradley was a young, rising, dynamic midfielder who was making a real name …
: The City of God is not Brussels Christians are duty bound for theological and historical reasons to support the ever closer union of …
: a matter of temperament As a conservative-liberal-socialist, I don’t fit onto any political maps that I know of, and I …
: the thinkpiece so dumb that it makes you shut your computer down and go for a walk Oh, sure, UK : EU :: Texas : USA. I mean, if Texas had been an independent nation for a thousand …
: needed: a grip A view from the English channel, looking towards England — as seen in the fevered imagination of …
: some early thoughts about the Brexit One: I only wish this had happened when I was in London last week: those snooty waiters at those …
: excerpt from my Sent folder: on Imagination “Imagination” became a word to conjure with in the Romantic era, thanks largely to …
: the joys of overseas travel Yesterday I woke up in Rome at 6:30am, had a quick breakfast at the absolutely delightful hotel my …
: capitulation (2) Evangelical leaders: If you back Trump, for the rest of your days, you will be forced to live with …
: capitulation There is a unity which we must seek, and a unity we cannot allow. The capitulation of the Religious …
: overheard in the Roman forum “This is a medium-sized temple. But this is a LARGE temple.” “And then he fell in …
: A Day of Infamy Sometimes rhetoric has consequences. If you spend days, weeks, months, years telling people they are …
: a convergence I don’t know, maybe I’m eventually going to get used to writing on a phone…. I just want to take a …
: what the BenOp is for I’m not sure I have a firm grip on Matthew Loftus’s response to my questions for critics of the …
: an encounter Cooks on a break, sitting outside their café Cook (in what might be an Italian accent): Excuse me, …
: sanity I’m working in the British Library this morning and it feels like sanity, you know? People of …
: permission to despair of American politics Don't let anyone steal that disgust from your heart. It is a precious thing. You should treasure …
: Humpty Dumpty and the BenOp Carl [Trueman] is right to note that the Benedict Option does not entail withdrawal from politics. …
: from the Mick Jones Rock & Roll Public Library here
: religious freedom revisited It grieves me to see that as religious freedom for American Christians comes increasingly under …
: empathy and leniency Judge Aaron Persky empathized with Brock Allen Turner and could easily imagine what it would be like …
: excerpt from my Sent folder (5) I developed a hatred for neckties in my youth, when I worked for several years in a bookstore that …
: Christians aren't the only ones with fantasies It’s hard to imagine a more extraordinary claim than that some hidden intelligence created a …
: on second thought In writing about the Benedict Option, I have often lamented American Christians' comparative neglect …
: Klinsmann and the blame game Some thoughts about this interview with Jürgen Klinsmann: He’s remarkably explicit about the …
: excerpt from my Sent folder (4) Anyway, here’s my take: Most academics who were raised as Christians and remain so have gone through …
: excerpt from my Sent folder (3) … As someone who was raised in a functionally non-Christian family and became a Christian in …
: more commentary on current events The powers and duties assigned to the emperor were broad and comprehensive. They were, moreover, …
: commentary on current events In the light of these ancient concepts, Ceasar emerges as a figure at once fascinating and …
: questions for the critics of the Benedict Option The model of Christian social formation that Rod Dreher calls the Benedict Option comes in for a …
: on moderation in consistency My liberal friends complain about my conservative views, my conservative friends about my liberal …
: Anti-Anti-Trump? Again, that sounds exactly right to me, which is why I'm anti-anti-Trump. He is a very flawed …
: John Webster, RIP I had known John for a couple of years only when the Society for the Study of Theology met in his …
: getting what we ask for If the office of the presidency can turn George Bush's "humble foreign policy" to "setting a fire in …
: this pretty much covers it But others simply believe Mr. Trump is unfit to serve in the Oval Office. Michael K. Vlock, a …
: not again I am depressed by the news that Jose Mourinho is coming back to the Premier League to manage …
: 'I Want Soul' On my bedside table, you’ll find mostly poetry, books on self-healing and medicine, contemplative …
: My current employer, Baylor University — by which I mean also its students, alumni, and supporters — …
: a prayer in time of war Most merciful God, the Granter of all peace and quietness, the Giver of all good gifts, the Defender …
: At the origin of the democratic sense, taken in its human truth, there is not the desire to …
: Recent and Forthcoming Work A few notes about current and future plans: I won't be blogging much, if at all, over at The …
: ¡Guerra Civil! [caption id=“attachment_15976” align=“aligncenter” …
: what shattered the GOP People that now panic about incipient caudillismo and the dangers of a nationalist demagogue didn’t …
: What Makes Texas Texas Texas, of course, comes by its sense of being a place apart honestly: From 1836-1845, it was its own …
: twentieth-century British printmaking here
: DeLillo forgets I’ve been thinking lately, I’m not sure why, about my earlier novels, and I’m quite surprised how …
: the adventures of Jenner and Phelps I heard as good a story as I know this week about old Phelps the Provost of Oriel — you probably …
: learning from history Ever since I started work on the Dialogue on Democracy that I wrote for a while, and may pursue …
: Gunner haiku What suffering do you plan to inflict today, Arsenal? Enough. Other clubs are worse, but only you so …
: "he who is true" If the Word was indeed made flesh, then it is demanded of men that their words and their lives be in …
: Into All the World The message powerfully communicated in this book is entirely clear: when using the term …
: a cogent and disturbing summing-up If the police kill, lie about it and take the law into their own hands, no one can be confident in …
: FTFY, NYT [caption id=“attachment_15943” align=“aligncenter” width=“545”] …
: readers reborn If the reading of adults is as inefficient as Professor Adler asserts – and I agree with him – it is …
: Khoi on Kindle For me, the Kindle seems to be all works and no looks—the Oasis is a step forward only if you regard …
: I don’t code, and don’t have the technical chops to be genuinely geeky, but my habit of …
: one more brief round with Ross D. My thanks to Ross Douthat for taking the time to respond to my thoughts on Pope Francis’s …
: Thanks to the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas Back from the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas clergy retreat, where I was privileged to be a speaker …
: Here’s how undiscerning and weak-willed I am: I’m off for three days to speak to and …
: one answer to my question In my recent post I asked, “So why the hostility from so many conservative Catholics? I am not …
: more charity for Francis, I say! Well, I guess my friend Michael Brendan Dougherty did not get my memo counseling charity towards …
: a new rule I just came up with a new rule for writing today, one that I plan to adhere to for the rest of my …
: vindication for Sam Hinkie Jeff Bezos says that if Amazon has a good quarter it’s because of work they did 3, 4, 5 years …
: a first thought on Amoris Laetitia In a passage that’s already getting a lot of attention, Pope Francis writes, Because of forms …
: a sudden change of heart Yesterday as I was driving home from work my local NPR station informed me that I was about to hear …
: a world without pronouns As I was draftingthis morning’s post on the issues surrounding transgenderism, a good many …
: Jon Klassen [caption id=“attachment_15903” align=“aligncenter” …
: R. S. Thomas, "The Answer" Not darkness but twilight in which even the best of minds must make its way now. And slowly the …
: when to rename a building Ashe Schow argues that university administrators shouldn’t give in to protesters who want to rename …
: why I love my job On Monday morning I’ll be sending an email to my students reminding them that then need to …
: pretentiousness I remember about eight years ago spending an afternoon at MoMA and then heading down to Soho for …
: Japanese Covers of Gene Wolfe books [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“530”]via the 50 Watts …
: teaching Dawkins I always give my students reading quizzes, and this morning, as I was making out a quiz, I found …
: I remember two things The man who wrote "Amazing Grace" lived to be a very old man. For many years he worked as a priest …
: genz There is no more overrated analytical category than the “generation” – it is at …
: I think the biggest religious choice I ever made was my decision to teach at Wheaton College. As I …
: R.I.P. There has never been a greater footballer.
: on <em>The End of the Tour<em> As part of my ongoing reckoning with David Foster Wallace, a writer whose work I have mixed …
: rags and brambles: a meditation for Holy Week What is at issue here is a species of vision that breaks down the rigid lineaments of a world that …
: more from Inga Moore [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“950”]from The Secret …
: spring cleaning [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“564”]Inga Moore depicts …
: moving past the knowledge piece When we met around a conference table, the college’s president, Eileen Aranda, explained the lack of …
: origins of the Tories and Whigs The recess of the English Parliament [in 1641] lasted six weeks. The day on which the Houses met …
: the archangel on his bicycle [caption id="attachment_15841" align="aligncenter" width="788"]Arcabas[/caption]
: young Jesus in the Temple [caption id="attachment_15837" align="aligncenter" width="545"]Arcabas[/caption]
: a painful truth Prolonged, indiscriminate reviewing of books involves constantly inventing reactions towards books …
: McLuhan at Hogwarts In one of my classes we’re reading McLuhan’s Understanding Media, and today I called my …
: snaky codex This, by Leigh McCloskey, looks like the cover of the visitors’ book at Slytherin House.
: political twins Some of the more aggressive leftist student protestors — these people, for instance, or these — have …
: Christian ethics in time of political turmoil When a man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. —Proverbs 16:7 …
: astronomical drawings [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“540”]astronomical …
: the birds [quicktime width=“600” …
: errors that can't be corrected In my previous post I linked to my review in First Things of Vodolazkin’s novel Laurus, which bears …
: recent publications I’ve had a few articles and reviews come out so far this year, and for the handful of people …
: Dan Treier on tragedy and wisdom My friend Dan Treier has written a long, thoughtful, sober, and wise post on what Wheaton College — …
: slowing down the Warriors [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“650”]via …
: I think I can, I think I can, I think I can ...
: Wikipedia pages that are in my browser history for some reason List of fictional toxins List of instruments by Harry Partch Traditional dyes of the Scottish …
: tough guys Some lines from a Daily Beast story about Breitbart’s support for Trump: “Never f*** with …
: pain? What does Kottke mean, “John Oliver’s 22 minutes of pain for Donald Trump”? That …
: Waco: on the road to success? [caption id=“attachment_15779” align=“aligncenter” …
: choices I think American conservatism today very much needs to be pulled towards compassion; I think …
: Twitter's missing manual A ton of people have been linking to this, which is meet and right, because it’s excellent. …
: a few thoughts on Chris Ware Chris Ware is sort of the anti-Hergé. He follows Hergé in two major respects. First, there’s the the …
: please pass the Chew-Z So here we have Nathan Jurgenson, who works for Snapchat, arguing, quite sincerely, with a …
: the flipped lecture: addendum A couple of people have written to point out a flaw in the proposal I made the other day — and yeah, …
: Legacies: Five Years after @MayorEmanuel Despite the mountain of profanity that most of these accounts offer — admittedly a pretty big part …
: the flipped lecture My friend Andy Crouch is a writer and editor who does a lot of public speaking, and he commented on …
: Fury Road To The White House Okay, so, what if, by the time of the Republican Convention, the GOP decides it cannot possibly have …
: operating systems & the Reformation I wrote this some years ago in a post that has now been taken down — reposted here — but with …
: Teaser Trailer: Republican Nomination 2016 [embed]https://youtu.be/gaTCLIFcX5E?start=19&end=24[/embed] Starring James Earl Jones as GOP …
: Rage — sing, goddess, of the rage Perhaps we are witnessing a return to a mode of more immediate access that in turn informs a sort of …
: Tolkien and Charles Williams Charles Williams (1886–1945) was a cult figure in his lifetime, and he remains one. The word “cult” …
: chalk streams The Chalk Streams of Norfolk with Stephen Fry from Relevant Films on Vimeo.
: flower in amber A 45 million-year-old flower
: Teaching the Hebrew Bible in the context of campus sexual violence I am a graduate of two schools now under investigation by the Department of Education for their …
: early title pages [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1000”]Regiomontanus’s …
: the state of Apple software “We’re frustrated of course to hear it overall characterized as this, quality is dropping overall,” …
: a suggestion about the future of Wheaton College When I was visiting Wheaton College last week I happened to hear a story on NPR about Intel’s …
: the world we live in The fact that LeGrier’s actions had forced Officer Rialmo to end LeGrier’s life, and to accidently …
: rules for evaluating the political significance of behavior Anything good that happens to me happens because of my hard work. Anything bad that happens to me …
: LOTR revisited Isn’t it time to start imagining a remake of Lord of the Rings? Not time to have one just yet, …
: a conclusion and a beginning Now that the crisis at Wheaton College has been more or less sorted out — though the repercussions …
: Virginia Tech and Flint — As Flint Fought to Be Heard, Virginia Tech Team Sounded Alarm. I think every college and …
: Fripp's fire That’s one of my favorite images of Robert Fripp. Lately I’ve been listening rather …
: theorist-consumers The present age is demented. It is possessed by a sense of dislocation, a loss of personal identity, …
: same old, same old I had to get to my iPad in order to read Walt Mossberg and John Gruber’s articles about poorly …
: How to Raise a Creative Child? In adulthood, many prodigies become experts in their fields and leaders in their organizations. Yet …
: it has come when you cut a red pepper and end up with some sort of malevolent barbershop quartet straight from …
: Beauty Beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she …
: the artist in her place [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“1050”]Louise Bourgeois in …
: Hilde Kruger [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“540”]via the 50 Watts …
: “Shakespeareomics” Towards the end of last year I saw Benedict Cumberbatch playing Hamlet and then Justin Kurzel’s …
: making the Apple Watch desirable Dan Moren has two major requests, a camera and a faster chip. But to implement these would almost …
: today in: results no one could possibly have anticipated In a review published earlier this month, a team of cognitive psychologists from the University of …
: Planet 9 And the astrophysicist says “You look fine, Planet 9, Planet 9, you look fine We’ve been …
: once more on the academic-freedom merry-go-round My former colleague Tracy McKenzie has posted a fine reflection on academic freedom and Christian …
: Newman's gentleman It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never inflicts pain. This description …
: How to Become Batman This episode of Invisibilia is beautiful and moving: &lt;/p&gt;<br …
: my reading workflow I’ve previously described my writing workflow — and what I wrote then is still applicable today. …
: Punk London [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“580”]an upcoming map …
: the El Capitan disaster I hate writing on an iPad, and yet I’m writing this post on an iPad. Why? Well, that’s a …
: understanding evangelicalism ... … is hard. Evangelicalism is a much more complex phenomenon than many of its detractors, and …
: tech report: Fitbit Charge HR I’ve been using this for about six months, but I think I’m done with it. I like the …
: book early to avoid disappointment On the Acknowledgments page of The Thing Itself, the new novel by Adam Roberts, there’s this: …
: Hamlet the tweeter: a template for future use HAMLET What is he whose grief Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow Conjures the wandering …
: What I am telling my Wheaton Art students on Monday It’s strange that even while this controversy has caused so much grief and suffering, you will …
: Words Unwired? Five years ago Ben Lerner, Atticus Lish and Ottessa Moshfegh had yet to publish any fiction. John …
: a bit of housekeeping I’ve moved a few links from the sidebar to the About page, for neatness' sake. And I’ve …
: students speaking truth to power We expect to be held accountable, but we would also hold accountable our professors as well. Nothing …
: honest answers to common questions BP: Is there a question you wish someone would ask you? CB: The question I wish people would ask me …
: excerpt from discussions on the Twitter HQ Slack channel A: We’re still getting hammered in the press — well, everywhere really — for all the abuse …
: For What It’s Worth: A Review of the Wu-Tang Clan’s “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” | Dan Cohen A wonderfully thought-provoking meditation on uniqueness, value, scarcity, the work of art in the …
: Gill Sans [caption id=“attachment_15584” align=“aligncenter” …
: Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were N-word" It has been published and adapted as Ten Little Indians and Ten Little Soldier Boys (though also, I …
: A New Role for Comments on Chronicle.com Our default expectation is not that we’ll try to give every comment an airing; it’s that we’ll …
: Dusty sings "So Much Love" [embed]youtu.be/H71YMS0Dj…[/embed] Why don’t people go around telling one another about …
: Fayetteville councilman calms church gunman Wright said the man, who has not been identified by police yet, was carrying the rifle without a …
: The Gospel of Life Today is the Feast of Saints Basil & Gregory Nazianzen, which reminds me that some years ago I …
: The Gospel of the Trees Before I decided to turn it into a website, I had an idea for a book to be called The Gospel of the …
: two quotations from Saul Bellow's <b>Herzog</b> One: But how was he to describe this lesson? The description might begin with his wild internal …
: Can right-wing populism be stopped? To judge from what gets them going at campaign rallies and on Twitter, Trump supporters think the …
: my best blog posts of 2015 The Thrilla in Manila and the End of Boxing How I Became a Soccer Fan Three related posts: The …
: Happy New Year, y'all [embed]youtu.be/o-uUS6bSO…[/embed]
: this pretty much says it all [video width=“400” height=“224” …
: Giles Fraser on Karl Barth It will be a century this coming summer that the great Protestant theologian Karl Barth began his …
: reinventing the university in the Enlightenment For Schelling, the eighteenth-century university reproduced the effects of information overload in …
: what's wrong with football, episode 124,372 I have been watching less and less football in the past couple of years, for the same reason that …
: The Paranoid Style of American Policing It will not do to note that 99 percent of the time the police mediate conflicts without killing …
: guild books and bestsellers In one of the prefaces to The Epistle to the Romans, Barth comments ruefully on having written a …
: my contribution to The American Conservative 2015 books symposium Beyond any question, the four volumes by Elena Ferrante commonly called the Neapolitan Quartet …
: Abdelhamid Abaaoud, Man of the Year 2015 Abaaoud is the Man of the Year for personalizing the terror. He is Man of the Year for symbolizing …
: Barth and Israel Above is one of several quite similar comments that I wrote in my copy of The Epistle to the Romans …
: Manger: sermon by Jessica Martin There is no creature more needy than a human baby. For those first months, even years, all the …
: Oliver Sacks remembered by his nephew, Jonathan Sacks Some years on, after a long, chilly swim off Long Island, we sat on the beach and discussed life. …
: future Lagos [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“800”]Idumota Market, …
: pane e vino [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“600”]The men and women …
: type [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1200”]a Christmas card …
: in memory Teri and I tonight lifted a glass of Prosecco in memory of our so dear and so-greatly-lamented …
: a Byzantine Gospel of Luke [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1576”]11th century; …
: what Christianity is (and is not) for As a believing Christian, I have come to a point where I find articles like Scruton’s increasingly …
: Karl Barth and The Thing Itself In speaking of God, human logic characteristically ignores both His nature and the fact that, when …
: an educational Dark Age? In response to this post on a lament by David Gelernter, one of Rod Dreher’s commenters cites, as …
: reading Barth on Romans (2) No other possibility is open to me except the possibility of being a man of the earth – O wretched …
: my year in tech I’m not doing a “my year in reading” post — because I never do a “my year in reading” post — but in …
: obligatory Star Wars post Just for the record: My view of the prequels is precisely that of every rational person, even …
: reading Barth on Romans The judgment of God is the end of history, not the beginning of a new, a second, epoch. The …
: old disciplines, new people The practices of the ancient Church were forged in eras of the porous self and were responsive to …
: excerpt from my Sent folder (2) … I’ve written a couple of angry things in defense of Wheaton, since I left, but I think my …
: excerpt from my Sent folder (1) … When I think about the larger context of all this, I am always reminded of something Lewis …
: conversation with Rod Dreher about Christine Ferber's confiture
: worthy of note … that the Chicago Tribune’s editorial on the current Wheaton College kerfuffle is …
: the most incisive commentary on today's disputes about whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God The process whereby ‘faith and works’ become a stock gag in the commercial theatre is characteristic …
: PSA I have no opinions on controversies in the evangelical Christian world — including those concerning …
: waves [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“1484”]Kelvin-Helmholtz …
: money bags [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“600”]Money bags, collected …
: Potter covers These are really well done, as opposed to those.
: 4 B.C. My colleague Philip Jenkins on the extremely violent and politically disrupted era in which Jesus …
: people trying to think about sex robots Richardson and Levy stand on opposite sides of a busy road, watching technology speed past towards a …
: "the power of a discourse that is never open to reply" Uttering the unacceptable in prose and exploring the elusive, not-yet-captured depth of things in …
: some books I wrote about in 2015 Some of these behind a paywall; some of the reflections more extensive than others. Nicholas Carr, …
: ascesis Once upon time, it involved scourging the flesh or living in a hermitage or spending years atop a …
: before "Steves" [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“2928”]From the 1984 …
: Millman on Trump I’m not saying that having a President – or even a major candidate – who spouts xenophobic rants is …
: my recommendation [caption id=“attachment_15408” align=“aligncenter” …
: HITCHCOCKA [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500”]via things magazine …
: December in Texas 2 Same day, same neighborhood as the set of images posted earlier today. It’s pretty weird …
: theological anthropology [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“800”]by Tobias …
: December in Texas All from my yard today.
: another win for subtle insinuation
: liberalism as normcore Attempts to demean the conservative temperament — even assuming that there is such a thing as the …
: tell me more If the doctor could see her patient as a person who is suffering instead of as a set of medical …
: in which I sum up my posts on the recent controversies in academia I have been trying for a while now, and in multiple locations, to articulate an argument about …
: mass shootings and culture wars What's so fascinating and occasionally unnerving about the B-plot to our gun tragedies is the way …
: the last word on the humanities The late Robert Nisbet used to tell a story about the academic scientist who was angrily accosted by …
: my prediction Rod Dreher has been reporting on what appears to be a recently implemented editorial strategy at New …
: 'tis the season We don’t get a great deal of autumn color here in central Texas, but what we have comes now — …
: reverse covers Probably someone has made this point before, but it occurred to me a while back that you can better …
: Coach Pop's secrets I really enjoyed this between-quarters interview, and not only because Pop’s hug for Sager …
: in which I get into the lifehacking game Here’s the handout I’m giving to my freshman seminar in a few minutes, as we meet for …
: Zuck's sleight of hand Zuckerberg and Chan did not set up a charitable foundation, which has nonprofit status. He created a …
: Nick's knowledge Nick Bilton must have known Steve Jobs extremely well to know that other people who say they knew …
: your tweets are not helping The media faces a growing challenge in how its content is spread and recycled. When I asked various …
: Coleridge writes Coleridge on Measure for Measure — literally on Measure for Measure — from Adam Roberts' wonderful …
: an ongoing dialogue Over at The American Conservative, I have been unfolding a dialogue on democracy. There have been …
: Evgeny Vodolazkin speaks As I finished writing Laurus , I told my wife I worked three years on this novel, and now you will …
: the real objection Pro-life rhetoric isn't the real issue for pro-choicers anyway. The bedrock pro-life view -- which, …
: what cells look like Source: Amazing Micrographs Show What Cells Really Look Like | WIRED
: on hermeneutical democracy Rod asks about “hermeneutical democracy” and one scholar’s insistence that Protestants “own their …
: the blame game In June, racist Dylann Roof massacred nine black Christians meeting for a mid-week Bible study. He …
: isochronic map This is an isochronic map – isochrones being lines joining points accessible in the same amount of …
: Men of Talent! In 1904, more men of talent in Alabama than California — so at least some things haven’t …
: it turns out ... … that political rhetoric leads to violence only when some people are talking. I might as …
: open wide via Steven Kawalit
: surviving the zombie planet I’m an edge case. I want an untangled web. I want everything I do to copy back to a single place, so …
: Corinthians This essay by Jacqueline Rose on the Oscar Pistorius trial is powerful and provocative, and I …
: education and virtue If we wish men to practise virtue, it is worth while trying to make them love virtue, and feel it an …
: white I probably ought to be deeply sympathetic to this this post by Jay Nordlinger. I didn’t come from a …
: two kinds of Christian book Sometimes it seems to me that there are really only two types of Christian books: Platitudes and …
: Europe and Islam: A clash of failures For now, most French intellectuals are offering their rote prayers to the French way of things, …
: Irish cross [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“780”]Processional cross. …
: in which I offer a comprehensive analytical interpretation of the curious response of university administrators to the most extreme demands of student protesters The customer is always right.
: in which some podcasts describe themselves honestly The Message: Our story is pretty incoherent, but we know you’ll forgive us because we have, in …
: boys on the porch [caption id=“attachment_15264” align=“aligncenter” width=“362”] …
: I’m at the age at which articles like this profile of Michael Walzer are terrifying. Walzer’s …
: closing down the mosques It’s not about closing down mosques. It’s about closing down anyplace — whether it’s a cafe, a …
: here I am again Over the past couple of years I’ve been going back and forth between this blog and my Tumblr, trying …
: And so if the word is basically ‘ISIS’, but in Arabic, why are the people it describes in such a …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” …
: Student Activism Is Serious Business Student Activism Is Serious Business So according to Roxane Gay, the students protestors — all of …
: It’s true that in a certain sense, to share means that there aren’t differences between us, that we …
: [gallery] Yep, I think this pretty much covers it
: In some quarters of American life, evangelical Christians are viewed as fearful and …
: In 2006, Indonesia passed a law requiring minority religious groups to collect signatures from the …
: Pope Cracks Door to Lutheran Communion Pope Cracks Door to Lutheran Communion I guess I understand why Rod feels the way he does about …
: The purest and truest adherents of Christianity have always hindered and called into question its …
: Roger Lundin This morning, as I prepare to leave for Wheaton, where I will attend the funeral of Brett Foster, I …
: College Encourages Lively Exchange Of Idea - The Onion - America's Finest News Source College Encourages Lively Exchange Of Idea - The Onion - America’s Finest News Source …
: It turns out that if you’re a curious, motivated individual in the Swat Valley or Ado-Ekiti, access …
: [vimeo 145248208 w=250 h=141] Delightfully weird. (Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)
: I have one thought Today I hear from one source that the killing of Tamir Rice was “objectively reasonable” and from …
: This unquestionably was a tragic loss of life, but to compound the tragedy by labeling the officers …
: But persistent or not, the myth of the unemployed humanities major is just that: a myth, and an …
: We honour today those whose readiness to respond to the human duty to serve others became, because …
: I find it amusing to reflect on the idea that mankind may sometime soon grow tired of reading and …
: Brett Foster, “Back-to-School Rondeau” It’s almost time to set aside the waning distractions of first youth, the life contained for years …
: [gallery] Another example: this is what happened when I pressed my finger on the sentence beginning …
: [gallery] I keep reading that iOS is a robust, mature operating system now. Then I try to select a …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17444”] People for the …
: In short, I support people creating “safe spaces” as a shield by exercising their freedom of …
: [gallery] publicdomainreview: Victorian illustrations predicting the advent of video chat more than …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17455”] thingsmagazine: …
: sweatervestboy: Profiles of Brett Foster Poetry Foundation Image Journal Kingdom Poets Wheaton …
: Tributes are already beginning to arrive for my dear friend Brett Foster, who died last night at an …
: People think they don’t understand math, but it’s all about how you explain it to them. If you ask a …
: The Room Three is exactly what fans have been hoping for, and more. Though several classical …
: It has been the fate of many poets to find that the world is at once too much and not enough, to be …
: Aunt Polly blushed crimson with humiliation, and frowned and shook her head at Tom. “Experience,” …
: The top ten PhD-granting institutions account for more than half (56 percent) of all articles …
: britishmuseum: The ancient Greeks saw the Celts as warlike peoples whose strange customs set them …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17471”] houghtonlib: From …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Clyde Holliday, - The first photograph from space, 24 October 1946
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: The first photograph of Mars, Mariner 4, July 1965
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Aerial Life, W.H.Robinson, 1918
: [gallery] gerrycanavan: politics y’all
: The ‘driest place on Earth’ is covered in pink flowers after a crazy year of rain The ‘driest place on Earth’ is covered in pink flowers after a crazy year of rain
: Letter to the Catholic Academy Letter to the Catholic Academy I’m especially pleased that Ross has doubled down here on the use of …
: [gallery] jonklassen: a small story i did last year for Monkey magazine. Monkey is a Japanese …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Little Nemo, Winsor McCay
: From the 1971 German film by Hellmuth Costard, Fußball, Wie Noch Nie (Football As Never Before), …
: [gallery] A page from the oldest known draft of the King James Bible
: [gallery] the jewel caterpillar
: From her dialect my mother left me one specific word that she used to describe how one felt when one …
: Dark matter’s existence perplexes people who find it implausible that the vast majority of matter in …
: Different Managers Use Pressing in Different Ways Different Managers Use Pressing in Different Ways The Inside Channel is one of the best soccer blogs …
: Martese Johnson and other UVa black students are in effect complaining about racial profiling, about …
: The batter has to estimate the necessary position by doing an impressive amount of computation. All …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17524”] The construction …
: [gallery] houghtonlib: Two circular images from our Instagram account, a compass rose from a map of …
: On Not Saying What You Mean I’ve had a few snarky things to say on Twitter about the Douthat Kerfuffle, and I’d like to say …
: [gallery] Albrecht Dürer, Portrait of a Woman (Agnes Dürer)
: After young adulthood, he says, the reasons that friends stop being friends are usually …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17536”] …
: Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), Head of a woman, about 1505–1507 britishmuseum: Metalpoint was a major part of artistic practice across northern Europe by about …
: This article reports the results of a nationwide audit study testing how Christian churches welcome …
: Worse, calling people names is disgraceful. Especially in the name of religion. These ad hominem …
: Diversity in the Christian University Diversity in the Christian University My friend and colleague Elizabeth Corey on Christian higher …
: An Open Letter to Ron An Open Letter to Ron
: That is the moral-ideological core of conservatism today. It presumes that life is a competition or …
: “Secular, but Feeling a Call to Divinity School,” by Samuel G. Freedman (On Religion column, Oct. …
: The scientific evidence linking both processed meat and tobacco to certain types of cancer is …
: [gallery] The article is fine, but I really like this illustration by Mike McQuade
: [gallery] Only one thing the WHO has ever studied is “probably not carcinogenic”
: Far from being a secret Muslim who was indifferent to the death of an American diplomat, or a …
: [gallery] From The Negro Motorist Green Book
: I am reminded of a story I recently read on a website called Marketwatch. This story explained to me …
: Americans have not, in fact, become more tolerant. Rather, they have shifted their dislike to new …
: [gallery] myimaginarybrooklyn: John Austen’s woodcuts for Aristophanes’, “The Frogs.”
: In one sense there were differences, and not just that I was younger and slenderer first time round. …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17578”] Unsexy Halloween …
: [gallery] deckerlibrary: Today is Ursula K. Le Guin’s 85th birthday! To celebrate, we are taking a …
: So if selfhood implies individuality, or if our undeniable individuality justifies the sense of …
: Thank you for your lovely and thoughtful submission to the magazine, which we are afraid we are …
: On the left, Ryan’s getting called a hypocrite. Salon’s Joan Walsh became an instant hero when she …
: The university was once a microcosm, a miniature world offering the whole of knowledge in a …
: [gallery] Illustrations by Tonke Dragt of her books
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17598”] natgeofound: A man …
: However, Downs offers readers far more than just a historical record and campaign manual. He …
: One of the most regular running jokes in my family, for many years now, is that I don’t play Wii …
: Instead of design, there is calculation: the more erratic the path, eccentric the loops, hidden the …
: A wall covered in spines, shelved from floor to ceiling, recognises the correspondence between …
: [gallery] Mike Joyce, from Print Process
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: The End of Print. More.
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17611”] nypl: There are …
: [gallery] Macintosh, at Print Process
: Dialogue on Democracy, Part 4 Dialogue on Democracy, Part 4
: There are many who consider as an injury to themselves any conduct which they have a distaste for, …
: “Would something be lost if autism were banished from the world? Probably. Autistic people have a …
: “What’s missing from the discussion is a recognition that the choices of feminist sex workers could, …
: A majority of the school’s astronomy faculty, which Dr. Marcy has been a member of since 1999, said …
: If someone tells you “coding is the new literacy” because “computers are everywhere today,” ask them …
: [gallery] Burial in Bradford of the “Jesus Man”: A local man, Michael Kerrigan, penned a poem for …
: Why I Unfollowed You on Instagram Why I Unfollowed You on Instagram This is remarkable: a collection of buzzwords where a human being …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17627”] yusefalahmad: …
: It is illustrated in the experience of almost all ethical doctrines and religious creeds. They are …
: [gallery] Typewriter Revolution
: Dialogue on Democracy Over at The American Conservative, I’ve been posting, in installments, a dialogue on democracy — …
: Since the 1980s I’ve been reading predictions that soon, very soon, intelligent and responsive …
: [gallery] Speaking of Elena Ferrante … A month or so after completing her Neapolitan tetralogy I’m …
: On Wednesday, Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You, which won Amazon’s book of the year …
: [gallery] lawrenceleemagnuson: Lawren Harris (1885-1970) Lake Harbour, South Shore, Baffin Island, …
: “A Thank-You Note, to Be Accompanied with Lyre,” Brett Foster portraitoftheartistasayoungman: I have spent only three days here so far, and have been gut-sick …
: [gallery] drawingarchitecture: Michelangelo LaTona, A Monument in Two Dimensions, 2015, Graphite, …
: The law requires that patients be referred for psychological examination if the doctor suspects they …
: [gallery] Abu-Bakarr Mansaray, A Nuclear Mosquito From Hell (2004)
: In addition to measuring your ability to pay, as in the United States, the scores serve as a measure …
: [gallery] This is worth buying if only for Garnette Cadogan’s moving, mournful, and yet hopeful …
: Apparently, ISIS needs to do more than torture women and children and behead members of religious …
: Blessed Are the Green of Heart Blessed Are the Green of Heart I don’t know that I’d read this since I published it, but now that I …
: Walking is a way of connecting, of feeling our feet on the ground, a very ordinary and surprisingly …
: Ramsey’s solution? “Fellow Christians who are serious about their faith” should “think about getting …
: In this way, intolerance is not a static measure. If it were, we would still be measuring it based …
: Many advocates of assisted suicide try to redefine it as something else—indeed, to redefine human …
: I found myself recalling the story of the T’ang Dynasty artist Wu Tao-Tzu, who is said one day to …
: [gallery] lawrenceleemagnuson: Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson (UK 1889-1946) The Arrival …
: When I cook, I like people to be able to identify the food. I like people to feel comfortable. I …
: We always have to improve just a little, just as everything has to be “growth-based”, a little …
: [gallery] Assault death rates, 1960-2013
: [gallery] Michael Phillips has recreated the techniques by which William Blake made his illustrated …
: Nothing to see here, folks. Just a vulgar woman who was snuck in. The Holy Spirit is definitely not …
: For 20 years I taught James Joyce’s Ulysses every year, but I don’t get to anymore—new university, …
: In the end, the show of force looked more like a show of fear – a case where American exceptionalism …
: The most memorable encounter between Day and Auden took place in 1956. By then, the Catholic Worker …
: [gallery] Handmade embroidered notebooks, via thisiscolossal
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Ottoman Astrolabe
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17687”] For Michaelmas: …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17690”] eastmanhouse: Main …
: But for her words to rise to the level of an extraordinary ‘big lie,’ a vicious slander of abortion …
: Once upon a time, Wesleyan students would have responded through grassroots organizing, not through …
: [gallery] houghtonlib: The future Queen Elizabeth, age 19, writes to her half-brother King Edward …
: Some, or even all, of these challenges may be misguided, silly, or narrow-minded. But even if you’re …
: Working and lower-middle-class children are less likely to participate in structured extracurricular …
: How to Watch Tonight’s Blood Moon sweatervestboy: I followed all the expert advice: at the moon’s perigee I rowed myself deep into …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: (via)
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Porsche, 1957
: [gallery] So Pluto is bigger than Texas. An implausible claim.
: I can almost bring Yogi back in memory, up at the plate, powerfully round and thick and bearish in …
: Remember 'Beakman's World'? The Wacky Scientist Is Still Big In Latin America Remember ‘Beakman’s World’? The Wacky Scientist Is Still Big In Latin America
: Due North | VQR Online Due North | VQR Online This powerful essay by my friend Garnette Cadogan has just been selected for …
: [gallery] I’d be hard-pressed to say what this is if I didn’t know
: [gallery] from Laurence Hyde’s’s Southern Cross
: [gallery] from Lynd Ward’s Vertigo
: The papal entourage eventually decided to give in to the dissidents’ pleas for a meeting at the last …
: [gallery] clawmarks: Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita - Paradijsvogel (1914) - Hoornull (1915) - Ringull …
: Intellectual Diversity in the Legal Academy Intellectual Diversity in the Legal Academy Elite law faculties are overwhelmingly liberal. Jim …
: The church is not tied to a text in such a way that nothing will ever be done for the first time. In …
: [gallery] lawrenceleemagnuson: Maurice de Vlaminck (France 1876-1958) Le village (n.d.) watercolor …
: making book So after my talk at Carleton College today, in which among other things I praised the technology of …
: [gallery] drawingarchitecture: Eu Jin Lim, Unfolded internal elevations of Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, …
: Yet also, yn the name of al that ys goode, studye biforehand and do nat place all of thy trust yn …
: Just doesn’t feel good – Marco.org Just doesn’t feel good – Marco.org Since few buyers of Peace are likely to seek refunds — Apple …
: I was brought up in the church, back in the old days before the deluge when church-going, …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17746”] nemfrog: …
: [gallery] 50watts: Illustration by Heinrich Valk, Estonia 1976 (50 Watts collection)
: [gallery] newberrylibrary: This 18th-century infographic showing “English Government in 1790” was …
: Hospitality means the right of a stranger not to be treated as an enemy when he arrives in the land …
: Ahmed There are many, many things that could be said about Ahmed Mohamed’s experience, but the most …
: [gallery] lawrenceleemagnuson: Lesser Ury (Germany 1861-1931) Abendstimmung am Grunewaldsee - …
: The coming reckoning for publishers is not “because of Apple”. It’s because of the choices the …
: God, endow the king with your own justice, his royal person with your righteousness, that he may …
: [gallery] lawrenceleemagnuson: Max Ackermann (Germany 1887-1975) Weisse Linien spielen - Play, …
: An Unprofessional Review Ashley Null’s review of my biography of the Book of Common Prayer is really irresponsible work. Let …
: [gallery] lawrenceleemagnuson: Fernand Léger (France 1881-1955) Stairway (1925) oil on canvas 55.5 …
: [gallery] lawrenceleemagnuson: Felix Vallotton (Swiss 1865-1925) Wolken (1890)
: [gallery] lawrenceleemagnuson: Max Weber (1881-1961) Chinese Restaurant (1915) oil, charcoal, and …
: [gallery] Shi zhu zhai shu hua pu This is the earliest Chinese book printed by the technique of …
: [gallery] visualgraphc: thisiscommonground: Toko - Architects Registration Board #design …
: [Frank Cioffi] walked the few miles to the brutal architectural dystopia that was the University of …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17786”] Mies van der Rohe, …
: [gallery] muspec: Today, we’ve got an interesting study in form and content in the form of two …
: “When politicians today praise America’s system of checks and balances, they seem to understand it …
: "package deal ethics" We are all easily lured into what might be called “package deal” ethics: if you are committed to one …
: This Adorable Alabama Bookstore Only Sells Signed Copies This Adorable Alabama Bookstore Only Sells Signed Copies This is a really nice article about the …
: These gently animated book covers by Javier Jensen are wonderful! Via Open Culture.
: Five years ago we bought a house built in 1988 in the town of Bedrock, Indiana — a town that met all …
: In a fascinating article called “The Japanese Preschool’s Pedagogy of Peripheral Participation,”, …
: Books don’t change your life. At most, if they are good, they can hurt and bring confusion. Elena …
: [gallery] deckerlibrary: Believe it or not, these vibrant images are not silkscreened, instead they …
: Indeed, the Post article is really a critique of Hillary Clinton for not doing enough to supply …
: [gallery] I don’t yet know what I think about hypothes.is, but this drawing of Vannevar Bush’s Memex …
: Religion Comes Religion comes from our pity for humans They are too weak to live without divine protection. Too …
: What we learned from USA's friendlies with Brazil and Peru What we learned from USA’s friendlies with Brazil and Peru Not sure how much we learned, but …
: [gallery] Images from a newly illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
: But this is not an argument for Trump as a serious presidential candidate. It is really no argument …
: I defer to no one in my love for America and for Christianity. I have devoted my life to the study …
: [gallery] The Hotel Okura in Tokyo is closing
: GOP voters who are passionate supporters of Kim Davis may well find that photo [with Ted Cruz] …
: [gallery] gerrycanavan: double your fun
: Britain is braced for the onslaught of Light Afternoon Drizzle Brian, then the nightmare of Rather …
: Electioneering unapologetic-book: In the unlikely event that anyone reading this is a member of a Deanery Synod in …
: The Millions of Catholics Who Aren't Catholic The Millions of Catholics Who Aren’t Catholic Plenty of Americans have picked their religion, …
: Ernest Hemingway’s Theory of Omission seems to me to be saying to writers, “Back off. Let the reader …
: [gallery] myloveforyouisastampedeofdata: Mind is a relational process regulating the flow of …
: [gallery] Sometimes you just need a photo of the Faroe Islands.
: Among the truly great poets, the handful of absolute masters, the most neglected is Horace. This was …
: Churches do not pay federal and state income taxes on their basic operations. However, neither do …
: Looking back, I’m grateful for the education the Church gave me. I walked out, I dare say, with its …
: Welcome to the world of “app-install interstitials”. They are, IMHO, a pain in the butt. On the …
: ‘Cramer said, “I’m not a fool.’ Wolfe nodded again. 'We all feel like that occasionally.’ Another …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Daniel Mullen, paintings (via things)
: [gallery] Nikolaus von Schillinger’s Instagram
: This dichotomy in how uncertainty can be perceived by different classes and different individuals is …
: When men use the metaphor, I can’t help but hear womb envy: ‘You can create life? I can create life, …
: Trumpish vocabulary Top 13 Trumpish words: I they you Trump very great he China said me money going Mexico …
: I think you’re very very beautiful and if you ever ask me to come and read aloud to you I will. …
: Queen Elizabeth II acceded to the throne aged 25 following the death of her father King George VI on …
: Teacher’s report If I were an editor … well, actually, I’m not sure what I would do if I were an editor. So let me …
: You speak of ‘the curriculum [you] impose,’ but I deny that you have the right to impose anything. I …
: When we started, and were playing in pubs, I wasn’t the singer … I was the drunk rhythm guitarist …
: [gallery] fromwithinabook: Last week these two book sculptures joined Byard Art’s Mixed Summer …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17869”] thisisgrey: now
: the chief principles of Texas driving as I have inferred them in my 26 months of living in the Lone Star State At some point during the execution of a right turn, but always before your car is completely out of …
: Al helped himself to my fries as I chatted him up over a dinner of ‘ugly burger’ (double-decker …
: The full significance - canonically, ecumenically and theologically - of Francis’s bold move will be …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17875”] Dan K Norris …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17878”] from an intricate …
: The drama of ideas in which students got caught up owed its momentum to the peculiar, and in some …
: A teacher may get good, even astounding, results from his pupils while he is teaching them and yet …
: [gallery] jonklassen: interior illustration from “The Nest” by Kenneth Oppel coming out this fall
: Cultivating unsettledness about biblical language and unsettledness about our own—these are good …
: Bradley Voytek: The fact that I, a practicing neuroscientist, can openly admit to giving a shit …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17888,17889,17890,17891”] …
: If you don’t wash your hands, your health is at the mercy of the filthiest person in your dorm. If …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17895”] natgeofound: Men …
: [gallery] unapologetic-book: Quilts by Bernice Martin #3: rose window
: It’s ironic, I guess, that the strangeness, alienation, and terror that Franzen (sort of) wants to …
: Journalism follies, Catholic edition Pope Francis has done a big, big thing: he has made it dramatically easier for women who have had …
: Wes Craven appreciation - Chicago Tribune As a senior at Wheaton, Craven struggled with the neurological disorder known as Guillain-Barre …
: Oliver Sacks He has made a chasm, which not only nothing can fill, but which nothing has a tendency to fill up. …
: One piece of evidence that preregistration can act as a strong corrective comes from …
: The Hunger Games salute [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1920”]Thai people …
: Alan dreams of suya I woke up in the middle of the night last night with an inexplicable but overwhelming craving for a …
: Imperfect Goodbyes and the Hope of Resurrection In the days after my grandmother’s graveside funeral, I returned to a lecture given in Andover …
: the cup of life is not bitter enough.... We go out of our course to make ourselves uncomfortable; the cup of life is not bitter enough to our …
: Meet the anonymous programmers who spread the Ashley Madison leak But this is the nature of modern hacks. An inscrutable data dump draws in helpful technologists who …
: How to Escape the Echo Chamber It seems that books—with their combination of physicality and otherness, quietness and intellectual …
: Stop Universities From Hoarding Money As part of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act expected later this year, Congress should …
: Netflix’s New Parental Leave Policy Could Make Things Worse for Women By encouraging mothers, who are the still the primary parent at home, to bond with their baby for a …
: Twitter digest, August 6, 2015 When the Iranians developed their nuclear capability to the fullest — Thanks, Obama — and dropped …
: looking on the bright side If nothing else of value comes from this Planned Parenthood fiasco, I am at least moderately helpful …
: Tell me anything but this, liberals: Tell me that you aren’t just pro-choice but pro-abortion, tell …
: The Science of California's Unprecedented Drought - Scientific American Realistically, though, it is hard to imagine a state as innovative as California simply allowing the …
: Leaving the New Republic, and what its mass exodus taught me about the future of magazines The week TNR imploded, I shipped hundreds of advance review copies that Leon had opted not to review …
: Drinking Soylent With The Last Of The California War Boys | MORNING, COMPUTER Seasteading’s been and gone for the second (third?) time, the secession and Six-State-California …
: Wright on Hill When I saw that N. T. Wright had reviewed Wesley Hill’s new book Paul and the Trinity, I …
: Owen Chadwick on A. E. Benson Arthur Benson ... was in the evening summer of his life. He wrote beautiful, at times too beautiful, …
: I am not all here I am not all here, I am here now preaching upon this text, and I am at home in my Library …
: Matthew 20:1-16 Phenomenon: “Two of Mr. Price’s most valued employees quit, spurred in part by their view that …
: Twitter So sad about Cedric the lion! So sad about Cedric the lion! So sad about Cedric the lion! The guy …
: Brooks redux redux I’m sure this new column proves once more that David Brooks is History’s Greatest …
: minimalist media management But if Apple is committed to a cruft-ridden iTunes, other developers could step in the void. It’s …
: Then a demonstrator directed his attention to an older man all but melting on a bottom step. “He …
: iCloud Photos gets right everything that Apple Music gets wrong. Like Marco, I can imagine many …
: [gallery] This is a fine book cover design
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17908”] netlex: Nadia …
: Boomer-bashing That we are now in the midst of a carnival of Boomer-bashing is testament to the dubious triumph of …
: As early as the 17th century it was recognised that each ‘day’ in the Creation story might represent …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17913”] I like this cover.
: Have you ‘always been completely truthful in your public statements about your net worth,’ my …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17920”] Title: “The Half …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17923”] Title: “The Angel …
: [gallery] Beirut. From this interview with Elias Khoury
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17929”] …
: [gallery] via Pulp Librarian on Twitter
: the good old days [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1024”]via Pulp Librarian …
: Iggy reads Gibby I feel a great comfort and relief knowing that there were others who lived and died and thought and …
: Brooks redux I got a good many responses to my earlier post on the widespread social-media agita about David …
: Brooks redux I got a good many responses to my earlier post on the widespread social-media agita about David …
: Can Grande [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“800”] John Ruskin, Study …
: Brookshass No journalist or columnist inspires the kind of hatred in my Twitter timeline that David Brooks …
: [gallery] jessnevins: The Best of the Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes: The Chevalier de Trelern. De …
: colors [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“868”]Polychromatic …
: John Ruskin, Part of the Palazzo Priuli, Venice
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“17943”] John Ruskin, An …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17946”] Ruskin’s …
: [gallery] ancientart: The Temple of Bacchus at Baalbek, Lebanon, ca. 150 AD. This stunning Roman …
: [gallery] Kazimir Malevich, Composition with the Mona Lisa (1914)
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17959”] Via John Overholt, …
: [gallery] blech: Landmark 1979 California Water Atlas Debuts Online, from the David Rumsey …
: My ideal burger is bun, cheese, burger. Sometimes bacon. Ketchup on the side, so I can control it. …
: [gallery] architectural-review: The Dragline Silk Project. The project will aim to push the …
: [gallery] architectural-review: Section Detail; Old Folk’s Home, Morecambe
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17974”] Narrowboaters’ …
: [gallery] architectural-review: T Grisi, Rammed earth chapel
: Is the writing life as strange as people think? Not at all. I wake pre-light to the piercing cry of …
: darkness The historical record is like the night sky: we see a few stars and group them into mythic …
: Page 15 of the new student handbook of Cedarville University tells students to obey “the laws of the …
: a common conversation BenOp Proponent: Now, to be clear, we certainly aren’t advocating running for the hills. BenOp …
: “It’s utterly insane that you still need to put a period before a person’s Twitter handle, …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17982”]
: Let the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with your government — they …
: a house for Essex the story is here
: balloon creatures [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“640”] by …
: the unexpected Francis (of Assisi) In years of teaching, I have often been astounded at how unhappy students can be when they encounter …
: send money The world is full of miserable places. One way of living comfortably is not to think about them or, …
: from Christendom to Europe The process was one of a progressive eclipse of Christendom by Europe (defined as a geographical …
: TumblrHatr I just wrote a post about the many, many things I’ve come to hate about Tumblr — I say …
: Things I Hate about Tumblr azspot: ayjay: A partial list: Tumblr Radar on the Dashboard Recommended Blogs on the Dashboard …
: Things I Hate about Tumblr A partial list: Tumblr Radar on the Dashboard Recommended Blogs on the Dashboard Occasional …
: mjlee "spatial outlaws" [caption id=“attachment_15086” align=“aligncenter” width=“1800”] …
: [gallery] drawingarchitecture: moon joo lee, ‘House 6’. pen, color pencil on mylar, newspaper, …
: [gallery] designclever: Ana Núñez ananunez.rocks
: Too much linear thinking in news Twitter would be a formidable competitor if they had leadership that understood their own product. …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“17994,17995,17996,17997”] …
: my big fat intellectual project my big fat intellectual project
: [gallery] I have just learned, more than two months late, that Barbara Reynolds has died at the age …
: the three big stories of modernity the three big stories of modernity
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18005”] design-is-fine: …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Mario Ceroli, La casa dell'architetto, 1966
: This is a guide for instructing posthumans in living a Dada life. It is not advisable, nor was it …
: [gallery] robertogreco: ethel-baraona: >> So long as the realm of necessity remains a social …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18015”] la-face-b: Justin …
: Even if there were borders to my empathy, those borders would most certainly extend into South …
: I remain ambivalent about marriage as the centerpiece of the struggle for LGBT rights, not in the …
: Lost on Scalia the high judge and legal philosopher, it seems, is the whole of the natural law …
: The degree of disdain directed to Christian faith and worship by the intelligentsia and the …
: [gallery] houghtonlib: The binding of a Gradual, or choir book, Northern France, ca. 1525. Designed …
: He likes doing this; that’s the point. Being on tour, being competitive, being celebrated: This …
: I would affirm the need for a radical break with that form of Christianity which is called the …
: Uber, algorithms, and trust Uber, algorithms, and trust
: Business critics say Twitter is falling because the suits don’t know what do to with the service. In …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18033”] I do not know …
: Greif is relentlessly sober and earnest about writers who eschewed sobriety and earnestness. He …
: The bobbies – the name given to the Metropolitan Police – were created in 1829 by Home Secretary …
: I don’t know exactly what Benedict Option evangelism might look like. I don’t know what kind of …
: frequently unobserved distinctions (a) Approving the outcome of a judicial decision (b) Accepting as valid the legal reasoning in …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18040”] houghtonlib: …
: The issue of gay marriage has come up a lot since the Massachusetts court decision. Tell me what you …
: [gallery] Clementa Pinckney’s memorial service is being held in Charleston today. Well done, good …
: Simply put, mutual responsibility towards offspring naturally demands a long-term commitment (at …
: Today’s decision … will be used to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to the new …
: [gallery] Those who have: happy. Those who have not: sad.
: How I Became a Soccer Fan How I Became a Soccer Fan A story from back in the day.
: Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd. Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd. Thinking about what happiness is.
: a parable a parable about religion, technology, modernity
: [gallery] design-is-fine: Gerardo Dottori, Il Trittico della Velocita, The triptych of velocity, …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: La Poeme Electronique
: reconciliation and forgiveness Reconciliation is only possible when forgiveness meets repentance. And meaningful social change …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18065”]
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“18068”] eadfrith: Holkham …
: [gallery] amare-habeo: Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976) Young Man Intrigued by the Flight of a Non - …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18074”] thingsmagazine: …
: Even though the pope makes broad, sweeping warnings about the way people use technology, he reserves …
: A social conservative might be predisposed to dislike union organizers, until he considers them as …
: Next time you want to gripe about the place of Christians in the public square, my liberal and …
: love is not blind “Love is not blind; that is the last thing that it is. Love is bound; and the more it is bound the …
: [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1000”] from …
: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Mendoza, Argentina[/caption]
: before Francis The problem arises from the strange status of human nature in the cosmos; we are a part of the whole …
: “The problem arises from the strange status of human nature in the cosmos; we are a part of the …
: the interpretation of symbols The problem here is one of the interpretation of symbols. One of my Southern students insists that …
: The problem here is one of the interpretation of symbols. One of my Southern students insists that …
: first thoughts on Laudato Si A book frequently quoted in this encyclical is Romano Guardini’s The End of the Modern World. Pope …
: A book frequently quoted in this encyclical is Romano Guardini’s The End of the Modern World. Pope …
: Let us not pretend that this kidnapping scheme gone awry was somehow moral, or tolerable, just …
: The figure seated on a large boulder at the foot of a round tower was that of a broadshouldered …
: how big Africa is how big Africa is
: Cattedrale Multiculturale drawingarchitecture: Mariuo Ricci, Cattedrale Multiculturale, 2015
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18087”] …
: the technique of the Black Magician In all ages, the technique of the Black Magician has been essentially the same. In all spells the …
: A satisfactory human life, individually or collectively, is possible only if proper respect is paid …
: "Joy is not the satisfied contemplation of an accomplished result, the emotion of victory, the..." “Joy is not the satisfied contemplation of an accomplished result, the emotion of victory, the …
: Joy is not the satisfied contemplation of an accomplished result, the emotion of victory, the …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18093”]
: "Hunt’s comments are as silly as they are outdated; his Nobel Prize clearly wasn’t awarded for..." “Hunt’s comments are as silly as they are outdated; his Nobel Prize clearly wasn’t awarded for …
: Hunt’s comments are as silly as they are outdated; his Nobel Prize clearly wasn’t awarded for …
: In a Wednesday press conference, Casebolt’s attorney, Jane Bishkin, revealed that prior to answering …
: "Take tenure out of the University of Wisconsin and the people who can will - over time - leave. If..." “Take tenure out of the University of Wisconsin and the people who can will - over time - leave. If …
: Take tenure out of the University of Wisconsin and the people who can will - over time - leave. If …
: "Tell me that you program in Java, and I believe you to be either serious or boring. In Ruby, and you..." “Tell me that you program in Java, and I believe you to be either serious or boring. In Ruby, and …
: "So don’t let these boys come up here and whisper sweet nothings in your ears about saving the world..." “So don’t let these boys come up here and whisper sweet nothings in your ears about saving the world …
: Tell me that you program in Java, and I believe you to be either serious or boring. In Ruby, and you …
: "So don’t let these boys come up here and whisper sweet nothings in your ears about saving the world..." “So don’t let these boys come up here and whisper sweet nothings in your ears about saving the world …
: So don’t let these boys come up here and whisper sweet nothings in your ears about saving the world …
: "Our five senses are dulled by inordinate pleasure. Penance makes them keen, gives them back their..." “Our five senses are dulled by inordinate pleasure. Penance makes them keen, gives them back their …
: Our five senses are dulled by inordinate pleasure. Penance makes them keen, gives them back their …
: sweatervestboy: Reading a library copy of James Wright after 1... sweatervestboy: Reading a library copy of James Wright after 1 a.m., I get a handwritten message …
: [gallery] sweatervestboy: Reading a library copy of James Wright after 1 a.m., I get a handwritten …
: If you don’t want to watch it all, just watch the first... If you don’t want to watch it all, just watch the first minute as Hermann Zapf writes the beginning …
: [vimeo 5385464 w=250 h=188] If you don’t want to watch it all, just watch the first minute as …
: austinkleon: Paul Bacon, 91, Whose Book Jackets Drew Readers... austinkleon: Paul Bacon, 91, Whose Book Jackets Drew Readers and Admirers, Is Dead “He didn’t see …
: Iconic book cover by Paul Bacon, who died Monday at the age of... Iconic book cover by Paul Bacon, who died Monday at the age of 91 via tumblr ift.tt/1L2ulaj
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18109,18110,18107,18108”] …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18113”] Iconic book cover …
: Mavis Staples is so much cooler than you or me Mavis Staples is so much cooler than you or me via tumblr [ift.tt/1KreaC9](http://ift.tt/1KreaC9)
: "A recent New York Times article showed that the rate of suicide among black children has increased..." “A recent New York Times article showed that the rate of suicide among black children has increased …
: From Bible Gateway. Note that the heading refers only to sexual... From Bible Gateway. Note that the heading refers only to sexual immorality, while Paul refers to …
: [gallery] From Bible Gateway. Note that the heading refers only to sexual immorality, while Paul …
: I will always be a sucker for Leica porn I will always be a sucker for Leica porn via tumblr ift.tt/1dwcbiY
: [gallery] I will always be a sucker for Leica porn
: I had both of these editions back in the day. Both books blew my... I had both of these editions back in the day. Both books blew my mind, though in very different …
: drawingarchitecture: Anne Dessing drawingarchitecture: Anne Dessing via tumblr [ift.tt/1KVjY4T](http://ift.tt/1KVjY4T)
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18126,18125”] I had both …
: [gallery] drawingarchitecture: Anne Dessing
: In relatively recent debates over toleration, there has developed a view that says toleration is …
: Benedictine counterpublics Much conservative discussion of the Benedict Option forgets that the ultimate goal for MacIntyre is …
: "This unrestrained and insidious turn taken by the disoriented British-values campaign was exposed..." “This unrestrained and insidious turn taken by the disoriented British-values campaign was exposed …
: This unrestrained and insidious turn taken by the disoriented British-values campaign was exposed …
: "When talking about the need to reform the criminal justice system, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) often..." “When talking about the need to reform the criminal justice system, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) often …
: When talking about the need to reform the criminal justice system, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) often …
: "Maria Albertina Iraheta Guardado was 37 when she decided to leave the Dos Bocas community in Santa..." “Maria Albertina Iraheta Guardado was 37 when she decided to leave the Dos Bocas community in Santa …
: Maria Albertina Iraheta Guardado was 37 when she decided to leave the Dos Bocas community in Santa …
: Photo via tumblr ift.tt/1KMRgDa
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18137”]
: "When I first started getting some attention, stories published here and there, Don DeLillo took me..." “When I first started getting some attention, stories published here and there, Don DeLillo took me …
: When I first started getting some attention, stories published here and there, Don DeLillo took me …
: "Another fantasy of liberal education is that the student who advances to the university should take..." “Another fantasy of liberal education is that the student who advances to the university should take …
: Another fantasy of liberal education is that the student who advances to the university should take …
: "Pour tenir dans la lutte qui oppose les deux seuls grands pays d'Europe restés démocratiques à un..." “Pour tenir dans la lutte qui oppose les deux seuls grands pays d’Europe restés démocratiques …
: Pour tenir dans la lutte qui oppose les deux seuls grands pays d'Europe restés démocratiques à un …
: newberrylibrary: Chromatic Wood TypeHappy Typeface Tuesday!... newberrylibrary: Chromatic Wood Type Happy Typeface Tuesday! These wood type samples are chromatic …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18143,18144,18145,18146”] …
: Dione (foreground) and Rhea Dione (foreground) and Rhea via tumblr ift.tt/1I1DW00
: [gallery] Dione (foreground) and Rhea
: Top: word-cloud generated from cat-lovers’ explanations of... Top: word-cloud generated from cat-lovers’ explanations of their love of cats. Bottom: word-cloud …
: [gallery] Top: word-cloud generated from cat-lovers’ explanations of their love of cats. Bottom: …
: thingsmagazine: Death, What’s in it for me?, Harland Miller thingsmagazine: Death, What’s in it for me?, Harland Miller via tumblr …
: otticattica: We’ve been working the brilliant Ivan Poupyrev and... otticattica: We’ve been working the brilliant Ivan Poupyrev and team at Google ATAP to help design …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18156”] thingsmagazine: …
: [gallery] otticattica: We’ve been working the brilliant Ivan Poupyrev and team at Google ATAP to …
: [gallery] brucesterling: *Still not enough to physically drown all the Global Warming denialists in …
: "According to Conway, there is a “disconnect” between the desire to travel into space and the desire..." “According to Conway, there is a “disconnect” between the desire to travel into space and the desire …
: According to Conway, there is a “disconnect” between the desire to travel into space and the desire …
: The great Jimmy Rushing — Mister Five By Five — along with Count... The great Jimmy Rushing — Mister Five By Five — along with Count Basie, for whom he did his best …
: [gallery] The great Jimmy Rushing — Mister Five By Five — along with Count Basie, for whom he did …
: This astonishingly advanced and beautiful car was also known... This astonishingly advanced and beautiful car was also known by the punning pronunciation of the …
: [gallery] This astonishingly advanced and beautiful car was also known by the punning pronunciation …
: "Have you heard of the Benedict Option?" Have you heard of the Benedict Option? If not, you will soon. It’s the name of a deeply pessimistic …
: "In a statement conceding defeat, the Iona Institute, the main opposition group, said it would..." “In a statement conceding defeat, the Iona Institute, the main opposition group, said it would …
: Have you heard of the Benedict Option? If not, you will soon. It’s the name of a deeply pessimistic …
: In a statement conceding defeat, the Iona Institute, the main opposition group, said it would …
: Any time I make [on Twitter] some sort of joke along racial lines or dealing with racial politics, I …
: "Thirty years ago, in the ‘1984’ Macintosh commercial directed by Ridley Scott, a young..." “Thirty years ago, in the ‘1984’ Macintosh commercial directed by Ridley Scott, a young woman …
: Thirty years ago, in the ‘1984’ Macintosh commercial directed by Ridley Scott, a young woman smashed …
: "In a time when ‘to other’ has become a condemnatory verb, randos are the other. If the..." “In a time when ‘to other’ has become a condemnatory verb, randos are the other. If the mores in a …
: Photo via tumblr ift.tt/1ApI1YY
: Photo via tumblr ift.tt/1ApI1YY
: In a time when ‘to other’ has become a condemnatory verb, randos are the other. If the mores in a …
: The eros of weakness and power that fuels public shaming shows up in one last uncanny and sickening …
: prunvs: Flowering Desert, Chile The flowering desert is a... prunvs: Flowering Desert, Chile The flowering desert is a climatic phenomenon that occurs in the …
: [gallery] prunvs: Flowering Desert, Chile The flowering desert is a climatic phenomenon that occurs …
: drawingarchitecture: Sabrina Morreale drawingarchitecture: Sabrina Morreale via tumblr [ift.tt/1LmC14v](http://ift.tt/1LmC14v)
: [gallery] drawingarchitecture: Sabrina Morreale
: Some time ago, identity and a sense of self-worth got hitched to labor and productivity. …
: Bibliodyssey: Japanese Falconry Bibliodyssey: Japanese Falconry via tumblr ift.tt/1edlogI
: [gallery] Bibliodyssey: Japanese Falconry
: Charisms A thought I had while eating hot dogs with friends today: What if Christian colleges and …
: robertogreco: The Aftershocks, Rebecca Mock (via migurski) robertogreco: The Aftershocks, Rebecca Mock (via migurski) via tumblr …
: Photo via tumblr ift.tt/1dbB5F1
: [gallery] robertogreco: The Aftershocks, Rebecca Mock (via migurski)
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18198”]
: David Shrigley. I think Frank Chimero pointed me to this on... David Shrigley. I think Frank Chimero pointed me to this on Twitter. via tumblr ift.tt/1d7h0iV
: [gallery] David Shrigley. I think Frank Chimero pointed me to this on Twitter.
: drawingarchitecture: Charlie Hodgson, Untitled I (Tribalism,... drawingarchitecture: Charlie Hodgson, Untitled I (Tribalism, Brutalism & Defensive …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18204”] …
: SpaceX travel posters SpaceX travel posters via tumblr ift.tt/1PpWiMk
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18207”] SpaceX travel …
: Someone said to me the other day that MAD MAX is “his Star... Someone said to me the other day that MAD MAX is “his Star Wars.” His modern myth. A myth of the …
: [gallery] Someone said to me the other day that MAD MAX is “his Star Wars.” His modern myth. A myth …
: "Blackwell explained that the bass drum, sock cymbal, and the snare are on the one and three. He told..." “Blackwell explained that the bass drum, sock cymbal, and the snare are on the one and three. He …
: Blackwell explained that the bass drum, sock cymbal, and the snare are on the one and three. He told …
: Scripture and slavery The inability of evangelicals to agree on how slavery should be construed according to Scripture, …
: "One time I met a guy who had invented a heart valve that saved half a million people. He and I got..." “One time I met a guy who had invented a heart valve that saved half a million people. He and I got …
: One time I met a guy who had invented a heart valve that saved half a million people. He and I got …
: from Wake in Progress from Wake in Progress via tumblr ift.tt/1E7Tqb0
: [gallery] from Wake in Progress
: It seems obvious that Obama, Putnam, and the liberal elites they speak for want to believe that …
: "The decision by corporate leaders to take a political stand over a controversial issue is therefore..." “The decision by corporate leaders to take a political stand over a controversial issue is therefore …
: The decision by corporate leaders to take a political stand over a controversial issue is therefore …
: My immensely talented friend Claire Holley has a new record... My immensely talented friend Claire Holley has a new record coming out and it is really special. …
: First Things First God bless Rod Dreher for continuing to post critiques of his Benedict Option. But I still haven’t …
: First Things First God bless Rod Dreher for continuing to post critiques of his Benedict Option. But I still haven’t …
: thingsmagazine: A rare ivory anatomical model of a pregnant... thingsmagazine: A rare ivory anatomical model of a pregnant woman, German, late 17th century via …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: A rare ivory anatomical model of a pregnant woman, German, late 17th …
: "Bible Belt near-Christianity is teetering. I say let it fall. For much of the twentieth century,..." “Bible Belt near-Christianity is teetering. I say let it fall. For much of the twentieth century, …
: Bible Belt near-Christianity is teetering. I say let it fall. For much of the twentieth century, …
: In the Civil Rights era, we had the theological resources to address the injustices that people were …
: More vital information here. Via John Overholt on Twitter. More vital information here. Via John Overholt on Twitter. via tumblr ift.tt/1F0BGmZ
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18231”] More vital …
: In a few months, the Supreme Court will likely conclude that same-sex civil marriage is a …
: One of a series of wonderful photos of people using the New York Public Library, here, via Slate …
: [gallery] One of a series of wonderful photos of people using the New York Public Library, here, via …
: Is it a good movie? No, not if you want plots you can follow... Is it a good movie? No, not if you want plots you can follow and visuals that don’t seem to be …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18238”] Is it a good …
: newberrylibrary: Happy National Tourist Appreciation... newberrylibrary: Happy National Tourist Appreciation Day! “Yosemite and the Big Trees of …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18241”] newberrylibrary: …
: thingsmagazine: ‘Bauer 8mm’, a French lithographic poster,... thingsmagazine: ‘Bauer 8mm’, a French lithographic poster, circa 1960 via tumblr …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18244”] thingsmagazine: …
: The “Benedict Option” Revisited What Rod Dreher calls the Benedict Option has been getting a lot of pushback from critics — and Rod …
: The term “Internet Of Things” is a desperate attempt to make a pointer for a field that barely …
: "The problem that I and many other Baptists had with Carson speaking at the Pastors’ Conference is..." The problem that I and many other Baptists had with Carson speaking at the Pastors’ Conference is …
: The term “Internet Of Things” is a desperate attempt to make a pointer for a field that barely …
: magictransistor: (Unknown). Jacob Lawrence Displays his... magictransistor: (Unknown). Jacob Lawrence Displays his Painting “Embarkation” During the War. …
: [gallery] magictransistor: (Unknown). Jacob Lawrence Displays his Painting “Embarkation” During the …
: citiesofsound: Johann Dogiel, Blood-pressure rhythms in dogs,... citiesofsound: Johann Dogiel, Blood-pressure rhythms in dogs, cats and humans in response to the …
: [gallery] citiesofsound: Johann Dogiel, Blood-pressure rhythms in dogs, cats and humans in response …
: "With the nation’s eyes on Baltimore (and Baltimore’s eyes on Sandtown), what has struck me, as..." “With the nation’s eyes on Baltimore (and Baltimore’s eyes on Sandtown), what has struck me, as …
: With the nation’s eyes on Baltimore (and Baltimore’s eyes on Sandtown), what has struck me, as …
: Susan Holman: This child met my gaze at the 2013 Kumbh Mela,... Susan Holman: This child met my gaze at the 2013 Kumbh Mela, a Hindu bathing festival in rural …
: [gallery] Susan Holman: This child met my gaze at the 2013 Kumbh Mela, a Hindu bathing festival in …
: The usual morning visitor The usual morning visitor via tumblr ift.tt/1DP09qf
: [gallery] The usual morning visitor
: It seems to me that in recent years the people who have done the most to make some worthwhile change …
: momalibrary: A wrapped $50 stack of ARTCASH, comprised of two... momalibrary: A wrapped $50 stack of ARTCASH, comprised of two “ones” by Andy Warhol, and two $24 …
: momalibrary: A wrapped $50 stack of ARTCASH, comprised of two... momalibrary: A wrapped $50 stack of ARTCASH, comprised of two “ones” by Andy Warhol, and two $24 …
: [gallery] momalibrary: A wrapped $50 stack of ARTCASH, comprised of two “ones” by Andy Warhol, and …
: movieposteroftheday: Japanese speed for PLAYTIME (Jacques Tati,... movieposteroftheday: Japanese speed for PLAYTIME (Jacques Tati, France, 1967) Size: 14.5" x 20", …
: [gallery] movieposteroftheday: Japanese speed for PLAYTIME (Jacques Tati, France, 1967) Size: …
: Neil Gaiman: Why I love Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Neil Gaiman: Why I love Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: Lovely tribute by Neil Gaiman to one of …
: Neil Gaiman: Why I love Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Neil Gaiman: Why I love Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: Lovely tribute by Neil Gaiman to one of …
: Neil Gaiman: Why I love Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Neil Gaiman: Why I love Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Lovely tribute by Neil Gaiman to one of my …
: Charlie Hebdo’s murdered editorial director, Stéphane Charbonnier, said he aimed to “banalize” all …
: I thought this business about “Wisconsin Republicans... I thought this business about “Wisconsin Republicans denying beans to the poor” was a partisan …
: [gallery] I thought this business about “Wisconsin Republicans denying beans to the poor” was a …
: "My students are often Christians who are old enough to mock mercilessly the people that gave of..." “My students are often Christians who are old enough to mock mercilessly the people that gave of …
: My students are often Christians who are old enough to mock mercilessly the people that gave of …
: "I have a book-ish nature. I understand faith the way C.S. Lewis did, which is that I like books that..." “I have a book-ish nature. I understand faith the way C.S. Lewis did, which is that I like books …
: robertogreco: “Some exquisite Katsuhiro Otomo for the morning... robertogreco: “Some exquisite Katsuhiro Otomo for the morning (from ’Tokyo Metro Explorers’). That …
: I have a book-ish nature. I understand faith the way C.S. Lewis did, which is that I like books that …
: [gallery] robertogreco: “Some exquisite Katsuhiro Otomo for the morning (from ’Tokyo Metro …
: announcement Now that I’ve resurrected my Tumblr, I’ll just be using this blog to mirror what gets …
: The invention of ‘printing,’ though ingenious compared with the invention of ‘letters,’ is no great …
: The chronicles of American Christianity are littered with pronouncements of the shallowness of …
: It is exceedingly difficult these days to call attention to the dull-minded policing by academics …
: Nietzsche saw art, and Lady Philosophy, as a benign illusion that sustains us in the face of the …
: New York is a publishing center, the business center of American culture. Here culture is prepared, …
: Conservatives United A number of people have been praising this essay by Yuval Levin: American conservatism has always …
: Raising Higher Education to Its Full Potential? Students are attracted to the sunny campus lawns, close attention from professors, and those coveted …
: so you want to move to Brooklyn... New York is a publishing center, the business center of American culture. Here culture is prepared, …
: withdrawals and commitments My buddy Rod Dreher writes, What I call the Benedict Option is this: a limited, strategic …
: Craigie Aitchison, Crucifixion Window, St. Mary the Boltons Church, London
: Meditations for the three hours, Good Friday 2015 Luke’s Saviour meets us eagerly with that forgiveness in two episodes unique to his Gospel. Jesus …
: Craigie Aitchison, "Crucifixion (1993)"
: Craigie Aitchison, "Crucifixion 9"
: Bellow's Mailbox I have watched the mailbox anxiously for your story. (You see the mailbox has not lost its potency; …
: The Law That Changed Modern America This year, America observes the fiftieth anniversary of many transformative events. Some are to be …
: “Ginny!” said Mr. Weasley, flabbergasted. “Haven’t I taught you anything? What have I always told …
: How to Dispense with Conservatism in One Essay This essay by Elizabeth Stoker Breunig is several things: a memoir, a moving tribute to a teacher, a …
: Understanding Father Neuhaus I did not know Richard John Neuhaus intimately, or even well; we met only a couple of times, and …
: Why I Don't Believe Twitter Will Do Anything to Address Abuse Today I tweeted, “Okay that Twitter says it will deal better with abuse, but policies are only as …
: On Margaret Sanger I may have said enough on Twitter about Rachel Marie Stone’s post on contraception and Margaret …
: Beloved Reading Daniel Meldelsohn’s new essay on Sappho, I recall an essay of my own from some years …
: Arrangement In a memorable scene from her memoir The Florist’s Daughter, Patricia Hampl describes what it was …
: Routes to the Corner Office In fact, Bruni’s breezy anecdotes tend to reinforce the very assumption they ostensibly question: …
: Surveillance and Care Another day, another story about the legal trouble you can expect if you’re a free-range parent. …
: About "It" Consider these sentences: Wilson nailed it. Jones just doesn’t get it. It’s about ethics in games …
: Code Fetishists vs. Antinomians Charles Taylor explains many (most?) internet debates — and a great many others from the past two …
: Antisemitism and Evidence Freddie deBoer’s critique of Conor Friedersdorf’s post on European antisemitism is too careless. …
: <em>Pax Scientia</em>: Thanks, But I'll Pass Armand Marie Leroi is an evolutionary biologist — and also a scientific imperialist. No, that’s not …
: Notes for a Book I Won't Write I’m always getting ideas for books that are very much worth writing but which I know …
: Stevens This endlessly elaborating poem Displays the theory of poetry, As the life of poetry. A more severe, …
: Suffrage Anybody who believes at all in God must believe in the absolute supremacy of God. But in so far as …
: The System A friend recently asked me what word processor I use. I was preparing to link him to a couple of …
: The Mighty Wonders, "Old Ship of Zion" [audio mp3="blog.ayjay.org/wp-conten…"][/audio] From Baylor’s Black Gospel …
: The Swallow From Upper Egypt, ca. 1479–1458 B.C; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some thoughts by Patrick …
: Another Note About Reading In response to my posting of some rather directive thoughts on reading by Dorothy Sayers, a friend …
: Dorothy Sayers, "A Note on Creative Reading" In 1940, when the Second World War was underway and the Battle of Britain had begun, Dorothy L. …
: Computational Humanities and Critical Tact Natalie Kane writes, When we talk about algorithms, we never talk about the person, we talk about …
: Stefan Fatsis is Wrong This post by Stefan Fatsis is remarkably dumb. Let me explain why. When people disagree with …
: On Not Defending the Humanities I don’t think that the humanities or the liberal arts can be defended, at least not in the sense …
: The Old Hobby-Horse Rides Again As we come towards the end of an octave of prayers for Christian unity, I’d like to suggest that one …
: Kurzweilian Whiggery Tim Urban writes, The movie Back to the Future came out in 1985, and “the past” took place in 1955. …
: Auden and the Dream of Public Poetry This essay was originally published in this book. I’m posting it here because I think fairly well of …
: Two kinds of critics in the world.... I’m very interested in Andrew Piper’s new work on the “conversional novel”: My approach consisted of …
: [caption id=“attachment_14599” align=“aligncenter” …
: Coleridge on the Reading of Fairy Tales My Father (who had so little of parental ambition in him, that he had destined his children to be …
: Repeatedly (but not often enough) Zoe Corbyn in the Guardian on Nick Carr’s The Glass Cage: Not everyone buys Carr’s gloomy argument. …
: BUT “I condemn those heinous killings, but…” “First i condemn the brutal killing. But…” “No, journalists …
: Random thoughts on <em>Charlie Hebdo</em> I don’t think the most important question about what happened is “Do we support Charlie Hebdo?” I …
: More About My New Writing Assignment When, a few days ago, I posted the details of my radically subversive new writing assignment, I got …
: The Dance of Death The programme from the Group Theatre’s production of Auden’s verse drama The Dance of …
: [caption id=“attachment_14574” align=“aligncenter” …
: [caption id=“attachment_14567” align=“aligncenter” …
: [caption id=“attachment_14564” align=“aligncenter” …
: Good News for Mac Users Cabel Sasser, writing about how 2014 went at Panic Software, breaks down November sales by unit …
: Bonhoeffer and the Song of Songs This is the text of a lecture I gave several years ago at an American Academy of Religion meeting. …
: Selling Books An interesting trio of books for Random House to be advertising in the April 24, 1944 issue of The …
: Changes I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but in between semesters I always take some time to re-evaluate …
: Assignment: Commentary and Anthology Just in case anyone is interested, here’s a draft of something I’ll be handing out to my students in …
: signing off A note to the few who read this tumblelog: I don’t expect to be posting here any more. It’s been fun …
: Also a test This also is a test, which may be safely ignored.
: This is a test This is a test. This is only a test.
: [gallery] Now this is a great idea.
: The most fascinating and, in many ways, cheering story of 2014 is almost wholly counterintuitive: …
: [gallery] homelimag: Vega Cottage on an Island in Norway by Kolman Boye Architects from …
: [gallery] homelimag: Elqui Domos Astronomical Hotel for Star Gazers by Rodrigo Duque Motta from …
: [gallery] Uneven Growth at MoMA
: [gallery] lindahall: Etienne Trouvelot – Scientist of the Day Etienne Trouvelot, a French painter …
: Today many of the communal forms of life that might once have been thought to link the fates of the …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18325”] The death of …
: The response that I both respect the most, and which discourages me the most, is this one: black …
: During the day to come, Christmas Day, some time, someone will show themselves undefended, helpless, …
: [gallery] from a promotional campaign for the Schusev State Museum of Architecture
: R. S. Thomas, "The Coming" And God held in his hand A small globe. Look, he said. The son looked. Far off, As through water, he …
: It looks, from home, that he is going after his guests but when you are the guest, you can feel the …
: accounting for modernity This is one of my placeholder posts, in which I lay out the barest outline of thoughts that I hope …
: Christmas at home Mother-in-law: Alan, can I get up and let you sit in this chair? Me: No, Mom, I’m comfortable where …
: [gallery] From the installation of James Lee Byars’s “Made with Paper”, 1967
: [gallery] pleasecometotheshow: From a note in the MoMA artist file of James Lee Byars, “This …
: We have suffered a general loss of concepts, the loss of a moral and political vocabulary. We no …
: fairy tales and myths The individual fairy tale is not itself a myth, but it presupposes a mythic framework of surprise, …
: [gallery] wesleyhill: Sr. Grace Remington, OCSO, “Mary and Eve” (2005) (h/t Elizabeth Scalia)
: So I’m fine with AI, because I don’t believe in it in the usual way it is interpreted, as machine …
: In my free time, I enjoy making things with rocks, doing patio jigsaw patterns in quartzite around …
: [gallery] architectural-review: Edward Crooks: The Theatre of Progress See the full project on the …
: Teenagers can feel religious longings just as powerfully as they do romantic ones. There is nothing …
: the origin of the great errors There can be no doubt that all the great errors which have overtaken the preaching and theology of …
: Is it true, this talk of a loving and good God, who is more than one of the friendly idols whose …
: I have not been on a fascinating journey of self-discovery recently, and I would not like to share …
: Some common reasons they gave for not buying e-textbooks were that screens make their eyes tired, …
: I also know that Messiah is among my favourite works to perform each year. How could this be? Why …
: Getting a bad review is no longer an elite experience. Writers and non-writers, mandarins and …
: For Whitefield, clearly, one can be aware of, and even repent of, particular sins without having a …
: the future of ambition I’m not sure this essay by Michael Hanlon on the lack of technical and scientific progress over the …
: [gallery] See all the metrics. Some interesting things about this one: the relative illiteracy of …
: It is a very religious world, far more religious than it was 50 years ago…. Furthermore, in every …
: In the meantime, the problem seems to grow only more urgent. There’s a ton of ugly vitriol being …
: Near the end of “Labor’s Love Lost,” his illuminating new book on the decline of the working-class …
: A few years ago, I formulated a working hypothesis that has guided my professional efforts as an …
: [gallery] Folio from a Majma al-Tavarikh (Compendium of Histories) of Hafiz-i Abru. Chinese Emperor …
: It is hard not to resent Flaubert for making fictional prose stylish—for making style a problem for …
: The odds of computers becoming thoughtful enough to decide they want to take over the world, hatch a …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18378”] …
: [gallery] momalibrary: Elsbeth Heddenhausen. Bucher (n.d.) in Das Deutsche Lichtbild, Jahresschau …
: [gallery] ryersonlib: Promotional booklet for Lincoln Automobiles, located at 39, Avenue des …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18390”] theparisreview: At …
: [caption id=“attachment_14519” align=“alignnone” width=“800”] …
: [gallery] One of the earliest Bibles in Roman type
: [gallery] a newly discovered letter from C S Lewis
: [gallery] drawingarchitecture: Alexander Kindlen, The Maelstrom // The Descent, analogue & …
: [gallery] eastmanhouse: Vortograph Alvin Langdon Coburn, British, b. United States 1882 - 1966 …
: Many of the loudest opponents of releasing the report don’t normally think that “violence and …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18406”] archimaps: …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18409”] houghtonlib: …
: britishmuseum: The Twelve Months at Kew Gardens. Print series by Thomas Robert Way (1861–1913). …
: [gallery] biblipeacay: *The Mezmerizing Architecture of Mosques* via Metafiler.
: So, some personal news. Today I resign from The New Republic. But I am excited to join Fusion! Which …
: Thoughts Occasioned by My Staying Home to Crank Through These Papers Because They Simply Have to Be Returned Today “Just one more cup of coffee to get me fortified.” “Yes, I posted on the demise of TNR last night, …
: And isn’t there a place for just that – for a group of writers and thinkers to put out a publication …
: one more thought on TNR It happens every week in Silicon Valley: a tiny startup working on some interesting technology is …
: This, I think, is the ground of the strange ‘relatability’ of these globally popular novels: not …
: Q&A about 'Unapologetic' with David Heim of The Christian Century unapologetic-book: Interview in the 10 December 2014 issue, online here. Your book is not …
: Goodbye, TNR If you hear anyone say, “Good grief, The New Republic isn’t dead, it’s just moving to New York and …
: More importantly, Christians believe our baptism is not just a set of beliefs. One could come up …
: Frankly, nothing is more controversial in American life than this issue of whether or not we are …
: As I point out in my new book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, there was …
: ‘In the early 2000s, particularly after 9/11, we saw a paradigm shift from community policing and …
: And yes, we are living longer, but this has disappointingly little to do with any recent …
: Sometimes, completing a book is that great expulsion of a strange pressure that we like to dignify …
: It’s called The Book of Life because it’s about the most substantial things in your life: your …
: [gallery] archimaps: Piranesi’s design for a stage scene
: [gallery] archimaps: Section of the Villa Surkoff, St. Petersburg
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18437”] archimaps: Erastus …
: I was in a Printing house in Hell & saw the method in which knowledge is transmitted from …
: [gallery] drawingarchitecture: Maruio Ricci, Wordgame, 2013.
: [gallery] A new spider species. Please let me know if this is fake, because it’s hard to believe.
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18447,18448”] from Eric …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18454”]
: [gallery] drawingarchitecture: Stefanidis Konstantinos, DUST COLLECTOR/ Creating dust-clouds for …
: This kind of obedience is the substance of the Gospel - the institutional power to teach is its …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18461”] …
: In the pew in which we invariably sat there was a leather-bound Prayer Book with a brass clasp. It …
: demolition work Another reason for the upsurge in writing about religion may lie in the failure of a convincing …
: [gallery] the Etherington brothers
: [gallery] portrait arabesque, by Roger de La Fresnaye. Via Wood s hole
: This year, as Thanksgiving bleeds into the rest of the winter holiday season, as Republicans sharpen …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18476”] This is what book …
: Security researcher GironSec has pulled Uber’s Android app apart and discovered that it’s sending a …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18480,18481,18482”] …
: What, then, does detective fiction say about her? ‘That I am a woman who likes life to be ordered. …
: attnmgmtblog: Alan Jacobs, on The Attentive Reader. So it turns out that if we want to think …
: There were particular books that donned the shelves and coffee tables in pretty much every Christian …
: And that is because the death of all of our Michael Browns at the hands of people who are supposed …
: These advice columns are becoming a genre unto themselves. The stock villain: crazy right-wing …
: Here’s the simple fact that no one wants to talk about. Spotify says it pays out seventy per cent of …
: But ritual dazzles more than it convinces. Beyond the converted, the less committed observer will …
: My murder-mystery plot was extremely elaborate, with lots of strange clues involving balsa wood, and …
: The idea that Michael Brown’s death is being emphasized too much by the black community, which …
: [Perhaps the British government could] take advantage of the Palace of Westminster’s imminent …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“18495,18496”] You have no …
: The Attentive Reader Recently I gave a talk at Vassar College for a meeting of LACOL, the Liberal Arts Consortium for …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18499”] …
: Sullivan’s statement was a missive from the bureaucratic bowels of an accounting machine. It was …
: According to a report by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, the top ten leading …
: I am not particularly interested in the book as object, or in the technology of the transmission of …
: [gallery] Paul Nash’s Landscape of the Megaliths, featured in Adam Thorpe’s On Silbury Hill. Image: …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18508”] houghtonlib: …
: Not long ago an enterprising professor at the Harvard Business School named Mike Norton persuaded a …
: ‘Social justice’ is an awkward term for an immensely important project, perhaps the most important …
: In his latest speech, Archbishop Welby acknowledged for the first time that the Lambeth conference—a …
: [gallery] smithsonianlibraries: “not compatible with iOS devices” from Animal mechanism: a treatise …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18518”] Austin Kleon: …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: William Steiger
: To all of us, I believe, in the middle of the twentieth century, the Roman Empire is like a mirror …
: [gallery] From this collection of optical illusions. Look at the hi-res version to get the full …
: I came originally from a place that had a serious cool deficit, so I really became a nerdish …
: [gallery] The source of this impasse is the design itself—a signature work of the overpraised …
: [gallery] During the session for the seminal “Great Balls Of Fire”, Jerry Lee Lewis and Sun Records …
: School, by its very nature, tends to make a total claim on the time and energies of its …
: And that’s where the problem lies. We’re still behaving like the rebel alliance, but now we’re the …
: [gallery] Love House, Takeshi Hosaka, architect
: Accurate Post Titles I Paid an Obscene Amount of Attention to Something Stupid But I Had an Emotionally Complex Response …
: Žižek himself is a curious mixture of illusion and reality. In Trouble in Paradise, he speaks of …
: When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. In learning to …
: [gallery] morning walk along the Brazos
: [gallery] still life with lizard
: [gallery] abandoned house, Namibia
: [gallery] subtilitas: Tadao Ando - Ryotaro Shiba museum, Osaka 2001. Via, photos © Will Pryce.
: ProTip: Don’t use 4square to checkin to the location you admin your darkweb drug marketplace …
: I have a reinforced understanding of medical tv shows as America’s primary expression of horror …
: an update … on some things: A while back, I decided to ditch the New York Times — and I’m still regularly …
: [gallery] austinkleon: René Magritte with Dominique de Menil (and his dog Lou-Lou) at a rodeo in …
: A final thought on the cultic. The word has a primitive feel. This is intentional. Christianity …
: From these simulations, the logic of the game goes, you can abstract urban design principles. Where …
: Finish That Book! - The Atlantic Finish That Book! - The Atlantic I was just complaining about this post on Twitter, so let me flesh …
: Today we have a lot of technical innovation, but not a lot of political creativity. The ecosystem no …
: Last week my colleague David Brooks wrote a column on the decline of political imagination, and the …
: [gallery] architectural-review: National Pantheon of Kazakhstan. Competition proposal 2014. Lara …
: a way of writing There is a genre of writing to which I am particularly devoted, but whose name I do not know. I can …
: Consider the fact that it takes roughly one million spins on Pandora for a songwriter to earn just …
: The Concordat Analogy | R. R. Reno | First Things The Concordat Analogy | R. R. Reno | First Things Rusty Reno replies to me, and though I tried to …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18583,18584,18585”] …
: and one more note on politics I’m a seamless-garment pro-lifer who strongly opposes foreign-policy adventurism, wants to see the …
: Look, I don’t expect the Lincoln-Douglas debates, but the stupidity and unseriousness of our …
: Those of us who vote for third parties do so primarily because we feel that the Democrats and …
: in which David Sessions and I keep talking David Sessions has patiently answered my questions, so let me offer a few replies in turn. First, I …
: Walsh’s ignorance and douchebaggery may be in a class by themselves, but his prominence is the …
: [gallery] The International Space Station at night is kinda scary. Via c|net.
: Should Airplanes Be Flying Themselves? | William Langewiesche Should Airplanes Be Flying Themselves? | William Langewiesche The people who have been mocking Nick …
: Edwards as a Christian theologian begins with belief in a creator, whose role in existence and …
: It is not given to us to be as close to those we love as God is. We are always a little separate …
: Contraception, sleeping around, co-habitation, and gay sex are done in private. By and large, over …
: But here’s what I find alarming: Confronted with a president who 1) spied on every American, 2) …
: Michiko Kakutani, who writes reviews for The New York Times, is the same way. She’ll review a book …
: “It is hard even to guess at the number of Christians in China. Official surveys seek to play down …
: I don’t think avoiding Twitter is pragmatic if your audience is there, but it’s also unwise to dump …
: [gallery] Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges
: [gallery] Carvings from the gate of Nijo Castle, Kyoto
: HOW TO WRITE — Medium HOW TO WRITE — Medium Fifty pieces like this appear on the internet every week. About them all I …
: A Ukrainian man who claimed responsibility for organizing a campaign to send heroin to my home last …
: [gallery] robertogreco: “Skull with clock eyes at La Calaca Festival (photograph by Reka Nyari)” …
: [gallery] A-minus?? There’s not a mark on it! What are you counting off for?? I’m complaining to the …
: On this Reformation Day, it is good to remember that Martin Luther belongs to the entire church, not …
: [gallery] xo-skeleton: Étienne Louis-Boullée, Newton’s Cenotaph, c. 1784
: a message I just wrote to Dropbox Just a few days ago I upgraded my Dropbox account and added additional files and folders to the …
: Yes, there is a traditional gamer lifestyle. God ordained that it’s one man, one joystick. Read your …
: [gallery] Little River Canyon, Alabama
: ‘Here’s the secret to living in a log house: You got to love the color brown,’ Kevin said. 'But you …
: [gallery] thegetty: “I do not like crooked, twisted, blasted trees. I admire them much more if …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18635,18636,18637”] My …
: [gallery] “But the Weyerhaeuser headquarters seem purpose-built, rhetorically and materially, for …
: at least 2.5 cheers for publishers As Megan McArdle reminds us, “Publishers are middlemen. Everyone hates middlemen.” Maybe we can …
: A lot of work goes into publishing a book. Someone needs to edit the manuscript. The manuscript must …
: a hero of our time The essay is called “Vanishing Act.” The tag line: “How does a man disappear?” Yes, Martin Sklar had …
: [gallery] University Parks, Oxford
: [gallery] High Street, Oxford
: [gallery] Holy Island (Lindisfarne)
: [gallery] Regent’s Park, London
: [gallery] Mt. Seymour, North Vancouver, B.C. (old lo-res photo)
: [gallery] The Rio Grande, Big Bend National Park
: Why did the face in the Oval Office change but the policies remain the same? Critics tend to focus …
: The Assemblies of God, one of America’s largest and fastest-growing denominations, celebrated its …
: Here’s the key, I think: It’s because gay and lesbian people perceive Christianity as not just …
: Taking into account the state of scientific research at the time as well as of the requirements of …
: To those who know a little of christian history probably the most moving of all the reflections it …
: [gallery] publicdomainreview: Four remarkable “plantscapes” from the Austrian botanist Kerner von …
: Any ambiguity about whether Douthat was merely predicting a schism or actively threatening one was …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18685”] newberrylibrary: …
: Portions of this chapter are peppered with numbers. Some passages are also thick with the language …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18689”] Via the Tripe …
: We have made him. To actually, truly believe in the advertisements that shape our culture—to let …
: [gallery] biblipeacay: Paul Klee etching: ‘Stachel der Clown’ (?Sting the Clown) 1931 [link]
: [gallery] robertogreco: This image is what got me thinking about Arabic and flags today. Manuscript …
: The truth is that no one so much as herself would have approved of my doing this. Art was the only …
: The dullness comes from this election’s lack of a compelling macro-theme. Yes, there are national …
: The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18702”] Edward Wilson, an …
: They called it ‘interactive fiction,’ and it was absolutely interactive fiction. You read the text, …
: [gallery] 60ansdevadrouille: Sur le Gange au petit matin à Varanasi (Bénarès)., en période de basses …
: Just as the self-esteem movement was not a panacea leading to happy, successful, and well-adapted …
: [gallery] Photographs of Hong Kong by Fan Ho
: a good, good man My father-in-law, Lynn Collins — the best man I’ve ever known — has come to the last stage of his …
: Perhaps the foremost trend our nostalgia keeps us from seeing is the vast decentralization of …
: [gallery] smithsonianlibraries: Bruce soon found out that you just don’t challenge a skeleton to a …
: When we develop and use educational technologies that monitor a student’s every moment in school and …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18721”] jellobiafrasays: …
: Outside of pockets of extreme deprivation, children’s society is severely restricted by our practice …
: When grave persons express their fear that England is relapsing into Paganism, I am tempted to …
: [gallery] austinkleon: Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s four types of readers From lecture two of his …
: Marilynne Robinson is one of the great religious novelists, not only of our age, but any age. …
: [gallery] austinkleon: I wrote a little something about reading here.
: To assign unanswered letters their proper weight, to free us from the expectations of others, to …
: For obit writers, the whole world is necessarily divided into the dead and the pre-dead. That’s all …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18741,18742,18743,18744”] …
: a word to those on the journey Many Christian organizations, as they think about their treatment of gays and lesbians, and their …
: Which religion will have the toughest time reconciling aliens with its beliefs? The ones that have …
: Siracusa Shortcuts Once more, John Siracusa has written a massive review of the newest iteration of the Macintosh …
: The University of Chicago Press is pleased to announce the launch of History of Humanities, a new …
: I’ve been asked more than once what the formula for effective action against Ebola might be. It’s …
: The superhero death ritual is so exhausted at this point that the cynicism of Marvel acknowledging …
: [gallery] World’s tallest cow
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18756,18757”] …
: [gallery] houghtonlib: Borelli, Giovanni Alfonso, 1608-1679. De motu animalium, 1685. *IC6 B6447 …
: A scholar’s business is to add to what is known. That is all. But it is capable of giving the very …
: The discipline of colleges and universities is in general contrived, not for the benefit of the …
: If this particular book is not giving me pleasure now, it may give me pleasure later, if I allow it …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18769”] rindertjagersma: …
: That music you hear in the distance? It’s St Augustine, St Teresa, Teilhard de Chardin, Pascal, …
: [gallery] Mulberry Street, New York City, ca. 1900 — via this story
: Is there something here we fear to face, except when clothed in safely sterilized professional …
: In the history which I require and design, special care is to be taken that it be of wide range and …
: Strange that as modern philosophy transfers the visible wealth of nature more and more to the mind, …
: Greg Egan's amazing web site Greg Egan’s amazing web site It seems pretty clear that when the Australian SF writer Greg …
: This man who speaks to you was born 55 years ago in Vienna. One month after his birth he was put on …
: Is Ebola the ISIS of biological agents? Is Ebola the Boko Haram of AIDS? Is Ebola the al-Shabaab of …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: One of our favourite endpapers: The Wind in the Willows, illustration by …
: Why do the doomsayers exist? For one, it is common for each generation to think it is alive at the …
: When you are very young, you think old people must feel inside as old as they appear on the outside. …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18787”] biblipeacay: …
: A 2004 paper by education researcher Gary R. Pike published in Research in Higher Education … found …
: [gallery] smithsonianmag: Photo of the Day: Tufa Towers Photo by Marshall Fisher (Las Vegas, …
: There is no such thing as practical knowledge, and so there is no such thing as a practical major. …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18795”] …
: Adobe is gathering data on the ebooks that have been opened, which pages were read, and in what …
: The Maker of man became Man that He, Ruler of the stars, might be nourished at the breast; that He, …
: Tolkien’s ring of power is a plain gold ring, of course, and embodies a series of quite complex …
: [gallery] jonklassen: Here’s a poster I did for the German Literature Prize, which is being …
: rebel technology Electronic technologies are seeking to escape my control — and they are largely succeeding! This …
: Once upon a time, a visiting scholar presented a lecture on the topic: ‘How many philosophical …
: Pope Francis … sent a subtle but powerful signal last month when he presided over the marriage in …
: Hollis said more than 13,000 students bought season tickets to this year’s home games. Their corner …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Pettibone New Improved Sciopticon Magic Lantern, c1890
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“18810”] thingsmagazine: …
: [gallery] architectural-review: Hedvig Skjerdingstad, ‘Copenhagen City Museum – A Matter of Time’, …
: It seems to me that this post on children at museums and this post on medical missionaries in Africa …
: [gallery columns=“2” size=“full” ids=“18820,18821”] houghtonlib: …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18824”] houghtonlib: …
: [gallery] Lovely day for a hike … until a nearby volcano erupts — via @pourmecoffee on Twitter
: [gallery] the poet and the medium
: A Different Kind of Reader — Medium A Different Kind of Reader — Medium by me
: A Different Kind of Reader Everyone should read this reflection by Frank Chimero — no matter how long it takes. Here’s Chimero …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” link=“file” …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18840”] Jon Klaasen, How …
: [gallery] jonklassen: moon deer
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“18846”] thingsmagazine: …
: [gallery] architectural-review: Architectural fantasy of the decaying building of the Cardiff Coal …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18852”] …
: Yahoo shuts down ... Yahoo It doesn’t look like much, but that little yellow icon … for several years in the early …
: Progress Report: Continued Product Focus Progress Report: Continued Product Focus yahoo: By Jay Rossiter, SVP, Cloud Platform Group At …
: to know as I am known (by Apple) Take a good look at the iOS screenshot above and you’ll see something interesting. Look just above …
: Platonic solids Some fine Layer Tennis today…
: The pundits who say that President Obama has failed to demonstrate leadership have never considered …
: Closely related is the sheer exhaustion of being constantly tapped into in the network. Every tweet …
: Students in my history of architecture course are amused to discover that the final exam offers a …
: The spirit of truth can dwell in science on condition that the motive prompting the [scientist] is …
: In the essay On the Greatness of Richard Wagner, [Thomas] Mann explains that Wagner was incapable of …
: [gallery] drawingarchitecture: Josh Riek | “Untitled” A Song About Chaos, 2014
: [gallery] The Quantified Self, sixteenth century edition: from The Clock and the Mirror: Girolamo …
: Further irrelevancies unapologetic-book: I made a radio documentary for the BBC about the influence in the 1930s of a cult …
: How is it that for a person who cares about the way things look and feel more than anyone else in …
: No one has deleted more U2 songs in the last five years than the four members of U2. Bono
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18870,18871,18872,18873”] …
: Geeks claim to know what it’s like to love art that’s been neglected or reviled by their culture. …
: "post-religious spirituality" In other words, the Christian alternative to the post-religious spirituality outlined earlier is not …
: Instead of accepting a common opinion that Twitter is slowly replacing RSS readers, we should flip …
: Revolutionaries readily sacrifice living people to achieve the glorious future. You can’t make an …
: He said a day came at the hospital when his doctors summoned him down to a room, where he sat “like …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: The Celebrated & Extraordinary Exhibition… of the Industrious Fleas
: [gallery] member of The African Choir, 1891
: Future shock is over. Apple Watch reveals that we suffer a new affliction: . The excitement of a …
: [gallery] Fire at Yosemite, by Darvin Atkeson. Via @pourmecoffee on Twitter.
: In romantic thought, repetition is the enemy of freedom, the greatest force of repression both in …
: Killer Over the Rainbow I wrote this for the Oxford American a long time ago (Issue 27/28). I’ve added YouTube links. …
: That Confucius’s characterization of the [Zhou] period as a golden age may have been an idealization …
: [gallery] biblipeacay: *CODES - Imaginary Maps of Nonexistent Cities* by Federico Cortese via …
: [gallery] 2headedsnake: Ekaterina Panikanova
: [A] kimono is made from exactly one bolt of fabric. The way the pattern of a kimono is constructed, …
: [gallery] starry-eyed-wolfchild: “As the nights get darker, look no further than our latest item. …
: I don’t have any advice [for younger writers]. You are asking me to live in an era other than the …
: If history matters – and I think it does just like sentiment and family matter – then whatever this …
: [gallery] pearl-nautilus: Emma Kunz (1892 - 1963) - Artist & Researcher - Geometric Visionary …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18932”] rindertjagersma: …
: If Reddit wants to be thought of as a government, we’ll call it what it is: a failed state, unable …
: [gallery] drawingarchitecture: Miles Gertler, Islands. Three: Subtraction. 2013.
: Sibilant Fricative: David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks (2014) Sibilant Fricative: David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks (2014) Adam Roberts’s thoughts on the book rhyme …
: [gallery] robertogreco: “Was ‘Internet’ First Used For A Transistor Radio?” (via Neural)
: [gallery] Maddy Rosenberg, Dystopia
: [gallery] Brian Dettmer, Brittanica Tower
: [gallery] Jeannine Mosley made a Menger sponge out of business cards.
: [gallery] lizettegreco: One of our Bots.
: There’s a current problem in biomedical research,” says American biochemist Robert Lefkowitz, winner …
: Is it uncharitable to want a book that achieves so much to do more? Perhaps. Taken on its own terms, …
: my own private Kanban What you see above is a picture of an approach to task management I’ve been using lately — a …
: Until the late 19th century, according to historian Howard Chudacoff, age wasn’t such a defining …
: It’s not the sort of accomplishment that ESPN is likely to crow about, but Philadelphia Phillies …
: [gallery] biblipeacay: danathur: Opus mago-cabalisticum et theologicum by George von Welling, …
: [gallery] natgeofound: A solitary fisherman’s home keeps watch on quiet Placentia Bay in …
: Political parties are organizations that are publicly and officially designed for the purpose of …
: Inevitably, I looked around for help; I’ve done enough liturgical work to know that there are always …
: I have been saying for a while that creativity has taken the place of salvation and divine grace, …
: There’s a scene in the 1961 movie The Hustler in which Paul Newman, as a wild and talented young …
: But some have suggested that companies like Twitter have more nefarious motivations for refusing to …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“18974”] Cover by the …
: COBOL, a language first introduced in 1959 by Grace Hopper (‘Grandma COBOL’), still processes 90 per …
: 1 Yan 2 Tan 3 Tethera 4 Pethera 5 Pimp 6 Sethera 7 Lethera 8 Hovera 9 Covera 10 Dik 11 Yan-a-dik 12 …
: Create systems that are ambivalent about the open or closed web. If I create a tool that’s good at …
: always remember My blog’s older than Twitter and Facebook, and it will outlive them. It has seen Flickr explode and …
: It was only after a decade away from Skipton that I was finally able to garner the courage to return …
: The Judean Tribune released a biography of Jesus of Nazareth, sweeping through his life, between …
: I imagine a future in the church when the call to chastity would no longer sound like a dreary …
: [gallery] Minding the Modern begins with an extended meditation on Lorenzo Lotto’s Portrait of a …
: Wilson recently calculated that the only way humanity could stave off a mass extinction crisis, as …
: In May 2011, Vanderbilt’s director of religious life told me that the group I’d helped lead for two …
: Text printed on the best paper with no margins or unbalanced margins is vile. Or, if we’re being …
: One other thing occurred to me as I watched the big SFX-splurgy conclusion, and it was this: when …
: For some, the idea of imitating the knight of faith will seem too easy — after all, you can do it …
: Sure, we may now be a nation of cohabiting, contraception-using, homosexuality-supporting, pot …
: I think those hesitations are largely right, and as a Christian, I’d add that I have to wonder what …
: This little episode captures something I’ll see over and over again in Yemen. Faced with a problem, …
: I had been on the ground helping Al Jazeera America cover the protests and unrest in Ferguson, Mo., …
: This is a book that I admire and do not understand. I admire it because it is a full, engaging …
: [gallery] More avant-garde magazines from Monoskop
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19000”] From Monoskop’s …
: Although I started this project as an exercise in historical theology, a constructive thesis …
: Yes, there is good reason to think that many of these unjustifiable homicides by police across the …
: It is not a journalist’s job to protect us from the ugly facts. Neither is it his job to protect the …
: The Middle East and parts of central Africa are losing entire Christian communities that have lived …
: The 46-year-old (he turns 47 on Monday) could be mistaken for just another Midwestern music lifer, …
: According to Apuleius, Pleasure is the daughter of Cupid and Psyche – of Love and the Soul, that is, …
: No matter the text that he’s ostensibly engaged with, Mr. Keating, like Hamlet in Stéphane …
: [gallery] Bhurtpore, taken by Samuel Bourne in 1865
: Fin and Rye are proficient with most of the hand and power tools that form the backbone of any …
: CT: Yes, but I have to say that there are lots of very, very valid criticisms of the form that “you …
: In Afghanistan, we patrolled in big, armored trucks. We wore uniforms that conveyed the message, “We …
: Set the douche bags aside, and some of the remaining comments do have value—I agree! But that’s a …
: The remake of the bachelor’s degree should begin with its starting point. Many 18-year-olds are …
: [gallery] “The Autarch is genteel by comparison, less dehumanising, and we can admire it today as a …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19050,19051,19048,19049”] …
: [gallery] I like what happens when you type “old book covers” into Google Image Search.
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: There must be better ways of teacing a child to read than this. Not …
: So we must protect and respect each other, no matter how hard it feels. No matter how wrong someone …
: There’s an irony in parents’ flawed perceptions, and their very real consequences: at the same time …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19063,19064,19065”] …
: Tonight begins the fast of Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the month of Av, the Jewish collective day …
: Samuel Johnson, in his life of Dryden, reports that throughout the spring of 1686 the …
: [gallery] Time for a caption contest, I think.
: And, finally, a key component often overlooked: Dylan’s artistic process. On a fundamental level, he …
: Dylan Thomas Vernon Watkins wrote in an obituary that Thomas had lived his life as a consistent manifestation of …
: Aldus was smart about exploiting the combination of new, humanist learning with the physical …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19076”] Via the …
: DAY 1: Let there be light, God said, and there was light. DAY 2: Let there be morons, God said, and …
: [gallery] classicpenguin: blackballoonpublishing: Penguin Books Founder Allen Lane with a Penguin …
: As comedian Penn Jillete elegantly pointed out, the way people avoid giving offense to Islam amounts …
: The new regime is not totalitarian, fascist, socialist, capitalist, conservative, or liberal, …
: [gallery] bookpatrol: Lynd Ward - master of the wordless novel myimaginarybrooklyn: muspeccoll: …
: local culture Which form of contemporary Christianity is best suited to living out the time of exile that is fast …
: Riding my "Christian unity" hobbyhorse, one more time Yesterday I got a number of responses to this tweet: Is *any* situation is dire enough to make some …
: [gallery] publicdomainreview: Double-page spreads from Adriaen Coenen’s Visboek (Fish Book), an epic …
: [gallery] Tim Bobbin’s Rap at the PYRATES
: These covers for a Chinese edition of The Lord of the Rings, by Jian Guo, have been all over my …
: [gallery] Possibly my favorite item in the British Museum is this miniature altarpiece, which, as …
: [gallery] boyopress: Fountain Room menu, circa 1933
: the short long term Consider this a follow-up to this morning’s post on religious freedom. Someone — and not a stranger …
: Public gatherings—and most private ones, as well—made him jumpy. For years he had passed up family …
: how to think about religious freedom Despite my recent insistence that I would write only one post on religious liberty — I was so naïve …
: If I am right that the liberal project is ultimately self-contradictory, culminating in the twin …
: Whether or not agriculture was the “worst mistake in the history of the human race,” the choice, …
: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom …
: Some marriage experts don’t agree that polyamory’s impact on children is neutral, though. “We know …
: A quarter of the U.S. population — and 40 percent of the population of New York, where my novel is …
: It is harder to divest oneself of inner riches than of outward possessions; the rich man can sell …
: Sexual autonomy is increasingly more important to contemporary Americans than religious liberty, …
: The takeaway message is this: no one needs churches to be nice or tasteful. If churches have a …
: [gallery size=“large” type=“columns” ids=“19135,19136”] The Rio …
: [gallery size=“large” type=“slideshow” …
: My best Beloved keeps his throne On hills of light, in worlds unknown; But he descends and shows his …
: Enough is Enough The historical blindness, moral obtuseness, and self-satisfied pomposity of this op-ed by Timothy …
: Those “courageous” progressives don’t really value the opinions or affirmations of conservative …
: If the ultimate aim of education in the liberal arts is to draw us out of ourselves, to teach us the …
: It seems like many people think that if you drive yourself crazy, then you can write. I’m absolutely …
: [gallery] Kiana Farkash, please cook a meal for me
: [gallery] natgeofound: A farmer embraces his dog in his stonewalled field on Inishmore Island in …
: For almost four decades (yikes!) I’ve worked as a freelance writer, feeling enormously blessed to …
: academic freedom redux My professional life has been framed by two very different institutions. For the first twenty-two …
: My professional life has been framed by two very different institutions. For the first twenty-two …
: Christian protest and Christian witness Christians have a long way to go in affirming the value of pluralism for all members of society. We …
: Christians have a long way to go in affirming the value of pluralism for all members of society. We …
: my course on the "two cultures" FOTB (Friends Of This Blog), I have a request for you. This fall I’m teaching a first-year seminar …
: the problems of e-reading, revisited In light of the conversation we were having the other day, here is some new information: The shift …
: spontaneity Is our overvaluation of spontaneity not, after all, born of a deep-seated fear – the fear of missing …
: Is our overvaluation of spontaneity not, after all, born of a deep-seated fear – the fear of missing …
: "new ways of being in our bodies" The mature practitioner (not me) will discover a steady clarity in the vision of self and world, …
: more rooftops thingsmagazine: Michael Wolf, Paris Roof Tops
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Michael Wolf, Paris Roof Tops
: the airline seat of the future Seriously. Via Adam Roberts on Twitter.
: [gallery] Airline seat of the future. Seriously. Via Adam Roberts on Twitter.
: rooftop life Rooftop terrace for a house in Rotterdam. Design by Hunk Design, photos by Thomas Mayer.
: Evangelicals and Americans Is evangelical Christian morality still viable in American public life? This is the question lurking …
: [gallery] Rooftop terrace for a house in Rotterdam. Design by Hunk Design, photos by Thomas Mayer.
: Is evangelical Christian morality still viable in American public life? This is the question lurking …
: freakish fundamentalists Moore is fond of saying that Christianity should be “freakish” or “strange” and shouldn’t fit so …
: Moore is fond of saying that Christianity should be “freakish” or “strange” and shouldn’t fit so …
: Levertov, illustrated poetrysociety: Ohara Hale’s delightful illustrations of Denise Levertov’s poems; via Brain Pickings
: [gallery] poetrysociety: Ohara Hale’s delightful illustrations of Denise Levertov’s poems. via Brain …
: reforms The reforms never seem to work. This makes the need for reform all the more urgent. The country now …
: The reforms never seem to work. This makes the need for reform all the more urgent. The country now …
: elder, brother It was said of one of the elders that he persevered in a fast of seventy weeks, eating only once a …
: It was said of one of the elders that he persevered in a fast of seventy weeks, eating only once a …
: illiberal But wait, some will object: You can’t reduce contemporary American liberalism to the illiberal …
: But wait, some will object: You can’t reduce contemporary American liberalism to the illiberal …
: the genius of Eno The genius of Eno is in removing the idea of genius. His work is rooted in the power of …
: The genius of Eno is in removing the idea of genius. His work is rooted in the power of …
: 410 Bleecker Street thingsmagazine: 410 Bleecker Street, just one of James Gulliver Hancock’s drawings of All the …
: a reality not our own All that is necessary is that we not be hypocritical, that we recognize why we read and admire …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: 410 Bleecker Street, just one of James Gulliver Hancock’s drawings of All …
: All that is necessary is that we not be hypocritical, that we recognize why we read and admire …
: cynically Julie Posetti: Some journalists and editors have told me that they’re thinking of closing their …
: cute In a slapdash reply to an article I published at Slate, the evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne …
: straw men and new atheists A straw man can be a very convenient property, after all. I can see why a plenteously contented, …
: Julie Posetti: Some journalists and editors have told me that they’re thinking of closing their …
: In a slapdash reply to an article I published at Slate, the evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne …
: Sky Comfort rogerwilkerson: DC 4 - Sky Comfort
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19190”] rogerwilkerson: DC …
: And on the other hand, the material value is apt to undermine the manly character; so that it must …
: working with Kubrick Stanley was extraordinarily logical, inclined to have everything seamless. Hollywood movies in …
: Stanley was extraordinarily logical, inclined to have everything seamless. Hollywood movies in …
: Brazil didn’t lose 7-1 because it is a nation on the verge of hysterical collapse. Despite the …
: the Trinity and sexuality This book is written in the fundamental conviction that no cogent answer to the contemporary …
: poverty and desire Thus the demand for ‘poverty’ or simplicity in the lifestyle of the Christian is inseparable from …
: This book is written in the fundamental conviction that no cogent answer to the contemporary …
: Thus the demand for ‘poverty’ or simplicity in the lifestyle of the Christian is inseparable from …
: The ‘return’ to the lost, the excluded, the failed or destroyed, is not an option for the saint, but …
: the Milky Way envisioned design-is-fine: Thomas Wright, An original theory of the universe, 1750. London. Via Linda Hall …
: Strange Devices robertogreco: Untitled [Strange Devices…], Ray Johnson, c. 1955-1960 (via MoMA) Stange devices …
: [gallery] design-is-fine: Thomas Wright, An original theory of the universe, 1750. London. Via …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19205”] robertogreco: …
: doodles erikkwakkel: Funny medieval doodles With their wild hair and frantic gaze, these doodled men look …
: [gallery] erikkwakkel: Funny medieval doodles With their wild hair and frantic gaze, these doodled …
: This becomes clear when we contrast Hobby Lobby to Little Sisters of the Poor. Whereas the owners of …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19213”]
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19216”]
: naughty “It is no doubt very wrong to long after a naughty thing. But nevertheless we all do so. One may say …
: It is no doubt very wrong to long after a naughty thing. But nevertheless we all do so. One may say …
: the Whig interpretation of the Reformation In regard to the Reformation it might be said that the whig fallacies of secular historians have had …
: In regard to the Reformation it might be said that the whig fallacies of secular historians have had …
: BETHESDA, MD—In a diabolical omission of the utmost cruelty, stone-hearted ice witch Leslie Schiller …
: rum In Martinique, I had visited rustic and neglected rum-distilleries where the equipment and the …
: In Martinique, I had visited rustic and neglected rum-distilleries where the equipment and the …
: album covers by Josef Albers [album covers by Josef Albers](http://ift.tt/1ojoTB7) via tumblr ift.tt/1j6qjSd
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19223,19224”] album covers …
: autism and human nature How did this situation occur? How did autism which, until quite recently, was an unusual diagnosis …
: How did this situation occur? How did autism which, until quite recently, was an unusual diagnosis …
: Jeremy Bentham on the Declaration of Independence “How this Declaration may strike others, I know not. To me, I own, it appears that it cannot …
: suffer the little children.... The U.S. government estimates 60,000 immigrant children this year. There are over 300,000 churches …
: How this Declaration may strike others, I know not. To me, I own, it appears that it cannot fail — …
: The U.S. government estimates 60,000 immigrant children this year. There are over 300,000 churches …
: architectural-review: Simi, Ideal City, Urban Design Project, ETSAUN
: [gallery] architectural-review: Simi, Ideal City Urban Design Project, ETSAUN
: Serafini chancepress: When it comes to collecting, I’m most persistent about tracking down artwork by Luigi …
: York Minster erikkwakkel: Up close and personal I made these images today and they are quite special. The …
: Goethe, Chromatics goodmemory: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Chromatics, Goethe’s Farbenlehre, 1810. Published by Cotta, …
: [gallery] chancepress: When it comes to collecting, I’m most persistent about tracking down artwork …
: [gallery] erikkwakkel: Up close and personal I made these images today and they are quite special. …
: [gallery] goodmemory: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Chromatics, Goethe’s Farbenlehre, 1810. Published …
: The real story is that modern technology and social media make us a much more oral society than we …
: the traveler and the woodsman “So long as the past and the present are outside one another, knowledge of the past is not of much …
: So long as the past and the present are outside one another, knowledge of the past is not of much …
: more on Facebook What we do know is that Facebook, like many social media platforms, is an experiment engine: a …
: What we do know is that Facebook, like many social media platforms, is an experiment engine: a …
: Edna Lewis and the Café Nicholson “I first glimpsed the image on a postcard I bought at a Memphis bookstore. In that rendition, …
: a world of books — but no modern ones I memorised Tennyson, and read Homer in prose and Dante in verse; I shed half my childhood tears at …
: space without the space xkcd
: [gallery] “I first glimpsed the image on a postcard I bought at a Memphis bookstore. In that …
: I memorised Tennyson, and read Homer in prose and Dante in verse; I shed half my childhood tears at …
: [gallery] rollership: zombiegraycat: soviet-era sci fi art is one of the few things humans have …
: more on the Facebook study Whether the study was ethically questionable is itself debatable, and there are no black-and-white …
: Whether the study was ethically questionable is itself debatable, and there are no black-and-white …
: But this case was never really about health policy. It isn’t really even about the ACA, except …
: Instagram and art theory Isn’t it striking that the most-typical and most-maligned genres of Instagram imagery happen to …
: As Justice Alito’s opinion emphasizes: “The effect of the HHS-created accommodation on the women …
: Love Stitching robertogreco: Love Stitching, Hillary Fayle (one of many photos, via notrare)
: ALLEY 1, Miha Štrukelj robertogreco: ALLEY 1, Miha Štrukelj (via “Alleyway Appeal: Miha Štrukelj’s Explorations of West …
: "Send us your spirit, Lord" Send us your spirit, Lord, with the gifts of humility and understanding. Teach us that your Kingdom …
: [gallery] robertogreco: Love Stitching, Hillary Fayle (one of many photos, via notrare)
: [gallery] robertogreco: ALLEY 1, Miha Štrukelj (via “Alleyway Appeal: Miha Štrukelj’s Explorations …
: Send us your spirit, Lord, with the gifts of humility and understanding. Teach us that your Kingdom …
: No Mass in Mosul “Last Sunday, for the first time in 1600 years, no mass was celebrated in Mosul. The Islamic State …
: Last Sunday, for the first time in 1600 years, no mass was celebrated in Mosul. The Islamic State of …
: W. H. Auden, "The Unknown Citizen" [alternate title: “The Unknown Facebook User”] (To JS/07 M 378 This Marble Monument Is …
: In The Gated City, Ryan Avent observed that high housing costs in America’s most productive cities …
: [gallery] Kayaköy, Turkey, an abandoned town
: [gallery] biblipeacay: Engraved frontispiece from 2nd Edition of John Bulwer’s: …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Lost Destination, Britain’s concrete heritage by Dorothy
: [vimeo 97945495 w=250 h=141] Urban Giants (Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” …
: [gallery] austinkleon: thenearsightedmonkey: Dear Students, Regard the notebooks of Paul Klee …
: acting and theory To “act” is to go through the motions of behaviour without really feeling it, lacking the …
: It follows also that this new vision of ‘natural theology’ is equally concerned, let me also state …
: [gallery] 50watts: Birds by Chinese artist Huang Yao c. 1975
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” …
: [gallery] 60ansdevadrouille: Roms. Plongée sur le Geirangerfjord, ses cascades, et, depuis leNid …
: The New Testament never—not one time—applies the “Christian” label to a business or even a …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19343”] Raphael, Head of a …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19346”] Raphael, Head of a …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: ‘Britain’s R 101 airship under construction at the Royal Airship Works, …
: [gallery] biblipeacay: *Chemistry of Combustion and Illumination* from ‘Chemical Atlas or The …
: THE public outcry, Ms. Naumann later told me, was “getting more hostile as the day went on.” It …
: As Doris and I made our way to the school I couldn’t shake the fear that we were, indeed, …
: [gallery] Why use wallpaper when you can do this? From a cool story about record collectors.
: [gallery] runofplay: Christ the Redeemer of the Streetlamps (Follow @runofplay on Instagram)
: Superheroes [View the story “Superheroes” on Storify]
: thoughts on superheroes [View the story "Superheroes" on Storify]
: Luddites revisited Our current historical moment is one wherein a space is opening wider and wider in which a movement …
: Our current historical moment is one wherein a space is opening wider and wider in which a movement …
: Almost the whole of Christian theology could perhaps be deduced from the two facts (a) That men make …
: minutely articulated A Spirit and a Vision, are not, as the modern philosophy supposes, a cloudy vapour, or a nothing. …
: A Spirit and a Vision, are not, as the modern philosophy supposes, a cloudy vapour, or a nothing. …
: [gallery] This Google Doodle of a Brazilian favela was Twitter’s controversy du jour yesterday. One …
: If Amazon’s Fire Phone could tell kale from Swiss chard, if it could recognize trees and birds, I …
: [gallery] andrei-tarkovsky: Offret, Andrei Tarkovski, 1986
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19381”] thingsmagazine: …
: And what does this mean for the habits of mind we cultivate? I return often to the ideas of Jack …
: Typical rustic folk games involved hundreds of drunken men from rival villages rampaging through …
: [gallery] arthistory-blog: Interior of the Pantheon (ca.1506) by Raphael
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Richard J. Neutra, The Schick House, Salt Lake City, UT, 1952
: Writing absorbs me, so I do it in the afternoons, maybe the evenings. But reading, as Parks writes, …
: Chronic pain in particular often doesn’t have a discrete material location, or an identifiable …
: Don't Today I am hearing on the internet that it is insensitive to celebrate Father’s Day because such …
: For the most part, conservative groups on campuses simply wish to study the Bible together, pray and …
: Becoming obsessed with a tiny detail in the landscape – the hoverfly – has given Sjöberg a broader …
: [gallery] austinkleon: One of 164 collages created by special effects pioneer Norman Dawn Dawn was …
: I must also describe how those who are to be baptized at Easter are instructed. Whoever gives his …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: The Golden Age of Audio
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: It’s Quicker by Rail
: You would never know, from reading Malik’s account, that the Renaissance was a time when belief in …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19412,19413,19414,19415”] …
: [gallery] natgeofound: Pedestrians walk on bustling Dotombori Street in Osaka, Japan, March …
: [gallery] Pele & co., Sweden, 1958. Via @BryanAGraham on Twitter.
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19424”] biblipeacay: Pablo …
: Often, Wroe is stepping inside the mind of someone who was utterly obsessive about something, and …
: But Knausgaard gives us too many facts—or rather, he gives them at the wrong speed. It feels absurd …
: [gallery] andrei-tarkovsky: - Tarkovski, set of Offret - Offret, 1986 (scene)
: [gallery] momalibrary: Scan of a page from Marshall McLuhan’s The Medium is the Massage -ds
: [gallery] eastmanhouse: Coaldock worker with cigarette, Havana Dockworker, Havana, 1932 Walker …
: [gallery] ransomcenter: Two portraits of James Joyce etched on the Ransom Center’s windows show …
: Mind you, I am not in the least ashamed of my advancing age. I am rather proud of it, and I have …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Wrapped Opera House, Christo, 1991
: [gallery] Kilian Schönberger
: [gallery] smithsonianmag: These 1861 Photos Helped Convince Abraham Lincoln to Preserve Yosemite …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19454,19455,19456,19457”] …
: That Adler and Van Doren have these suspicions is indicated by their choice of the word …
: [gallery] mediumaevum: Medieval Orthodox illuminations? Look closer. These are actually “Lord of the …
: [gallery] Tableware for people suffering from Alzhemer’s, via Sara Hendren on Twitter.
: I think it’s rather pernicious to inculcate into a child a view of the world which includes …
: and so it goes, and so it goes, and so it goes, and so it goes Twitter: LOOK AT THIS AWESOME ARTICLE! Me: I read the article and didn’t like it at all. …
: Which is basically the root of my disagreement with the left’s writers on a lot of these issues. …
: [gallery] momalibrary: Plastic People of the Universe just arrived in a red-flocked box hand-carried …
: My fellow libertarians and I are often criticized for our opposition to policies like primary seat …
: SH: Your writing style tends to be very lyrical in ways, tends to be very poetic in a lot of ways. …
: The trouble with talking about right and wrong in the age of the internet is that our communicative …
: “Privacy” doesn’t mean that no one in the world knows about your business. It means that you get to …
: So here’s the thing. The other practice that we cherish as faculty that’s under assault nationwide …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19484,19482,19483”] …
: [gallery] mythologyofblue: Ma Yuan, Southern Song dynasty, part of a 12 piece painting describing …
: "An Entangled Thing" An essay I published in The Oxford American 29 (Sept./Oct. 1999): An Entangled Thing
: "What I Was Afraid Of" An essay I published in The Oxford American 20 (1998): What I Was Afraid Of
: [gallery] Nathan Salsburg’s fine essay in the Oxford American about Paramount Records.
: Extreme people doing things at an extreme level are, believe it or not, often a little extreme. And …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: RIP, the Glasgow School of Art: currently on fire
: This issue also invites you to consider the unseen side of the city, the social infrastructure that …
: The crime with which reparations activists charge the country implicates more than just a few towns …
: Yet, if the American Negro has arrived at his identity by virtue of the absoluteness of his …
: [gallery] More England 2011 photos (Grasmere, Holy Island, Rievaulx Abbey, Magdalen College Oxford)
: [gallery] Pictures I took in England in 2011 (Tintagel, Oxford, Canterbury, London), posted today …
: [gallery] houghtonlib: MacGregor, John, 1825-1892. The ascent of Mont Blanc, a series of four views, …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19522”] typetoy: …
: The world which issued from the Renaissance and the Reformation has been ravaged since that time by …
: Many, many factors account for physician burnout and cynicism in different specialties, including …
: churches and self-sufficiency There’s a danger of complacency in the Catholic approach to the Church’s future. It’s very foolish …
: [gallery] wonderfulambiguity: Premysel Koblic, View of a Village from Above, ca. 1930
: [gallery] Léonard Misonne, Sur la glace, 1908
: Léonard Misonne, Trees, 1923
: [gallery] thespectraldimension: Ludwig Sievert, stage design for The Dead City, 1921.
: For many years now — around thirty (!) — the Melodians have provided my go-to music for grading. …
: [gallery] houghtonlib: Schedel, Hartmann, 1440-1514. Registrum huius operis Libri cronicarum …
: For the iPad to become just as good as the iPhone, it would need to be smaller, equipped with a …
: [gallery] houghtonlib: Eluard, Paul, 1895-1952. Répétitions / Paul Eluard; dessins de Max Ernst, …
: [gallery] 50watts: Details from my 50 Watts post of Janusz Stanny book covers
: Items from an End-of-Year Report Books I’ve taught this academic year that I’d never taught before: Gundjevic and Zizek, God in Pain …
: [gallery] huntingtonlibrary: huntingtonlibrary: Of all of the spaces in the Library’s conservation …
: Nothing conclusive has yet taken place in the world, the ultimate word of the world and about the …
: [gallery] 50watts: Miguel Covarrubias illus. for Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men, 1935 via Harry …
: Historians usually note the upsurge of religious enthusiasm that greeted the outbreak of war. German …
: [gallery] jonklassen: front porch
: In 1979, she sought haven at her aunt Dorothy’s flat in Bournemouth, where again she looked for help …
: But now, in order finally to conclude, let the others decide what they wish to assume for …
: Here’s what Marx got right—profoundly, overwhelmingly, admirably right: capitalism is unforgiving to …
: The frequent and sloppy use of the qualifier “absolute” leads to a common confusion of “relativism” …
: [gallery] Photographs of North Brother Island, New York City, by Christopher Payne
: Psychologist Mohsen Joshanloo and philosopher Dan Weijers of Victoria University of Wellington, New …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19587,19588,19589,19590”] …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19593”] Mahendra Singh, …
: The camaraderie between theological antagonists has caused a firestorm in the blogosphere. On the …
: [gallery] Howl’s Moving Castle, 8-bit style
: [gallery] biblipeacay: Scans from Modern Publicity annuals from the 1930s. Many more examples in …
: [gallery] Two of John Vernon Lord’s illustrations from the new Folio Society edition of Finnegans …
: [gallery] the beauties of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity
: [vimeo 44735895 w=250 h=141] And just one more. (Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)
: [vimeo 44729431 w=250 h=141] And another. The app is fabulous, by the way. (Source: …
: [vimeo 44793685 w=250 h=141] a birthday remembrance (Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: TNA
: The other day, we ran into an old man who is also an old fan. He loves the Roots and what we do. …
: [gallery] How have you gotten by all these years without a detailed diagram of Maradona’s famous …
: I believe a man is happier, and happy in a richer way, if he has ‘the freeborn mind’. But I doubt …
: [gallery] thegetty: In anticipation of Earth Day, the wonder of looking up at ancient giants. These …
: [gallery] Tree #11, Myoung Ho Lee, 2005. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 84.XM.893.1. Purchased with funds …
: [gallery] Treehouse Freese Road, Varna, New York Rhea Garen American, Varna, New York, 1993 …
: In Penn Station, I hardly garner a sideways glance. On the Acela train back to D.C., everyone in my …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“19645”] “Wiltshire …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“19648”] “Train Landscape” …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“19651”] “Westbury Horse,” …
: At the time of his death, he was a much admired dramatist. But Francis Beaumont, who passed away a …
: [George] Borrow was a walker of awesome stamina and a linguist of almost inconceivable talent, who …
: I now wonder where the idea or of the ideology of creativity started. Shakespeare and company …
: [gallery] XKCD. Sure. But everybody knows this, yes? And to make this point alone — it’s a pretty …
: Last Round on Oneness So, why am I going on and on this week about Christian unity? Because as a follower of Jesus I am …
: You, Mr Wells, evidently start out with the assumption that all men are good. I, however, do not …
: There: the Eucharist, a gold sun, hung in the air — an instant of splendour. Here nothing should be …
: [gallery] erikkwakkel: Happy owl Some images just hit the right spot. This cute owl in his best red …
: In memoriam Margaret Spufford Her most personal book, Celebration, came out in 1989, shortly before Bridget died at 22. It is a …
: On Denouncing "False Teachers" About this — @ayjay If someone believes Catholicism is a false Gospel, don’t they have a duty to say …
: [gallery] typeworship: This has already done the rounds, but I’m mesmerised by this brush so had to …
: In my view, a genuine pro-life political position takes its commitment to human life seriously, and …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19676,19677”] houghtonlib: …
: [gallery] danskjavlarna: Note the detail of who is behind the accident. From Monographien Zur …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19683”]
: Once we have surrendered our senses and nervous systems to the private manipulation of those who …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19687,19688,19689”] …
: I suspect that people thrown into open plans might even miss their cubicles. And there are features …
: Parents are now the primary mode of transportation for teenagers, who are far less likely to walk to …
: That They All May Be One PEG asks, I’m curious: what are some practical steps that you think we could take to move forward in …
: Thus the ‘decline of religion’ becomes a very ambiguous phenomenon. One way of putting the truth …
: [gallery] smithsonianmag: Photo of the Day: Leopard Photography by Paolo Pescia (Sala Capriasca, …
: This past Sunday — Palm Sunday — the assembly was invited to put down their missalettes. The priest …
: [gallery] medieval: St. Luke The Book of Deer (Evangelia) is a Gospel Book written in a hand that …
: fake pluralism I am (or try to be) a partisan of pluralism, which requires respecting Mozilla’s right to have a …
: Neither the President nor any official in her government denied Madonna any attention or courtesy …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19705”] comparison to …
: [gallery] robertogreco: FOR HIRE practice run (draft one), quotes from Erin and Robin via Alan I’m …
: When I saw University of Iowa English professor Adam Hooks bemoaning “relatable” on Twitter, I asked …
: Samuel Carter, an associate director at the Rockefeller Foundation, underscored that the very …
: Once More Around the Block with PEG Three brief points in response to PEG, with thanks for his continued efforts to converse in good …
: [gallery] houghtonlib: Wenceslaus Hollar, “Cia or Te Herbe” from Nieuhof, Johannes, 1618-1672. An …
: As the Yoderites and Hauerwasites have been telling us for some time, Christendom is dead. The …
: A Response to PEG PEG responds graciously to my post from yesterday, but he misunderstands me, and in so doing partly …
: [gallery] heat map of New Yorkers’ complaints
: Auden was harsh on what he considered attention-seeking. Once when a friend referred to a public …
: Evangelicals and Catholics Apart Today I finished reading Jody Bottum’s An Anxious Age, and it’s a lovely book: smart and beautifully …
: Why Liberalism Needs Pluralism Why Liberalism Needs Pluralism A subtler and more detailed account by Ross Douthat of the issue I …
: My own instincts on the gay rights question have always been classically liberal/small-c …
: [gallery] smithsonianmag: Photo of the Day: Surfing with Dolphins Photography by Matt Hutton …
: Earnest, Serious, Genuine Questions for People Who Support Brendan Eich's Ouster from Mozilla If Brendan Eich’s support for California’s Proposition 8 makes him unsuitable to be the CEO of …
: It is the easiest thing in the world to work all the time, compared to the incredible difficulty of …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19731”] erikkwakkel: …
: “Any reasonable ordering of the books must have The Last Battle as the final story, and must place …
: [gallery] Another contest entry, an abandoned Presbyterian church in Detroit.
: [gallery] houghtonlib: Bodoni printing house. Designs for ornaments and non-roman type, ca. 1800. …
: [gallery] A lovely tribute to the Braun SK55
: [gallery] See other aerial views of the U.K. by Jason Hawkes here
: The distortion of words in secret to preserve hidden powers appears to be endemic to post–September …
: There’s plenty for the modern reader to choke on in distributist thinking. They were fiercely and …
: Thinking, for Hobbes, was not only conceived as movement, it was felt as movement. Mind is something …
: Search is what we call the action of knowing what you want and questing until you ultimately find …
: Just as we were all, potentially, in Adam when he fell, so we were all, potentially, in Jerusalem on …
: Cosmos, like most pop histories of science, teaches the false narrative that the history of science …
: Something happened when I was 17 that shook my safely rationalist worldview and left me with a …
: We want a ground to which people may easily go after their day’s work is done, and where they may …
: Anyone who has ever collaborated with [Daniel Kahneman] tells a version of this story: You go to …
: We can continue doing things the way we’ve always done them. We don’t have to change. The saddest …
: I find myself focusing inward, drawn back to the moment when I returned to my adversary’s text for …
: In this light, she refers to the work of the controversial physicist Paul Davies, who views …
: There have been times in which men of letters looked, not to the public, but to the government, or …
: Brendan, I grew up in a very conservative religious home and many of the people I love the most can …
: The sense of festivity, which corresponds to pity in tragedy, is always present at the end of a …
: [gallery] houghtonlib: William James in Brazil after the attack of small-pox : portrait photograph, …
: The contested life of one of Britain’s best-loved poets has erupted into controversy once more, as …
: Four years after the original Nature paper was published, Nature News had sad tidings to convey: the …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19773,19774”] poetsorg: …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19777”] Auden’s …
: [gallery] Thomas Aquinas’s handwriting.. See more at Language Log
: [gallery] robertogreco: “Biochemist Takes Stunning Macro Photographs of Butterfly Wing“ (via Anne)
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19786,19787”] two ways of …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19790”] here
: A new journalistic recipe is afoot: find once ubiquitous technology that is on the wane and write …
: We have gone long enough without raising the question of whether reading makes you a better person. …
: [gallery] mudwerks: (via The Illustrators of Gente Menuda - 50 Watts) Felix Alonso, 1930
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Mount Adams ascension, a woodcut by Jim Flora (via things)
: Just to relax, his poor tired limbs on a restful bed. Just to relax, his aching heart on a restful …
: It’s not just that a countercultural embrace of sleep bears witness to values higher than “the cares …
: Published last year, Jonathan Crary’s 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep begins with the …
: [gallery] simongoode: Poster Poem (Le-Circus) Ian Hamilton Finlay, 1964
: [gallery] ensalada-de-lengua-de-pajaritos: Jacques Tati ad nauseam (watch the original scene).
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Japanese book plates, 1970s
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19817”] thingsmagazine: …
: [gallery] erikkwakkel: Charming This papyrus sheet contains two love charms. While over 1400 years …
: When Shakespeare lamented the “bare ruined choirs” of the destroyed monasteries in sonnet 73 he was …
: [gallery] Centre for Material Texts: “At the centre of the exhibition were two truly extraordinary …
: Streamlining For the last few months I’ve been experimenting with various blog and blog-like options for online …
: That fleeting bestseller designation is one that the pastors have embraced and trumpeted. Until last …
: Ed Stetzer: What are the greatest differences that can emerge between older and newer churches? …
: In late 2008 I put myself through a crash course in the works of Willmoore Kendall, the “wild Yale …
: Technology comforts, surrounds, and confounds us. When we argue about MOOCs, hydraulic fracturing, …
: Montfort’s involuted, single-line programs give BASIC something of the tang of the Old English of …
: [gallery] Any comment would be superfluous. Via Sonny Bunch on Twitter.
: If history and comparative religion alike offer us perspective on world events from the “outside,” …
: Old technology dominates life much more than we think. We still sit on chairs and eat with utensils …
: If Google Glass should fail to catch on, if it ends up on the “meh” list in the Sunday Times …
: The game than which no funner can be conceived.
: "when you see the amazing sight" Kim Dong-Kyu
: online outrage As a result, when a politician utters a barely outdated cliché, or the slightest impolitic word, we …
: the Heidegger notebooks The notebooks also show that for Heidegger, antisemitism overlapped with a strong resentment of …
: collections Seeing the “collections” of Simone Capano I’m reminded of the work of Gregory …
: adjunct intellectuals Writers and academics who fret over the fate of public intellectuals may think they are debating …
: my one and only post on religious liberty I care very much about the future of religious liberty, and I don’t think, over the long run …
: a matter of fact In recent years, and in several states, the Catholic church has shut down its adoption services …
: the authorial POV I didn’t really know Walker Percy, but one day when I was in Maple Street Book Shop I spotted Walker …
: liberalism and pluralism But let me enter a suggestion as a conclusion. Liberalism should have the confidence to tolerate …
: Lenten Privations One might, as well, consider this Lenten period as a period of descent. For one, it can be a period …
: great hope in Ash Wednesday I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: People who think I’m some crazy liberal are always so …
: The Pantheon, Rome [caption id=“attachment_14081” align=“alignnone” width=“768”] …
: Patrick Deneen on academic freedom What is particularly telling in Ms. Korn’s article is that she identifies perhaps the one …
: moon type [caption width=“1280” align=“aligncenter”]From this post, a pretty curious …
: GKC on Tolstoy In one sense, and that the deepest sense, the work of Tolstoy is, of course, a genuine and noble …
: [gallery] ransomcenter: In a time of food shortage during World War I, Russian propaganda posters …
: reading too little into it Do your students also love to say “reading too much into this”? I remember this remark as a …
: Do your students also love to say “reading too much into this”? I remember this remark as a …
: Auden in uniform Brian Doyle wrote recently about the strangeness of attempting to imagine W. H. Auden in the uniform …
: The protagonists of post-Enlightenment relativism and perspectivism claim that if the Enlightenment …
: In 2001, about to graduate from college, I turned down a programming position at a hedge fund. …
: I remember at another election a sturdy old woman of Somerset, with a somewhat menacing and almost …
: Here another great subject opens upon us, when I ought to be bringing these remarks to an end; I …
: One of the people I interviewed for the story was Rev. Robert Seymour, who had been Smith’s pastor …
: consequences of the Reformation (a preview) What I’m offering here is a mere outline of an an argument that I want to make in more detail later. …
: “The subway sounds quite brutal,” Murphy tells the Journal. “There’s a missing opportunity at the …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19863”] houghtonlib: The …
: [gallery] Stained glass from Canterbury Cathedral on view at the Cloisters
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19869”] thingsmagazine: …
: Paine has won. But he has won largely because conservatives have lost heart. With some notable …
: [gallery] “Sorry, kid. It’s your job now whether you like it or not. I’m outta here.”
: [gallery] jonklassen: part of an unfinished thing from tonight
: I told her that I was stunned by her grace after the verdict. I told her the verdict greatly angered …
: The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19881”] philamuseum: When …
: Despite the good intentions behind intergovernmental projects like the Millennium Development Goals …
: We’re at our worst when it comes to politics. This helps explain why recent attacks on rationality …
: A significant portion of what Whole Foods sells is based on simple pseudoscience. And sometimes that …
: I don’t buy this argument, in part because I agree with Furedi that something profound changes at …
: [gallery] typeworship: dailyspecimen: Monotype Caslon Swashes Gorgeous. I’m sure these have …
: If what Paul intends to say here is that Christianity and libertarianism are amenable to one another …
: [gallery] in response to Austin Kleon’s Miserable Artist Flowchart
: Some time ago, I was invited to begin some reflections on beauty and conservatism in this forum, in …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19896”] poetrysociety: …
: Faced with the cultural splendor of pre-Revolutionary France, a different President—John …
: After I broke my neck in a 1967 diving accident and learned I would be paralyzed for the rest of my …
: [gallery] houghtonlib: Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626. Novum organum scientiarum, 1645. *EC.B1328.620ib …
: rights Rights are normative social relationships; sociality is built into the essence of rights. A right is …
: [gallery] uimapcoll: February 19, 1473: Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Royal Prussia in the …
: YouTube has made little musicological quests like this one dangerously easy. Both in the sense that …
: [gallery] austinkleon: Hey friends! My book Show Your Work! is making its way out in the world early …
: If a poet meets an illiterate peasant, they may not be able to say much to each other, but if they …
: [gallery] Rebecca Green, via Jamie Smith on Twitter
: Getting old is the second-biggest surprise of my life, but the first, by a mile, is our unceasing …
: It is one of humanity’s enduring mysteries why some individuals, such as ourselves, rise from …
: Experiments of light, Bacon insisted, were more important than experiments of fruit. He sought to …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“full” ids=“19931”] wesleyhill: A Tale …
: [gallery] via John Overholt on Twitter
: "pro-straight" Evangelical theology cannot be ‘pro-gay’ – but neither can it be ‘pro-straight’. As I understand it …
: Holy Land [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“19938”] via SlateVault
: We lost our oldest child, our daughter Anna, suddenly in April 2008 at the age of 27; our other …
: the artists of the cathedrals I willingly accept the ascendancy of the object which the artist has conceived and which he lays …
: surprises in the classroom Concurrently, behind the scenes, my teaching team was asked to create a list of "learning …
: my struggle with TNC Ta-Nehisi Coates writes, “If you truly believe that abortion is murder, than the killing of George …
: a small trick Here’s something I do in my research sometimes when I don’t own the books I’m …
: Jean-Jacques Rousseau as Walter White The sophistry that undid me is common to the majority of men, who deplore their lack of strength …
: on John Bunyan (Another post from a class blog.) Bunyan’s emotional and spiritual turmoil is caused, …
: Erasmus and Machiavelli (What follows is a post I wrote this morning for one of my class blogs, which are private.) Erasmus …
: sacrifice ‘Sacrifice’ is another word liable to misunderstanding. It is generally held to be noble and loving …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“19944,19942,19943”] …
: respect Ariane Sherine, who launched the Atheist Bus campaign in the UK a few years back, has written a …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“19948”] vruba: Snow in …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“19951”] houghtonlib: …
: I must admit to going back and forth on the topic of the New Homophiles. Apostolic celibacy is a …
: How many wealthy young Americans have ever held a minimum-wage job, or had an internship that placed …
: MACON, GA—Sources confirmed today that the brainwashed morons at First Baptist Assembly of Christ, …
: loneliness and hospitality As a student of family life from the outside, I’ve come to a conclusion that family life, as opposed …
: This past October, just before the leaves changed, I went on a six-day hike through the mountains of …
: genetic synecdoche Together with philosopher David Wasserman, Asch wrote in 2005 that using genetic tests to screen out …
: If you want to understand how people will remember the Obama climate legacy, a few facts tell the …
: Parlement of foules, every morning in the H-E-B parking lot. A cacophony of grackles. A raucous …
: the dangers of simplification I've written before about my love of Planetary, and this is its keynote. I like the varieties not …
: help wanted again So I’m taking the advice of Austin Kleon and others to “own my own turf,” which means that I’m …
: the Helgö Buddha Discovered while excavating a Viking site in southern Sweden; details here
: The key to being creative, in any field, be it scientific, technical, or business, in the 21st …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Pathfinder on Mars, September 29, 1997
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Michael Kenna, Long Wall, Berwick, Northumberland, England, 1991
: Romans 1:1-7 houghtonlib: Bible in Greek, Romans 1:1-7, [Papyrus, ca. 300-ca. 350 AD]. Houghton Library, Harvard …
: [gallery] houghtonlib: Bible in Greek, Romans 1:1-7, [Papyrus, ca. 300-ca. 350 AD]. MS Gr SM2218 …
: "now the Word can say nothing" In the beginning was the Word. But now the Word can say nothing; not a syllable of meaning. He who …
: In the beginning was the Word. But now the Word can say nothing; not a syllable of meaning. He who …
: the illusion of "the two cultures" It is fascinating to observe that, in the very dawn of science, Bacon, the spokesman for the …
: The Christmas story is not just about the birth of a very good man. As it’s been read and understood …
: It is fascinating to observe that, in the very dawn of science, Bacon, the spokesman for the …
: You know one of the things about that piece that I think readers might ignore, it ends with a …
: Hilaire Belloc's Christmas card I pray good beef and I pray good beer This holy night of all the year, But I pray detestable drink …
: There is no more dangerous or disgusting habit than that of celebrating Christmas before it comes, …
: learning from Bilbo On his death-bed, the dwarf king, Thorin commends Bilbo's blend of courage and wisdom, adding, "if …
: peak and career value I think it was Bill James who introduced into sabermetrics the distinction between peak and career …
: autumn canopy [caption id=“attachment_13879” align=“aligncenter” width=“545”] …
: hello and welcome Following the advice of many wise people, I’m beginning to move my online writing away from …
: [gallery] I got five golden rings with this one weird trick
: Here in this gospel note, that here was singing and rejoicing for the great and unspeakable goodness …
: [gallery] unapologetic-book: Advent calendar 22: Soyuz preparing for launch in the snow
: Cultural criticism is a kind of reading. As we try to understand our times, discern where the Spirit …
: [gallery] 50watts: Yury Annenkov, illustration for 1945 French Dostoyevsky edition. Previously: 50 …
: Another contentious area for Hill is religion. Much of his verse dramatises a passionate wrestling …
: For thirteen years MGM had the great Tex Avery; after 1940 they also had Hanna and Barbera putting …
: It was markedly different from the sermon delivered by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger on the eve of the …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Map of Middle Earth
: GLADWELL: So suppose we channel our inner Nate Silver and come up with a universal celebrity …
: He brought light out of darknesse, not out of a lesser light; he can bring thy Summer out of Winter, …
: [gallery] unapologetic-book: Advent calendar 14: cushion for the restoration of the Old Tower, Dover …
: [gallery columns=“1” size=“large” ids=“30166”] drawingdetail: …
: John Ruskin and John Wharlton Bunney, Palazzo Manzoni on the Grand Canal, Venice
: And now, reader, look round this English room of yours, about which you have been proud so often, …
: I’m not an Episcopalian, or even particularly religious, so it’s a bit of a surprise to me that one …
: There is no guarantee of redemption-through-love: redemption is merely given as possible. We are …
: In general, it is extremely foolish … to suppose it should really be such an easy affair with faith …
: One can, of course, and perhaps even should, question Rorty’s account of the various ways in which …
: When you’re homeless and you’re spending your days in the local park, sleeping off the previous …
: Gjertrud Schnackenberg, "Supernatural Love" My father at the dictionary stand Touches the page to fully understand The lamplit answer, tilting …
: [gallery] If everyone still wrote like they did in college
: [gallery] unapologetic-book: Advent calendar 5: Sinterklaasavond, ‘St Nicholas’ Eve’. In the …
: [gallery] banning Milton, viaJohn Overholt on Twitter
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Thunderball, souvenir programme
: James Wright, I am tired of renting my life, and of the leaves I do not rake on the lawn I do not …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Instant Corbusier
: hidden God is not hidden to us; He is revealed. But what and how we shall be in Christ, and what and how …
: [gallery] A misty morning on (and above) the Brazos and the Bosque
: [gallery] coolest wood stove EVAR
: [gallery] erikkwakkel: sexycodicology: Details from the rear cover of the Lindau Gospels. Gilt …
: The 2012 Greendex survey found that people in poorer countries feel, on average, much guiltier about …
: An extraordinary sight: raptor central this morning at Mother Neff State Park
: [gallery] Thanksgiving morning walk at Mother Neff State Park
: Our comments on life and affairs were bright and amusing, but brittle… because there was no solid …
: [gallery] robertogreco: Abacus, Paul Rand, 1951 (via MID-CENTURIA: Mathematic Inspired Textiles)
: The boys in the classroom were right to be scared of her irony. O’Connor’s was not the shifty, …
: [gallery] erikkwakkel: The book that emerged from a bog after 1200 years This is the remarkable …
: But the event also demonstrated the seductiveness of digital elitism, which incorporates social …
: [gallery] Tim Carmody gives you the structure of journalism today
: [gallery] I don’t even have words to describe how cool grecolaborativo is — the Greco family …
: The Google message-automation service promises to at last close the realtime loop: A computer …
: Just as eyeglasses have shed their medical identity and become wholly identified with fashion, other …
: Today, as you know, everything is “innovation.” We have problems, and people are looking for …
: [gallery] At the end of every checkup, Erlewine puts on a new set of strings, strums the guitar, and …
: Does everything need to be assigned a specific value, or are there radically different ways of …
: But it is also important to recognize how much the themes of the Narnia books are interwoven with …
: If the reader will suspend his disbelief and exercise his imagination upon it even for a few …
: In this sense, it seems to me that the malaise that afflicts our public universities is not really …
: We all tend to assume that young people are on the technological vanguard, that they somehow have …
: [gallery] Jacob Drachler’s illustrations of Finnegans Wake
: [gallery] publiccollectors: A rubber stamp that I spotted inside a used book (Exploring the Film by …
: [gallery] Cathedral Grove, Vancouver Island
: [gallery] Cheakamus Lake, Mt. Garibaldi Provincial Park, British Columbia
: [gallery] Brooks Lake, Wyoming
: [gallery] Yellowstone Valley
: The city that “willed the death of the president”? What the hell does that mean? That the city of …
: [gallery] Remnants of the supernova in Cassiopeia, whose appearance in the European skies in 1572 I …
: Psalm 104 Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and …
: If string theory turns out to be right, string theorists will turn out to be the greatest heroes in …
: However, even if Lacan’s version [“If there is no God, then nothing is permitted”] appears an empty …
: [gallery] a cake in the shape of the OED
: [gallery] Jan Tschichold’s instructions to the printer
: religion Religion, opium for the people. To those suffering pain, humiliation, illness, and serfdom, it …
: [gallery] rosswolfe: Lebbeus Woods, Early rendering (1970s) In memoriam: Lebbeus Woods one year …
: [gallery] Do I want to see an illustrated version of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”? I’m …
: In sum, there is only one type of young person, her parents are super-rich, and they reside in a …
: [gallery] marcedith: …David Freund’s Collection of Japanese Matchboxes…
: Maybe even more than scientific thinking, scientists desperately want the public to appreciate and …
: Anonymously calling someone a coward is the height of self-parody and the pit of self-awareness. …
: [gallery] Gregory and his scribes (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, 10th century).
: The teacher is justified to lead students only if he is and remains a student. Josef Albers (via …
: Frankly, the quality of safety provision for students at Hogwarts is totally unacceptable. Despite …
: But more to the point, “The Circle” doesn’t read like a novel whose author immersed himself in the …
: apologetics and imagination Apologetics, after all, is a literature of the imagination. Its cousins are the memoir, the literary …
: [gallery] Here, via Brendan Koerner on Twitter.
: [gallery] uispeccoll: digitalproductionunit: (via Why Time is Running Out For Your Videotapes | …
: What’s the German for a writer who resurrects a writer who would have hated him? Until a word is …
: At the heart of these incredulous statements about the poor decisions poor people make is a belief …
: Book writing is the worst, and thus best, example of the agonies of writing. I’ve written four books …
: [gallery] architectureofdoom: Stalker, Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979
: [gallery] 50watts: “Une danse macabre,” 1919, from a portfolio by Edmond Bille. Tip from my pal …
: We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found it too …
: Social psychologists have demonstrated that rich people are likelier than poorer ones to lie, cheat, …
: When Silicon Valley executives start borrowing metaphors from “The Godfather” maybe we should start …
: In one sense, this dramatic effect of the encounter is not inappropriate to the sort of customer …
: There is a tacit contempt for those whose experience and beliefs don’t fit in to the modern world as …
: [gallery] austinkleon: Woodcuts by Matsubara Naoko The distinguished woodcut print artist Naoko …
: [gallery] anatomyofbibliomania: From: The book of knowledge : treating of the wisdom of the ancients …
: I think there’s some semantic game-playing in how you chose to summarize our debate. My view of …
: Gladwell then develops the Idea that dyslexia might be a “desirable difficulty”, a condition that is …
: If you are bored and disgusted by politics and don’t bother to vote, you are in effect voting for …
: David quietly tells me, ‘You know, I’ve had so much sex and drugs that I can’t believe I’m still …
: [gallery] allthingseurope: Male Karpaty, Slovakia (by Pavol Gorog)
: [gallery] natgeofound: A hand-tinted photograph of Jerusalem where the dome of the Mosque of Omar is …
: If there’s anything we philosophers really hate it’s an untenable dualism. Exposing untenable …
: Paleofuture: If those prices look good to you, you haven’t adjusted for inflation
: I wanted to get away from traditional comic-book covers, which I thought were very boring: usually a …
: It’s worthwhile to cover horrible things like the attacks on Sarkeesian and Penny Red and so many …
: I only read factual books. I can’t think of… I mean, novels are just a waste of f•••ing time. I …
: Almighty and most wrathful God, who hate nothing You have made but sometimes repent of having made …
: After finishing my degree in philosophy, I needed a career. I have no regrets pursuing my MBA at …
: According to the Pew Forum, between 2006 and 2010 Christians faced some form of discrimination, …
: natgeofound: People gather on a roof terrace in the District of Columbia as lights come on in nearby …
: Mental Floss: Purely for trivia and posterity’s sake, if you could indulge some (even more) inane …
: However you slice and dice the history, the strategery, and the underlying issues, the decision to …
: oupacademic: Printing at Oxford University Press in the 1920s: Compositors The compositors arrange …
: A different illustration is found among the elves of Lorien, in their love of beauty and their love …
: Meanwhile standard-bearer lists like the AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies or Sight & Sound’s Greatest …
: thingsmagazine: Is Our Age Degenerate?. From the set Little Blue Books (via things)
: On Twitter people mostly play nice because if you say something cutting about someone, they’re …
: unapologetic-book: Part of a series of quotes from the book, beautifully laid out by HarperOne.
: Member of Congress who are refusing to raise the debt ceiling (or raise taxes) until their ancillary …
: thingsmagazine: UI design by Wang Lin
: Something I find regrettable in contemporary Christianity is the degree to which it has abandoned …
: Jacques Maritain, from Art and Scholasticism: There is, as I noted earlier, a fundamental …
: appealtoemulsion: “Sir, you must turn off all electronics.” “OK.” “Sir, please turn off the camera.” …
: Sunlight is supposed to be the best disinfectant. But there’s something naïve about the new S.E.C. …
: One of the delights of reading Auden is that however much his language is recognisable, his tone is …
: Is there a fair solution? And does it matter? Historically, musicians who weren’t among the top pop …
: Half the point I want to make is that I have had a charmed life. I was whisked out of the way of the …
: The youth, the upward dreams, the emphasis on life style over other status markers, the disdain for …
: [gallery] thingsmagazine: Charles and Ray Eames, Elephant, Designed 1945, produced 2007
: typetoy: www.typetoy.tumblr.com
: erikkwakkel: Pocket watch This is the 17th-century equivalent of our watch. Made out of ivory, most …
: What else? Oh yes: the swearing. Why do I swear so much, in what you are about to read? To make a …
: In the closing pages of Bleeding Edge, perspectives alter; all that had been in the forefront of the …
: jonklassen: thing from today Can I buy this? Please?
: modernilluminators: John 1:1-5 Illuminated by Makoto Fujimura In the Beginning by Makoto Fujimura …
: All the Valley’s talk about transhumanism, human potential, life extension, and generally “changing …
: I was a gardener. Well, I am a gardener, but a sadly reduced one, in every sense. I have a small …
: The truth is that persecution against Christians, ideologically speaking, is an equal-opportunity …
: We have this weird, romantic, fundamentally sensual idea of books, one that approaches fetishization …
: With a Spartan rigour which never ceased to amaze his landlord-grocer, Nietzsche would get up every …
: Dying in Svalbard is hard—being buried is, in a way, much harder. While survivors tried to give …
: minimalmac: minimaldesks: Workspace with a view. The chair makes it. Let’s see … uncomfortable …
: Reading Chekhov for a few minutes makes you better at decoding what other people are feeling. But …
: typetoy: sugarmeows: Cover for Fortune magazine, July 1953 (via skandalon)
: the sacred grove of Osun In 1991 I spent a summer teaching at a seminary in the town of Igbaja in Kwara State, Nigeria. One …
: I’ve had to make political peace with SSM because it is a cultural juggernaut that makes sense by …
: What can you imagine Peyton Manning doing? Let’s build him an analogical world. You can imagine him …
: thingsmagazine: A Vintage Electric Data Time World Clock
: Interviewer: What attracted you so much to Dick? Carrére: For me, he’s the Dostoyevsky of the …
: For all criticism is based on that equation: KNOWLEDGE + TASTE = MEANINGFUL JUDGMENT. The key word …
: I am so admiring and jealous of the fact that Greenwald can come up with new ways to say these …
: asymptotejournal: Recommended: Samuel Beckett. The Unnameable. 1953. Translated from the French by …
: Marriage is increasingly the big sociological divide in American life. Getting and staying married …
: uispeccoll: Miniature Monday! This tiny shelf includes books from Borrower’s Press, Black Cat Press, …
: Furthermore, you say, science will teach men (although in my opinion this is a superfluity) that …
: Yggdrasil and the churches of the North
: erikkwakkel: maninthebottle: From archives of Prague castle, photo by M.Peterka (Source:Lost and …
: rosswolfe: german-expressionists: Wassily Kandinsky Drawing, 1926 This is awesome.
: Doc was in the toilet pissing during a commercial break when he heard Sauncho screaming at the …
: erikkwakkel: Medieval pop-up book This book was printed in 1482, when printing was just invented - …
: boundaries One must not, however, imagine the realm of culture as some sort of spatial whole, having boundaries …
: grand narratives Years ago I used to think it was possible for a novelist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now …
: I am not saying that children should stop learning stuff outside of school (although some days, when …
: hidden imagery in handwriting In handwriting the brain is mediated by the drawing hand, in typewriting by the fingers hitting the …
: I feel that it’s necessary for me to request that my nomination for best male artist be withdrawn …
: I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of guy. I like to hit the open road, go where the wind takes …
: smithsonianmag: Underwater Photography of Brian Skerry In celebration of the Sant Ocean Hall’s …
: The need for interpreting arises when a text with which we find ourselves concerned resists …
: "poisoning your mind with novels" People talk of keeping au courant, and no doubt an intellectual cannot ignore the human race, nor be …
: When I think about songs that have made an actual difference to me — not really what I mean when I …
: “To be honest, before Derek confessed his sins, repented, and sought my grace in pious supplication, …
: Quite simply, there is no formation without repetition. There is no habituation without being …
: A renewal of a classic typeface of the 1930s
: Thomas Merton’s very tone conveyed a spiritual and intellectual authority which made his divagations …
: Shields, of course, has written an entire testament, the manifesto-like book called “Reality …
: After taking part in a poetry programme for BBC School Radio, Seamus Heaney and I repaired to the …
: thingsmagazine: Grey-11, Avril, 2010
: thingsmagazine: Square Montmartre, Corbasson, 2013
: Whenever Doc needed to know anything touching on the world of property, Aunt Reet, with her …
: There’s some talk afterward, as there always is these days, about whether Federer should retire. …
: natgeofound: An ancient Roman bridge spans the Wadi al Murr in Mosul, Iraq, 1920.Photograph by M. V. …
: ‘I find a newsletter personal — more personal than a blog,’ Dougherty says. 'It is addressed to you. …
: Defenders of the humanities claim a special role in training citizens for a democratic society and …
: The pro-Dislike crowd, in addition to being on the wrong side of history, don’t really understand …
: Schools as we know them today are a product of history, not of research into how children learn. The …
: But the truth is, his experiment with Google Glass made me realize how comparably social mobile …
: Writers on the brain and the mind tend to divide into Spocks and Kirks, either embracing the idea …
: Every meeting I’ve ever had since I began full-time advocacy, I have brought with me a book of …
: I keep telling my students this. From Slate Vault.
: oldbookillustrations: Take my bait, O king of fishes! Maria Louise Kirk, from The story of …
: At Burns’s birthplace they now have something called the Tam o’ Shanter Experience. There’s a café, …
: [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“800”]David Jones by Mark …
: David Jones, Sanctus Christus [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1088”]David Jones, …
: Exiit edictum [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1240”]“Exiit Edictum” …
: From a wonderful Bibliodyssey post about maps with sea-monsters on them
: Obviously, the key question is whether John Coltrane is a saint or God incarnate
: In the most perceptive part of his essay, Bottum argues that we lost the intellectual debate about …
: houghtonlib: Apian, Peter, 1495-1552. Astronomicum Caesareum, 1540. *GC5.Ap34.540a Houghton Library, …
: mpdrolet: Nigel Henderson, Chisenhale Road, 1951
: A change which has been coming over historical opinion within my own lifetime … is temperately …
: erikkwakkel: The world in your hand Meet the astrolabe: a two-dimensional model of a …
: Via In Focus, a tidal wave hits a bank along the Qiantang River on August 22, 2013 in Haining, China …
: awesomepeoplereading: The Southern Humanist reminded me of this picture, that APR posted some time …
: The lesson I would draw from my Goldilocks experience is that it is neither necessary nor desirable …
: For Thackeray and his contemporaries, literature is a public matter, a matter to be lectured upon …
: Statute Forbidding Any One to Annoy or Unduly Injure the Freshmen. Each and every one attached to …
: When Christians sell books and preach sermons encouraging non-married people to embrace their …
: Blessed are they that inanimate all their knowledge, consummate all in Christ Jesus. The university …
: If we contemplate the lives of the Teletubbies, questions start to pose themselves. These four …
: If you read advertisements for books in eighteenth-century journals, you will be struck by the …
: To have one’s lectures put together from students’ notes years after they were given is a rare mark …
: What if you answered the question “What do you do all day?” with “Nothing”? It isn’t as if that …
: In 2005, The Lancet published a comprehensive review of the literature on media violence to date. …
: Is sex the place in which that project of re-enchantment ought to begin? I just can’t see it—not …
: I met Elmore Leonard once, and spent an hour with him. He was courteous and soft-spoken, and I …
: the intimidation of Glenn Greenwald And so one of the more bizarre moments in the Guardian’s long history occurred – with two GCHQ …
: All-Purpose Responses to Expressions of Puzzlement or Resentment on Twitter Here, let me google that for you. If you read a few other recent tweets of mine your confusion is …
: Shakespeare's handwriting erikkwakkel: Shakespeare’s handwriting - and why it matters Studying ancient handwriting is a …
: My great-grandmother was born in Mississippi, in 1890, and lived in Mississippi for the whole of her …
: T. S. Eliot on persecution and discrimination Christians are still persecuted but nowadays not usually overtly on the ground that they are …
: Nature is so uncomfortable CYRIL (coming in through the open window from the terrace). My dear Vivian, don’t coop yourself up …
: “When you’ve had any contact with real persecuted minorities you learn to use the word very …
: the conspiracy against writers A friend of mine, a terrific writer, is convinced there is a conspiracy excluding him from certain …
: Aslan’s thesis requires us to believe that the Gospel writers were crafty enough to invent a Jesus …
: Aslan’s entire book is, as it turns out, an ambitious and single-minded polemical counter-narrative …
: It turns out that the NSA’s domestic and world-wide surveillance apparatus is even more extensive …
: But this bombardment you’re talking about, that’s a choice you make. If you’re interested by a piece …
: natgeofound: Cranes lift the face of a statue from the Abu Simbel Temples in Egypt, May …
: Kenner, corresponding Buckley, William F., 1925 Bunting, Basil Cartier-Bresson, Henri, 1908 Davenport, Guy DeWitt, Miriam …
: These days, writing about video games feels more important than writing about politics. A new …
: 50watts: Pelham Uno Dos Tres via Montague Projects
: prostheticknowledge: Manga Generator Project lets participants create their own starring Manga, …
: Lenny Berry, 59, has been wearing a bowler hat to play Bradford City’s City Gent mascot for 20 …
: thingsmagazine: [N]on-line High street, a concept project Shang-Jen Victor Tung, published on …
: It’s been less than a year, but what happened next is already the stuff of lore. “You have to …
: thingsmagazine: Time Square, 1958, by Pete Turner
: thingsmagazine: Illustration by Luciano Lozano
: robertogreco: Merce Cunningham [at Black Mountain College], 1952, photo by Robert Rauschenberg (via …
: robertogreco: WORK + STUDY, September 1945: “A two-sided graphic depiction of the farming program at …
: vruba: Hiroshi Yoshida: Kasuga sandô (Way to the Kasuga Shrine), 1938. Via John Resig’s ukiyo-e.org. …
: The photo that spawned a dumb tumblelog. But still my favorite Morrissey picture.
: National Geographic cartographic typefaces, via Smithsonian.org
: Close-up of typography by Phil Baines, via Eye magazine’s photo stream
: typeworship: Talking type with Phil Baines I had the pleasure of meeting Phil Baines today for an 8 …
: ‘Carpe diem’ doesn’t mean seize the day – it means something gentler and more sensible. 'Carpe diem’ …
: 60ansdevadrouille: Place Lope de Vega à Valence, remploi d’élément gothique dans une arcade murée de …
: 60ansdevadrouille: L’Himalaya vu de Nagarkot, au-dessus de Katmandou, le matin. février 1988.
: design-is-fine: Alpa Reflex Camera with printed manual, designed 1944. Switzerland. Photo: Hans …
: oldbookillustrations: And they pressed so hard on him that he was constrained to rest himself upon …
: Listen, I understand it must be tough to see someone you love break the circle of death and rebirth …
: long-horned orb weaver; photo by Nicky Bay
: A frightening and violent mob swept through the normally quiet seaside community of Huntington Beach …
: I took some apples out of a paper bag where they had been lying for a long time; I had to cut off …
: Delay is natural to a writer. He is like a surfer—he bides his time, waits for the perfect wave on …
: It is the nature of an hypothesis, when once a man has conceived it, that it assimilates every thing …
: And so, among Jews, Braun now becomes a familiar figure: a shanda fur die Goyim. The Yiddish phrase …
: I see so much perdition in this world, that even if my writing has no other effect than to weary …
: So parenting has been hard in all times and places, and all times and places have put their unique …
: credulous skeptics Of course, I can’t universalize my own experience – but that experience does give me pause when …
: There’s the Hinton St Mary Mosaic – an early Romano-British representation of Christ, with the …
: The engagement of understanding is, then, a continuous, self-moved, critical enterprise of …
: I would guess that if you hired a left-brainiac economist to analyze “the present situation of …
: Because he came to faith dramatically, he has few prejudices about which tradition to inhabit. “I am …
: One of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever done in public was to appear—against all judgment—in a …
: newhousebooks: Cover, tourist brochure for Madurodam, a miniature city in The Hague. Undated.
: There are many dying languages in the world. But at least one has recently been born, created by …
: You ask me for my thoughts on the Cuban question. I regret they are at present unformed as I have …
: The problem Judaeo-Christianity is supposed to address is human shortcomings, the cost of which …
: But it is the concept which runs alongside the constant and essentially unconsented gathering of …
: One of my minor hobby horses is defending some of Shakespeare’s earlier plays that are frequently …
: There is a significant psychological price to being constantly aware of the variety of ways in which …
: If debating the Enlightenment has become tedious, one reason is that it has produced so many …
: But what was the actual impact of coffeehouses on productivity, education and innovation? Rather …
: E-mail isn’t that different from mail. The real divide, historically, isn’t digital; it’s literary. …
: ZXX, a typeface unreadable by computers. (Via @notjessewalker on Twitter.)
: Once I heard a middle-aged lay preacher declare how uncomfortable she had always been with teachings …
: [How can students improve as writers?] It’s hard to talk about something like that without sounding …
: I just wish that we could talk about books as if they are for use, not as symbols of enduring …
: Three-dimensional typography by Oded Ezer
: MOOCs are a kind of entertainment media. We are living in an age of para-educationalism: TED Talks, …
: To my mind, conservatism is gratitude. Conservatives tend to begin from gratitude for what is good …
: Dinner parties and cocktail parties dominated every Ann Arbor weekend. Women wore girdles; the …
: Rereading Krakauer’s Into Thin Air after finishing Hansen’s book, I was once again struck by the …
: In 1971, however, a keyboard with a vestigial @ symbol inherited from its typewriter ancestors found …
: Commentators often attempt to refute the nothing-to-hide argument by pointing to things people want …
: How can we distinguish between better and worse surveillance states? Balkin identifies and contrasts …
: He’s a grown man. He doesn’t need any of you to tell him anything. He knows more than all of you put …
: Not everyone agreed that gout was a malady, or a bad thing. Some saw it as Nature’s warning, or as a …
: eastmanhouse: Aaron Siskind (American, 1903-1991) Terrors and Pleasures of Levitation, No. 37, 1953 …
: At any rate, after one of my early columns had curtsied and left the stage, an indignant letter to …
: bookshelfporn: May there be many a day spent reading in front of a fireplace this winter for our …
: ransomcenter: In case you missed it, learn all about Rene Belbenoit, prison escape artist, butterfly …
: typetoy: www.typetoy.tumblr.com
: Now, remember that according to [Richard] Dawkins the story is told so that we should admire not …
: Ruins of the Roman city of Leptis Magna in Libya, via In Focus
: The kind of people adult, white, middle-class, liberal-artsy types hate the most are other adult, …
: natgeofound: Alexander Graham Bell’s tetrahedral tower is unveiled in 1907 in Nova Scotia. …
: We promote freedom of speech and expression precisely so that we can openly disagree about what our …
: I dreamed that being in a house in the city, and with much company, looking towards the end of the …
: natgeofound: A large group of actors relax and talk on the lawn at Monticello in Virginia, December …
: The cheese-rolling pictures are always a highlight of my year.
: ransomcenter: This week, “From the Outside In” shares the story of Samuel Beckett and his novel …
: The problem with Google’s vision is that it doesn’t acknowledge the vital role that disorder, chaos, …
: I’m always glad to see a null finding reported, so I liked this paper by Robert Fairlie and Jonathan …
: jessnevins: “Smash Imperialist Invasion and March Forward for the building of Our Peaceful, Happy …
: Loyau-Kennett is deeply concerned, she says, about the direction modern society is headed. “I prefer …
: The Internet, a plain whose grasses hide so many digital predators, can activate that same response …
: If Obama commits to making responsible fatherhood a central theme of his second term, he could have …
: It was hard not to think of all this—of the Iliad with its grand funereal finale, of the Odyssey …
: Anthony Green, “Finishing the Portrait of Mary Green”, 1965/2007-09/2010
: Lovers must not, like usurers, live for themselves alone. They must finally turn from their gaze at …
: Humility is one option here – the urge to kneel, or to sit very quietly, conscious of your …
: Responding to the claim that not just reading but “high culture” in general is morally improving, …
: typeworship: Timeless Alphabets You can find a world of inspiration in any of Julia Trigg’s …
: Joan Miro’s ceramic art. My friend David Hooker called my attention to these.
: “Creative People Say No” is an article has been making the rounds this week, about how creativity …
: Liberal Christianity has two meanings: there are two traditions here. They are deeply intertwined, …
: The same problems bedevil the claim that we moderns reveal our essence in words we use more rather …
: I think Wikipedia’s about over. To say, “some of this book’s footnotes are just links to Wikipedia …
: natgeofound: A Royal Mail bus with armed guards heads out from Razmak to Jandola, April 1946. …
: newberrylibrary: Happy Birthday, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle! Doyle, a Scottish physician and writer, is …
: Bramantino, The Risen Christ, described here
: natgeofound: Children attendants gather supplies for an Arab diner in Algeria, February 1928. …
: An ex-neighbour of ours recalled (in an otherwise entirely kind and welcome comment) me telling him, …
: In the case of MOOCs (or other ways of chunking online instruction), Harvard could impose burdensome …
: anticipatedstranger: Many more here.
: What email would be like if it had been invented in the Web 2.0 era
: newberrylibrary: On May 17, 1792, the New York Stock Exchange was formed. Pictured here are two …
: natgeofound: Parisians walk on the street past lottery and vermouth advertisements in 1935. …
: natgeofound: Fifty-two stories high, city noises fade and vistas expand. Chicago, June 1967. …
: “Governments are too focused on democracy and rule of law. On Google Island, we’ve found those …
: My plan was to write a portrait of Phil Jackson after basketball: to capture the full mundanity of …
: ‘There is something deeply perverse,’ Hamilton writes, ‘in the demand that we construct an immense …
: From Susan Wise Bauer’s May farm report. I am an absolute sucker for donkey photos.
: centuriespast: Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) Eugénie Grandet Autograph manuscript and corrected …
: Map of New York by Jenni Sparks, from a slideshow of hand-drawn maps
: In Nagy’s “brick-and-mortar” class, students write essays. But multiple-choice questions are almost …
: Every poet, consciously or unconsciously, holds the following absolute presuppositions, as the …
: screenshotsofdespair: via earlboykins
: “Hello agent John, it’s client Dan,” commented the pecunious scribbler. “I’m worried about new book …
: What classic voyeurism is is espial, i.e. watching people who don’t know you’re there as those …
: So if we try to feel our way towards a general sense of what the contemporary fantasy world is …
: Following your bliss is useless. People are passionate about a lot of stupid things. It’s not a …
: Opening Willard’s book, I read: “The idea of having faith in Jesus has come to be totally isolated …
: I am in thoroughgoing disagreement with all of this. I find Gatsby aesthetically overrated, …
: If anyone has labored from the first hour, let them today receive the just reward. If anyone has …
: The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of …
: Here he is. The acquaintance is made, I am introduced to him. The instant I first lay eyes on him, I …
: The Code of the Streets, a term popularized by the hip-hop duo Gang Starr and the sociologist Elijah …
: Along with all of the other rising inequalities we’ve become so familiar with – in income, in …
: WHEN I LEARNED DR. AND MRS. JACOBS WERE MOVING AWAY ahouicestmoi:
: Don’t expect any breadth or grandeur from the Empire’s Christian divines. Across the board, the …
: Home and Away are the poles of our being, each exerting a magnetic pull on the psyche. We vibrate …
: The purpose of theology - the purpose of any thinking about God - is to make the silences clearer …
: What’s curious is that of all the ethical commitments that liberal-leaning consumers with …
: In my daydream College for Bards, the curriculum would be as follows: (1) In addition to English, at …
: scientificillustration: The great sea-serpent. An historical and critical treatise. With the reports …
: oldbookillustrations: Capital from the Luxor Temple, representing a papyrus flower. 1200 B.C. From …
: newberrylibrary: Crown of Noble and Virtuous Women, page 21, Book 3. Cesare Vecellio, a Venetian …
: smithsonianmag: Photo of the Day: Red Fox Near Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada Photo …
: Dreher and Sullivan alike are Christians. I’m not. They assume that Jesus’s call to “turn the other …
: On World Gone Wrong Dylan did this astonishing cover of a 1930s song by the Mississippi Sheiks
: My writing space has no desk or shelves. There’s no space for books, whether for reference or simply …
: When you combine this trend with the Republican Party’s sharp libertarian turn on economics and …
: ransomcenter: Learn how conservators at the Harry Ransom Center painstakingly repaired and framed a …
: Last week, one of my college friends, who now manages vast sums at a hedge fund, visited me. He’s …
: Experience has taught me that the less satisfying the narrative of the day has been, the more likely …
: natgeofound: Two boys pose on a balcony with the Tenerife port in the background in Puerto Orotava, …
: Religious organizations are asking for permission to use this photo by Marac Andrev Kolodzinski
: thxitsvintage: Hand-lettering by Edward Gorey, Anchor’s first art director, 1953-1960.
: propaedeuticist: roof-streets of Masuleh, Iran
: natgeofound: The interior of La Compania Church in Quito, Ecuador, January 1929.Photograph by Jacob …
: newberrylibrary: Treasures of Faith Preview Here’s a 1593 edition of Thomas Aquinas’s complete …
: newberrylibrary: It’s not quite relevant, but we couldn’t resist: In honor of Earth Day (April 22), …
: The machine’s interface—its outward representation of the numeric self—is no longer the cold, …
: thingsmagazine: A reproduction Frank Lloyd Wright tile made for Blade Runner
: thingsmagazine: The Umbrellas (Project for Japan and Western USA), Christo, 1987
: Twitter is a deliberate abstention. Somehow I hate the idea of there always being, in the back of my …
: Needless to say, Tsarnaev is probably the single most hated figure in America now. As a result, as …
: When she entered the room, her first gesture was to send the white-jacketed Chinese steward back for …
: A still from the 1964 Czech film Lemonade Joe
: The United States has dealt with American citizens who had commit acts of terrorism before. We …
: Anna Marie Johnson annotates Annie Dillard
: I have to wonder if Sandberg does not realize that she is going to die someday. There is so little …
: 60ansdevadrouille: Les daims hantent les sites sacrés du Japon, parmi les lanternes de pierre du …
: Sketch for the madhouse scene from The Rake’s Progress (Stravinsky/Auden/Kallman), performed at …
: thingsmagazine: A Leo Jaffe Dictograph handset
: thingsmagazine: Milton Berle’s Joke File
: natgeofound: Dogs help a Scottish gamekeeper keep watch in Aberfoyle, Scotland, March …
: Ezra Klein: What should policymakers do in the aftermath of this kind of event? Bruce Schneier: …
: What I don’t understand though is why media outlets are so willing to run every MOOC provider’s …
: What is music about? What, as Plato would say, does it imitate? Our experience of Time in its …
: Just as a lamp is not able to illuminate unless a fire is enkindled, so also a spiritual lamp does …
: The same rules apply to self-examination as apply to confession to a priest: be brief, be blunt, be …
: One week, Bob Evans, a project manager at Google, challenged a cliché in software development, …
: Summer, or rather the hint or promise of it, only arrives with the publication of Wisden. The …
: eastmanhouse: Imogen Cunningham (American, 1883-1976) Magnolia Bud, 1929, gelatin silver print, …
: thingsmagazine: Belmont Park Air Meet, New York, 1910
: How has your decision to write affected your health? Has it had negative effects on your personal …
: I was sitting in a grandstand seat behind the third-base-side lower boxes, pretty close to the …
: Simon Russell Beale is fond of describing acting as three-dimensional literary criticism. And in my …
: No, they aren’t right about the Gosnell story. If you’ve never heard of the Gosnell story, it’s not …
: natgeofound: Landing signal officer and assistant wear experimental ear protection aboard the USS …
: Typically, I tell people not to go to grad school. That’s the advice I give, generally. And I do …
: natgeofound: Fishing nets dry in the early morning sunlight in a Macao harbor around 1931, the year …
: The Medieval Latin word universitas has no reference to the scope of the curriculum of studies; it …
: Dear Miss Kidd, Ursula K. Le Guin writes extremely well, but I’m sorry to have to say that on the …
: typetoy: www.TypeToy.tumblr.com
: Seminole men, Florida Everglades, 1910
: James Sayers (1748-1823), The Comet, 18 February 1789. Etching and aquatint. Published by Thomas …
: So if your phone doesn’t move from a single location between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. for say …
: A socialist typeface rediscovered and redesigned
: All of which is to say that Kubrick, in his intellectual way, is offering us the experience of the …
: Abigail Rines weighed in with a terrific post called “Feminist Housedude,” complete with a picture …
: Nature and truth. Money and markets. Men and marriage. Faith and reason. They’ve all ended. Power …
: But I also think culture and economics, ideas and incentives, are all entangled at a deep level, …
: Morozov’s essay eviscerates O’Reilly’s career in order to out him as a fake progressive who confuses …
: Some form of détente in the culture wars might once have been possible, recognizing that neither …
: So remember: 12:01 a.m., May 26. The schedule after that will be approximately as follows: the first …
: I wish that I could be as charitable as you are and say that Morozov is raising good questions. He …
: The terrible news that Iain Banks is officially very poorly arrived today. Unlike others on these …
: poetrysociety: Baseball Season: Marianne Moore throwing out the first pitch 1968.
: davidjphooker: (via No.9 | An Artist’s Journey)
: As an alternative to National Poetry Month, I propose that we have an International Anti-Poetry …
: On Core Beliefs Watching a Twitter conversation unfold today, I was reminded for the hundredth time that debates …
: Dream Vision (Apocalyptic Dream): Albrecht Dürer, 1525. Watercolour on paper, 30 x 43 cm. Text …
: Unapologetic: Holy Week 6: Sabbath Unapologetic: Holy Week 6: Sabbath unapologetic-book: All day long, the next day, the city is quiet. …
: There is, I believe, in the adventure of prayer, in our intimate relation with God, a point of …
: unapologetic-book: Jesus before Pilate, from Sue Symons’ Bath Diptychs.
: RAY: Tonight we’re talking to Darrel Dexter, the Komodo-dragon expert, from Upper Montclair, New …
: After two months of delays thanks to donations totalling $700, the Cowpocalypse finally arrives at …
: Who is smarter: a person or an ape? Well, it depends on the task. Consider Ayumu, a young male …
: People like Nick Bilton over at The New York Times Bits blog argue that norms like thank-you …
: Bronfman’s Haggadah, which is illustrated with watercolors by his wife, Jan Aronson, includes …
: I get a lot of mail from people who agree with me, but are impatient and want to propose methods of …
: The Internet is a surveillance state. Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, and whether we like …
: natgeofound: A milkman and his terrier pose at the back of a milk truck, May 1948. Photograph by …
: For many — so, so many — of my Twitter friends.
: Into the city they go, Yeshua and the nucleus of twenty or so men and women who have been following …
: unapologetic-book: Palm Sunday, from Sue Symon’s Bath Diptychs, a mixed media life of Christ on …
: Albums reimagined as book covers
: If you have the biggest computer and the biggest data, you can calculate how to target people with a …
: When Norenzayan became a student of psychology in 1994, four years after his family had moved from …
: On every campus we need large, highly visible vegetable gardens that are tended by everyone who …
: Achebe can only fulfill his cultural responsibility by recounting as faithfully as he can the …
: The sounding of the battle-drum is important; the fierce waging of the war itself is important; and …
: [Richard] Florida himself, in his role as an editor at The Atlantic, admitted last month what his …
: Privately, however, De Quincey often gave accounts of his addiction that were no doubt designed in …
: Arnold Newman’s portrait of Stravinsky, “published” version
: ransomcenter: “There’s a reason so many of Newman’s portraits have become the iconic images of …
: To understand why female lawyers, doctors, bankers, academics, high-tech executives and other, often …
: philamuseum: Happy Birthday to abstract expressionist painter Hans Hofmann! Born March, 21, 1880, …
: How can this be? If Christian numbers are exploding, how can they be left so far behind Muslims in …
: It often happens that two schoolboys can solve difficulties in their work for one another better …
: Reviewing the bipartisan justifications for war in Iraq should serve as a stark reminder to brash …
: The Vatican has an annual operating budget of under $300 million, while Harvard University, arguably …
: Arrested Development is exploring the more playful, outré structural possibilities offered by the …
: I am writing to apply for the position of Pope. I recently received my Bachelor of Arts, or “artium …
: What are terms of service? Remember the last time you signed up for a Web site and clicked through …
: natgeofound: Pilgrims bathe in the Narmada’s 160-foot-tall Kadil Dhara waterfall in India, November …
: A decade-plus past its prime, The Simpsons has a stronger presence in American life than Cheers, …
: icancauseaconstellation: European exhibition of arts & crafts, Leipzig, Herbert Bayer (1927)
: Religion without renunciation has obvious appeal. But its cultural consequences are not all …
: Russian movie posters, via Brendan Koerner on Twitter
: For decades the prospect of a pope from outside Europe has both excited and alarmed observers of the …
: Me, if I have a really good meal, al fresco, say, followed by an espresso and an eau de vie and …
: austinkleon: U B U W E B has a couple PDF scans of 1921 books by the amazing George Grosz.
: Let me propose the following neo-Stoical attitude to the problem, which will no doubt ease the …
: A reader of Williams’s biography is likely to come to the conclusion that he was rather creepy. His …
: The fashionable international world attended en masse this afternoon at the wedding of the chevalier …
: I do almost nothing in clubs now. It demands a constant effort to keep up a schedule of gigs, and I …
: When I asked Carson what appealed to her so much as a teenager about Greek, she answered, “It just …
: Motorola modernity, 1961, via Paleofuture
: Map from John Hunt, “The Ceremonies of the Conclave and Print Culture in Baroque Rome”, via The …
: RSS is a good tool. It gives you a simple way to shape and filter the web’s content to suit your own …
: Then other things started to come out. EA released statements to the effect that the game would be …
: thingsmagazine: From A Map of the World
: Ironically, I think the reason Google always wanted to pull the Reader team off to build these other …
: When rich people present the idea that they’ve learned to live lightly as a paradoxical insight, …
: amusiclibrary: The Rite of Spring: Igor Stravinsky’s own hand-written manuscripts are published for …
: Is there anything better than walking into a library for the first time, the wonder and joy of …
: thingsmagazine: Drug Store in the Pennsylvania Station, New York (via things)
: Despite evidence that anger is routinely expressed over the Internet via weblogs, social networking …
: From one of Mark Changizi’s research notebooks. I love stuff like this, immoderately.
: Queries on professional authorship today bring back anecdotes of small advances and the …
: The future of writing in America—or, at least, the future of making a living by writing—seems in …
: Faulkner is no thinker — his occasional reflections on politics or the race question do not …
: “I have decreasing amounts of tolerance for unnecessary communication because it is a burden and a …
: We don’t know if Facebook has some kind of Paedophile-o-Meter. But, given the extensive user …
: So why am I recommending the word [naches] to my gentile brethren? Because we’re all Jews now, in …
: Wealthy musician Amanda Palmer, who last year raised $1.2 million on Kickstarter to produce and …
: newhousebooks: Lights on for safety. From Seven Is Magic, 1969
: philamuseum: Great and Mighty Artist of the Day: Bruno Del Favero Born Princeton, Michigan, 1910; …
: preciseandtowering: allthingseurope: The Dark Hedges, Northern Ireland (by Maximilian Pilz)
: [vimeo 57525543 w=250 h=141] The future of bookstores (Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)
: more on mediation Another comment from the same thread: Mike, thanks for the thoughtful reply! I continue to think, …
: on mediation Here’s part of one of my comments on a debate between Nathan Jurgenson and Nick Carr, here: I would …
: Nobody loves snow as much as Malcolm loves snow.
: It is surely no accident that the idea of sincerity, of the own self and the difficulty of knowing …
: Picture the tragic scenes in Crouch End, north London, early this year. The patrons of Harris Hoole, …
: jonklassen: A spread from ‘The Dark’, written by Lemony Snicket. Comes out April 2nd!
: And so scientists are busily animadverting on Nagel’s account of science. They like to note …
: The sad truth is that most families who stretched their finances to the limit for the sake of a set …
: beingblog: laughingsquid: Fahrenheit 451 Book Cover With a Match and Striking Paper This is just …
: The history of literature is replete with folly but the news that Sebastian Faulks is writing a …
: typeworship: Funky Flyer Reminiscent of a woodblock print, this intricately composed flyer is for …
: SIR: I am grateful for the review which my book Religion and Public Doctrine in Modern England …
: Ms. Kenney described the blog’s strengths. “When there was an overriding issue or event, the blog …
: typeworship: A Special Specimen This wonderful and colourful type specimen once belonged to Paul …
: Celibacy is not only an ancient tradition of asceticism, but more important, it is an ancient …
: Not so long ago, I was on the usual type of panel discussion at a literary festival, far from home …
: mental gluttony Again, while it is a great blessing that a man no longer has to be rich in order to enjoy the …
: Whenever you hear someone explain that a concept is so foreign to this or that culture that people …
: The popular interest in the brain means that we increasingly have a “folk neuroscience” that is …
: In any political conflict between extremists and non-extremists, the non-extremists start with one …
: Modern economics bases much of its analysis on the idea that people “maximise their utility”. The …
: 60ansdevadrouille: Temple de Banteay Srei ( groupe d’Angkor, 967). 1.Tour- sanctuaire centrale …
: That’s what I do now: I lace up my boots and head into the hills, then do the same again the next …
: Kodachrome achieved for National Geographic what its writers seldom could, capturing America as a …
: unapologetic-book: Gaudi’s cracked-pottery mosaics in the Parc Guell, Barcelona
: jonklassen: This is an honest to goodness rug I got to design for a project called Node run by Chris …
: unapologetic-book: The British paperback of Unapologetic has arrived. An exceptionally beautiful …
: buzz: Taco Map of Mexico (via Burrito Justice) Now I want tacos SO BAD.
: seeing Ice Age Scotland from the air
: thingsmagazine: Prefab house concept for Alcoa by Charles W. Moore and William Turnbill (via …
: Why not build an airport that floats in the Thames Estuary?
: After his acceptance speech TED curator Chris Anderson turned the auditoriums in Long Beach and La …
: But avoiding the words that people didn’t use back then is ultimately just a mechanical problem. A …
: East Lake Park, Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1920s. I grew up right next to East Lake but can’t quite …
: And here we have arrived deep in the belly of the neoliberal whale, just in time to watch the …
: As nations become wealthier, it is harder for them to sustain high rates of growth. That doesn’t …
: Food is molecules, not bits—which also means it can’t be digitally copied, shared, pirated, or sent …
: Though Benedict XVI traveled widely and tried to promote the growth of Catholicism outside the West, …
: Medieval Batman, via Adam Roberts on Twitter
: oldhollywood: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Fritz Lang (upper right), & crew on the set of Metropolis …
: thingsmagazine: U.S.S. Tiger Shark
: robertogreco: Liyuan Library, Li Xiaodong Atelier
: Here the decline in work-force participation is of a piece with the broader turn away from community …
: vintageanchor: “Bookstores, like libraries, are the physical manifestation of the wide world’s …
: Philip Jenkins: “As an intact book from this era, the Faddan More Psalter is an amazing enough find …
: And grossly inaccurate. But, you know, never mind.
: I am one of those who believe that a human being is not an autonomous construction with no given …
: Amazing photos of coral reef life by Felix Salazar — please click through for the rest
: beingblog: A society which disregards those who are weak and non-productive risks exaggerating the …
: typetoy: www.typetoy.tumblr.com
: typetoy: www.typetoy.tumblr.com
: Beautiful photos of the Russian meteorite
: Preview of coming attractions
: ransomcenter: In this Q&A, experts (including Harry Ransom Center Senior Research Curator of …
: typeworship: Barcelona bites: Five design studios have been picked to represent the best design …
: But if Jane Austen could see that a world of frantic change was about to supplant the world of …
: The Confessions warned some early readers off opium, as De Quincey claimed he intended. “Better, a …
: Gray argues that it is not consciousness or language that distinguishes us from other animals. They …
: newberrylibrary: The Newberry—you may be surprised to learn—has a remarkable collection of musical …
: newberrylibrary: On this day in 1564, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni—the Renaissance …
: The South still attracts the most domestic migrants of any U.S. region. Last year, it boasted six of …
: What might dolphins be saying with all those clicks and squeaks? Each others’ names, suggests a new …
: The history of reading is littered with extreme emotions, especially during times of technological …
: In fact the MOOC is not a disruptive form but a fundamentally conservative one, flattening academic …
: Recognizing the continuity of evolution also makes clear the futility of selecting any particular …
: I think Jacobs is right when he argues that Watchmen’s characters are simplistically sketched and …
: And yet, in spite of the Black Keys’ indie roots, the band’s victory had hardly anything to do with …
: Mantel’s piece is about violation. It is about intrusion, spectacle, about a kind of eerie return of …
: jonklassen2: sketch from today
: The emphasis on his royalty meant that [Richard II] cared deeply for ceremony and for spectacle. He …
: This month’s A Good Day to Die Hard is the fifth Die Hard movie. The night before it opened, it had …
: Remembering Kowloon Walled City
: typeworship: Bodoni pop-up book. Beautiful. cukri: Bodoni Bedlam Pop-Up Book by Victoria Macey …
: Here’s how Shepherd would later describe the difference between Night and Day People—more than a …
: Objections to Christianity… are phrased in words, but that does not mean they are really a matter of …
: typetoy: www.typetoy.tumblr.com
: Emmylou Harris Pitchfork: You’ve been associated with a lot of very inspired but also very hard living guys. …
: Carol Anne Duffy, "Chaucer's Valentine" (for N.) The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne… but be my valentine and I’ll one candle burn, …
: There’s one example in particular that comes close to summing up the entire argument of What Money …
: There exists a very strong, but one-sided and thus untrustworthy, idea that in order to understand a …
: The dialogic nature of consciousness, the dialogic nature of human life itself. The single adequate …
: thingsmagazine: Print by Jonathan Green
: T. S. Eliot forgot what he wrote and what he meant.
: Near the forks of the Grand River in present-day Perkins County, in August 1823, while scouting …
: All of these approaches can help achieve Lahey’s aim of giving shy students the confidence to speak …
: You don’t have to look very hard for the determinism in Dan Slater’s Love in the Time of Algorithms. …
: newyorker: Teju Cole on the civilizing function of literature, and the disparity between Obama’s …
: No deus ex machina waits in the wings; no man behind the curtain. We have no Maxwell’s demon to help …
: Fables de Florian, on Bibliodyssey
: Partly, I use [the word beauty] politically because it’s a taboo word for architects – it makes them …
: The disaster unfolded slowly. The professors and students were diplomatic, but a pall of boredom …
: In this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let it not be forgotten that much …
: We saw the Coronation on television. I thought it needed work and should have been fixed up in New …
: unapologetic-book: Not the right place for it, but too good not to post somewhere - Red Plenty …
: What I lack that the poets and novelists have, the really good ones, is not finally sight or …
: Window-washers dress as superheroes as they work at a children’s hospital
: I think it’s important to realize that what happened in the Swartz case happens it lots and lots of …
: typetoy: http://static.designspiration.net/data/l/867280298178_dlxZql7i_l.jpg
: I kept writing through the summer, and in August the baby was born and I’d cradle him in my left arm …
: Best postage stamp that ever will be, obvsly.
: Pace Roger Kimball, my patron, my host, my colleague in literature: political stand-off, not some …
: Photo by Marcin Ryczek, via @brainpicker on Twitter.
: Academy of American Poets. A lovely poster, though the Rilke quote is the surest recipe I can think …
: So the argument about the adaptiveness of stories, in Pinker, Gottschall, and Boyd alike, goes …
: mediumaevum: Lindisfarne Gospels This is one of the very few pages on which Eadfrith’s original …
: typetoy: http://letterology.blogspot.com/2012/05/alexander-girards-influence-on-modern.html
: This overachiever’s mentality has also determined campus attitudes toward sex. Few notice the …
: thingsmagazine: Imaginary View, landscapes by Rachel Thomas and Dan Tobin Smith (via things)
: typetoy: www.typetoy.tumblr.com
: thenearsightedmonkey: Dear Unthinkable Mind students, Why memorize poetry? “The best argument for …
: wwnorton: From Rhizome’s review of Alessandro Ludovico’s Post-Digital Print: The Mutation of …
: thingsmagazine: Tessa Newcomb, a painted four-drawer chest (via Bonhams)
: We put out the fire but there were, um, side-effects.
: On Erasmus and his reed pen, via Anne Trubek on Twitter.
: Mary the Modest was met in the lane By Someone or Something she couldn’t explain. Joseph the Honest …
: typetoy: www.typetoy.tumblr.com
: thingsmagazine: Portrety, 1922, from Russian Literature and Works on Paper
: thingsmagazine: The Construction of Architectural and Machine Forms, 1931, Chernikov, from Russian …
: A page from the Odyssey, as printed by Aldus Manutius in Venice, courtesy of Sarah Werner. Amazing …
: “E” is for Existential Crisis
: The phrase that came to mind when I first saw the indictment against Swartz was Alexander Pope’s …
: At the end of the 19th century, the French Army emerged as the leading proponent of the slouchy, …
: thingsmagazine: Bendix 526C, 1946, from The Richard Balsbaugh Collection of Vintage Radios
: Duane Allman was a great genius. That’s all I really want to say.
: It may seem kind of strange for a company to build a search engine — a pretty costly undertaking — …
: typeworship: Happy Birthday Johnston and the London Underground This week London sees the 150th …
: typetoy: www.typetoy.tumblr.com
: typetoy: www.typetoy.tumblr.com
: The Book of Common Prayer has its very own tumblelog! It doesn’t get more exciting than that, does it, folks? I’ve started a tumblelog devoted to the Book …
: I instantly and irreversibly block based on @replies I find annoying. Yes, it’s selfish. Yes, it’s …
: In short, Aaron Swartz was not the super hacker breathlessly described in the Government’s …
: Aaron had literally done nothing in his life “to make money.” He was fortunate Reddit turned out as …
: “How was The Hobbit?” my wife asks. “It was actually OK,” the youngest one says. “Are you kidding?” …
: [Lionel Trilling’s] last book, Sincerity and Authenticity (1972), is a battlefield report from the …
: But when it comes to the style of a great man’s discourse, I can speak with a great deal less …
: Apted has said that the subject with whom he most closely identifies is Nick, the precocious farm …
: Can you imagine if our clothes were Internet-enabled? Can you imagine if you lost a sock? You could …
: When I first saw Gibbons’ work in close quarters … I nearly came out in hives. I was so astonished …
: Even today, the archetype is so fixed and commonplace as to be thunderously obvious: Long-haired men …
: poetsorg: “The way Hope builds his House” by Emily Dickinson. Amherst Library recently made her …
: Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes is a truly remarkable book.
: This point is really only a symptom of a deeper and even more common problem Wurtzel displays. She …
: When the famous Beachy Head lighthouse on the Sussex coast was being constructed, in 1901, workers …
: “The Long-Winded Speech,” at the British Museum
: I do feel that some people may be called to unbelief—or what looks like unbelief—in order that faith …
: gilliflower: mark greer, poster design for the art directors club of houston
: 60ansdevadrouille: Agra, le palais de Shah Jahan dans le Fort Rouge. C’est là qu’il termina ses …
: The publications from The School of Life imprint further the same basic project: bring brisk, …
: Maybe Brodie got a raw deal, maybe he didn’t. I don’t know. It doesn’t count. He’s a lout with …
: It’s pretty hard to have a “career” doing any single creative thing nowadays. If you really make a …
: Whenever I find myself in small towns like Spring Green, I remember how it felt to grow up in …
: Where are the Hittites? Why does no one find it remarkable that in most world cities today there are …
: If there is anything more boring than the questions asked about the South, it is the answers …
: Amblyopia is a visual disorder in which the two eyes don’t properly align; sometimes it’s called …
: It may seem peculiar that a persuasive theology of parenthood should be embedded in a 20th-century …
: I recently saw a 70mm print of The Master and I realized that, other than my own films, it’s the …
: oldhollywood: Katharine Hepburn in Mary of Scotland (1936, dir. John Ford) (via)
: I don’t think Gates and Zuckerberg are good role models for young people. And not just because they …
: But here I also have a bit of megalomania. I almost conceive of myself as a Christ figure. OK! Kill …
: How does your approach to writing fiction and non-fiction vary? I write non-fiction quicker and I …
: Every historical period has its own presiding powers and principalities on high. Ours, for what it …
: I have to admit that I have never been an admirer of Jung’s writings, even on those rare occasions …
: Plenty of adults say racist things, revert into ungrateful brats during the holidays, and …
: 60ansdevadrouille: Chameau pâturant dans la plaine de Dzoungarie (près d’Ouroumchi), au pied Nord …
: I do think it’s a cultural catharsis, and it’s a cinematic catharsis. Even — it can even be good for …
: If you’re so used to evolution that you fail to see how weird it is, you’ll be in a poor position to …
: Less is not necessarily more. Being a child of modernism I have heard this mantra all my life. Less …
: There is inevitably something absurd about our priesthood, because what we stand for is so …
: The point here is not to suggest that the NRA and its allies are a threat to American democracy …
: I actually wouldn’t wish I had a gun. I’ve shot a rifle at camp once, but that’s about it. If I had …
: oldhollywood: Dwight Frye in Frankenstein (1931, dir. James Whale) Set design by Herman Rosse & …
: What has happened in one industry after another is that it has become standard practice to tell …
: U. A. Fanthorpe, "Bird Psalm" The Swallow said, He comes like me, Longed for; unexpectedly. The superficial eye Will pass him by, …
: Laypeople also had an active role in announcing the reassurance of God’s forgiveness to one another. …
: I must confess to considerable irritation on this score. When people tell me that “Story” does this …
: The reason for the crawl and slither of these later scenes is plain: the director is coiling …
: For alcohol and firearms alike, there’s room for sensible restrictions in a non-prohibitionist …
: On his death-bed, the dwarf king, Thorin commends Bilbo’s blend of courage and wisdom, adding, “if …
: At a concert in New York, he instructed his bandmates to walk onstage and begin the set by …
: Xc Wise Men are busy being computer literate. There should be a law against confusing Religion with …
: The aire is not so full of Moats, of Atomes, as the Church is of Mercies; and as we can suck in no …
: Malcolm receives an early Christmas present. Emphasis on receives.
: c86: Taken from Woman’s Day Best Ideas For Christmas, 1974 via CheshireCat666
: U. A. Fanthorpe, "BC - AD" This was the moment when Before Turned into After, and the future’s Uninvented timekeepers presented …
: People use guns. But in a sense guns use people, too. When we have the technology for violence …
: U. A. Fanthorpe, "What the Donkey Saw" No room in the inn, of course, And not that much in the stable, What with the shepherds, Magi, Mary, …
: U. A. Fanthorpe, "The Wicked Fairy at the Manger" My gift for the child: No wife, kids, home; No money sense. Unemployable. Friends, yes. But the …
: Saturn backlit by the sun. Gasp.
: A page from William Sutherland’s The Practical Guide to Sign Writing and Gilding, and Ornamenting on …
: In the case of Crave, adding computer memory to a sex toy is just the beginning of the innovation. …
: paleofuture: Santa Claus Builds A Flying Machine
: cariosus: Folded Hedgehog Book (by clara maffei)
: Introducing the Beetbox, which “turns vegetables into a drum kit thanks to a Raspberry Pi edible …
: “I had this realization that every individual language does at least one thing better than every …
: Sure, my photos aren’t the greatest or the prettiest or the most original. But they’re mine. And if …
: Many years ago we did an animated Nativity for Macy’s. We put it in the window, and we had baby …
: Concept cover art by Nick Caro. My thoughts on Adam Lanza, Minority Report, and Malcolm Gladwell on …
: A spider building a fake spider
: J. R. R. Tolkien helping the OED define ‘walrus’
: The latest and in this case particularly heart–rending mass killing has re-ignited the gun …
: Tumblr is a weird social network. Like Twitter its content is (very largely) public, and yet like …
: It’s telling that Dostoyevsky, himself a Christian, offered no direct theological rebuttal to his …
: Hiding beneath all the CGI Sturm und Drang is a powerful story about what it means to have a home …
: Coding Challenge! Well, okay, not really a challenge, but a longstanding wish. My friend Matt Frost and I periodically …
: How should the church respond to congregational decline, financial deficits, and vocational …
: the year in volcanic activity
: I used to find my sleeplessness – I usually fall off for a few hours, wake for maybe two, then sleep …
: Not being able to share photos seamlessly from one social network to another may be the epitome of a …
: Another purported quality of Coursera is that it is “open”, as everything must now be. The …
: There was a time – long ago to most of you, though it seems recent to me – when Rosemary, our …
: neverstopreading: A lovely piece of ephemera: Charles Dickens Reading Ticket circa 1867. Source: …
: According to one person there, the ground conditions at the actual Equator are not stable enough to …
: I wish I could say that in my online writing I have managed to resist the temptation to label others …
: ransomcenter: Read the accompanying article, “Sangorski & Sutcliffe: The Rolls Royce of …
: typetoy: www.typetoy.tumblr.com
: supersonicelectronic: Jaehyo Lee. Wooden sculptures by Jaehyo Lee. Read More
: 60ansdevadrouille: Ellora, Narasimha - avatar de Visnu qui s’est incarné en sanglier pour sauver le …
: Thomas de Quincey and the Ratcliffe Highway Murders
: Another Michael Nichols photo from California’s redwood forests.
: photograph by Michael Nichols of The President, the second most massive tree on earth, and the …
: This absence of literary culture is actually a marker of future blindness because it is usually …
: Of course, at their best, universities and academic societies tend … train students and faculty …
: But although my deceased father of happy memory, Grangousier, had bent his best endeavours to make …
: If Harvard wishes to retain its primary existence as a gigantic profit-maximizing hedge fund, that …
: wwnorton: wwnorton: Before there was Pinterest or Mixel or any of the many online applications …
: Psychiatrists had a seat-of-the pants definition of a PD: “If your first impression of your patient …
: Books, I think, are dead. You cannot fight the zeitgeist and you cannot fight corporations. The …
: mwfrost: Elektroschutz in 132 Bildern (Electrical Protection in 132 Pictures) by Viennese physician …
: Google searches and reception history A while back the Atlantic Tech Channel’s Megan Garber was entertaining us with adventures in …
: davidjphooker: (via Chicago Architecture Blog - Architecture Tours of Chicago)
: If one listens to academics, one might make the mistake of thinking they would like their complaints …
: The mystery book sculptor of Scotland strikes again!
: 'As a non-Christian, indeed a committed atheist, I was worried about how I’d feel about this book but it pulled off a rare feat: making Christianity seem appealing to those who have no interest in ever being Christians.' - Alain De Botton, choosing ‘As a non-Christian, indeed a committed atheist, I was worried about how I’d feel about this …
: You can find him in the café down the street, the one that serves fair-trade coffee and takes a …
: Jacobs thinks we're stuck with mediocre Bible translations because the divorce between belletrist …
: thingsmagazine: Found in this hefty steampunk portfolio, a compilation of (mostly imagined) …
: I was scheduled to fly to Bahrain on Saturday, Dec. 1st, 2012. We received our official itinerary …
: For the beautiful in Mozart seems to stand apart, untouched by human hands. Which is to say that …
: So we have a right-wing and a left-wing party. But we do not have a conservative party – nor could …
: Wittgenstein’s intellectual asceticism had a great influence on the philosophers of the …
: On September 13 of this year, a private company named Ocean Renewable Power Company in collaboration …
: Thomas James, “Mummy of a Lady Named Jumtesonekh” XXI Dynasty My body holds its shape. The genius is intact. Will I return to Thebes? In that lost …
: Next June Princeton University Press has a very special present for y’all. Don’t forget!
: thingsmagazine: The Acme Catalogue
: "Machines," by Michael Donaghy Dearest, note how these two are alike: This harpsicord pavane by Purcell And the racer’s …
: A murmuration of starlings. More photos here. Thanks to @markchangizi on Twitter.
: W. H. Auden, "Fleet Visit" The sailors come ashore Out of their hollow ships, Mild-looking middle-class boys Who read the comic …
: thingsmagazine: Harrier, by Fiona Banner (via things)
: Paris 1929, in color. Via @ellouis on Twitter. (Source: http://albert-kahn.hauts-de-seine.net/)
: We were woken by bright sunlight, needling through the cracks in the bamboo wall, and the sound of …
: So what we have created in the past twenty years is a theological anomaly which has insidiously been …
: Martian dunes. Supposedly. Not sure what this looks like.
: Growing up, assimilating the wisdom of the past, is in great part learning how to organize the …
: Main concourse of the old Penn Station in 1962
: From A Telegraph story on how rubbish from Everest is being turned into art. The caption reads, …
: The waiting room of New York’s old Penn Station, demolished in 1964. In 1924 the English writer …
: Jess Nevins on pulp science fiction in Nazi Germany
: If all the world were Christian, it might not matter if all the world were uneducated. But, as it …
: A map from an anime site I can’t read
: thingsmagazine: Memoires Of A Suburban Utopia, illustrations by Anton Van hertbruggen (via Coudal) …
: My wife Teri found this lovely version of “Every Day I Write the Book” with Elvis and Ron Sexsmith …
: mwfrost: Another page from The Sun Princess and Her Deliverer.
: I think I’d like to try playing a Guitaret.
: A 16th-century urine wheel. Where can I buy one of those?
: vintagebooksdesign: VINTAGE BURGESS Isidro Ferrer was commissioned to create a series of stark …
: oldhollywood: The Unholy Three (1930, dir. Jack Conway) (via)
: That simply reminds us that evangelization is always an overflow of something else - the disciple’s …
: What’s needed on climate change, ultimately, is a wholesale, society-wide commitment to remaking …
: In the US, an undergraduate education used to be an option, one way to get into the middle class. …
: mwfrost: Dancing On and Beneath the Great Wall - 50 Watts Click through. You won’t regret it. Matt …
: thingsmagazine: From ‘88 Maps’ by Matt Mullican
: Autopilots on the other hand, unless integrated to your wind instruments, will force you to sail a …
: thenearsightedmonkey: Poster for Lynda Barry’s class, “The Unthinkable Mind”, Spring 2013 at The …
: thingsmagazine: I’m Trending, a publication by Ryan Gander
: With the launch this weekend of Nintendo’s dual-screen Wii U, we seem to be crossing some new …
: unapologetic-book: The soldiers’ resurrection: altar wall of Sandham Memorial Chapel, Burghclere, …
: wwnorton: “He, Satan, feels foolish and angry now seeing Mrs. McPherson welcomed with open arms in …
: The year 2100 will see eugenics universally established. In past ages, the law governing the …
: thingsmagazine: ‘Christian popsicles’ by Sebastian Errazuriz
: Seeing Oppenheimer whole is as hard as it gets. Rabi thought the key was that Oppenheimer constantly …
: Cranmer himself was married twice: first as a young scholar, to a woman he was willing to give up …
: For Augustine, the book’s closedness—that it could be grasped as a totality—was integral to its …
: By the way, we’ve always known that my son Matthew has extraordinary hearing. He told me the other …
: poetrysociety: Marianne Moore born today in 1887.
: If you come to a parish church in England after the service, what you will see is a (small) crowd of …
: This summer I learned how to get into, well, everything. With two minutes and $4 to spend at a …
: Nagel’s central idea is that there are things that science, as it is presently conceived, cannot …
: thingsmagazine: The Kalinin K-7 heavy bomber
: robertogreco: Inuit Genealogy (via @vruba), explained by John Fass: The diagram above is a …
: Some Thoughts on Work and Dignity Some Thoughts on Work and Dignity
: FREE will build the Miami Chapel.
: For the young man, the voices came on the wings of other sound. When he was driving, he would hear …
: If being a Digital Cultural Entrepreneur doesn’t work out, there are non-digital possibilities
: As will be seen in the above article, my friend Clive Bell is a fathead and a voluptuary. This a …
: As for Spotify, since it is not considered radio, either of this world or any other, they have a …
: xkcd. I have always secretly thought this, but never dared confess it.
: I think the premise from which I start is this idea that … relentless positivity and optimism is …
: robertogreco: One item from Retronaut’s collection of “Maps Before Maps” (via Robin)
: Starbucks has probably improved your coffee-drinking life even if you never step foot inside a …
: Oh right, like I’m not going to link to this
: “The common good” also serves as a valuable reference point for personal choices. Most of my fellow …
: So shame, which rightly belongs to the rebellious human will, gets deflected to the genitals, and …
: Memrise is built to discourage cramming. It’s easy to spend five minutes learning vocabulary with …
: Robbie first contacted me in 2005. He telephoned me out of the blue from a hotel in Blackpool where …
: [vimeo 52193413 w=250 h=106] Mako Fujimura, “Golden Sea” (Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)
: A woman who has sex with multiple partners (maybe hooking up a lot if she’s at a more elite …
: Designers design the feedback they get from clients. Bless their hearts. (Via Adam Roberts on …
: Roth told Les inRocks that when he turned seventy-four he reread his favorite authors—Dostoyevsky, …
: A “Vade-Mecum Memorial Manual of Muses, or Compleate Compendious Complexe and Companion, of Learned …
: davidjphooker: Shiho Kanzaki (via עבודות חדשות - ארז | פורום קרמיקה)
: Here’s the cover of Ian Sansom’s book, quoted in the previous post.
: Harley Jessup, a production designer at Pixar Studios, who worked on Monsters, Inc and Ratatouille, …
: buzz: pheezy: David Lynch + Vincent Price Awesomely creepy people hanging out together.
: Generally speaking, it’s important to remember that ‘openness’ is less often a virtue or even an …
: In the original [Star Wars] trilogy, though, and in Casablanca, all the mixed-up old elements are …
: At colleges across the land, panel discussions organized on the economic crisis have bemoaned such …
: Sometimes it is easy to draw quick lessons from a defeat — but this is not one of those times. …
: It is easy to close oneself off inside a conservative echo chamber. And right-leaning outlets like …
: CLT never faileth: but whether there be speculations, they shall fail; whether there be talking …
: jessnevins: In an effort to provide distraction on election day, I’ve mounted on my site the full …
: Tyler Schnoebelen, who recently completed his PhD in linguistics at Stanford University, told the …
: Yet even in the moment of triumph, things started to crumble. Roger Williams challenged the biblical …
: A thought widely shared in my Twitter feed. Source.
: Britain may once have had an empire on which the sun never set – but a study shows its true global …
: Jonathan Edwards made his own notebooks. The cover of “History of Redemption,” book 1, made from …
: “Dove Descending #2”, by Randall Tiedman
: “Limbus Patrum # 4”, by Randall Tiedman, who died yesterday
: No matter which hollow man occupies the bunker at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the evidence from 225 …
: Systems biology did not rise without skepticism. The great geneticist and Nobel-prize winning …
: Inside League of Legends developer Riot Games is a team of more than 30 staffers trying to make the …
: At present, there is no experimental evidence of any significant concentration of antimatter in our …
: Deploying the fruits of years of research — as well as a wealth of observations and interviews — …
: From James Joyce, The Cats of Copenhagen, shared by Brain Pickings
: This past year Michael Murray brought out Jacques Barzun: Portrait of a Mind, tracking his subject’s …
: oldhollywood: The Three Witches in Macbeth (1948, dir. Orson Welles) (via)
: oldhollywood: Boris Karloff presides over an art deco Black Mass in The Black Cat (1934, dir. Edgar …
: If you pay careful attention to the way Ikarians have lived their lives, it appears that a dozen …
: If news as [W. H. Russell, the great Victorian journalist] knew it, and as the last reporters in …
: [A] new branch of the neuroscience explains everything genre may be created at any time by the …
: Why are the Adam and (to a lesser extent) the Eve of Venus, or Perelandra, tan from the shoulders …
: A surprisingly, and disconcertingly, accurate cover for the first installment of C. S. Lewis’s …
: what religion is The term “religion” now delimits a particular, limited sphere of activity, a form of life like golf …
: Suppose you wanted to go live at a luxury resort for four years. You’d expect that to cost, wouldn’t …
: How do you measure a spirit, or dissect a phantom? For many, ghosts are beyond the frontier of what …
: The Online State of Nature Back in 2010 I published this column for the Big Questions Online website. That site has changed a …
: reading-as-breathing: Ceramic book building in Amsterdam. By Sanja Medic, Melle Hammer and Susanne …
: Jimmy Cross married letters from a girl named Martha. They were not love letters, but Jimmy hoped …
: After Benito Mussolini’s execution in 1945, his people, brutalized and bankrupted by five years of …
: Biden-laughs and Ryan-abs, Big Birds and binders and bayonets: There is something fascinating when …
: I want to write: “I would rather be devastated by the truth than comforted by a lie” and be able to …
: justin-singer: Historical NYC subway maps from the NY Transit Museum.
: Unapologetic: Bread and wine Unapologetic: Bread and wine unapologetic-book: He is most specifically of all here, we believe, …
: thingsmagazine: Action cards from The London Game, designed to be played around the capital’s …
: Cover of Graphics World magazine (Nov/Dec 1988), designed by Phil Baines; via All About Lettering
: Alan Jacobs, almost certainly Wheaton College’s most public public intellectual, will be at Wheaton …
: Well, I think, personally — and I’m sticking my neck out here — that we should stop having a …
: I have no reason to think that Coursera, or any other MOOC, has anything but noble intentions when …
: Ask yourself: Why is it so vital that I be smoothened? There’s no functional advantage to …
: When mass-produced cars appeared, they had an impact on the whole of society. What might be the …
: wwnorton: What ho? The primary decree of the fisticuffs guild! h/t our friends at San Diego’s …
: thingsmagazine: The Pininfarina workshop, c.1960, from Turin European Metropolis
: Even feminist writers seem to react somewhat more harshly to women who disagree with them than to …
: Lord of the Rings demography in infographics. If you’re into that kind of thing.
: Most people don’t appreciate the beauty and aesthetics in science. Consider mathematics. There are …
: Yet another photo-essay, this one on the history of the London Underground
: A young lion sleeps, indifferent to the thunderstorm rolling in behind him; from a collection of …
: From a photo essay on the disappearing old neighborhoods of Shanghai
: The study was done on land owned by Iowa State University called the Marsden Farm. On 22 acres of …
: For expert writers like Bellow, Woolf, Carter and Nabokov, excess, somewhat paradoxically, is of the …
: At last, having been (always attended by the cat) all over the house and having seen the whole stock …
: mwfrost: If you’re like me, and enjoy giggling at the stuff stupid people say in public, you should …
: Joseph Conrad, who had seen a revolution or two, put it this way: ‘A violent revolution falls into …
: Why I Resigned the Paterno Chair - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education Why I Resigned the Paterno Chair - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education A very …
: Via @pinboard on Twitter, the Nunavut coat of arms
: I’m friends with our subject librarian, and I had talked to her about the visit. She had …
: A knife on a bottle A fork on a glass Chalk on a blackboard A ruler on a bottle Nails on a …
: The New Economy illustrated. Via Twitter
: Cassiodorus College: A Proposal | The American Conservative Cassiodorus College: A Proposal | The American Conservative
: “Numerous academic studies have found no truth in the stereotype about men being better map readers …
: Consider forest fires. Until late in the twentieth century we were told by Smokey Bear that “only …
: On to a transport map of Tokyo, a newspaper has superimposed the impact of the Great Kanto …
: Emily Carr’s typeface specimen posters are neat.
: Shadow sculptures: portraits of the artists. Via @buffigibbons on Twitter
: Reading the Bible out loud is a profoundly theological act. After all, it is no accident that the …
: So can divestment, I asked, be an effective strategy? Can it generate enough economic leverage to …
: At its root, our mission is both medical and moral. It is based on solidarity, rather than charity …
: It’s probably also true that climate change is far too complex an issue to write a definitive novel …
: Yes, some mouth-breathing upskirt enthusiasts actually are ardent defenders of free speech in a …
: There would be no haggling. The man spat a dry white circle in the dirt. Eleven fifty. And it was …
: Prezi, You and Me Is Quits: A Rant I have tried, Prezi — you can’t say I haven’t tried. But I’m done with you now. The core idea of …
: Moses, the orphaned baby elephant being raised by a human
: A Google data center, courtesy of Nick Carr
: Why shouldn’t newspapers around the world, or at least in the most internet-saturated parts of the …
: My thesis is that the academic novel stems from the rise of mass higher education in the United …
: In a late essay, Arnold argued that the prayer book “has created sentiments deeper than we can see …
: The “free speech” aspect of this is largely nonsense. Reddit is not a public utility or a public …
: Many critics lay the blame on the College Board itself, a huge “non-profit” organization that …
: Let me put it this way: I would not let the moderators and fans of the Reddit creeper forums around …
: Consider trolls’ deeply contentious but ultimately homologous relationship with sensationalist …
: Christianity and the Future of the Book Last year I led a seminar on this topic for some faculty colleagues here at Wheaton. Just before our …
: Nonsense, Skepticism, and TED Talks | The American Conservative Nonsense, Skepticism, and TED Talks | The American Conservative
: Has Twitter Become Too Big for High-Quality Conversation? - Alan Jacobs - The Atlantic Has Twitter Become Too Big for High-Quality Conversation? - Alan Jacobs - The Atlantic
: Zombies are supposed to be dead but still walking around. The horror is, among other things, an …
: paleofuture: The robot dog of 1923 Featuring Demon Boy.
: attnmgmtblog: Jeff Atwood, answering the question, “What’s your best time-saving shortcut/life …
: Ramsay’s one weak spot, the chink in his mental armature? Silence. He can’t bear it. Chefs must …
: Universities and their libraries have a special place in copyright law because they have a special …
: But the faithful imagination can’t praise, can’t give thanks to a God who doesn’t judge, because our …
: Even with regards to the leakers, however, the situation is far more complex than Greenberg lets on. …
: (thanks to Reihan Salam on Twitter)
: Roger Federer not as religious experience but as terracotta warrior
: F. T. Prince, "Epistle to A Patron" My lord, hearing lately of your opulence in promises and your house Busy with parasites, of your …
: thingsmagazine: Photography by Matthias Heiderich (via things)
: davidjphooker: (via fall firing 2012 - Rough Ideas)
: What inclines even me to believe in Christ’s Resurrection? It is as though I play with the thought. …
: Avian carriers can provide high delay, low throughput, and low altitude service. The connection …
: ransomcenter: Read the full article “In the Galleries: Norman Bel Geddes’s diagram for ‘Highways and …
: ransomcenter: Are authors still writing letters? The Daily Beast shares “Letter Writing in the …
: I grant that the president has significant influence over international affairs, although less than …
: As I type this, I am looking out my window at the flying buttresses of a church, admiring their …
: This is one of the most fundamental differences between an individualist and a personalist …
: The Web's Elusive Promise of a DIY Career in the Arts - Alan Jacobs - The Atlantic The Web’s Elusive Promise of a DIY Career in the Arts - Alan Jacobs - The Atlantic In which I …
: I find myself lately pretty continually dismayed by the frequency with which I have to acknowledge …
: I suspect — I can only guess — that Price’s environment is one in which the narrow-minded …
: Meet the Beatles (Again) | The American Conservative Meet the Beatles (Again) | The American Conservative
: mudwerks: (via MAKE | Paperback Book Color Wheel) Jonathan Whitfill
: So sad that this isn’t actually a movie.
: thingsmagazine: Boris Pasternak, My sister-life, with etchings by Yuri Kuper
: As the authors were offering their final points at the end of the Q&A, [Steven] Johnson hit on a …
: With the iPhone, Apple is building products at a level of quality that may be unprecedented in the …
: The emphasis in early Christian writings was not on complexity, irreducible or otherwise, but on the …
: arpeggia: Anamorphic art by Georges Rousse | More posts
: thingsmagazine: Swedish scrap book, c.1890
: In text, where the impact of digital technology came first and most fully, desktop-publishing …
: Sometimes, when I’m talking books, people will say, “You’re so well read.” I wish this were true. I …
: This same dynamic repeats itself in other crucial realms. President Obama’s dramatically escalated …
: We have surrendered our handwriting for something more mechanical, less distinctively human, less …
: As Politico reported, “Most Americans think public broadcasting receives a much larger share of the …
: For the arts to revive in the U.S., young artists must be rescued from their sanitized middle-class …
: The Elements of Euclid, via the Ministry of Type
: Many years later, he heard some of Inigo’s last words in the film again — “I have been in the …
: I can personally attest that, despite the liberal bias, I was happy in academe. Another …
: futurejournalismproject: Finding the ‘Beautiful Evidence’ of Science New York-based artist Thomas …
: On a Saturday morning in November 1966, Tom Phillips picked a book at random from a pile of novels …
: thingsmagazine: The English Empire in America, N. Crouch, 1685
: thingsmagazine: The New Yorker (Now Using Apple Maps) (via magCulture)
: Frank Lloyd Wright’s drawing for a house be built for his son, a house that may soon be demolished
: Cell Phones as Meeting Points in a Featureless Landscape - Alan Jacobs - The Atlantic Cell Phones as Meeting Points in a Featureless Landscape - Alan Jacobs - The Atlantic
: Switching to Dvorak was hard – far harder, in my experience, than switching to a standing desk, or …
: The old pre-industrial community and culture are gone and cannot be brought back. Nor is it …
: mwfrost: From From Ephraim Chambers’ Cyclopaedia
: This time of year it’s at its best. I open the bamboo blinds in the morning to let the warming …
: What I’d like to add to Nick’s list is one observation: none of those predictions was completely …
: Effective defenders of Christianity must sound like ordinary citizens. They must be fluent in the …
: thenearsightedmonkey: What role will our hands play in the future? Will we still write by hand? via …
: thingsmagazine: Church in Cassone (Landscape with Cypresses), 1913, from Gustav Klimt: The Complete …
: And if you are seated in your high chair, or in a chair such as a greater person might use, keep …
: Auden's Syllabus W. H. Auden taught at the University of Michigan during the 1941-42 academic year. Here’s a syllabus …
: http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1 Calligraphic images, via …
: But then, across the room, I saw this beautiful guy with gorgeous flowing hair, wearing a simple …
: Labour was treated to a 45-minute lecture on the moral limits of markets by Harvard University …
: In the United States the notion that bike helmets promote health and safety by preventing head …
: If you plucked an average American (mean, median, or modal) out of Kansas City or Aurora, and …
: It was already possible, by the early ’90s and actually long before them, to trace the terms of the …
: Boise State University is seeking a specialist in precisely your area of study. Additional …
: thingsmagazine: Russ Stutler’s 221B Baker Street illustration (via things).
: thingsmagazine: Gluttony, from The 9 circles of hell from Dante’s Inferno recreated in Lego, at …
: oldhollywood: Art deco lobby set for Grand Hotel (1932, dir. Edmund Goulding) Set design by Cedric …
: thingsmagazine: Alexander Performance Scale Test kit, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1946-1950 (see things for …
: The culture that inhabits us - and by us, I mean Christians - is a subtle and seductive one. It …
: In the first place, it is true that I turned 40 this year, and it is equally true that, for the 40th …
: Members of the Family | The American Conservative Members of the Family | The American Conservative
: There are more Linux distros on a single Linux Format disc than Microsoft has versions of Windows. …
: When I see diversity-casting in commercials—two bland Caucasians waving beer cans at a TV, or at a …
: We have become accustomed to thinking of educational failure as a function of a teacher’s lack of …
: The typical Romanian driver is a man of faith. He sees the road as it is — a densely congested, …
: theatlantic: livelymorgue: Dec. 21, 1933: From the Mid-Week Pictorial. Americans visiting Paris …
: If the Berlin Wall could fall, so can the N.F.L. Alex Koppelman on the replacement referees and the …
: mwfrost: (via Otto’s Dance of Death - 50 Watts) Any time the 50 Watts blog mentions “the collection …
: thingsmagazine: Poster relating to smoking, London, England, c. 1965-1970
: Christaraksha May the cross of the Son of God, which is mightier than all the hosts of Satan and more glorious …
: poetrysociety: “Mad Libs” of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 from the Brooklyn Book Festival.
: mwfrost: Got bored with the view in my mirror, swiped down to refresh. Since the iOS 6 ungrade, …
: In Mental Exercise, Variety Matters - Alan Jacobs - The Atlantic In Mental Exercise, Variety Matters - Alan Jacobs - The Atlantic
: Learning to Write is Painful (And Maybe Has to Be) | The American Conservative Learning to Write is Painful (And Maybe Has to Be) | The American Conservative
: “Where Shall a Man Find Sweetness to Surpass His Own Home?” | The American Conservative “Where Shall a Man Find Sweetness to Surpass His Own Home?” | The American Conservative
: buzz: Mapping America’s Fast Food Regions I’m pretty sure this is the least informative infographic …
: a few too many words (from me) on Mikhail Bakhtin a few too many words (from me) on Mikhail Bakhtin
: Minimalistic Posters Of Famous Painters thetinhouse: Are you able to guess the famous painters in every poster? From Graphic design duo …
: The absence of credible alternative sources severely limits the options for claiming that the “real …
: Trolling the Homeschoolers | The American Conservative Trolling the Homeschoolers | The American Conservative
: The other day I realized that “interactive” anything is the wrong word. Interactive makes you …
: James Wright, "Depressed by a Book of Bad Poetry, I Walk Toward an Unused Pasture and Invite the Insects to Join Me" Relieved, I let the book fall behind a stone. I climb a slight rise of grass. I do not want to …
: James Wright, "Arrangements with the Earth for Three Dead Friends" Sweet earth, he ran and changed his shoes to go Outside with other children through the fields. He …
: Apple urged patience. “Customers around the world are upgrading to iOS 6 with over 200 new features …
: poetrysociety: Robert Creeley’s Was That A Real Poem Or Did You Just Make It Up Yourself.
: Just Sayin’ is to radio what Twitter is to newsprint,” said Gervais. “Making the human voice a …
: Cecilia Giménez, the Spanish woman who really messed up when she tried to restore a 19th-century …
: I think elegy is an inevitable outcome of utopia. I do think I have a sense of belatedness, of …
: On Having Roots in More than One Place | The American Conservative On Having Roots in More than One Place | The American Conservative
: What Salman Rushdie Didn’t Say | The American Conservative What Salman Rushdie Didn’t Say | The American Conservative
: Thomas Nagel is Admirably Fair-Minded | The American Conservative Thomas Nagel is Admirably Fair-Minded | The American Conservative
: Introducing … myself | The American Conservative Introducing … myself | The American Conservative
: a new bloggy home The good folks at The American Conservative have been kind enough, and unwise enough, to give me a …
: Unfortunately, these few niceties can’t make up for the fact that Twitter took nearly everything …
: This naturally invites questions about the practical value of Mr. Rorty’s own ideas. He thinks they …
: Pretty Things & Monsters: A soldier and his squirrel. Pretty Things & Monsters: A soldier and his squirrel. batfullobelfries: Soldiers in Belarus …
: Bradbury insisted he was not a hard science fiction author, but instead a writer of fantasy. …
: Nothing tests one’s intellectual honesty and ability to apply principles consistently more than free …
: I am usually collaborating with the interesting dead… Rilke or Cicero or Shakespeare or Dante or …
: Martin SImpson, my favorite guitarist, playing “She Slips Away.” I’d love to own one of those …
: oldhollywood: Sylvia Sidney & Henry Fonda in You Only Live Once (1937, dir. Fritz Lang) (via)
: What about the other writers, editors, and presenters at the Register and EWTN media? How are they …
: Might be good to have the occasional sliver of cricket on that right-hand column.
: Can the Lascaux paintings be saved?
: Imaging the caves of Nottingham
: What was the response you received to Race Against the Machine? People accepted that technology was …
: Temperamental conservatism understands that in order to preserve anything, it must be kept within …
: Charlie Kaufman and Dan Harmon (the creator of NBC’s show Community) have set a record for …
: [The Smiths’] career prospects were always held in check by a problem that grew worse as their …
: We may swear simply because it makes us feel better. In a 2011 study led by Keele University’s …
: DFW and belief Since his death, there seems to be an emerging interest in Wallace’s religious views, and to cast …
: For most of us, being hit by lightning and kicked out of the circus would be an extraordinary turn …
: The Digital Age: Reading, Writing, and Research (Spring 2013) Experimental course • ENGL 380 How is the rise of digital technologies changing some of the …
: The other thing for which I am grateful to philosophy is that, at least in the world in which I …
: [This] is our movement. We will not consider you a part of it, we will not work with you, we will …
: "Man Carrying Thing," by Wallace Stevens The poem must resist the intelligence Almost successfully. Illustration: A brune figure in winter …
: So decrepit and so abused is the language of the Judeo-Christian religions that it takes an effort …
: rapture and routine Early on in this I compared beginning to believe to falling in love, and the way that faith settles …
: Die, heretic! Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!” He said, “Nobody loves me.” I …
: The marvelous part is the way [Michael] Joyce’s face looks when he talks about what tennis means to …
: The larger issue is that both campaigns have decided that deceptiveness carries no penalty. I know …
: One of the great questions is: who is this new Data Driven world going to be for and what is it …
: “I swear—by my life and my love of it—that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask …
: This assimilation of American Catholics to Protestant attitudes about governance has, of course, …
: I was teaching an MA seminar on children’s literature when a rather severe Latvian student dived …
: belief and illusion The funny thing is that, to me, it’s belief that involves the most uncompromising attention to the …
: Christianity and Fantasy, Fall 2012 Schedule 8.30 Introduction to course Progenitors 9.4 George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin 9.6 …
: I, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., that is, do hereby swear that I will be faithful to the commitments hereunder …
: davidjphooker: View Tower of Babel Detail: Outside The Gallery)
: Our moral shortcomings are preventing our political institutions from acting effectively. Enhancing …
: Practically no writer exists now who does not intersect as some point with the university …
: Internet addiction is real, researchers out of the University of Bonn say, and its source can be …
: Much as many would like to believe that the medium determines the message, a modern politician is …
: In the past couple of years, Patrick Deneen and Jeremy Beer have observed that the supposed …
: After the 2008 collapse, the worst since the Great Depression, the rich, rather than having the …
: First and foremost, the notion of “privacy” is about having a sense of control over how and when …
: Today, many of the most high-status jobs for the well-educated make a virtue of intensity and …
: Tending your own garden does not, for example, confront the problem of Monsanto. The corporation …
: Official professions to the contrary, many self-described American intellectual conservatives have a …
: To be a writer in this market requires not only money, but a concept of “work” that is most easily …
: For some reason, tonight I’m remembering this, my favorite moment from the Olympics.
: why I hate Mountain Lion Since the update from Lion: The Finder intermittently (i.e. several times a day) and inexplicably …
: So Philology: to preserve, monitor, investigate, and augment our cultural inheritance, including the …
: For some writers, reading the copy-edits is like going to the dentist. You know you have to, and …
: “We created the civil forums to promote civility and personal respect between people with major …
: American linguistic diversity as a whole isn’t dying—it’s thriving. Despite our gut-level hunch …
: mwfrost: portraitoftheartistasayoungman: A jellyfish I saw last week while having breakfast on the …
: This magazine, as I understand it, is devoted to a project of redefining what Americans think it …
: Surely it’s impossible, I think, that the devils will forget to drag me down to their place with …
: newyorker: Cartoon of the night by Benjamin Schwartz. For more: http://nyr.kr/QT7qx9
: bluedollar: THIS WINS THE INTERNET. FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR.
: ‘Is he – quite safe?’ asks Susan in Chapter 7 of The Lion. ‘Who said anything about safe? ’Course he …
: When the rich are highly concentrated in wealthy enclaves, they’re less likely to give as compared …
: Imani Perry: One of my favorite cultural critics, Albert Murray, began publishing his writing at age …
: Your side stirs up hate against the people on my side. The horrible signs your people hold up at …
: Curious perspectives, from Bibliodyssey
: New Statesman: Are you writing anything at the moment? Diana Athill: I’m not. I do a bit of book …
: It’s shameful that Apple has asked its users to put so much trust in its cloud services, and not put …
: All Cambridge editions of the Book of Common Prayer made sure that the Communion of the Sick …
: crazyasslibrarystuff: I’m not the least bit surprised that a cat would be proofreading the secrets …
: I was in a diner the other day and picked up a printed newspaper. To be precise, I picked up the …
: Look, it’s a 20-foot-high cardboard baby in the desert! Via @karlsteel on Twitter.
: The Family Research Council’s president, Tony Perkins, said Thursday that “Corkins was given a …
: In a few short years, we have gone from anonymous experts to having all of our most distant …
: Mrs. Rowling, I read your statement that the wizarding gene is dominant. I have heard criticism that …
: It used to be that paper was made from rags, a shortage of which gripped the Western world in the …
: I wish, often, that we cared as deeply about other things here in my native South as we do football. …
: thingsmagazine: iTypewriter by Austin Yang (via things)
: The view from the airplane of the future
: Back at the hotel afterward, Dylan looks about as satisfied as a man with his restless creative …
: That being said, I can only confess to being repeatedly humbled and reconverted by Lewis in a way …
: We have three minds, I reckon, one of which is the body, while the other two are forms of mentation: …
: After all, the relationship between human reader and “animated” book has been forged over centuries. …
: The press loves inspirational stories about Kindle prospectors like Hocking or crime writer John …
: Consumerism now wants you to be single, so it sells this as sexy. The irony is that it’s now more …
: Readers would be rightly insulted if they felt I’d assumed they were less smart or less …
: Saturday, July 28, was the final day of a remarkable three-day process to reinvent Kepler’s Books in …
: I have plenty of friends in and from California, but I don’t think California is fundamentally a …
: Old Swiss farmhouse-turned-office
: That said, many of these film adaptations have something in common—they’re based not on full-length …
: Social science in many ways depends on moral philosophy. In deciding how to measure causation and …
: But what happened to me exposes vital security flaws in several customer service systems, most …
: Reinventing medical care could produce hundreds of innovations. Some may be as simple as giving …
: Then again, almost every American religion sooner or later becomes a Gospel of Wealth. Forced into a …
: mwfrost: The story I mentioned the other day about my daughter at the TSA checkpoint? It ended with …
: There is this weird assumption on the part of the media that if a candidate can be hurt if their …
: Attendance is not a direct index of anything vital to the church. Sometimes high attendance …
: Does anything say so much about the times we live in as the fact that the word sharing has almost …
: I have the legitimate authority to allocate those 160 minutes [per week] of my students’ and my time …
: It wasn’t their opinions, left or right, right or wrong, that impressed American readers so much as …
: A teenager wearing disconcerting, plastic earlobe-stretchers wanders through the food court, …
: Space colonies. That’s the latest thing you hear, from the heralds of the future. President Gingrich …
: Consider the technique of positive visualization, a staple not only of Robbins-style seminars but …
: My conclusion? When you see a passage in quotation marks in a New Yorker article, you should not …
: But in the domain of zero to one, not-something to something, Pointsman can only possess the zero …
: We discovered that 92% of Americans preferred the distribution of “Equalden” to America’s. And if …
: A few years after the idiot in Aspen, I was in Berlin giving a talk when the Marxist writer Tariq …
: Boycotts and procotts are by now commonplace and predictable, the skirmishes involving a certain …
: What a face. Afghanistan: Faces of Hope.
: The world’s tallest sandcastle. Explanation of the physics here.
: Orson Welles was always embarrassed by Rosebud. “It’s a gimmick, really,” he told interviewers, “and …
: Where does it come from? How does a nation of 632,000 people — roughly a quarter the size of the …
: Question. Why is it that no other species but man gets bored? Under the circumstances in which a man …
: Domosławski lists many other veracity problems. Kapuściński’s agency stuff is fairly straightforward …
: Absent further revelations, though, I find it an unfair double-standard that something Lehrer …
: Why won’t companies that provide online services take my money? As a mere consumer of such services, …
: If you’ve been watching NBC in prime time the past few nights, you’ve probably noticed how, night …
: To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport Rhode Island. Gentlemen, While I receive, with much …
: 60ansdevadrouille: Lanzhou, jardin des Cinq Sources. vérire oasis dans la ville la plus occidentale …
: We are especially nostalgic for the mechanical. We miss the weight of objects, the sounds of gears …
: If the language of war tends to centralize power, does the rhetoric of “culture war” tend in some …
: A few years ago, newspapers and nonprofits set up fact-checking squads, rating campaign statements …
: a small thought about Jonah Lehrer If things go a certain way, this fall from grace could be the best thing that ever happened to Jonah …
: The point at issue—whether homosexuality, capitalism, colonial slavery, or something else—is never …
: Are you one of those English professors who writes garbage in his books but just so much of it that …
: The good news for [Jonah] Lehrer is that rehabilitation isn’t far off. Remember the Doris Kearns …
: There is neither a first nor a last word and there are no limits to the dialogic context (it extends …
: a publishing story This may be of no interest to anyone, but it involves a key moment in my own career, and I’ve never …
: When people ask, “How are you not exploding with stress with everything on your plate?”, I know they …
: Such was the case with Daniels, the Massachusetts gentleman — his pet spaniel bit him. Curiously, …
: If digital cryptography isn’t enough to hide a book for ever, physical inks still might. Argentinian …
: oldhollywood: Son of Frankenstein (1939, dir. Rowland V. Lee) Expressionistic set design by art …
: It may seem strange that anyone could look around the pornography-saturated, fertility-challenged, …
: Oh, what the hell. Let’s go for it. Let us speak about great writing — not brilliant writing or …
: One fine summer night in June 1933 I was sitting on a lawn after dinner with three colleagues, two …
: Rule No. 4: Never use three words when one will do. Be concise. Don’t fall in love with the gentle …
: Finally this uncertainty drives Kandel, no less than Boyd and Pagel, back to the first principles of …
: mwfrost: (via Galileo Galilei, Drawings of the Moon) Can I opt to only trust empirical claims from …
: Yesterday 2 lectures, re-drafting findings of Committee on Emergency Exams …. and then a great …
: Is fantasy intrinsically hostile to technology? That is, was Tolkien simply drawing out what is …
: What I think we lack sometimes is confidence that in the long run of things, a certain kind of …
: The structure here is not easy for the lay viewer to decode. [Rhythmic gymnastics] has its own …
: The market economy must find its place in a higher order of things which is not ruled by supply and …
: Chick-fil-A should not be prevented from opening business because of the views of its leaders, or …
: Some people — in comments, on Twitter and elsewhere — are defending what Emanuel and Menino are …
: But liberals should recognize the parallels between even this stronger argument and the (once …
: A team led by artificial intelligence specialist Joan Serra at the Spanish National Research Council …
: But the iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy, and deals with the memory of men without …
: I could never divide myself from any man upon the difference of an opinion, or be angry with his …
: ‘I don’t teach writing classes anymore,’ says Le Guin, 'and I’m really glad I don’t, because I would …
: The museum has not been redefined so much as it has been disassembled, its coherence shattered as …
: One result of the crisis, then, is the catastrophic weakening of the nation’s wealthiest religious …
: SIR – You mentioned research which revealed that shoppers often prefer “50% extra free” to a …
: New Penn State trustee Anthony Lubrano said he was “deeply disappointed” in the sanctions and the …
: A writer like Stephen King, in contrast, is less interested in illuminating the everyday than in …
: These killers are primarily the product of psychological derangements, not sociological ones. Yet, …
: on the Cappadocian church When I think about what the Christian church can be at its very best, I think back to Cappadocia in …
: People at the extremes are happier than political moderates. Correcting for income, education, age, …
: Hummingbirds, like all flying birds but more so, have incredible enormous immense ferocious …
: Representing China to Europe in the 1670s
: oldhollywood: Vampyr (1932, dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer) (via)
: ‘Bilbo knew no more than he told you, I am sure,’ said Gandalf. ‘He would certainly never have …
: Our online experience (and this is particularly true for specific ones, such as gaming or digital …
: Elizabeth Anscombe, for no reason except that I love this photo and think that she’s one of the most …
: I’m pretty sure this is where Dasein goes when he’s feeling down.
: The latest Colorado shooter – like Jared Loughner of Tucson, Seung-Hui Cho of Virginia Tech, and the …
: Two men waiting, for another whom they know only by an implausible name which may not be his real …
: I went to bed at night looking forward to my nineses and then, as soon as I woke up, I stumbled out …
: Robert Gifford, a psychologist at the University of Victoria in British Columbia who studies the …
: The great allure of the superhero, of course, is that he has the tools necessary not only to fight …
: Fifty years ago, in The Machine in the Garden, Leo Marx drew widespread attention to the complex …
: What’s most interesting is that he totally blew the call on where the battle-lines would be drawn. …
: The day, of course, is ubiquitous as a unit of organization, regulated by our cycles of waking and …
: It is difficult to believe today, as Chatwin’s contemporaries did, that he was simply an …
: Again, pundits, let’s talk. MOOCs are damn interesting, you betcha, but seriously, if you think …
: But for all their supposed obsolescence, libraries remain vital places, and many of them are more …
: Grammar signifies more than just a person’s ability to remember high school English. I’ve found that …
: As Anthony Burgess once commented, there is no better reason for not reading a book than having it, …
: Online education is a one-size-fits-all endeavor. It tends to be a monologue and not a real …
: My filmmaking education consisted of finding out what filmmakers I liked were watching, then seeing …
: La Règle du Jeu The other day I was urging some friends on Twitter to watch Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game, …
: One final thought, about the shooting in Colorado: It’s terrible, of course. Really and truly evil. …
: Readflow In our exciting and information-rich Internet Age, everyone needs a readflow: a way to get to the …
: These new tactics go beyond Islam as a religion. They are intended to make Muslims or Arabs in …
: thingsmagazine: Fender guitar catalogue, 1969
: Continuing a long, proud tradition of saying crazy shit, Rush Limbaugh is now claiming that Bane, …
: And then there was the year without prayer. Or was it two years? Three? Or five? I guess I lost …
: The suburbanization of American Christianity has had a huge impact on institutional and …
: the contraceptive mandate and Gnostic religion Our organizations, and we ourselves, do not all share the same view of the moral acceptability of …
: Reblogging does not necessarily indicate agreement with the underlying sentiment. But this is great.
: Aquaman is one of the fastest swimmers in the ocean. He chases German U-boats, out-swims dolphins, …
: It was even more startling to arrive in Morocco during preproduction on Cleopatra, the $30 million …
: The problem with the moral molecule idea is that it turns science—messy, complex, frustrating as it …
: Some years ago Stewart Brand, of The Whole Earth Catalog fame, wrote a fascinating book called How …
: Alexander Woollcott’s 1939 portrait of [Alice in Wonderland] as a “gay tapestry” and of Dodgson as a …
: There will be disagreement about which is [Frank] Kermode’s best book. His most Kermodian is The …
: I remember telling myself little fantasies as a child and a young man, that my home, peaceful and …
: Joe Paterno’s family on Monday vowed their own investigation of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, …
: Over the course of his 29-bout professional career, Amir Khan has vacillated wildly between …
: More than 50 percent of the United States is under drought conditions right now, putting 2012 in the …
: What if the Singularity means being absorbed into a hivemind? What if the Singularity means being absorbed into a hivemind?
: The “upper class,” as defined by the study, were more likely to break the law while driving, take …
: But the city has, to its credit, lavished money on parks in all boroughs, not just Manhattan and …
: How squirrels land at Stan Lee’s house
: But if liberals need to come to terms with these failures, religious conservatives should not be …
: It is a generational thing, of course. The worst offenders are teenagers – in terms of the group who …
: Auden as Dalgleish I have just learned from this interview with P. D. James that her first editor at Faber, Charles …
: By the end it’s clear that one form of bravery the film celebrates is affective: It’s the bravery to …
: heracliteanfire: Illustrations from Living Lights: A Popular Account of Phosphorescent Animals and …
: The Daily’s business model combines two limiting factors that make it worse than your average, …
: Twitter has figured out what it wants to be when it grows up. It wants to be The New Media. Twitter …
: Article 18 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) provides: “Everyone …
: a prediction Here’s my prediction of what will happen as a result of the exposure of the profound corruption at …
: “The Family Christian Edifi tablet, which came out last month, comes with earphones, a wall charger, …
: This is Wes a few years later, but I don’t have a date. He was maybe six? I’m not sure. Love this …
: Sebastiano Cantalupo, of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his colleagues may have …
: In 1988, the U.N. cultural organization UNESCO named three mosques and 16 mausoleums in Timbuktu to …
: Since I don’t “use the internet,” according to my dial-up definition, I’m frequently longing for my …
: Tunnelling through the mountain was not just an intellectual and creative challenge; Joyce was beset …
: Whatever the reasons behind the collapse of handwriting, college students no longer think it is …
: Lehrer … isn’t an artist or scientist, but a skillful journalist, and while he’s never pretended …
: So what about those of us—especially, but not only, women—who want to dig into contentious topics …
: “There must be a great deal of good in a man who could love a child so much,” is what the Atlanta …
: People will often cite hard work and a high degree of motivation as the secret to success in these …
: Keeping drugs, and particularly vaccines, potent in tropical climes is a challenge. Heat tends to …
: thingsmagazine: Below Piccadilly Circus
: In May 2007 a small group of religious leaders met, in the EU headquarters in Brussels, with the …
: There’s an asteroid the size of Montana heading toward Earth and if it hits us, the planet is over. …
: Finally, a bridge you can trust
: In what is perhaps a sign of the growing Islamic extremism in the country, Pakistan’s only Nobel …
: Photo by James Charlick of the library in an abandoned house, via BoingBoing
: There is another wild card to take into account in history: the way that something which once seemed …
: Smart developers will not just conclude that Twitter is unsafe to build on, but also any company …
: Bill Maher, Christopher Hitchens, Penn Jillette, Richard Dawkins, etc, specialize—not in …
: It was a Wal-Mart, now it’s a public library
: These girlfriends are married to executives and small business owners, two of whom are in the …
: One of Colombia’s mini-libraries, via Good
: With Aerotropolis: How We’ll Live Next, John Kasarda and Greg Lindsay have given us a sprawling …
: But the New York Public Library has since its founding been democratic in a more than simply numeric …
: In New York, I ran into a roadblock. My previous libraries either had incredibly long hours, like …
: Nothing changed for me immediately. I’d still vote for George W. Bush later that fall; still accuse …
: CDs always felt like cassettes to me — partially because the industry decided to put them in …
: I got into trouble a while ago for saying that I thought the internet led to increased literacy – …
: If the Beatles represent one end of the spectrum of business models for music (all efforts support …
: theatlantic: Last Night, San Diego Accidentally Set Off All Its Fourth Of July Fireworks at Once …
: In Defense of Cursive In Defense of Cursive newyorker: “A knowledge of cursive may not be “relevant” to the modern world, …
: “Great Changes After the Liberation”, 1950
: Andy Griffith People are going to think this is maudlin or just plain silly, but I think I need to say it: I …
: And it’s not just Henry who receives the Reverend’s fossil-fuelled justice. Sodor experiences its …
: It’s a long stretch, but it seems to me that “ease of access” and the quite miraculous …
: I was on a train with my earphones shoved in my ears completely ignoring my fellow commuters (as is …
: With a search engine, you type in a keyword and try to find the best matches. It’s like walking into …
: There is no greater dishonor when reflecting on the death of a young journalist than by referring to …
: oldhollywood: Joseph Cotten in The Third Man (1949, dir. Carol Reed)
: “We stand for a free and open Internet,” the statement reads. “We support transparent and …
: Where I lose Krieder, however, is in his suggested speed-bump for our “endless frenetic hustle.” …
: As Richard King, author of How Soon is Now?, a history of UK independent music, has said, it’s a …
: The church also has to use new media in ways that highlight the local, the particular, and the …
: When I first began to take antidepressants, I understood that doing so meant I had a chemical …
: In the past, maples were tapped from Virginia to Northern Canada, though currently only a few US …
: Even children are busy now, scheduled down to the half-hour with classes and extracurricular …
: Part of finding your own voice as a writer is finding your own grammar. Don’t spend your career lost …
: There’s always an evil person. But that doesn’t mean everyone’s evil. Most governments, even …
: So, then. Is literature the serious stuff you have to read in college, and after that you read for …
: First, I’m disappointed that “The Art of Video Games” seems to focus on video games as a phenomenon …
: Few students are as frustrating to a teacher as those who are bright, literate, and interested—but …
: Individuals don’t transfer values from one generation to the next. Individuals are biologically …
: Kay Ryan’s poetry, and her public – if you can call it that – persona defy almost every stereotype …
: paleofuture: CCTV of the retrofuture
: Negative theology is not dressed up Buddhism. It is the necessary anesthesia of Christian …
: So let’s just suppose that Alan Turing is just the same personally: he’s a mathematician, an early …
: The U. S. Air Force Academy in the foreground
: The cataloging of vocabulary and pronunciation and syntax that field linguists do in remote outposts …
: Ochs and Izquierdo noted, in their paper on the differences between the family lives of the …
: To offer underinformed speculation, one wonders if Facebook faces the same dynamic as Craigslist: …
: In the absence of any meaningful regulations and restrictions, IVF has also brought with it …
: What if the upgrade cycle no longer defines digital innovation? What if certain technologies and …
: Salman Rushdie was the target of a notorious fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the …
: When did it happen that the experience of going to a sporting event became less coherent than the …
: Presented with 10 million digital images found in YouTube videos, what did Google’s brain do? What …
: “Active” video games distributed to homes with children do not produce the increase in physical …
: I had been interviewing her for the book I wrote about the Holocaust, and by the time I had the …
: When the rector of the Board, Helen Dragas, declared late last week that she was unsatisfied by the …
: Like a kindergartner, Slaughter seems to think that she – and women in general – should somehow be …
: from Kevin Huizenga’s Gloriana
: The UVA fiasco also illustrates how blithely states take the task of governing their public …
: The man who more than anyone else brought about the solution to the teen-age problem was Eric …
: If anyone is the patron saint of modern science – of the whole scientific outlook as we know it – …
: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Universities are endowed by their Donors with …
: The hideous cloud of productivity now looms over all our lives. It seems that actual writers use …
: Technology reveals us to ourselves as we always in fact were: networked, distributed, laced with …
: A subject that seems dead is just waiting for the right person to bring it to life. Or the right …
: Opposition to the growth juggernaut has gathered pace in recent years. Growth, say critics, is not …
: A few weeks ago, an important document was discovered after more than a century of neglect. It was a …
: curiositycounts: If photographer Stephen Wilkes couldn’t decide what time of day NYC was most …
: When I feel I am not performing up to my capabilities at work, I review a list of quote [sic] for …
: Unfortunately, Teresa Sullivan falls into the trap of describing her collaborative method as …
: Let’s look at other things you (or your parents) might pay for each month and compare. Smart phone …
: Rally on the UVA Lawn as Teresa Sullivan arrives; this photo and others by Tom Daly
: A dramatic top-down reallocation in our general fund, simply to show that we are “changing,” or that …
: Famous writers, drunk-texting
: I am not a programmer often means Go easy on me. Ask yourself: Why would someone go out of their way …
: Recording the percentage of people who say they are happy will tell you something, to be sure, about …
: Austen published anonymously (as “A Lady”); in her own lifetime she had no public life as a writer …
: In the domain of religion and science, decisions, actions, attitudes, practices, and conflicts of …
: All it takes is actually bothering to meet a teenager or three and you’ll see what I know to be true …
: Pews and pew-holders at St. Margaret’s Church
: If art is a mirror, dreams are the back of the head. A work of art derives its effects from light, …
: it is become a custom after chapel to repair to one or other of the coffee houses (for there are …
: Well, I’m basically a literary and philosophical humanist myself, not a journalist or scholar or …
: A young man in a small town in Patagonia or in Kansas reads an ancient Chinese poet in a book he …
: There is of course a written literature that predates and underlies all these movies, which could …
: Publishing books is itself a strange experience. Your relationship with a book in progress is …
: A scholar’s business is to add to what is known. That is all. But it is capable of giving the very …
: Amid the tiny din of two-hundred micturating rodents, Ralph X. Bumblefutz goggled in disbelief at a …
: thingsmagazine: From The Teletype Story
: A well-off, very successful, and very well-known science fiction novelist raising $500,000 to build …
: paleofuture: The Rise and Fall of Ken-chan, the Robot Waiter
: excellence-proofed The fact that I didn't think I heard a single interesting bar of music from the forty or so acts I …
: Perhaps our most dangerous bias is that we naturally assume that everyone else is more susceptible …
: I love my flip phone paradoxically because I don’t actually love it. Like many things I don’t love, …
: Of a surfing expert with Asperger’s, Lehrer writes, “Clay’s ability to innovate in surfing is rooted …
: It’s because we love it. We love grinding. We cannot get enough of it. Why? Because there’s …
: My students, like Allan Bloom’s, live inside music. Their musical lives may well be their spiritual …
: goodbye, Flickr Probably the best story about what went wrong with Flickr is this one at Gizmodo, but I’m not sure …
: Chomsky: And here comes Bilbo Baggins. Now, this is, to my mind, where the story begins to reveal …
: And so, after exchanging a few emails, I found myself at the home of the man who owns and operates …
: Most of all, [Žižek] can’t stand students. “Absolutely. I was shocked, for example, once, a student …
: Malcolm turned five years old yesterday. Here he is on the day we brought him home. Seems like about …
: I thought the piece Rod Dreher linked to about a gay Mormon man happily married to a woman very …
: 60ansdevadrouille: La Gorge du Dragon sur la rivière Daning, avant de rejoindre le Yangzi. Août …
: Beginning in the 1930s and ’40s, Christian teenagers and youth leaders staged a quiet revolution in …
: What is implied in the conventional wisdom that religion is prone to violence is that Christianity, …
: Frank Reader of the Trashcan Sinatras, performing at Schuba’s in 2009. If there were any justice in …
: A thoughtful little essay about Caravaggio’s “Denial of St. Peter.” What I find especially …
: wesleyhill: Rene Fijten’s illustration of China Miéville’s remarkable novel The City and The City
: “Why have we not been reliably able to improve on C?” Rabkin asks. Part of the problem, he says, is …
: Richard Wilbur, "She" What was her beauty in our first estate When Adam’s will was whole, and the least thing Appeared the …
: I find it almost impossible to read Faulkner now, except for a handful of things, chief among them …
: Is this Jane Austen as a girl?
: Variable-focus eyeglasses — ideal for distribution to poor people around the world.
: All translation is interpretation, since it is a choice among meanings; but translation is not the …
: As someone who was eight years old at the time of the Apollo moon landing, I remember calculating …
: What did Halberstam think he was going to get from Jordan that Jordan hadn’t said a thousand times …
: what is your Eden like? W. H. Auden used to say that he could only evaluate someone’s thinking — and especially their …
: Fidelity matters less for popular music than for books. This seems counterintuitive, but it’s true. …
: The overwhelming emphasis on materials and process inherent to fine printing is a tremendous …
: You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you a …
: thingsmagazine: Build a paper Volvo 240 (via things)
: I’ve got a book coming out called something banal like How To Study Literature because I fear that …
: austinkleon: Alan Jacobs, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction A wonderful read about …
: Twilight is a book that has been written dozens of times before. It’s part of a great tradition of …
: Jonathan Puckey’s Typographic Rhythm idea is cool, but I think it ought to work exactly the opposite …
: The Superior Formatting Publishing version isn’t a Barnes and Noble book, so this isn’t the work of …
: The other key disruptor is empathy. Probably every company would say they try to understand their …
: Stott sees crowds as the opposite of ruleless, and crowd violence as the opposite of senseless: What …
: As a former actual curator, of like, actual art and whatnot, I think I’m fairly well positioned to …
: a few thoughts on academic time management Having received some interesting feedback on my previous post about academic life, I’m going to say …
: Facebook appears to be deliberately and systematically making it harder and harder for people to …
: Apple meanwhile has a P/E ratio of 14. The S&P 500 has a ratio of 21. According to finance 101, …
: Bad spellers are a breed apart from good ones. A writer with a mind that doesn’t register how words …
: paleofuture: In the 1930s some had hopes that TV would be a great new tool for universities.
: At 9 o'clock (the Opera began at 8) a lady came in and sat down very conspicuously in my line of …
: The men in the workshops told me stories about the master craftsmen who once worked in Hatton …
: Great Comics That Never Happened — YET.
: I’ve long suspected, based on observations of myself as well as observations of society, that, …
: The Love Song of Mario Balotelli I think I am a genius, but not a rebel. I have my life, my world, I do what I want, without annoying …
: Doc Watson, “Down in the Valley to Pray”
: mwfrost: countryandwestern: Folklore Productions reports that Doc Watson has passed. R.I.P. Link …
: Acocella misunderstood my essay on usage in the American Heritage Dictionary. It never declares that …
: 60ansdevadrouille: Au Temple du Ciel à Pékin : voûte du temple des Saisons (Prières pour de bonnes …
: Valve has no formal management or hierarchy at all. Now, I can tell you that, deep down, you don’t …
: So here’s a prediction: long before the Berkshire Hathaway warrants expire, many of the papers …
: And when you think Google, think… well, think long-term. I feel like Facebook is probably an easier …
: bad naturalism The big problem with this post by Will Wilkinson is not that he makes the Christian interlocutor a …
: another photo from the same collection
: thingsmagazine: Chicago, from the BPL’s Travel Poster Collection
: The famous white horse of the first FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, 1923. In fact the horse, whose …
: Yet another problem solved by XKCD
: You might thus assume that superhero comics, the original properties on which these franchises are …
: [vimeo 23657302 w=250 h=141] Damien Jurado recording (Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)
: Collaboration … is not quite the same as open, unattributed, dynamically generated poetry. The …
: Maps, [Tom Koch] cogently explains, “make arguments about disease, their pattern of incidence, and …
: The idea that the Baby Boom generation, of all generations, would willingly hasten their own exit …
: When somebody says what sounds like “it’s only religion that keeps us from behaving like savages” I …
: The more central claim—that stories increase our empathy, and “make societies work better by …
: The various durations of government around the world are linked to the various durations and …
: Last night I went on another mini-rant about the state of non-fiction on twitter. My complaint …
: There’s more than escapism going on here. Why do we seek out these hard places for our fantasy …
: In November 2003, Skrbina mailed a letter to Kaczynski, then as now in a supermax prison in …
: It’s harder to imagine the past that went away than it is to imagine the future. What we were prior …
: We used to read SF to get the heady high of a big vision, the “eyeball kick” as Rudy Rucker …
: While we’re on the subject of handwriting, I did an American Scene post some years ago about A. …
: mwfrost: This post by Austin Kleon about copying handwriting reminds me of my favorite script to …
: austinkleon: Philip K. Dick’s notes for Exegesis (from this NYTimes series) Speaking of …
: Paleofuture on scientific mating
: I had forgotten about this sweet moment, so it’s good to be reminded. Thanks to Yoni Appelbaum on …
: thingsmagazine: Fallout Shelter Handbook, 1962, at The Ward-O-Matic
: The author suggests Tesla, not Edison, is the “father of the electric age” and buoys this claim by …
: At what point is the triumph of comic-book culture sufficient? I don’t ask this rhetorically. …
: If your congregation sings only Hillsong choruses, then their emotional repertoire will be limited …
: 60ansdevadrouille: Méharée au Hoggar, avril 1964. Dans le lit de l’Oued Ilamane, sous les énormes …
: If you want to climb Mount Everest, get in line. And be prepared to die. Via Nick Jackson on …
: I recommend the Betting Books which All Souls [College, Oxford] has privately published now and …
: The whole story has a tragicomic, Nathaniel Hawthorne meets “Curb Your Enthusiasm” feel. It’s easy …
: She was not an unshockable blue-stocking; If shades remain the characters they were, No doubt she …
: Dick was a consummate autodidact. He survived for less than one semester at college, at the …
: paleofuture: Tripping Through the Cold War: Drug Warfare of the Retrofuture
: This redesign is a response to ebooks, to web type, to mobile, and to wonderful applications like …
: Well, that’s the coolest thing of the day. Don’t know why I had never noticed the very close …
: “Daytona 500” is the greatest hip-hop song ever–not merely my favorite, but “the greatest.” This is …
: I acknowledge that I have used four-letter words familiarly all my life, and have put them into …
: Andrew [Sullivan’s] writing is not and never has been much about making sense in this way. Andrew is …
: It’s taken time for the magazine industry to catch up to the new iPad—only in the last few weeks …
: This day, his Majesty, Charles the Second came to London, after a sad and long exile and calamitous …
: academics and families For the last couple of days I’ve been thinking about this post from my buddy Rod Dreher’s blog, …
: The theory of machinery is that it saves time, but Stanford himself noted of such machinery that “if …
: What makes Facebook such an important company is that it forces us to acknowledge the frivolity of …
: To those who argue programming is an essential skill we should be teaching our children, right up …
: In English we speak about science in the singular, but both French and German wisely retain the …
: Conservatives have found Haidt’s conclusions congenial, free of the condescension and tendentious …
: This presents a dilemma for Christians on opposite sides of political issues, who need to both …
: About all I can do is confess that while I myself devoured classics in my teens and 20s – even 30s, …
: To sever our experience of wilderness from our use of technology now seems to me an unnatural act, …
: Perhaps the most incisive part of Michael Lewis’ book “Boomerang” is when he observes that Americans …
: In a recent paper published in Psychological Science, a team of psychologists led by Boaz Keysar at …
: In 2005, Flickr had far and away the best social connection and discovery tools on the Internet. …
: Brogrammer culture celebrates frat house values, youth over experience and men over women. In the …
: If I understand the teaching of the New Testament on this matter, I understand the role of the …
: Until now, the American Psychiatric Association seemed the entity best equipped to monitor the …
: Yet “iDisorder” is a pleasant surprise — lean, thoughtful, clearly written and full of ideas and …
: Despite its ability to solve an array of problems, the slime mold was designed by evolution to solve …
: Before the Internet, news orgs had a natural paywall, the distribution system. If you wanted to read …
: Better WiFi security could soon be just a few rolls of wallpaper away. French researchers at …
: What I discovered in my researches about this part of the country was a vigorous civic idealism and …
: Much of what we think we know about Anne melts away on close inspection. We can’t say for certain …
: nomington: Yes. I think the internet has now been officially won, has it not?
: W. H. Auden, "Song of the Master and Boatswain" At Dirty Dick’s and Sloppy Joe’s We drank our liquor straight, Some went upstairs with Margery, And …
: The Heavenly Aeroplane Oh, one of these days around twelve o’clock The whole wide world will reel and rock The sinner …
: You’ve got to love Leica: who else would offer an eight-thousand-dollar camera that shoots only …
: Robert Altman’s 1973 adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye was criticized, at the time, …
: It works like this: My agent sells my book IDEA to a publishing house. The house pays an “advance”: …
: So when digital evangelists prognosticate about the future of publishing, as they love to do, and …
: In my time working [at Apple], I must personally have seen years-worth, probably decades-worth (and, …
: the road not taken If you’re part of the editorial leadership at the Chronicle of Higher Education, you have a problem. …
: Now for what’s disturbing about Specter’s piece (beyond the subject itself!): it essentially …
: keeping a tidy mind These are separate questions: Whether Naomi Schaefer Riley should have dismissed as “claptrap” …
: So for [furniture maker Harrison] Higgins, there is no simplistic opposition between nature and …
: theatlantic: Abraham Lincoln Did Not Invent Facebook: How a Guy and His Blog Fooled the Whole Wide …
: Scores of critics on the site complained that I had not read the dissertations in full before daring …
: In 1086 William the Conqueror completed a comprehensive survey of England and Wales. “The Domesday …
: A Tragedy of Homeric Proportions millmans-shakesblog: And now for something completely different: Macbeth acted out by the voices of …
: In retrospect, the GI Bill, as the 1944 Servicemen’s Readjustment Act is called, was one of the …
: So what’s the problem? Antoine Dodson possibly said it best when he famously told Good Morning …
: Here, the recent history of the Financial Times is instructive. Last June, the company pulled its …
: Finally, since this is a blog about academia and not journalism, I’ll forgive the commenters for not …
: ‘Most of all what Apple did was they charged $400 to $1,000 for the hardware that was necessary to …
: oldhollywood: Colin Clive & Boris Karloff on the set of Bride of Frankenstein (1935, dir. James …
: Is fiction good for us? We spend huge chunks of our lives immersed in novels, films, TV shows, and …
: Strangely, and somewhat unexpectedly, James Bridle unilaterally closed the New Aesthetic Tumblr blog …
: At Princeton, [Cornel] West regularly taught an undergraduate philosophy course with Robert George, …
: Jeff Bezos once famously declared that, in the service of innovation and its long-term success, …
: There is a slippage from “is” to “ought” in nearly all evolutionary theorizing, with arguments about …
: At the same time, the slide show’s vision of the individual’s relationship to the state seems …
: Maybe the reason we can’t do anything about the existential crisis of climate change — or, indeed, …
: If the type and volume of criticism we find online were experienced in person, we’d probably think …
: oldhollywood: Kuroneko (1968, dir. Kaneto Shindô)
: W. W. Norton: An Early Afterlife W. W. Norton: An Early Afterlife wwnorton: “…a wise man in time of peace, shall make the necessary …
: One of the failings of Marvel—as of other franchises, like the “Superman” series—is the vulgarity …
: The gods descend over Chicagoland last night. Via @yayitsrob on Twitter.
: placeholder for a book-to-be-written When I am done with my biography of the Book of Common Prayer, I will — God willing — write a rather …
: They already guide blind and disabled people; now dogs are to be trained to help people with …
: With conventional software that runs on your PC, forced upgrades are nearly impossible. Millions of …
: modernity, as explained in a single poem by W. H. Auden So an age ended, and its last deliverer died In bed, grown idle and unhappy; they were safe: The …
: I’ve been struck recently by how many of my clients are ashamed to go to their friends for help: …
: Slate: Have you seen the research connecting football to brain injury? Green: Yes. From what I’ve …
: And so Turkle’s piece and others like it resonate despite the theoretical shortcoming that make …
: Millennials were also less likely to say they did things in their daily lives to conserve energy and …
: Malcolm Gladwell puts the responsibility right where it belongs: Slate: Should the NFL be banned …
: The Cromwell conjured by Mantel is deeply drawn to Tyndale’s Bible and Tyndale’s Lutheran …
: [James] Wood praises [Hilary] Mantel for her “cunning universalism”, a slicker version of CS Lewis’s …
: For the last two decades, we’ve been gratified, bamboozled, astonished and sometimes alarmed by the …
: The Kansas City Central Library parking garage. More photos here
: Around 2005 things start making the transition to HD – and then we get to today, and a weird new …
: You Should Go To Graduate School If: You Love to Read…. You Love to Talk (And You Talk To Win)…. You …
: Yes, of course, everything about us, from the simplest sensation to the most elaborately constructed …
: At midnight tonight I will leave the internet. I’m abandoning one of my “top 5” technological …
: Goodman D——: Adventures in New Testament Greek: Nous Goodman D——: Adventures in New Testament Greek: Nous gmd: By Scott Cairns You could almost think the …
: In our culture, we have all accepted the notion that the right to know is absolute and unlimited. …
: 60ansdevadrouille: Maharastra - Au-dessus de Bombay, Karli, caverne Bouddhique aménagée vers le IIè …
: All of these are awesome. Thanks to Luke Neff.
: If we could use digital tools to estrange ourselves from our books, to defamiliarize what we think …
: The smartypants of old used the obelus to call out chunks of text that might be somehow wrong, …
: Exploring the secret history of the approval curl
: But Stanford’s entrepreneurial culture has also turned it into a place where many faculty and …
: The internet has changed who the gatekeepers are. For much of recent American history, gatekeepers …
: Indeed, what Thomas Kuhn called “the paradigm effect” will make it hard for Balmer and his ilk to …
: Basically, we have three options for these kinds of words: “cooperate,” “co-operate,” and …
: After the End runofplay: Cue the End-of-an-Era music: Pep Guardiola has resigned. But from this vantage point what …
: I am living proof that conservatives’ and liberals’ values are worlds apart. … I don’t believe that …
: thingsmagazine: Balloon event from 1900 Paris Olympics (via things)
: And why is competition important? Because it drives not just lower prices, but better products. And …
: The principal large mammals in Białowieża are the bison, moose, wolf, boar, bobcat, and graduate …
: We can have what Turkle terms a “big gulp of real conversation” — through a chat window that keeps …
: Nothing inspires fear like the end of the world, and ever since Y2K, the media’s tendency toward …
: In the last 50 years, the sheer density of the information environment has reached and surpassed the …
: I would not speak of this dilemma if it were only mine, but I watch many others race again and again …
: Many web workers, having tasted of the A/B apple, can no longer imagine operating in any other …
: We also know why optimists do better than pessimists. The answer lies in the differences between the …
: If anything, social media is a counterweight to the ongoing devaluation of human lives. Social …
: oldhollywood: Louise Brooks & Gustav Diessl in Pandora’s Box (1929, dir. G.W. Pabst) (via)
: more on bad religion I want to go back to say a few more words about Ross Douthat’s Bad Religion, a book for which I …
: This is a picture of Billy Graham with Cardinal Cushing of Boston in 1964. They were old friends by …
: This past Tuesday night I took a bunch of Vicodin and went to see Wrath of the Titans, partly …
: They called Jimmy Rushing “Mister Five-By-Five.” What a voice.
: buzz: MacPaint illustrations by Burt Monroy.
: If you ask on what grounds do I accuse rapists of having done wrong, then the authentic answer is …
: Mild surprise; slight disagreement
: Lizzie Thomas’s Hidden Forest
: I will state this as clearly as possible: You cannot buy Japanese Kobe beef in this country. Not in …
: A couple of years ago, I spent three months playing World of Warcraft – partly as research for a …
: During the past few years, I have come to fear that the United Kingdom and China may be bookends on …
: Just like Amazon Web Services have enabled thousands of scaleable web startups and has made …
: oldhollywood: Christopher Lee & Carol Marsh in Horror of Dracula (1958, dir. Terence Fisher) …
: “Potato Head Blues” (1927). The song is great, the band is great, but there is nothing in …
: But the aspect that boomed out most loudly was his relentless pursuit of secular humanism in the …
: What really motivates elementary particle physicists is a sense of how the world is ordered—it is, …
: There’s a theory that technology eventually subverts whatever rational ends it’s supposed to …
: theatlantic: laphamsquarterly: Are any of these fonts your favorite? Please don’t say it’s …
: Over the past few decades it seems football has gone out of its way to alienate the paunchy, …
: This, however, is not the most remarkable character of the sound of bells. This sound has a thousand …
: A supreme author of critically gifted prose, [Dwight] Macdonald at his dazzling best was just as …
: Why worry about what’s covered in newspapers and television when it’s possible to read firsthand …
: From what I’ve witnessed—in the Bible, in my own life, and in the lives of those around me—an …
: The magnification of minor fluctuations and amplification of sub-acoustic distortions is what the …
: E-books and poetry just don’t get along as well as e-books and prose. It’s those line breaks, …
: We are a traditional department in most ways, and I want to continue to be so, but it is vital to …
: The first thing I didn’t write about quitting Facebook was a status update to my friends saying, I’m …
: The real issue, it seems to me, is not whether Facebook makes us lonely, but whether Facebook is …
: Facebook has created presumptive, default closeness among casual acquaintances where we once had …
: Since the 1980s, quantum computing has given a practical technological arena in which computation …
: So what makes a tool “convivial?” For Illich, “tools foster conviviality to the extent to which they …
: The Pulitzer Board consists of working journalists and journalism professors, most with a deep …
: I also think that Christians need to feel comfortable being critical of the wealthy even when this …
: Many people are drawn to academic life because they expect it will provide a refuge from the social …
: Still, we can justifiably say that human beings are naturally religious—as a matter of real, natural …
: Me: The Lost World of Benzedrine Me: The Lost World of Benzedrine
: It doesn’t matter whether Macmillan wins the price-fixing lawsuit bought by the Department of …
: Caro had a further epiphany about power in the early ’60s. He had moved on to Newsday by then, where …
: It turns out that the act of summoning the past to the surface actually changes the memory itself. …
: One who will not allow any occurrence whatever to deprive him of his responsibility for the course …
: Oh my goodness. Some genius has built Lego versions of things from 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you …
: Charles Marsh is speaking at the Wheaton College chapel this morning about one of the great …
: I’ve always thought that conservatives should simply bite the bullet and admit that there are …
: thenearsightedmonkey: magnolius: one of the many astounding collages by Meg Hitchock made by …
: When a reviewer starts explaining how the preparation of a quiche Lorraine at the restaurant he has …
: jessnevins: ah, for the golden age of comics, when murderous zombies could be the good guys and …
: onthestrand: Oh. Maa. God. Things just got literally (maybe notliterally literally)beyond exciting …
: Me on outsourcing charisma in the classroom Me on outsourcing charisma in the classroom
: If both Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman had been wearing Google glasses, with their visual …
: A writer who attempts in the nineteenth century to rehabilitate the ancient legends of the were-wolf …
: Those of us working today in scholarly communications are surrounded by skeuomorphs on one side, …
: What is the labour encoded in Instagram? It’s easy to see. Every “user” of Instagram is a worker. …
: newyorker: Listening Booth: The Alabama Shakes and More Lately, it seems like everyone is talking …
: On Throw-Ins runofplay: Why are soccer players so bad at throw-ins? In any given soccer match the rate of …
: I propose to give here, in a few words, an outline refutation of historicism. The argument may be …
: oldhollywood: The Gorgon (1964, dir. Terence Fisher) (via)
: Imagined air-raid shelters carved into the New Jersey Palisades, 1942
: moral guidance for book reviewers Say only what you believe. Be aware of your reader; don’t talk down to her, and don’t yearn for love …
: Yes, sometimes I still offer strong criticisms of published work, both by academics and other …
: When I re-engaged with higher education after a 20-year absence in the private sector, I felt like …
: This insistence that machines don’t care and won’t care about what we see, or about what seeing …
: Nelson’s hatred of conventional structure made him difficult to educate. Bored and disgusted by …
: The good news is that the human mind has a surprising natural ability to assess the kind of …
: And so: Azealia Banks is the rapper who appeals to Pitchfork readers; A$AP Rocky is the rapper who …
: Keeping a racist on your masthead long after you know he’s a racist goes a long way toward …
: If a randy 80-something Don Draper were looking to get laid in the 21st century, he’d find himself …
: 60ansdevadrouille: Madère, Eira do Cerrado, 1989
: scritic: (Forecasting via Chris Blattman)
: Lucas Cranach explains that it’s all about the Gesetz and the Gnade
: "that ultimate subversion of all human power and authority" [Peter’s horrified reaction at Jesus’ washing of his feet] is the reaction of normal human nature. …
: Through browser extensions, Privly allows you to post to social networks and send email without …
: For too long, publishers have been worrying about the wrong thing, chasing pie-in-the-sky DRM that …
: Nowadays, we love monsters; and Fantasy as a mode loves monsters to the exclusion of almost …
: But the Internet-in-a-suitcase doesn’t work. In a test at the Occupy D.C. protests last fall, …
: While readers familiar with Wallace’s Kenyon speech will find that most of the content has …
: The bandwidth is available, the images are there, and the robots and digital devices get plenty of …
: The New Aesthetic is comprehensible. It’s easier to perceive than, for instance, the “surrealism” of …
: At some point when I was reading a long note—I think, given the tweet I sent out, it must have been …
: Text lasts. It’s not platform-dependant, you don’t just get it from one source, read it in one …
: Will the new Firestone, with its massive ranks of dead-tree media, attract student readers who have …
: In 1984, American breadwinners who were sixty-five and over made ten times as much as those under …
: My ability to select the best candidates for our positions has been irreparably compromised by …
: “It is clear that the need for innovation has never been greater,” my old Economist colleague (and …
: As Anil Dash pointed out this weekend, arguments about the ethics and functionality of …
: Run of Play: The Vermaelen Problem Run of Play: The Vermaelen Problem runofplay: Thomas Vermaelen seems to think that he’s a …
: The fact is that the real world is much weirder than parody these days. Compare Google’s driverless …
: thenearsightedmonkey: Drawings by Bill Traylor April 1, 1854 – October 23, 1949 Read about him….
: Researchers at Wellesley College and the University of Kansas investigated friendships at that …
: [vimeo 38681202 w=250 h=141] bookshelfporn: Birth of a Book Beautiful video of traditional …
: 60ansdevadrouille: Sri Lanka - Polonnaruva (capitale du Royaume Singhalais au XIKIè siècle): entrée …
: I’m going to tell you something that my Republican friends are loath to admit out loud: climate …
: On Thursday, the flood of bad reports continued, with the independent Fair Labor Association …
: “With a physical sit-in, people are putting their lives on the line standing in front of a building. …
: Richard Dawkins and other New Atheists are often criticised for failing to understand that being …
: From 1999-2001, while living in London, I would go on epic, overambitious book-buying sprees, …
: In the midst of a spring practice that, by all accounts, is going well, Nick Saban received a …
: Exactly two things have made air travel safer since 9/11: reinforcing the cockpit door, and …
: oldhollywood: Scenes from The Golden Beetle (1907, dir. Segundo de Chomón), a 3-minute fantasy trick …
: My dear Francesco, I have lately kept praising the age in which we live, because of the great, …
: Some people argue that Damien Hirst is a great artist. Some say he is an execrable artist, and …
: You cannot hide what you’re listening to from your friends on Rdio. You cannot have a private …
: oldhollywood: Ann Dvorak vs. the feds in Scarface (1932, dir. Howard Hawks) (via)
: sexartandpolitics: I love this macro more than most macros.
: Nándor Hidegkuti runofplay: Harry Johnston was an outstanding defender who played nearly twenty years for Blackpool, …
: Things have now changed so radically in the rare book world – dragged along limply in the wake of …
: screenshotsofdespair: via theblacklabrador
: To most people, … theatre at Oxford means the theatre outdoors, beside the lake at Worcester, on the …
: Can any of us claim seriously to feel at all confident of sharing the feelings of a poor Roman Jew — …
: It began with a girl who was loved by God. The first sentence of Reynolds Price’s Gospel narrative, …
: The takedown Yesterday I posted a little piece over at The Run of Play on the inexplicably lousy season Inter …
: thingsmagazine: Cherry blossom by Terada Mokei (via things mag)
: oldhollywood: Manslaughter (1922, dir. Cecil B. DeMille) (via)
: Do we actually need this intensification of self that novels provide? Do we need it more than ever …
: Dr Jonathan Smallwood, of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science in Leipzig, …
: Why worry that we are moving toward a society in which everything is up for sale? For two reasons. …
: Our version of Big Brother, unlike Orwell’s, is the product of the free choice of both its viewers …
: Main reading room, New York Public Library (before 1924)
: I sat cringing before M-G-M’s Technicolor production of The Wizard of Oz, which displays no trace of …
: 60ansdevadrouille: Nepal, Badgaon, palais et Darbar Batsala Durga. 1988.
: “Virtually all young people are familiar with electronic games and social networking and might be …
: Without nonfiction writers dedicated to producing factually accurate accounts that convey the …
: Twitter is often mislabeled as a social network when it’s actually more of a real-time information …
: Enter Facebook. The site began as a free but closed system. It required not just registration but an …
: Pulp Modernism I think for a lot of people who don’t read pulp growing up, there’s a real surprise that the …
: In Havel’s analysis, in other words, the basis of Communist power was consumerism. The Communist …
: Books are attention machines. In web metrics, we look at average length of visit per use. I …
: Apple should take a big chunk of that money and put it into broad-reaching research and development. …
: Margaret Wertheim’s book discusses her encounters with the natural philosophers. She is interested …
: Let us begin our activism right here: with the money-driven villainy at the heart of American …
: And that is what I try to do on the stage. I try to tell the truth. Not with facts, always, but …
: The problem, however, isn’t that we’ve grown complacent about the nature of knowledge, but that the …
: The advent of Sarah Palin, however, seemed to usher in a genuine madness that affected every inch of …
: When we say that the word of God is not bound, we say that death itself can be the living speech of …
: Narrative Science is one of several companies developing automated journalism software. These …
: Since I'm late to this: What Is Pinterest and Why Should I Care? Since I’m late to this: What Is Pinterest and Why Should I Care? scritic: The most interesting …
: Shocks there have been. Nobody in 2002 saw what was coming. That’s why many of us, courteously …
: It’s that decision not to press charges that makes Stand Your Ground laws, which a bunch of other …
: The second major flaw in the Goldbergs is how jolly they are. Joy is the default mode of the work, …
: Overall I think the general trend, as exemplified by social networks and the evolution of Google, is …
: A group of psychiatrists have spearheaded a movement to include ongoing grief as a disorder, to be …
: If you rehearse a prewritten speech enough, you can get asymptotically close to the sort of …
: Apple is not the main worker-safety problem in China. Nor even Foxconn. Not even close. …
: Daisey’s fiction was predicated on the notion that China is essentially unknowable, that reporters …
: Merckx’s style of racing could be summed up in two rules: 1. accelerate; 2. keep going and don’t …
: Mixed-race blacks have an ethical obligation to identify as black — and interracial couples share a …
: Two things have happened more or less simultaneously. The world passed through a historic …
: from Marketplace.org Rob Schmitz: Cathy says you did not talk to workers who were poisoned with hexane. Mike Daisey: …
: They’re handsome things [volumes of the Encyclopedia Brittanica], somehow managing to be imposing …
: The study into the frequency and type of offenses, and the faculty policies and responses, surveyed …
: Her more visible role in the public square (or the religious marketplace, if you will) came about …
: Lovely images from the National Gallery of Art
: I’m not naive. I do believe that in the long run I am damaged by piracy more than I am helped by it. …
: At the onset of the recession, newsstand sales [of Harper’s] dropped sharply. Revenues from print …
: Finally, when travelers actually disembark, they are too often subjected to inaccurate lessons in …
: mwfrost: (via Mattias Inks: the Soane museum) It really looks like this. A strange and wonderful …
: 60ansdevadrouille: Rapa Nui (Ile de Pâques), le moai Tukuriti. Statue isolée au flanc du volcan qui …
: If we had to visualise this [literary] establishment, it would resemble an Edwardian board of …
: Certainly, when England concede twice as many penalties as France and score triple the number of …
: There is another significant layer, which complicates the ethics of data and power. The data all of …
: The founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, modeled their revolutionary search engine on the …
: There will be no new print editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica—Wikipedia will have to carry us …
: theatlantic: The E-Reader of 1935
: Ask yourself: do you really need to check your RSS newsfeed before you get home, or reply to that …
: The growth of sociable robotics is one thing that changed my mind. People are so vulnerable and so …
: There are no shinpads like Puskás shinpads.
: These once-isolated people, a tiny group, have no system of numbers; their sentences cannot …
: Brittanica went bankrupt in 1996, long before Wikipedia was a crowdsourced gleam in Jimmy Wales’ …
: It takes discipline to say, “let’s take care of the customer, and think of the long term” when …
: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here: Dante’s medieval classic the Divine Comedy has been condemned …
: preciseandtowering: 1,000 words, right here. (via Telegraph)
: I don’t believe that individual people are objective. They bring their biases, conscious and …
: To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in …
: Larry Page himself assumed command to right this wrong. Social became state-owned, a corporate …
: The problem is that having spent most of the book showing how hard it is to get us to think …
: As ‘After-birth Abortion’ spread around the world and gained wide publicity — that damned Internet …
: Malte Koeditz: “I researched the Golden Section and its use in design extensively for my …
: In 2009 the United States graduated 89,140 students in the visual and performing arts, more than in …
: One thing that struck me about the 9/11 footage shown during last year’s anniversary was that in …
: Casey Stengel's testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly, 1958 Senator Estes Kefauver: Mr. Stengel, will you give us very briefly your background and your views …
: It would be great to get rid of Kony. He and his forces have left a path of abductions and mass …
: Steve Shanabruch’s logos for Chicago neighborhoods
: Lately when using Google search I’ve found myself nostalgic for the old days, when Google was true …
: In Digital Willpower World, the problem of fragmented selves doesn’t appear to be an issue. After …
: The Queen Mary Psalter, London, 14th century
: In an open Q&A with one company’s chief operating officer, an employee asked about the morale …
: The landmark birthdays of heroes always serve to underline our own mortality and with Wednesday’s …
: A TED talk, at this point, is the cultural equivalent of a patent: a private claim to a public …
: A number of science fiction novels were published in the 19th century which hold up today and can …
: Last week one of my Twitter followers replied in this way to one of my soccer tweets: “Why do you …
: What looks like decline is also in some sense a return to normalcy for the United States. What we …
: thingsmagazine: Marian Stachurski -The Bad Omen
: I feel most of the time like Kevin Durant is a birthday present from the god of basketball to me …
: Stanley Spencer, The Scorpion (1939). My more-or-less official Lenten image. Offered for your …
: thingsmagazine: Cover deisgn by Carlo Vivarelli
: brain-food: Star Wars Yoga by Rob Osborne This is the only Yoga I ever want to do in my life.
: bookshelfporn: LiteraTrain by HerrDrayer A brilliant and fun new way to transport books to shelves. …
: I have heard it said by some fellow liberals that Breitbart was in fact a good person, that his …
: If all this seems the act of a nouveau royal family desperate to create an impression, this is …
: Horizon Houses (2000) by Lebbeus Woods, via BLDGBLOG.
: The most amazing achievement of the computer software industry is its continuing cancellation of the …
: Our period is not so unlike the age of Augustine: the planned society, caesarism of thugs or …
: To have a chance at a Guggenheim you must of course have good references.
: To be clear, then: Packer believes that forcing Catholic colleges and hospitals to buy health …
: This brings us back to the Black Rubric. The 1552 book had eliminated the term “Mass,” and Cranmer …
: More and more my language appears to me like a veil which one has to tear apart in order to get to …
: After running Collusion for a few days, I wanted to see if there was an easy method to stop data …
: One of Jean François Rauzier’s imaginary libraries. Click on the image for a much larger version.
: Just yesterday, Slate’s Hanna Rosin, my own beloved editor, wrote: “The world today brings news that …
: A few years ago, when I was beginning to work on my book about the American college, I came across a …
: What can we do with this information? Gutman offers suggestions. Smile. Smile at strangers. Smile at …
: More than at any point in our history, the smartest people generally go to high school and certainly …
: For some, the typewriter can be about yearning for a simpler time, a younger self, a lost integrity, …
: my career-change (conversation with Tim Carmody) my career-change (conversation with Tim Carmody)
: lovecraft:xwidep: Elephant on the Underground Click the image to link to a menagerie of animals on …
: But there’s another, more self-serving reason that a particular type of superannuated rocker likes …
: How many times have you written something, published it, and then realized in retrospect that what …
: Via Matt Milliner on Twitter, sandwich art.
: Now that’s what I call an infographic. From a terrific new project, “the newest member of …
: (A possible fourth variety, in development)
: The Three Varieties of Red Cards, 3: More in Sorrow Than In Anger
: The Three Varieties of Red Cards, 2: The Implacable Agent of Cosmic Justice
: The Three Varieties of Red Cards, 1: The Executioner
: The international mission in Afghanistan has done some terrible things – locking up innocent people …
: Right now, it’s a loser’s game to try to find a more ethical smartphone. Everything and everyone is …
: In talking to audiences outside universities (some of whom may be graduates), I am struck by the …
: Being a broken man himself, Greene knew how to probe the pain and romance of faith and its failed …
: A Wrinkle in Time condensed. And altered. A good bit.
: thingsmagazine: Hidden house in London by Jack Woolley (at Dezeen)
: In our offices, we have been seeing more and more young people seeking evaluation and treatment of …
: A keen Morris dancer with a countryman’s voice, [Roy Dommett] was largely responsible for Chevaline, …
: Standing back and getting out of the way and letting things take on a life of their own is not a …
: Much has been made of the Internet’s ability to resist such control. The network’s technological …
: It’s the opportunity to engage with these issues and many others that excites me about taking up my …
: The thinker who has done most to expose the theological aspirations of secular politics, and …
: One of the difficulties with targeting religion, as some secularists do, is that as a concept it’s …
: This last detail, though, brings me to Goldstein’s fundamental problem with progressive …
: Next month I will be giving a couple of lectures in which I will try to articulate the relationship …
: “Associations with night before the 17th Century were not good,” [Craig Koslovsky] says. The night …
: None of this offers even a start to the question of why people keep buying and presumably reading an …
: For Vedantam and Inskeep, the local nature of Twitter is not only notable, but somehow fails to be …
: Jesus’s decision in the desert led him into several years of working with and speaking out for the …
: Participating in cultural life is not something out of ordinary to us: global culture is the …
: Though my heart leaps up when I hear the gorgeous music of 17th-century prose (Thomas Browne, Robert …
: Making reading social? Making reading social?
: yugodrom: Nikolai Lutohin - Dijalektički materijalizam
: The startled glutton glared gruesomely, grinned like a greyhound with grisly fangs then groaned and …
: thingsmagazine: Soviet-era postage stamps, a collection
: Every day at my job I helped people just barely survive. Forget trying to form grass roots political …
: OK, the idea that kids these days are “digital natives” is a nice, self-serving fairy tale. It makes …
: We live in a time when many religious people feel fiercely threatened by science. O ye of little …
: To see just how our wires are rewiring us, a group of four neuroscientists at University of …
: Waging Guerilla War Against Distraction Waging Guerilla War Against Distraction
: Invasion of the Space Invaders, then, is the madwoman in the attic of Amis’ house of nonfiction; …
: A man, then, who portrays human beings excessively and extravagantly. A man who portrays human …
: The e-book, by eliminating all variations in the appearance and weight of the material object we …
: W. W. Norton: Slate Reviews 'The Lifespan of a Fact', Then Fact-Checks Review W. W. Norton: Slate Reviews ‘The Lifespan of a Fact’, Then Fact-Checks Review wwnorton: …
: some uses of words Last week, here at Wheaton College, we had a chapel service led largely by African-American …
:
fiction recomplicates itself
To reformulate reading at thirteen, you jump to adult books. One entrypoint is via the classics. …
: I’m obsessed with why our heroes are not making it past 50. I already gave my whole band the speech. …
: To my astonishment over 560,000 people have put me in their Google circles. That is over half a …
: It is not, as it turns out, necessary to be a micromanaging psychopath with narcissistic personality …
: Jessica Martin on Paradise Lost Regular readers of this tumblelog will know that I’ve linked to several recent essays in the …
: In 1962, Arthur C. Clarke published a collection of prophetic writings called Profiles of the …
: Seventeenth-century calligraphic exercise, via Bibliodyssey, of course.
: From the point of view of the rural Irish themselves, however, this may look very different. The …
: [Rabbi Jeffrey] Fox believes that e-readers - like other electrical appliances that don’t generate …
: On Bible translation and mobile tech On Bible translation and mobile tech
: But the book does not exist to restore humanity to an ‘undercity’ (Boo’s word) that others simply …
: Interestingly, when smart people feel less alienated, they seem to buy different sorts of books. …
: The sheer horror of Cicero’s murder and mutilation contributed to its mythic status in later Roman …
: Dinehart, an assistant professor at the Florida International University School of Education, was …
: Apple’s dramatic 1984 Super Bowl ad notwithstanding, in reality the interests and loyalties of …
: the raw appeal to power That ‘something else’ has a lot to do with the complexities of religious loyalty, as I’ve said. But …
: “Fail better” is now experimental literature’s equivalent of that famous Che Guevara photo, flayed …
: I’ve increasingly felt that digital journalism and digital humanities are kindred spirits, and that …
: I love electronic books, and I think they’re a huge plus in terms of convenience and accessibility. …
: mwfrost: Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, is snow-covered in its Google satellite images.
: A couple of days ago, Victor Mair wrote about some provocative behavior on the part of “Kŏng …
: Labor Activist Li Qiang wants you to know that the iPhone 4 in his pocket is not an endorsement of …
: The “Socratic method,” so to speak, was conversational, and its results hugely time-consuming and …
: From election to election, politics is mostly about jobs and the economy and the state of the public …
: Random P. G. Wodehouse Quotation Generator Random P. G. Wodehouse Quotation Generator
: The fact that Udacity offers no formal credentialing puts a very interesting twist on some age-old …
: The book typographer has the job of erecting a window between the reader inside the room and that …
: On the value of cognitive friction in reading On the value of cognitive friction in reading
: This should be the official Presidential portrait. Awesome.
: A rolling press, explained here, wonderfully.
: Whatever startup you’re working on right now probably won’t exist in ten years. Probably not even in …
: In Focus is always wonderful, but today it’s super-wonderful
: The effect of beauty, therefore, is good to the degree that, through its analogies, the goodness of …
: Well before John Stuart Mill, Spinoza had the acuity to recognize that the unfettered freedom of …
: Lessig’s right: the really significant thing about the internet is that it’s an enabler of …
: The Legacy of Alan Lomax (by me) The Legacy of Alan Lomax (by me)
: By 1915, Dawson’s dawn-man had become established scientific fact. The painting, A Discussion of the …
: In May 1896, on returning from a trip to Cairo, Agnes Lewis and Margaret Gibson — Scottish twin …
: Something sounded familiar last week when I heard U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and FCC …
: Even more extraordinary than the ape of the Tura Pieta is the one we encounter in a Crucifixion by …
: Investors are already placing their bets on who the winners of the new Internet will be: Over the …
: A Prayer for Persons Troubled in Mind or Conscience O Blessed Lord, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comforts: We beseech thee, took down in …
: thingsmagazine: Which? Magazine, May 1959
: Ezra Pound’s beautiful translation of a poem by Li Po, from Pound’s great early book Cathay, is a …
: Why it's sad that Leopold Bloom didn't have the Internet Why it’s sad that Leopold Bloom didn’t have the Internet
: Drum asks us to envision a Muslim-run hospital that required its employees to bind themselves to …
: There’s also a question for Twitter that’s still pending: Will it enter countries where it will …
: Hence reading is self-mastery, because the self (and its affirmations) are held in check while the …
: Studying philosophy could ruin one’s ability to write poetry if the poet were an idiot savant, and …
: A restored liberal education would not be a liberation from “the ancestral” or from nature, but …
: I’m now at a point where (as far as I know), all of my online activity is linked to my real name. …
: Graphic designers, who favor an uncluttered aesthetic, dislike hyphens. They are also partly …
: The great mystery of memory is how it endures. The typical neural protein only lasts for a few …
: Reader comments at the Washington Post website have shot up 142 percent since the paper switched to …
: A gentlemanly riposte to email is being launched by the literary world as Dave Eggers heads a group …
: thingsmagazine: A Clock for an Architect, by Daniel Weil
: A doctor treating many of the students is confident that they are suffering not from poisoning, but …
: Google’s new business tactics are creatively inelegant, and insupportable to geeks: many of the …
: Nobody is forcing anybody who is uncomfortable with the terms of service to use Facebook. Executives …
: As the laureate says, poetry is condensed. Text is not condensed, it is truncated. What is more it …
: Indeed, it may be that the question, “what is an algorithm?” is the wrong one to ask — or, at least, …
: Over the course of 16 years, researchers have developed a rich dataset related to research in the …
: In other words, contemporary liberalism offers religious groups a choice. They can try to serve the …
: On (Not) Learning to Code On (Not) Learning to Code My newest post for the Atlantic Tech channel
: I used to buy a lot of MP3s. I don’t anymore. That’s not to say I don’t listen to MP3s. I have about …
: Nadal, though? He plays like he’s fighting giants. It’s not just the sneer, or the muscles, or the …
: Such people are strictly amateur compared to, say, Harold Williams, a New Zealander who attended the …
: But what if you could re-define books’ value proposition? What if book-buying became less about …
: Religious ideas are usually said to be an argument against what is called “relativism,” or the idea …
: janmorris: “Ai, ai, ai” Several times during my stay in Rome I came across a couple of countrymen …
: ‘Listen,’ said Bernie Krause. He rolled down his car window, and we sat silently for a moment. It …
: Craig Thompson on the making of Habibi
: When I’m at the computer I feel as if I’m plugged straight into the story, instead of having to …
: If you have read several books by Don DeLillo, sooner or later you will have a Don DeLillo moment. …
: In a companion survey of 500 of Africa’s most active Twitter users, the Portland-Tweetminster team …
: The university exchange programme Erasmus is barely mentioned in the business sections of …
: Desperate for help [with his failing vision], Huxley was persuaded to pursue the Bates Method, a …
: Why are creative people so deeply sceptical of Britain’s honours system? Previously top secret …
: On December 10, 1810, in a muddy field around 25 miles from London, a fight took place that was so …
: The real question, John [of the Cross] suggests, is about what you are really after: Do you want …
: Vladimir Putin has laid out his plans to compile a canon of 100 Russian books “that every Russian …
: for anyone who might be interested. . . . My posts at the Atlantic’s Technology Channel are listed here.
: Why Is the Subtitle Font in 'Mission Impossible 4' So Lame? - Alan Jacobs - Entertainment - The Atlantic Why Is the Subtitle Font in ‘Mission Impossible 4’ So Lame? - Alan Jacobs - …
: Internet executives like Mark Zuckerberg like to argue that “privacy” is an outdated concern. But …
: On March 29, 1962, the Village Voice ran a full-page ad touting the merits of William Gaddis’s The …
: Television is a very different experience in the age of video on demand. Even if we’re watching the …
: I thought they probably did. Explanation here.
: The home schooling movement, by contrast, has no access to funding nor any decision-making structure …
: Books, I fancy, may be conveniently divided into three classes: — (1) Books to read, such as …
: • Those that belong to the emperor • Embalmed ones • Those that are trained • Suckling pigs • …
: Richard Wilbur, "To the Etruscan Poets" Dream fluently, still brothers, who when young Took with your mother’s milk the mother tongue, In …
: In the west portal of Chartres Cathedral, a scribe at work.
: The Giants’ win over the 49ers in a magnificent throwback conference championship game at …
: Justice Sonia Sotomayor then writes, agreeing with Scalia’s trespass approach, but adding in a …
: There have been three major changes to 21st century writing: (1) writing is more informal, or …
: Blogging demonstrates the persistence of a key truth in the history of reading, an insight as …
: In the early 19th century Lord Byron was the most-quoted author, the most referred-to, the one who …
: Now that’s a noir image. From The Big Combo (1955). I saw a version of it here.
: As Schiller ticked down the list, for feature after feature — portability, durability, …
: The publishers’ dream of creating content once and having it run everywhere is just that, a dream. …
: His strong point is that religion never lost faith in using culture to improve vulnerable, childlike …
: Jobs didn’t just use pseudo-asceticism for marketing. He wielded purist fanaticism so as to have …
: Christopher Nolan views anarchy with dread, and human behavior in the absence of state-imposed …
: Now both individual authors and trade and textbook presses can be drawn into a development and …
: What people haven’t seemed to notice is that on earth, of all the billions of species that have …
: The book as such isn’t obsolete; inherently, it’s less immediate and raw, going as it does through …
: Czeslaw Milosz, from "From the Rising of the Sun" My generation was lost. Cities too. And nations. But all this a little later. Meanwhile, in the …
: There are two reasons, basically, why soccer lends itself to spectatorial boredom. One is that the …
: I doubt that humility is among the first traits most people think of when they think of scientists. …
: This is the Shoal Creek Valley in northern Alabama, a few hundred yards from my sister’s house, …
: The system the judges upheld had its roots in feudalism. Edward I, one of England’s most barbarous …
: These are the kinds of issues publishers of electronic textbooks have to address. These are the …
: Stressing out too much about opposition often leads you to miss out on allies who substantively …
: When you have just been told that the girl you love is definitely betrothed to another, you begin to …
: Reverting to Type: a Reader's Story Since the publication of my book The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, a number of …
: When [Graham] Greene died, his heirs and trustees were faced with the conundrum of what to do about …
: When there began to be such a thing as books written for children, in the mid-19th century, fiction …
: [Novelist and husband of Diane Ackerman] Paul West was also driven by similar [linguistic] …
: For more than a decade, Google search wasn’t “social” in any way. When I searched for a new car or a …
: Iceland never had any bookshops between the sixteenth century and the mid-nineteenth. It also had no …
: This is pretty close to my favorite xkcd ever.
: Ultimately Joan Didion’s crime—artistic and personal—is the one of which all of us will eventually …
: Mysterious paper sculptures in Edinburgh, via @jamesbridle.
: On All Saints Day 1522 Master John Browne of the parish of Theydon-Garnon in Essex, having kissed …
: Fortunately for us, our hospital’s nurses were trained to deal with infant death. They washed the …
: The commentators excoriating today’s students for studying the wrong subjects are pursuing certainty …
: On his Facebook page, created by his publisher, Jeffrey Eugenides recently expressed similar …
: But one underlying thing that Cerf misses, is how vital universal network access is to civilization …
: Over the past few years, courts and parliaments in countries like France and Estonia have pronounced …
: Before he gets stuck into the lives and masterpieces of 10 great authors (the book began as a …
: I recently started a performance again when its hushed opening was interrupted by a mobile-phone. …
: In “Window of Opportunity,” Gingrich introduced himself as a futurist, a role he has played off and …
: Growing up, assimilating the wisdom of the past, is in great part learning how to organize the …
: Calendar pages for January from the Hours of Joanna of Castile
: moving Fort Moore Hill High School
: Modern liberalism is a mixture of two elements. One is a support of Federal power – what came out of …
: www.youtube.com/watch thenearsightedmonkey: Saigon Soul, late 60’s, early 70’s reminding us somehow …
: The largest house in the East Riding of Yorkshire, Burton Constable is a romantic compendium, …
: The class is conducted very simply. You turn in stories, and I read them aloud — I don’t identify …
: What in water did Bloom, waterlover, drawer of water, watercarrier, returning to the range, admire? …
: HTML5 offers a glimpse of the freedom to define the Web publication the way it should have been …
: A few months later, I read an interview with the perennially cutting-edge designer Philippe Starck. …
: Hamleys, which is London’s 251-year-old version of F.A.O. Schwarz, recently dismantled its pink …
: Apple Computers is a famous example: it was founded by (mostly Republican) computer engineers who …
: What English speakers call ‘computer science’ Europeans have known as informatique, informatica, and …
: In a sense, every house, hill, barn, and byre [on Colonsay] is a center of gossip, but there are …
: I believe that we ought so to love and trust God in our lives, and in all the good things that he …
: Weizsäcker’s book The World-View of Physics is still keeping me very busy. It has again brought home …
: Ahh, Firing Line! If I leave a TV studio these days with what Diderot termed l'esprit de l'escalier, …
: pegobry: the-bitterist: harrietsdaughter: hamburgerjack: OMG, TELL IT LIKE IT IS KITTY. It’s …
: Call this a leftover 2012 prediction: like a forest getting older, our social network usage will …
: While researchers have known for decades that the body undergoes various metabolic and hormonal …
: Truth in drama is forever elusive. You never quite find it but the search for it is compulsive. The …
: I happen to think copyright does induce creation and that creators and consumers as classes would …
: Proponents of ever stronger and longer copyrights, supported by ever more draconian enforcement …
: It’s a safe bet that in the history of state funerals, no former president has been sent off to the …
: For students who are not talented with words and numbers but who are talented with mentally rotating …
: In Madrid, a freeway turned into a park
: Because of piety’s penchant for taking itself too seriously, theology does well to nurture a modest, …
: I called it! I think one of the odder locutions currently in use is this: “I call bullshit.” “I’m calling …
: Truly wondrous is the whole chronicle of the incarnation. From the time Christ came, the ancient …
: For some years now, it has been a Christmas Eve tradition in my family for my mother and my sister …
: I pray good beef and I pray good beer This holy night of all the year, But I pray detestable drink …
: The story told by the book – epicureanism flourished at Rome, was lost, and then was suddenly …
: dilapidated Lego house, via someone on Twitter I can’t find at the moment
: how to draw a dragon. UPDATE: But according to @m_e_frost on Twitter, one of our wisest figures …
: The first radio telescope in the world was built a few blocks from my house. Thanks to Nate …
: [John Jeremiah Sullivan] seems to have in abundance the storyteller’s gifts: he is a fierce noticer, …
: via @GarethAveyard, a Lego model of a large hadron collider. Best Christmas present EVAR.
: The weird, accidental material conditions of the practice of software development have an impact on …
: There are intimations of the abyss: wars and rumors of war, our television and our politics, the …
: In our strange cultural moment it is necessary to make a distinction between religious propaganda …
: Writers of all kinds, from the nakedly commercial to the wilfully abstruse, look for two things: …
: Welcome to the world, @micheleherold!
: Should driver-less cars become a commonplace way of getting from here to there - Google is already …
: Volunteers in white lab coats, surgical gloves and masks stood on the back of a pickup truck along …
: People just get things wrong. They read them wrong, or remember them wrong or the way they want to, …
: Lucia Etxebarria has every right to feel furious. The Spanish prize-winning author recently learned …
: We invite you to celebrate New Year’s Eve 2012 at The Aviary. Doors will open at 9pm on Saturday, …
: When I was young I thought cops were cool. They had a respectable and honorable job to keep people …
: It’s true that Germans and Greeks work very different amounts, but not in the way you expect. …
: what one thing Ah, so big a question! That is the whole question of theology, you see! I should say, I hope that …
: Mark Bernstein: Christianity and The Future Of The Book Mark Bernstein: Christianity and The Future Of The Book First of all, I want to thank Mark for …
: My real criticism of [The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe] relates to a different matter. It is …
: some things I published this year First of all, two books, both of which are linked to on the right side of your screen: my little …
: Let me start my own speculations [about life-prolongation] with what might seem a frivolous topic: …
: Christopher Hitchens, by common consent the greatest man of the last century and probably in the …
: Fear of Apple is about losing control over the software on our computers. Fear of Google is about …
: preciseandtowering: Fold out maps! “‘Liber Floridus’ (Book of Flowers), a Medieval encyclopædia …
: The orthodox view among online pundits has been that paywalls and subscription fees won’t work for …
: What would “ethical browsing” or “ethical social networking” entail? Never using sites that exploit …
: [vimeo 31179423 w=250 h=141] (Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)
: But embracing this mystery comes at a price. If, like the archbishop of Canterbury, your faith is a …
: I used to play chess expecting to win, but this game [politics] was not about winning or losing. It …
: “From my interactions with Dick, I know that many of these musings were written while he stayed up …
: The next medium, whatever it is—it may be the extension of consciousness—will include television as …
: [McDonald’s] had by now, according to their sign, sold the same original burger fifty billion times. …
: The meaning of marriage begins in the giving of words. We cannot join ourselves to one another …
: Garry Wills, in a rather passionate review [of All Thngs Shining] in the New York Review of Books, …
: Saint Peter: Next! Man [defiant]: Christopher Hitchens. St Peter [a half-beat late]: Personal …
: In a number of interviews during the course of his cancer treatments, he discussed the prospect of a …
: Lorna said to me, ‘You know Riddley theres some thing in us it dont have no name.’ I said, ‘What …
: “Captain Najork,” said Aunt Fidget Wonkham-Strong, “is seven feet tall, with eyes like fire, a voice …
: Mark Jarman, "Psalm: First Forgive the Silence" First forgive the silence That answers prayer, Then forgive the prayer That stains the silence. …
: Here’s a thing I will say now without hesitation, unqualified and important. The one word that comes …
: By the time Milton reaches Book VII he has come to a kind of accord with his own frustration. All …
: Pour la skieuse Lindsay Vonn, le tebowing prend encore une autre signification. Elle a imité la pose …
: But while the Web and related telecommunications portals are, as Pagel says, explosively expanding …
: Amazon’s Dec. 10 Price Check promotion specifically excludes books. That’s right. You can use the …
: With more and more work using nanotechnology create clothing and other materials that are resistant …
: This year’s big news stories in Lego
: Just a reminder that things are always happening, though slowly, at The Gospel of the Trees.
: What I want to suggest is that any process of evolution that relies on exploring an unknown space, …
: Apple would have never shipped a device like the Fire. It’s got way too many rough edges (sluggish …
: Hospitals and doctors’ offices, hoping to curb medical error, have invested heavily to put …
: mwfrost: David Ryan’s boat-building shed looks like a great place to spend a winter.
: The Gospel came to the Greeks and the Greeks turned it into a philosophy. The Gospel came to the …
: It is comforting to believe that we, through our sheer will, could transcend these bindings – to …
: It’s so damn interesting though to be doing this. I feel like I have a front seat to a really cool … …
: For every invention we make, from mobile phones to online shopping, self-checkout tills, and …
: One of the biggest complaints about tablets is that they are used to consume, not create. If you …
: The most remarkable attribute Krugman has brought to the Times is rudeness. The social niceties that …
: As I see it, the problem with Amazon stems from the fact that though it started out as a bookseller, …
: Now that Toronto’s penguin couple, Buddy and Pedro, have moved on to courting females, it seems …
: thingsmagazine: The natural history of many curious and uncommon zoophytes… systematically arranged …
: We also hugely underestimate the role of chance in life (this is System 1’s work). Analysis of the …
: I think the worst consequences [of the literary bas against genre fiction] are: Wonderful, …
: Defaulting (even in so-called non-recourse states) is still a lot of trouble, and to most people …
: Since 1992, as the technological miracles and wonders have propagated and the political economy has …
: At a time when there were no driver’s licenses, speed limits or clear lane demarcations, the notion …
: Starbucks is about to unveil a new store in suburban Seattle built primarily of four used shipping …
: For the near future, though, it seems like the trade-off is going to be worth it. Web email, for …
: Think of the 18th–century artist Piranesi, for example, whose engravings of picturesquely decaying …
: The programmers of the commercial web have always seen their goal as the elimination of distance and …
: What I’m kind of hoping is that this is just kind of a pause, while we assimilate this gigantic new …
: thingsmagazine: Book art by Su Blackwell
: You left the cocoon of Princeton when you were 16. Why? I was a rebellious adolescent. It was the …
: ‘We love [Meryl Streep’s] work,’ Callista Gingrich said. 'We love “Mama Mia.” We’ve seen it several …
: The sense of festivity, which corresponds to pity in tragedy, is always present at the end of a …
: To [Milton’s Satan] belongs the journeys, the politics, the battles, a growing insupportable …
: I’ve spent the last couple of weeks living in a monastery, largely to complete a book chapter (now …
: [W]e are in a sense living through a cultural war in which some who’ve chosen, say, more leisure and …
: Writer’s block — or, maybe more accurately, a writer’s expressive frustration — has many presenting …
: Comedy … is not only possible within a Christian society, but capable of a much greater breadth and …
: Another theme of Kahneman’s book, proclaimed in the title, is the existence in our brains of two …
: But the problem, according to those campaigning for change, begins at school with ICT [Information …
: There’s now an App Store for the Mac to match that of the iPhone and iPad, and it carries the same …
: I really enjoyed doing this interview with Sarah Green at Harvard Business Review for their …
: Modernist ambiguity, or realist emotional ambivalence, is unknown to Tolkien—the good people are …
: One of the two Republican senators to vote for the Udall Amendment yesterday was Sen. Rand Paul, who …
: why I returned my Kindle Fire Biggest reason: I couldn’t find a comfortable way to hold the darn thing. The narrow bezel requires …
: Legislation is helpless against the wild prayer of longing that rises, day in, day out, from all …
: Penn State lost a university president, a legendary head football coach, an athletic director, and a …
: The enigmatic Voynich manuscript, now online.
: At bottom, he says, the Germans were blind to the possibility that the Americans were playing the …
: What is notable about these would-be writers is how crest-fallen they are when their first writing …
: Nevertheless, Les Dorr, a spokesman for the F.A.A., said the agency would rather err on the side of …
: Hollywood uses copyright law to shut down pirate movie theaters. Apple uses copyright law to shut …
: kids on a plane So I (and several others) had a debate on Twitter today with Megan McArdle about children on …
: While I think one has to be careful about giving the poor a pass for immoral behavior because they …
: Kahneman never grapples philosophically with the nature of rationality. He does, however, supply a …
: This last example suggests why the J.F.K. cult matters — because its myths still shape how we …
: We shall see where this goes, but in the meantime the Via Meadia advice to investment banks, hedge …
: It was said of Socrates, that he brought philosophy down from heaven to inhabit among men; and I …
: As a writer of science fiction — a label he tried strenuously to shed, not wanting his books to be …
: This song does my soul good. The great Martin Simpson, “Pretty Crowing Chicken.”
: Bodhidharma’s alleged interview with the Emperor Wu of Liang is typical of his abrupt and direct …
: It is likely that one day we will know much more about how economies work (or fail to work) by …
: Today, however, a new breed of young intellectual historian is aiming to integrate the spirit of …
: Now the pathos involved in the triumph of the therapeutic is this: One reason to throw over the …
: If we think of the three levels of human linguistic-communicative activity in its broadest sense: …
: At the moment of their earliest adulthood, Gen Xers were entering an economy that was inimical to …
: CERN Gets Closer to Proving It Broke the Light Speed Barrier CERN Gets Closer to Proving It Broke the Light Speed Barrier New tests at the European science …
: Remember too that the battle for full equality will be won in the political center. Liberals are …
: So to celebrate the Bible of 1611 is not to genuflect before a timeless masterpiece, to salute a …
: The college sports myth machine definitely needs a new gear. Because even cranked all the way up to …
: When we say that we love a writer’s work, we are always stretching the truth: what we really mean is …
: This is what happened with Assassin of Secrets, or Spy Safari. It started out as something fun and …
: At about 11:30 a.m. yesterday, a police officer told me and about eight other students that, and I …
: I firmly believe that one of the pressing unsolved technological problems of the modern age is …
: So, does neuroscience mean the death of free will? Well, it could if it somehow demonstrated that …
: Note that there is a group of people with a vested interest in pushing the agenda that too many …
: High school and college students may be “digital natives,” but they’re wretched at searching. In a …
: images from The Art of Pixar
: [Erik Brynjolfsson] and his co-author Andrew McAfee took their analysis to its logical conclusion …
: Indeed, Bezos doesn’t consider the Fire a mere device, preferring to call it a “media service.” …
: Last week, some mediocre California mayoress announced that she wasn’t going to attend a Veterans …
: Nashville might seem like an archetype of the death-of-the-bookstore-everywhere narrative, but its …
: I fixed college sports. You're welcome. I fixed college sports. You’re welcome.
: Hoops on the U. S. S. Carl Vinson
: In the 1950s I was an athlete. Those were the days before joggers clogged the highway, so it was …
: When cars entered the fray, the fact that their owners were usually rich added an element of class …
: Before the crisis years of the AIDS epidemic I had that sense that one does of a long, expansive …
: I’ve got a good bit of student-loan debt myself, acquired studying philosophy in grad school. And …
: The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”
: theatlantic: canisfamiliaris: The Evolution of Deceit Robert Trivers, a professor of anthropology …
: At least one sports columnist has made the point that Joe Paterno, the 40 year coach of Penn State, …
: To me, claiming that Pictures Under Glass is the future of interaction is like claiming that …
: Rowan wouldn’t be the only writer in recent years—the era of redefining what is meant by …
: The funny thing is, no one’s really hiding the secret of how to make awesome online communities. …
: O captain, my captain For me, the question that looms largest about the Penn State sexual-abuse scandal is this: How could …
: Although Google seems determined to keep adding new features, I suspect there’s little it can do to …
: I may as well admit that I haven’t read all of Steven Pinker’s new book, The Better Angels of Our …
: The fiberoptic cables running through the streets of San Francisco and New York are not a commons, …
: We enjoy caricatures of our friends because we do not want to think of their changing, above all, of …
: thingsmagazine: Soviet Constructivist models, courtesy of the University of Western Australia
: I am intrigued that so many of the high-profile geekocracy (who ought to know better but are …
: They’re building Babbage’s Analytical Engine!
: Terremark’s building in Miami is the physical meeting point for more than 160 networks from around …
: Strangely enough, another misrepresentation, made passingly, stuck worse in my craw. Wood complained …
: A random Saul Bass thing, since everybody’s talking about him now — and rightly so.
: Ecce Homo, by Jacob Epstein; in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral
: This time, Dr Pelzer took one of those plastic models you always see in medical offices and measured …
: Most students can’t rely on a combination of natural aptitude, writing skills and diploma prestige …
: Specifically, Pan wanted to know how skillful young folks are at online search. His team gathered a …
: Paradoxically, then, `Great genial power, one would almost say, consists in not being original at …
: Sometimes we do find the words to express an idea, and only then realize what a stupid idea it is. …
: Liking art that is misogynist, racist, sexist, or homophobic doesn’t necessarily make you those …
: Google is known for making decisions informed by data, often very large sets of it. That’s a great …
: When we actually start to look at the fundamentals, it seems children learn by exploring—by …
: The Kylescu Bridge. Talk about the beauty of proper proportions. Via this slideshow.
: In the Year of Our Lord 2001, Iain Sinclair walked around the city of London in an attempt to undo a …
: If you then factor in cops who are not necessarily crooked, but think it’s appropriate to …
: Music was one of the first businesses to get hit hard. What happened there? Was it all piracy? This …
: Go to send for. Have you say that? Have you understand that he says? At what purpose have say so? At …
: Clay Johnson, author of the soon-to-be-released The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious …
: Manners also helped create the South’s famous “bless your heart” culture — a powerful way of seeming …
: Contrary to popular thought, everyone is not a publisher. When you hear a publisher say it, it’s …
: Consider patients with anterograde amnesia, who cannot consciously recall new experiences in their …
: It’s harder to imagine the past that went away than it is to imagine the future. What we were prior …
: After six months, my editor finally wrote me. Not surprisingly, he no longer liked my book. Too …
: There is no evidence that Shakespeare was illiterate. But Cutler is also misguided in calling him a …
: The loss of a left worth engaging hurts the country, not because that left will answer the questions …
: Twitter is all about slang and abbreviations, but it’s just not eroding the English language. In …
: Averia, the average typeface
: In Wittgensteinian fashion, I shouldn’t advance any thesis—but there is food for thought here. With …
: These fears, however, seem to have been largely isolated; mass panics over genital retraction were …
: Since I’m the old-fashioned sort of person who clings to the belief that words, whatever their …
: tastefullyoffensive: Shakesbear
: That bright ideas, far from guaranteeing against blunders, are often their cause is illustrated by …
: Now he trod carefully across the carpet to the bed and stood silently looking down at the body of …
: a likely story “Is it likely,” the anti-Stratfordians often say, “that these greatest of plays could be written by …
: Amazon is investing (and hiring) while many other American corporations are milking incumbent …
: Wary Meyers, The Basement Stacks
: SF has changed over the span of time I am talking about — from the 1950s (the era of the development …
: Santa Fe complexity theorist Geoffrey West has done some fascinating recent work that shows that …
: The locus of the infantilist aesthetic seemed to be Steve Jobs himself, if his pronouncements at …
: Ras Prince Monolulu was born this day in 1881. Here he is at The Derby, Epsom, 1923.
: Why is mass online collaboration useful in solving mathematical problems? Part of the answer is that …
: Over the past several years, our quest to extract meaning from information has taken us more and …
: I also told her I thought it was a gift to be forced to choose your priorities, because there is no …
: We’re not the only church called Mars Hill, and occasionally there arises confusion between us and …
: I remember sitting in his back yard in his garden one day, and he started talking about God. He …
: If you really want complete freedom of choice, complete openness of information, where nobody is …
: Bang & Olufsen stuff is cool in its retro-futuristic way, but this is more my style. Though, …
: But the genuinely impressive moments in a journey through B&O’s world come from peeking at its …
: When you have eliminated the impossible, as Sherlock Holmes told Watson, then whatever remains, …
: Making his own choice of the best time to have been alive, Edward Gibbon, author of “Decline and …
: science-fiction IKEA manuals
: We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily …
: For Bohr, physics was not about finding out what nature is, but about what can be said about it. …
: Physics at the moment is again very muddled; in any case, for me it is too complicated, and I wish I …
: Nor can Oxfordians provide any explanation for the manifest stylistic differences between …
: For the time present, in case I should be prevented by death to propound and reveal this new light …
: There is enormous cross-cultural variation in the way people behave when they drink alcohol. There …
: Besides, no argument could ever possibly sway the Oxfordian crowd. They are the prophets of …
: Mr Gumpy’s Outing is one of my favorite books ever. Here’s a slideshow/interview with the great John …
: So. The love of God teaches us to see; it teaches us to see God in the face of Jesus Christ. It …
: All I can say for sure is that in all my days, I have never seen a more fitting living metaphor for …
: vimeo.com/30704658 (Source: http://vimeo.com/)
: You can divide all soccer players — maybe all athletes — into two groups: the rational and the …
: The question that haunts every Dickens biography, Tomalin’s included, is this one: was Dickens an …
: Oh, Minos, or Rhadamanthus, or Persephone, or by whatever name you are called, I am to blame for …
: questions to ask your local anti-Stratfordian You argue that William of Stratford couldn’t have written The Plays because he was too poorly …
: newyorker: James Casebere’s photographs of handmade, spare environments speak to a preoccupation …
: The rejection of science seems to be part of a politically monolithic red-state fundamentalism, …
: The poster has a genealogy, and it’s instructive. Two years ago, the same theatre’s production of …
: The most troubling thing about “Anonymous” is not that it turns Shakespeare into an illiterate …
: “So we aren’t any closer to unification than we were in Einstein’s time?” the historian asked. …
: I love infographics like this as much as the next guy, maybe more than the next guy, but let’s face …
: Writers are defined, in large measure, by what they can’t do. The mass of things that lie beyond …
: All this proved a bit too much for Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition …
: Why such narratives are in demand by the general public is more mysterious. It could be that …
: thingsmagazine: ‘The Mariner on the Deck of the Ship’, by Mervyn Peake
: For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, this book from its owner, let it change into …
: One of the things I noticed in the obits and letters to the editor about Jobs was the recurrent …
: I’m endlessly fascinated by watching children play with technology. It all started when I saw a …
: Many worthy thinkers fear that “the life of the mind” is being crowded out by the current explosion …
: great expectations How many times am I going to get suckered by technological promises? I was so excited when I heard …
: I am buying this book just for the cover.
: There was a divide between the grad student crowd gathered to hear Zizek and the more rough-looking …
: The problem is always that, at the end of the day, I can sit on my butt and make things up and write …
: justinrampage: The Angry Birds have been captured and illustrated out in the wild by artist Mohamed …
: Something is missing from Alan Hollinghurst’s The Stranger’s Child. He’s left out the explicit sex …
: sweatervestboy: I can’t imagine this was the poem Will expected when he asked for one, but I’m …
: The aforementioned Harold Davidson in the lion’s den.
: One of the other things that a producer can do is to think of ways to get people out of their …
: [The] protestations [of Harold Davidson, the “Prostitute’s Padre”] that he had been ‘entrapped’ by …
: We knew instantly that “Smells Like Teen Spirit” signaled the dawn of a new era in pop music; it …
: Fact 1: Enthusiasm for football has never been higher – not just for the NFL, but with young boys …
: A group that divides the world between the pure 99 percent and the evil 1 percent will have nothing …
: I haven’t met a single person who uses social media heavily who isn’t struggling to define what the …
: Most of our political leaders are not engineers or scientists and do not listen to engineers or …
: The average height of native-born American males has not significantly changed since the middle of …
: Aside from a yearly ceremonial peek inside its vault, which can be unlocked only with three keys …
: “I’ve always felt, with The Iliad, a real frustration that it’s read wrong,” Oswald says. “That it’s …
: I deeply deplore the equation of popular writing with pap and distortion for two main reasons. …
: The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and his bombed-out house
: Using an operating system of unadorned bodily witness, backed by a headlong courage that often …
: Neal Stephenson’s new novel begins with a family reunion in the Idaho panhandle, near the Canadian …
: Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — …
: If Stallman had to make a statement emphasizing his dislike of Jobs’ influence, he could still have …
: Steve Jobs, the pioneer of the computer as a jail made cool, designed to sever fools from their …
: While Pinker makes a great show of relying on evidence—the 700-odd pages of this bulky treatise are …
: In one sense, X-Ray expands a feature that has been common in early ebook readers: the ability to …
: Steve Jobs I didn’t expect this news so soon. It would be disingenuous for me to pretend that this isn’t …
: The only really effective apologia for Christianity comes down to two arguments, namely, the saints …
: Perhaps you were expecting a purely historical account as one might give of the battle of Waterloo, …
: The idea that a doctorate in history prepares one only, or primarily, to teach in a college or …
: Amazon has targeted a certain type of consumer: one who is already a loyal Amazon customer and wants …
: More than just an engrossing yarn, Mr. Glenny’s book takes an anthropological approach to the …
: As Twitter’s message traffic has grown explosively, so has the scientific appetite for the insights …
: portraitoftheartistasayoungman: Harold N. Fisk’s 1944 maps of the Mississippi River’s path over …
: In sum, the NYT screwed up. Lindstrom appears to have a habit of making overblown claims about …
: I don’t think this has the effect that Facebook wants. I don’t think a frog-boiling style of slow …
: Nobody is against empathy. Nonetheless, it’s insufficient. These days empathy has become a shortcut. …
: One person whose work on these matters has received considerable attention lately is the British …
: “Bruegel suggests a chart of emotions as intricate as the map-making of Ortelius. The sloped back of …
: The act of writing allows me to feel truly alive. Knowing that I have sold 140 million books …
: Adiaphora: As a Theologian One Can Never Be Great Adiaphora: As a Theologian One Can Never Be Great preciseandtowering: “With horror I read [a] …
: A new study in the journal Science examined the contents of more than 500 million Twitter messages …
: Most professors are not going to go out of their way to provide career counseling: you have to ask …
: The “split browser” notion is that Amazon will use its EC2 back end to pre-cache user web browsing, …
: Why is e-mail volume getting ever worse? I believe it’s because of a simple fact: E-mail is easier …
: Among the many astonishing claims that Barack Obama made in his recent speech opposing the …
: That future which only yesterday was the future now today is the present. Just like we mark eras …
: I am sure we ought to love God in our lives and in all the blessings he sends us. We should trust …
: I believe the novel is a moral form. We turn to novels in pursuit of virtue. Through the tales …
: thenearsightedmonkey: Gospel singer, R. H. Harris, b. 1909, called “The Father of Them All” From the …
: Many younger readers will have trouble believing that anybody older than Andrew Sullivan exists, but …
: It has been a fascinating phenomenon in the discussion around publishing how adversarial people get …
: In 1988, Shoshana Zuboff wrote the prescient book In the Age of the Smart Machine, in which she …
: The longtime goal of Facebook, and of founder Mark Zuckerberg—who was memorably profiled here by …
: Again, it seems to me that the increasing focus on the neurological aspects of reading leads …
: Life A long time ago an extraordinary family lived in Cappadocia. They were orthodox Christians during a …
: Basically, then, Europe doesn’t have the death penalty because its political systems are less …
: Perhaps the single most dramatic example of this phenomenon of software eating a traditional …
: He [Derek Parfit] decided to study philosophy. He attended a lecture by a Continental philosopher …
: Why did a figure such as Leibniz fail to use his own tools? Perhaps messiness was the source of his …
: Everyone but the Tea Partiers supports green technology — Republican, Democrat and independent …
: For proof, he points to results from a survey prepared for CEOs for Cities, a Chicago-based U.S. …
: Among the books he packed for his European journey in 1933 was a volume of Horace. To pass the time …
: In 2001 three young people from Moscow – Arkady Shlykov, student of Moscow theological seminary, …
: In short, Blackboard sucks. Blackboard supporters might claim that some, or even most, of the …
: David Leigh and Luke Harding’s history of WikiLeaks describes how journalists took Assange to …
: Remembering the advice the mayor of Bruchsal had given me, the moment I had arrived in this little …
: When I asked Randolph to explain just what he thought Riverdale students were missing out on, he …
: This story got me thinking about covers I’ve seen for Lord of the Flies.
: thenearsightedmonkey: You don’t need a sketchbook to make a sketchbook. Any piece of paper that you …
: Jobs is ahead of his time in other ways too: He has taught his entire organization to play in the …
: dpstyles: tedr: laughingsquid: The Relative Sizes of the World’s Largest Photo Libraries tedr: I …
: I haven’t experienced anything that dramatic, aside from that feedback-induced near-emesis. But I …
: There’s no pressing need for me to write about this, I guess, save that blogging is most often a …
: Certainly those determining acts of her life were not ideally beautiful. They were the mixed result …
: Course registration versus niceness; success versus compassion; “attainment” versus kindness. …
: “Language is no barrier to writing a novel,” author Animesh Verma told the Indian Express newspaper …
: There’s something more to this feral quality than the savor we find in stories. For what are we in …
: Every generation gets the fantasy it deserves. Victorians had the stark realities of life and death …
: Melbourn Village College – not far from Cambridge – has decided to ditch its Latin motto: “Nisi …
: It was once thought that paywalls would work only for business-oriented papers like the Wall Street …
: Is the technology industry finished? Is engineering finished? Is the military finished? I haven’t …
: I know Michael Moore and Bill Maher think this is a great line: “I went into the polls voting for …
: So take a look at your bookshelves. Do you have all—better make that any—of the books on the …
: But offering words of apology is not enough. Christopher Hitchens once wrote: ‘If you don’t want to …
: wwnorton: William Faulkner’s second novel, Mosquitoes, was written during the summer of 1926 and …
: Have you ever noticed that while small businesses wish they were bigger, big businesses dream about …
: Lawrence Lindsey, who was head of Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors, warned a few months ago that …
: Why not have on-air real-time fact checking during presidential debates? Perhaps the worst aspect of …
: The moral logic is hard to fathom: the NCAA bans personal messages on the bodies of the players, and …
: One way to think about losing a tennis match, and specifically to think about the pain and …
: YRM has recently completed Telehouse West, a flagship facility at Telehouse’s data campus in …
: Sometime in the last year I was reading yet another article preaching give-it-away-for-free (the it …
: In our time it is broadly true that political writing is bad writing. Where it is not true, it will …
: The clever code is the handiwork of Narrative Science, a start-up in Evanston, Ill., that offers …
: The “credible but unconfirmed” terrorism plot announced late Thursday is a perfect example of two …
: I was probably the sixth person to get an iPad. We got two of them flown out. The criteria was that …
: Why does it seem like some languages are spoken faster than others? The answer is that speed depends …
: A 7-Eleven clerk in San Diego was more confused than frightened on Monday when a would-be criminal …
: Most of these biological facts don’t matter, at least for Brooks’s purposes. What of our view of …
: Once again, the Wheaton College food service has been named best in the country by the Princeton …
: W. H. Auden, "Fugal-Chorus" (from For the Time Being) Great is Caesar: He has conquered Seven Kingdoms. The First was the Kingdom of Abstract Idea: Last …
: “The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these,” Jesus said of little children. But computer …
: Kurt Gray of the University of Maryland, and Annie Knickman and Dan Wegner of Harvard University, …
: Logically, the video revolution and television news should thrive together. But just as the rest of …
: One of the strange powers of the logic of debt, which pervaded first North Atlantic societies and …
: Who doesn’t love buying online? It offers a bigger selection for less money, ordered from the …
: I think the reason fiction but not non-fiction has the effect of improving empathy is because …
: One of the little-talked-about dynamics of the mobile phone industry is the huge proportion of …
: In the 1950s, a long-past GM CEO who had been appointed secretary of defense said that “for years, I …
: In Newton’s second year [at Cambridge], having filled the beginning and end of his notebook with …
: What government a nation can bear depends on the condition of the general mind; if a nation expects …
: A friend called a few weeks ago to tell me about a skyscraper that had to be evacuated after an …
: theatlantic: A Jobs Plan for the Post-Cubicle Economy About 150 years ago, American workers …
: C’est pourtant le grand défi de l’Occident, s’adapter au monde qu’il a créé. Un beau sujet …
: A la génération précédente, un professeur de sciences à la Sorbonne transmettait presque 70% de ce …
: Railroad work demanded a bodily knowledge that could register the connections between machines and …
: We need to remember that the great imaginative invention we now call the hospital was the result of …
: To many education experts, something is not adding up — here and across the country. In a nutshell: …
: I predict that in 2050, we’ll look back at the first 20 years of the web and shake our heads. The …
: My short answer is “Learn code.” My long answer, I suppose, would be that one should learn to code …
: Paris, as much as I love Paris, feels to me as though it’s long since been ‘cooked.’ Its brand …
: There are three extraordinary paintings at the centre of this book. One is Flight Out of Egypt …
: Discovering the evolution of words is a constant pleasure. I once asked Magnus Magnusson, the late …
: The accompanying article by Lev Grossman says nothing new, though it says it nicely enough. I kinda …
: First you call for an unnamed disciplinary sovereign to safeguard the traditions of the disciplinary …
: The Quest Hero often encounters an old beggar or an animal who offers him advice: if, too proud to …
: W. H. Auden, "Voltaire at Ferney" Perfectly happy now, he looked at his estate. An exile making watches glanced up as he passed And …
: Sprave is so into slingshots that in 2009 he created the Slingshot Channel on YouTube. He now spends …
: Steig’s drawings seem to flow effortlessly from his mind to his pen and onto the paper. I doubt he …
: I’m told that the cliché du jour in financial markets involves reference to ‘uncharted territory’. …
: Another example that is quite astonishing, one that will be recognized by future historians as an …
: mwfrost: I know very little about this extremely popular bold truth-teller Louis C. K. But I know …
: mwfrost: (via Wayne Coyne’s Oklahoma Compound - NYTimes.com) Yeah, that’s about what I imagined the …
: To grow up in the South is to be fed a steady diet of grits and ghost stories. Ask any household in …
: In contemporary life, many people claim to spend extreme lengths of time at the office, such …
: The savage ritual of the whipping-block would remind a batch of whimpering children that, though …
: PEG 2.0: Mini-pseudo-théologie de l'"usure" et de l'économie financiarisée PEG 2.0: Mini-pseudo-théologie de l'“usure” et de l’économie financiarisée I don’t …
: The Castle of Perseverance. Perhaps the earliest stage diagram in English theater, from the …
: Conventional wisdom sets up two distinct experiences of Shakespeare’s plays: readers encountering a …
: always on NYT: What’s the solution for being on our phones too much? Brian Chen: I think that people need to …
: The larger story here is about the surprising benefits of negative moods. While sad subjects in this …
: Hey forces of evil — here’s what’s in store for you! (There’s much that’s wonderful at Coventry …
: The New Yorker and Francis Schaeffer - NYTimes.com The New Yorker and Francis Schaeffer - NYTimes.com Ross is bringing some crucial facts to the table …
: Tim Cook is not a media guy. He’s not a humanities and liberal arts guy. He’s an engineer, and a …
: Or maybe we could just throw our garbage in here!
: It’s in State Department memos, vintage pages of Woman’s Home Companion and your inbox: Times New …
: Chas Freeman … is a former diplomat who served as Richard Nixon’s interpreter during his visit to …
: If you feel that Catholicism or Christianity or religion is not represented, by detractors or …
: Preston Sturges’ The Lady Eve is some kind of great movie. And yet, like most of the best Hollywood …
: What is strangest in the recent waves of young arrivals in Silicon Valley is that they tend no …
: I was just struck by this in recent discussions about instituting a no laptop policy in the …
: Part of the weakness of current theological warfare is that it is premised on stable, lifelong …
: Dylan’s refusal to be known is not simply a celebrity’s ploy, but a passion that has shaped his …
: The act of translating what for me are the mysterious symbols of communication into actual …
: The Incarnation, the coming of Christ in the form of a servant who cannot be recognized by the eye …
: Humanists can be private educators and public spies. But the latter role is far too rare, because …
: I turned off comments in the last redesign of powazek.com because I needed a place online that was …
: I think we’re witnessing a fascinating shift in online culture. The era of hacker handles is over. …
: The theologian T. F. Torrance tells about an incident that happened in 1944 after an assault on San …
: The past is not another country; it is another life. The texture of daily living is different now …
: The rapidly changing practice of personal curation only serves to highlight how difficult the job of …
: Edwards begins his book with an anecdote about a meeting he had with Page back in 2002. Bruised by …
: In other words, you did finally understand America.
: mwfrost: (via Byrhtferth’s Diagram; Computus Diagrams | Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle …
: The band’s manager, Jason, contacted me through his brother Michael (with whom I went to college) …
: Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park
: Trying to peer inside a crumpled ball by simulating the process in three dimensions is …
: Lanier’s mother [before her death in an automobile accident] had recently bought the family a new …
: If the connection between publishers and writers splits completely, if they fail to support and …
: It goes like this: Friedman wants to establish new sovereign nations built on oil-rig-type platforms …
: ‘America needs heroes,’ it is sometimes said, a phrase that’s often uttered in a wistful tone, …
: Every generation must lose its innocence, must see the brightly painted nursery wall smashed away by …
: why Gandalf and Elrond were wrong I’m sure this has been said before, but … I don’t think much of the advice given by Gandalf and …
: The public has a distorted view of science, because children are taught in school that science is a …
: For my poetry students, there is a process I commend — take a poem that finds you, I will tell them, …
: Qualifications are necessary sometimes. Anticipating and defusing opposing arguments has been a …
: I’ll tell you a weird thing about me: My mother was Lucy Pevensie. Or OK, obviously my mom was not …
: The Lord of the Rings was the perfect fantasy for WWII-era Europe, the story of an external evil …
: Philip guides you like an eager kid at his own personal science fair, pausing to scratch into the …
: The Moomin canon, by contrast, has been well-tended in America with not only the children’s novels …
: It is the novelist’s innate cowardice that makes him depute to imaginary personalities the sins that …
: The liberal camp includes many thinkers I admire, and it has produced some of the more eloquent …
: As the political philosopher Robert P. George has argued, the proper role of government is to …
: But there’s a lot of potential once and if students do share hardware, particularly when it comes to …
: Decision fatigue helps explain why ordinarily sensible people get angry at colleagues and families, …
: Critics also seem uncomfortable with the fact that the film includes comedy. Non-black critics, too, …
: Starting from the idea of historical uniqueness, Auden developed an elaborate vocabulary for …
: I suppose what I do in the simplest sense, which is also perhaps the most important sense, is to …
: The creation of a post-imperial America is the most urgent—and potentially most liberating—adventure …
: Modernist studies is a vibrant and exciting area of study, and many new postgraduates are being …
: (via Kill Shakespeare). So you decide to put Shakespeare and his characters in a comic, and the only …
: (via Calculating the Size of Apple’s Spaceship HQ | Analysis | The Mac Observer)
: landscapelifescape: Mountain Ash trees, Alfred Nichols Gardens, Victoria, Australia Forest Mist by …
: I just finished reading Logicomix, and while I enjoyed it very much, I’m not sure I learned …
: Article XXXI: Whether I stole Laurie’s apple juice during nap time? Objection I: It would seem that …
: endings and renewals So I promised the other day that I would explain my resumption of this commonplace book. I am ending …
: The land of the dawn-lit mountains, Arunachal Pradesh, is a disputed territory lying between two …
: A lot of what Gabler describes as Big Ideas turn out to have been actively wrong or at least …
: In short, this book is among the worst entries in what I sometimes call “the leadershit” (say …
: mwfrost: Philip Rieff, first in (maybe) a series of unpopular TED talks. Also, this one will last …
: But the emerging prevalence—anecdotally, at least—of the gadget death wish suggests an intriguing …
: It’s true that the boundaries of the collective create problems for the individual – problems that …
: a public-service announcement Yes, I am back on Tumblr. An explanation and a plan will be forthcoming soon.
: The search-and-rescue dogs of 9/11. God bless them.
: Social networking sites are the primary form of communication among young people, and they are …
: Only when the humanities can earn their own keep will they be respected in modern America. And that …
: Those Southern boys are all boys, and they are all white. And having tackled Pennsylvania, Maryland, …
: Sometimes one feels that the center might be a little too serene. The emphasis on “joy” and …
: Throughout much of history, at the heart of every village, town, and city in Europe, there lay a …
: Iain Sinclair's struggles with the city of London | Books | The Guardian Iain Sinclair’s struggles with the city of London | Books | The Guardian
: reading as therapy by timothy aubry - bookforum.com / daily review reading as therapy by timothy aubry - bookforum.com / daily review
: Augustine di Noia on mystery Augustine di Noia on mystery
: It's been said that The New World doesn't have fans: it has disciples and partisans and fanatics. …
: Debating the Value of College in America : The New Yorker Debating the Value of College in America : The New Yorker
: Are these the 100 places that made Britain? | Culture | The Guardian Are these the 100 places that made Britain? | Culture | The Guardian
: Postmodern Pythagoras « Public Discourse Postmodern Pythagoras « Public Discourse
: Critical Mass » Blog Archive » What Umberto Eco hasn’t read Critical Mass » Blog Archive » What Umberto Eco hasn’t read
: I Read Where I Am I Read Where I Am
: The End of Sexual Identity - TGC Reviews The End of Sexual Identity - TGC Reviews
: This Easter, try to avoid the Gospel of Grayling | Brendan O’Neill | spiked This Easter, try to avoid the Gospel of Grayling | Brendan O’Neill | spiked
: A life in writing: China Miéville | Books | The Guardian A life in writing: China Miéville | Books | The Guardian
: A Generalist’s Work, Day 3 A Generalist’s Work, Day 3
: McGonigal is not advocating any kind of real change, as she purports, but rather a change in …
: The Lenten season is devoted especially to what the theologians call contrition, and so every day in …
: “Win the Future” is about re-imagining human life as the worst massively-multiplayer online game …
: To save your world you asked this man to die: Would this man, could he see you now, ask why? — W. H. …
: The books that I remember best are the ones I stole in Mexico City, between the ages of sixteen and …
: I must say, here, that sociologists are the greater offenders. I listen to them around here with …
: When offered the chance to get out, to choose our own communities, to choose our own friends, to …
: So these apps need to work in a fundamentally different way: as more of my friends access content …
: And this is why I think the New Atheists are a disaster, a danger to the wellbeing of America …
: This isn’t a particularly great insight, I suppose: that you can goose demand if you shift costs …
: And now the learner, has he no lot or part in this story of suffering, even though his lot cannot be …
: As instructors naturally become aware of their students’ attachment styles—this is an anxious …
: In everyday thought and speech we have reasons, intentions, feelings. In brainspeak we have …
: As to a practical “freedom to connect” policy agenda, “we believe there is no silver bullet in the …
: Moby: The reason I started making music really young is that no other art form affected me as …
: Sometimes I get the feeling that Collini is hearing people urging others to be civil, and mis …
: I did however glean some of Ariely’s bigger picture ideas: • Most people cheat a little, but very …
: I chose not to write about the nitty-gritty of the current technical situation for a simple reason: …
: Today, however, it isn’t culture per se that is a “principle of authority” but increasingly the …
: But an emerging body of research is suggesting that spending time alone, if done right, can be good …
: There is an analogy here with the Christian interplay between divine providence and human free will. …
: Thank God Jamie merely opened a school, and didn’t decide to explore the NHS’s failings by opening …
: For decades, Chinatown Fair welcomed everyone — misfits, cool kids, world champions, novices, …
: If the technologies I use and value take steps to jeopardize the important connections and …
: Conservatives should make their case against NPR based on objective evidence of programming …
: After all, if we are going to grant that the fiends in the Westboro Baptist congregation have the …
: Modern measurements of Americans’ historical and political knowledge go back at least to 1943, when …
: Anonymity has long been hailed as one of the founding philosophies of the Internet, a critical …
: Where is psychiatry headed? What the discipline badly needs is close attention to patients and their …
: Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of …
: John Dominis: Jacques D’Amboise playing with his sons, Seattle, Washington, 1962 ©Time Inc
: R. B. Kitaj, If Not, Not, 1975–75, oil on canvas
: In college, I was lucky enough to take an English class with the novelist Reynolds Price, before he …
: I spoke to an academic at a US university (who wishes to remain anonymous) who regularly sets …
: HarperCollins has informed libraries that henceforth, ebooks will be sold on the condition that they …
: McEnroe believes that Florida’s live-in tennis academies have created an assembly-line sameness to …
: The great power of modern digital filters lies in their ability to make information that is of …
: The organizers called everyone together to read the rules — likely the only national championship …
: mwfrost: Mark Linkous died by his own hand a year ago today.
: To create the literature of fact, we have to work like novelists in many ways. We select. We cast …
: Randy Mora, El Futuro de la Educación, via Abler
: When I started to use [Kodachrome], its stability was well known (and still unique), and was a …
: Whatever the reason for the gender imbalance, college administrators across the country have been …
: My neighbor shrugged. ’[The college application essay is] an exercise,’ he said. ‘You want to see if …
: Left-handedness has sometimes been treated as pathological. Cesare Lombroso, the infamous …
: But let’s go back to the math of the Kindle authors. While their cut is better than traditional …
: Why assign any special value to an hour spent online in the first place? Given the proven models of …
: [Allan] Bloom described his students as unmoved by loved and death, fit to be competent technical …
: His obsession with cities—and with programming—never abated. By early 2006, having dropped out of …
: I met Daniel Ellsberg for the first time recently. Ellsberg was a US military analyst, turned …
: Books are frozen voices, in the same way that musical scores are frozen music. The score is a way of …
: Kelly’s long engagement with technology furnishes a fountainhead of rich observations on the life of …
: Today, the role of the telegraph in the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution—just like the role of the tape …
: I don’t think journalism school is a place to learn how to write computer code. I think a lot of the …
: To say that rappers possess originality and that they rely on traditional literary devices is not to …
: Novelists have an endless drive to aestheticize and to complicate. I know there’s a very strong …
: Take a look, for example, [at] the Civil War blogging done by Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic… . …
: The first people to perform useful studies specifically on composure in crisis were World War II …
: Sony has a platform for e-books. Amazon has a platform for e-books. Barnes & Noble has a …
: Heyman uses the phenomenon of addiction to make a profound point about neuroscientific progress in …
: According to Portland brewing consultant Hans Gauger, the high-hops and high-alcohol trend grew out …
: Nothing fans a stammer’s flames like the fear that your listener is thinking “Jeez, what is wrong …
: I’m less pleased with the word sacrament (a legal term coined for a mostly unfortunate western …
: Now that the social layer has been built, some people say the next layer will be the game layer. The …
: landscapelifescape: Japanese (Acer Palmatum) Maple trees at Westonbirt Arboretum, Gloucestershire, …
: thingsorganizedneatly: Julien Valée
: The republic of letters is in thrall to an unprecedented scientism. The word is out that human …
: The Internet kill-switch debate is not about the precision or care with which such a policy might be …
: Once you enter the Zone, the quiet is a shock. It would be eerie were it not so lovely. The …
: It may be perhaps a question, whether St. Paul did mean that we sin as oft as ever we go about any …
: Bono: You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes …
: This fear of being misapprehended may in fact have some influence on stuttering itself. Alfred Kazin …
: what Google knows and many parents don’t know is that a person’s city of birth and year of birth can …
: It is the connection between memory and creativity, perhaps, which should make us most wary of the …
: If the culture of the future has more people producing cultural work for smaller personal payments, …
: Slowing down one’s writing as well as one’s reading can assist in this. It’s in that spirit, as well …
: The problem with the Internet, however, is that it lets anyone become otaku about anything …
: The public has a distorted view of science, because children are taught in school that science is a …
: The Times finds a small group of people who it quotes being concerned about the decline of …
: When did we become so enamoured of unpleasantness? More importantly, when did we start automatically …
: Only after the online movement had gained an impressive offline momentum in Tahrir Square did Mr. …
: You could say ‘the face of the deep’ was found or chosen or selected by the 1611 translators, but …
: But just how many English idioms come from the KJB? When I was writing Begat: The King James Bible …
: Scrapping the King James version, in the well-meaning way of the well-educated classes, had a number …
: The Wallace archive at the Harry Ransom Center efficiently dispels the ‘genius’ status awarded to …
: Are attention spans deteriorating? Forty years ago, the length of Marcel Ophüls’ The Sorrow and The …
: I would add a few more points about the difference between possibilism and agnosticism. We have to …
: I don’t subscribe to the ‘Google is making us dumber’ position. I think Google is allowing us to be …
: But I come here, and follow the Christian monastic day laid out like a garden plot by Benedict at …
: If it was impossible to replace politics with righteous anger in 1944, it is surely all the more …
: What these errors add up to is that Watson really cannot process natural language in a very …
: One might argue that literacy is unalloyedly a good thing – yes, I can think of counter-examples, …
: I feel like shrinking now, I am so embarrassed for what I have done and how many people I offended. …
: Conventions of politeness aren’t based purely or even primarily on functional considerations—putting …
: Perhaps the most important thing to be said about the Art Project is that despite all the talk of …
: nostos All right, dammit, I’m back. Posterous is seriously problematic.
: transfer of attention Friends, enemies, and followers — I’m giving up on Tumblr, which I have only been able to access …
: The New Atlantis (2) The New Atlantis (2) Reading the first few pages of The New Atlantis, I was surprised by its …
: Fabulous chalk lettering by Dana Tanamachi
: Adiaphora: Our Refusal to be Spoken To Adiaphora: Our Refusal to be Spoken To preciseandtowering: “Hermeneutical and methodological …
: In a new book, “Virtually You: The Dangerous Powers of the E-Personality,” Stanford University …
: At the core of science fiction is the notion of extrapolation, of asking, “If this goes on, where …
: Nobody has said it better than the art historian Rainer Crone, who worked closely with Warhol from …
: teaching e-books teaching e-books I’ve been teaching The Lord of the Rings pretty much every year for the past …
: from an interview with Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines JB: You have not had long-term plans in general. You have eschewed that. HK: Not long-term plans in …
: Google is not evil, but neither is it morally good. Nor is it simply neutral—far from it. Google …
: Back in dial-up days, when Google launched it was just a blank screen with a box, so it loaded fast. …
: Backlit screens are something we’ve grown very used to without realizing what they’ve done to our …
: ‘It’s a big puzzle,’ said Russell D. Gray, head of the Auckland lab. 'Why [the New Caledonian crow]? …
: river maps river maps The Mississippi river system as an Underground-style map. More info here; thanks to …
: iconoclassic: daydreaming (by hollie chastain)
: not quite "times of war," but still... wesleyhill: I just read this quote from W. H. Auden: “In times of war even the crudest kind of …
: landscapelifescape: Phander, Ghizar, Pakistan Morning.. (by Atif Saeed)
: Particularize Particularize As I mentioned the other day, the Shirky/Doctorow thesis is that the internet in …
: The Harrowing of Hell: one of the great 15th-century alabasters from Nottingham. See others here.
: from the tomb of Agilbert, Bishop of Wessex, at Jouarre Abbey, France
: Egypt, like many Arab societies, has a wealthy and well-armed elite at the top and a fanatical and …
: I wish I could be more enthusiastic about the events in Egypt and Tunisia – but … the citizens of …
: Such wistful desire to evade responsibility exposes the childishness of the adults now preaching the …
: Who, alive today, will still be famous in 500 years? It’s the kind of question people might ask at …
: Unfortunately, however, traditions that are not passed on from one generation to the next die. If an …
: The great thing about art is that it’s there whether the academic humanities are or not. And if you …
: We are unique as a species in our ability to point meaningfully. Chimps may draw saleable pictures …
: The big difference Facebook and, especially, Twitter has made is that it is easier for critics to …
: Late last year there was a confluence of critical opinion in America the likes of which the nation …
: None of these observations is intended to condemn technology. They say that we have put in place a …
: Eagleton suggested three ways we engage with the tragic dimension: “social transformation” which …
: Too many of the elderly do not have the family or the communal attachments necessary to feel valued; …
: The Whale and the Reactor (final installment) The Whale and the Reactor (final installment) Let me conclude these posts on Winner’s book by …
: Aaron Belz, "You Can't Pick Your Friend's Nose" You can pick your friends, we used to say, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your …
: It’s hard to imagine a revolution in understanding a popular sport that could entirely circumvent …
: Virus-writers seemed, at least at first, to be in it for anything but money. The outcome was simply …
: When Lévi-Strauss at last reached the Nambikwara after an 800-mile trek, the encounter shattered his …
: The human habit of overestimating other people’s happiness is nothing new, of course. Jordan points …
: As Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of International Law and its associated Book Reviewing …
: The Whale and the Reactor (7) The Whale and the Reactor (7) The idea that Reagan Ruined Everything seems to dominate, silently, …
: Strikingly, liberal education is not only effective at enhancing student learning, but also in …
: After all, the radical transparency of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook may not be mutually exclusive …
: The devil has his grip on the business of the NFL. Former players, like Aikman, who are still …
: books owned and leased books owned and leased Tim Spalding: We used to own our books. With most ebooks we own them in …
: The 2010 election seemed to be about voters repudiating the $14 trillion national debt, yet …
: ‘The best research has failed to show that people who stutter, as a group, are more neurotic or have …
: Did Montaigne intuitively know that by inviting his would-be enemy into his living room, and into …
: Of course, technology doesn’t need to make us happy—indeed if it is capable of wanting, as Kelly …
: The reason robots are such a slippery slope, according to Turkle, is that they take advantage of a …
: The guardians of the liberal arts have made exactly the same mistake. They themselves are securely …
: Every time we postpone some necessary event—whether we put off doing the dishes till morning or …
: landscapelifescape: Yorkshire, England Simplicity Of The Complex (by jasontheaker)
: However wrongheaded you believe your ideological opponents to be, laying ‘all that ails the world’ …
: preciseandtowering: Graphic: How big, exactly, is Starbucks’ new ‘Trenta’ size? | National Post
: If photography was once for special occasions, today we have an astonishing ability to document …
: Students who study by themselves for more hours each week gain more knowledge – while those who …
: The truth is that as remarkable as Steve Jobs has been in many ways—as a designer, an innovator, a …
: Practicing a piece of music for four hours requires focused attention, but it is nowhere near as …
: To appreciate the importance of a pre-modern blog, consult a database such as Eighteenth Century …
: It soon became clear, however, that despite his personal warmth and charisma, when it came to Church …
: The results of the new paper suggest young people have a compulsion to feel good about themselves …
: In Kansas City, going to a white barbecue joint is like going to a gentile internist: everything …
: writing in the dust: Jaron Lanier's advice for remaining a person on the internet writing in the dust: Jaron Lanier’s advice for remaining a person on the internet wesleyhill: …
: There are at least two problems with calling Loughner a ‘loner.’ First and foremost, he almost …
: Apps shatter the very idea of aesthetic coherence, turning computers into weird samplers that betray …
: Jared Loughner’s despair that everything is unreal and words have no meaning amounts to hatred of …
: The main barrier is the scientism that pervades our mentality and our culture. We are prone to think …
: I’m not exactly a slow writer—when I’m really cooking I can do 800-1,000 good, polished words in two …
: Atargatis, the “Syrian Goddess,” was a demanding mistress. For one thing, her priests (the galli) …
: I’m always being informed that if I find something wrong on Wikipedia I’m supposed to “fix” it. Good …
: By Monday, The New York Times’ editorial page had kicked into action. It conceded that, sure, …
: Defenders of traditional authority will object to the relativism of all this, but relativism is all …
: mwfrost: The fundamental contradiction in my thinking about social life is bound up with the …
: If Wikipedia pulled a MySpace and started dwindling away, who could save them? And who could ever …
: The most significant thing about the feature on ‘Why Criticism Matters’ is the title. The New York …
: Throughout his book, but especially toward the end, Metaxas turns this erudite and at times abstruse …
: myaloysius: Female (detail) behind the figure of the Bacchante in Scene VII, Villa of the …
: Apart from being gratified that my book has been filmed by one of the best living English-speaking …
: To insist in the face of all this that Second Life is not a game is to miss out on the way it …
: Most linguistics departments have an introduction-to-language course in which students other than …
: A landmark study published in 2003 in Psychological Science by Iowa State Professor Craig Anderson …
: How do you navigate content on the iPad? Scroll or flip? In 1987, the biggest neck beards in tech …
: I break tablet reading distances into three main categories—Bed, Knee, and Breakfast—and define the …
: The inhabitants of Osh (Ūsh) drive the enemy out with sticks and clubs and hold the town for Babur, …
: You can use my name on your board, I guess, although I generally try to keep off of letterheads …
: The substitution of online for bookstore distribution of books will provide a substantial social …
: Back then, the basic unit of Internet buzz was the blog entry. Blogs, which today seem so quaint, …
: ‘Many people seem to think that if you talk about something recent, you’re in favor of it,’ McLuhan …
: Is it ever right to just wind up and let someone have it with all you’ve got? That’s a question that …
: brief iPad reading update brief iPad reading update As I have explained elsewhere, the iPad has become a major teaching tool …
: A schoolmaster’s calling is usually but poor and very painful, requiring much close attendance; but …
: The atrocity in Tucson on Saturday was a horrifying act of political nihilism. As everyone knows, …
: Augustine’s Confessions (the very title implies an admission of guilt) is considered the first …
: Ruined Armenian churches. More astonishing photos here. Hat tip to Tim Maly.
: The Whale and the Reactor (1) The Whale and the Reactor (1) The chief theme of the opening pages of The Whale and the Reactor is …
: When our politicians and media loudmouths act like fools and zealots, they should be held …
: I’ve become a big fan of tools like Freedom, which effortlessly permit you to turn off the noise. An …
: In one view, both the revelations of WikiLeaks and of the Telegraph would, if they became the norm, …
: Google was designed to play the role of a passive observer of the internet: web content was created …
: The web was surprisingly good at emulating a TV, a newspaper, a book, or a radio. Which meant that …
: Writers and editors, as Harper’s Magazine’s Thomas Frank points out, are being driven into penury by …
: Starting early in the 20th century, tens of thousands of scripts were produced by different mediums …
: Here’s the problem though, today’s English graduate student digital natives are not. Not digitally …
: Headphones work best for people who need or want to hear one sound story and no other; who don’t …
: The Tools of Poetry, according to Andrei Codrescu A goatskin notebook for writing down dreams Mont Blanc fountain pen (extra credit if it belonged to …
: landscapelifescape: Vermont, Smugglers Notch State Park (by Kevin McNeal)
: I’m especially looking forward to Windoro, the robot that cleans both sides of your windows at once; …
: Quotations from politicians have been getting shorter for more than a century. According to a new …
: plans plans One of my plans for this blog in the coming year is to spend less time responding to the news …
: If you want to be a New Atheist, first and foremost, you need to possess an unrelenting desire to …
: I propose we abandon the Internet, or at least accept the fact that it has been surrendered to …
: The new Aston is beautiful. Chest-squeezing, arrythmia-inducing, stunningly gorgeous. I had occasion …
: If one censors Mark Twain’s use of the word, why not censor the black writers who use the term? …
: saint preserve us . . . from microfilm saint preserve us . . . from microfilm So, worried about the long-term survival of digitized …
: Of course, the model that Zuckerberg is hoping to replace isn’t the Peel show but the search engine. …
: Here’s what’s happening, as I see it. My students aren’t unique but represent a portion of the …
: more comments needed? more comments needed? Bob Stein writes: People are very resistant to leaving comments in a public …
: A study in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that brightening lights in dementia …
: In non-fiction, there are simple improvements to be made in the form of links – after all, what is a …
: In 2035, most of humanity will live in favelas. This will not be entirely wonderful, as many people …
: At the Q gathering in 2010, urbanologist Richard Florida observed that young adults meeting one …
: But our Eden communities may have the solution. In Great Asby, one volunteer discovered there was …
: It is precisely because Ramadan is unsympathetic to the idea of individual autonomy and moral …
: ‘The universal reaction to book lists,’ I wrote a few days ago, 'is annoyance over what has been …
: Now that I have a family of my own, we do observe the changing of the calendar year in our own tepid …
: posts unwritten, end-of-year edition, part 2 posts unwritten, end-of-year edition, part 2 How interesting would it be to have a writer’s every …
: From the Atlantic’s Kodachrome gallery
: opting out, revisited opting out, revisited Regular readers, if I have any regular readers, will know that this is the …
: In the late ‘90s I started an awkward—some might say excruciating and as-yet incomplete—transition …
: www.youtube.com/watch A justly famous scene from Tarkovsky’s The Mirror (Source: …
: Bruce Herman, “Little Gidding”, oil on wood
: Research has been done on how the internet affects us, but because I don’t use the internet much …
: does anything change anything? does anything change anything? Marshall Poe says that “the Internet changes nothing”: The media …
: Books contain the most carefully crafted and edited text that we have – truly the richest source of …
: On the wall of a long-closed station of the Paris Métro
: Agnolo Bronzino, “Head of a Smiling Young Woman in Three-Quarter View,” ca. 1542–43, Charcoal and …
: I would offer up ‘coolly extravagant’ to describe Bronzino’s vision. Above all, it is full of …
: I’d guess that most organizations a generation from now will be pretty small by contemporary …
: Via The Big Picture: A homeless child holds a candle during a street Christmas celebration at Dom …
: The best thing about America is its universities. Not Harvard, Yale, e tutti quanti: though …
: I find that it is much more for most men’s good and edification, to converse with them only in that …
: Handed-down wisdom and worked-up information remain the double piers of a cook’s life. The recipe …
: To watch the corn grow, and the blossoms set; to draw hard breath over ploughshare or spade; to …
: Andrew Hudgins, "The Cestello Annunciation" The angel has already said, Be not afraid. He’s said, The power of the Most High will darken you. …
: Botticelli, The Cestello Annunciation
: Let no man deceive himself; if by vulgarity we mean coarseness of speech, rowdiness of behaviour, …
: G. K. Chesterton, "Christmas Poem" There fared a mother driven forth Out of an inn to roam; In the place where she was homeless All men …
: “How the Christmas Tree Got Its Lights”
: To declare God’s goodness, that hath enabled us to speak, we are bound to speak: speech is the Glue, …
: Unfortunately for the US State Department, they clearly shouldn’t have been messing with computers, …
: Writing a book is like doing a huge jigsaw puzzle, unendurably slow at first, almost self-propelled …
: austinkleon: The Man With The Electronic Brain Kevin Huizenga remixes, edits, and erases from a …
: landscapelifescape: Cumbria, England A frosty morning at Castlerigg (by Tim Smalley)
: Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and …
: While it’s stated like a given, the idea that the number of evangelicals buying into the extreme …
: Cow Clicker is a Facebook game about Facebook games. It’s partly a satire, and partly a playable …
: Niagara Falls, minus the falls
: There are many people – happy people, it usually appears – whose thoughts at Christmas always turn …
: Andrew Hudgins, "Praying Drunk" Our Father who art in heaven, I am drunk. Again. Red wine. For which I offer thanks. I ought to …
: Both Newman’s attraction to Catholicism and his hesitation in embracing it sprang from a radical …
: Without the holy night, there is no theology. ‘God is revealed in flesh,’ the God-human Jesus …
: metadata and our discontents metadata and our discontents See that? Huge spike on the word “internet” in … 1903. Natalie …
: [vimeo 16501697 w=250 h=141] Makoto Fujimura’s Four Holy Gospels (Source: https://player.vimeo.com/) …
: Underwater sculptures by Jason deCaires Taylor. Please look at all the photographs — they’re …
: Putnam and Campbell are quantitative, liberal, and upbeat; Hunter is qualitative, conservative and …
: Most of the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures see the divine realm as quite heavily populated with …
: All of the disciplines are increasingly identifiable as professionalisms, which are increasingly …
: Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to …
: Many of those who embark on a PhD are the smartest in their class and will have been the best at …
: The American corporate model looks a little battered at the moment, while American universities have …
: A human being at rest runs on 90 watts. That’s how much power you need just to lie down. And if …
: Now there’s a delightful conundrum for modern morality: we’d all love to be able to shop that …
: austinkleon: If you hit this sign you will hit that bridge by under exposure Sez @sparehed: Good UX …
: austinkleon: “A Year in Marginalia” by Sam Anderson The writing I enjoy doing most, every year, is …
: Not surprisingly, patients who escaped depression with the help of anti-depressants, and then …
: London Review: “One of the most striking exhibits at the Wellcome Collection’s High Society …
: A few weeks ago at a conference, I listened to a distinguished political philosopher tell those in …
: Rory Stewart: Now I was walking downstream in Cumbria. It was a holiday: I hoped to let my thoughts …
: Why do we weed the collection? First, we don’t have much choice. We’re running out of space and …
: Another of the king’s chief men, approving of his wise words and exhortations, added thereafter: …
: This is a deluxe copy of the Quintet (Khamsah) of Amīr Khusraw Dihlavī (d.725 AH /1325 CE). Although …
: Giacometti in his studio, via Paris Review
: information considered and reconsidered information considered and reconsidered Here’s a wonderful little post by James Gleick about the …
: The Fourth Amendment’s increasing irrelevance stems from the fact that the Supreme Court is mired in …
: I’ve been emphasizing the bad news, but I do think it’s genuinely good news that well-educated …
: adventurousness and its enemies, part 3 adventurousness and its enemies, part 3 Nick Carr’s post on Craig Mod’s brief for interactive …
: sociopathy sociopathy Susan Orlean has written a beautiful, melancholy post about the challenges of dealing …
: litfolksarehip: Professor Roy’s research specializations include Robert Burns, reader response …
: Gradually the humanities are being invaded and disciplined by explanations of that kind, which …
: The landscape has changed in enormous ways, most good, some not so good. Anybody who tells you that …
: The brief history of the internet is dominated by wishful thinking about turning internet traffic …
: I admire the magnificent plotting of Annie’s adventures. They are just as adventure strips should …
: atestu: Kawah Ijen by night - The Big Picture - Boston.com A sulfur miner stands inside the crater …
: How do you help your children balance when the whole education system is pushing, pushing, pushing, …
: adventurousness and its enemies, part 2 adventurousness and its enemies, part 2 It’s not just in writing that the social can militate …
: class blogs class blogs On Twitter this morning I asked for thoughts on how best to run a class blog, and …
: The Age of Anxiety is coming at you! (in a good way) The Age of Anxiety is coming at you! (in a good way) Pre-order here.
: The Pleasures of Reading are coming at you! (also in a good way) The Pleasures of Reading are coming at you! (also in a good way) Not on Amazon yet, but at …
: I predict we’re in a phase. In a few years, people will learn to reduce their message sending, the …
: I don’t think such a law should pass. I think the current laws, which criminalize the leaking of …
: adventurousness and its enemies adventurousness and its enemies Yesterday I wrote that insofar as writing becomes social, it will …
: Ohio State lists 458 people in its athletic department. Included are the athletic director (who’s …
: brave new digital world (number 3,782 in a series) brave new digital world (number 3,782 in a series) Craig Mod on how the digital world changes books: …
: crabwise crabwise Umberto Eco always makes me think: I once had occasion to observe that technology now …
: The abstractions of science are too readily assimilable to the abstractions of industry and …
: landscapelifescape: Olive Tree, Jerusalem, Israel via 2.bp.blogspot.com
: That said, there is something reassuring about a list, a precision and formality that makes us think …
: Shteyngart says the first thing that happened when he bought an iPhone ‘was that New York fell away …
: Blasphemy, in the Bulgakovian sense, means not only denial of the authority of God, although it …
: It was more useful for the global media. ‘Twitter functioned mainly as a huge echo chamber of …
: Then, miraculously, out of the hundreds of nearly indistinguishable stone figurines, my husband …
: opting out of the monopolies opting out of the monopolies At the Technology Liberation Front, Adam Thierer has been reviewing, in …
: Advent is only secondarily about the baby Jesus. It is primarily about the rending of the heavens …
: Allow me to illustrate with an example. Every few months, I would visit a little whitewashed school …
: Small wonder the state department is crying blue murder. Yet, from what I have seen, the …
: It may be cathartic for critics of state power to cheer when Assange sticks an online thumb into …
: Assange is not trying to produce a journalistic scandal which will then provoke red-faced government …
: less than singular less than singular Cosma Shalizi (click through to the original for important links): The …
: Most ‘cheating’ (I truly believe) is undertaken as an act of desperation, a means of coping with …
: Daily Lit Daily Lit Here’s the place to go if you would like to have books emailed to you in installments, at …
: A company composed wholly of men of learning, though greatly to be valued and respected, is not …
: The very notion in America of four years of a post-high school liberal arts education as a default …
: novelty, once more novelty, once more There have been some interesting reflections recently on the advantages and …
: email, we hardly knew ye email, we hardly knew ye Cringely is sad about the decline and fall of email. Me? Not so much. I …
: When the NME voted him 26th in its annual Cool List, one place above his hero Dr Dre, [James] Murphy …
: Ostler has faith in a virtual system, which he claims will revolutionize global communications, and …
: landscapelifescape: Burrator Reservoir, Sharpitor, Devon, UK Burrator Reservoir Plantation
: If there is such a thing as world literature, it is because today’s most interesting writers are …
: A scene, unlike a description, not only has a beginning, a middle and an end, but by the time it’s …
: In recent years, neuroscience has begun to solve the mystery of overeating. It turns out to have …
: Half a millennium before Columbus’ calamitous 1492 arrival in the Caribbean, DNA from the Americas …
: One good outcome of McGurl’s analysis would be to lay to rest the perpetual handwringing about what …
: I started Riddley Walker in straight English but my characters wouldn’t wear it, they insisted on …
: On no grounds whatever, our chastened worldview is taken to require the exclusion from philosophic …
: Now more than ever is the time for our statesmen, legislators, and enlightened writers to talk up …
: copia copia If I think of Copia as a standard, everyday way of reading, it seems like a nightmare to me. …
: material developments material developments So what should e-readers be made of? How about, let’s see — yes: paper. This …
: reader's report: Jane Smiley reader’s report: Jane Smiley Well, the recent traveling and busyness may have kept me from …
: university presses university presses After reading yet another story this morning about the problems university …
: The problem, as it appears to me, is that we are using the wrong language. The language we use to …
: PHILADELPHIA—Historians at the University of Pennsylvania announced the discovery this week of a …
: Then, just last month came the well-publicised British study that suggested that a little drinking …
: busyness continues . . . busyness continues . . . … which means that I haven’t been able to blog here. I have managed, …
: I look forward to the day where studying biology is a prerequisite for a PhD in Classics, and …
: I can be influenced as an artist by all kinds of people I have very little chance of meeting – …
: Rather than focus on passing laws, Gushee conveyed an alternative approach: He urged pro-lifers to …
: One compelling study used PET imaging to watch what is going on in the brain during inner speech. As …
: If I’ve done my job, she said in the last class, you won’t be happy with anything you write for the …
: In the extent and diversity of our dependence on technology, humankind is unique. But we’re also …
: As for the argument that the humanities don’t pay their own way, well, I guess that’s true, but it …
: Conservatives bear a lot of blame for their current predicament. This comprehensive assault on …
: I think atheists miss the point. I don’t grant atheism and agnosticism the same moral quality that I …
: Harold Parker State Forest (5)
: Harold Parker State Forest (6)
: near Wilton, New Hampshire (2)
: I’ve written toward a master’s degree in cognitive psychology, a Ph.D. in sociology, and a handful …
: brief hiatus brief hiatus I’ll be traveling for a few days, folks, so no new posts until late next week.
: There is no shortage of places in Manhattan where visitors can spend the night. Luxury hotels offer …
: Of all the defenses of online I’ve read, the most pathetic - and one of the most frequent - is that …
: education as a public good education as a public good In a typically smart column about online education, my friend Reihan …
: Curiously enough, in the midst of all this gloom and doom and sounding of various alarms, the …
: Having myself grown up in Berkeley, where Nobel laureates are a dime a dozen, I certainly know the …
: Yet our system obliges us to elevate to office precisely those persons who have the ego-besotted …
: It is not reasonable to suppose that such a Christian Party will will acquire new powers of …
: making connections making connections One of Tim Burke’s colleagues is a little concerned about the breadth of …
: plusses and minuses plusses and minuses … of the iPad as a reading device. The minuses: Terrible screen glare, even …
: preciseandtowering: Espinosa Nova font family « MyFonts A beautiful family of 16th c. revival types …
: What is remarkable about [Oscar] Wilde’s formalism is that it is so absolutely human. This may come …
: “Frankfurt Kitchen,” Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, 1926–27. Commentary by Jed Perl here.
: When the church’s theological rejection of sadness was secularised, sadness became a pathology …
: The order read: ‘Although plaintiffs are entitled to statutory damages, they have no right to …
: more changes more changes Speaking of personal vacillation and changeableness, remember how I returned my iPad? …
: the commodification of intimacy the commodification of intimacy This sobering post from Nick Carr suggests that we ought to be …
: In all the mountain ranges of commentary on [the Gospel of] John — the all but endless attempts to …
: Can it be that we tend to overestimate the influence of language partly because we so often …
: freakyfauna: Transition No. 13, 1928. Magazine cover by Pablo Picasso. Found here.
: What, then, are we to make of the two books Kelly has penned here? I remain extremely torn. I feel …
: When interviewed while he was researching this book, Kelly, who describes himself as a devout …
: When professional writers, especially ones trained in the literary arts, see horrifically bad …
: Professor Gleason was a bumbling biologist whom, due to his generous and ovoid physical proportions, …
: changes to the System changes to the System It’s just not in my nature, I guess, to stick with one organizational method …
: A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found a decided link between celibacy …
: The Mind’s Eye would have been a disappointment had it looked no further for clinical material. But …
: against humanism The language that has been developed over the centuries for talking about the mental and spiritual …
: And increasingly, Facebook is performing the social filtering for us, absolving us of the guilt …
: The restoration mind-set of the next Christians is similar to that of the early Christians lived. …
: Given this tendency, it makes sense that we often rely intuitively on external rules to help …
: I resemble that remark I resemble that remark Keith Gessen: I want to move us into life choices. Does anybody regret the …
: Gjertrud Schnackenberg, "Archimedes Lullaby" A visit to the shores of lullabies, Where Archimedes, counting grains of sand, Is seated in his …
: Ms. Hartsock, 23, diligently typed notes. A hard-working student who maintains an A average, she was …
: the book in the browser the book in the browser [vimeo 15826571 w=400 h=300]The Booki.sh reader from Inventive Labs on …
: At the time, though, I felt distant from Zuckerberg and all the kids at Harvard. I still feel …
: Lévi-Strauss thus promised two things: first, a combinatory schema that would reveal the basic …
: visual storytelling visual storytelling I just finished reading Bone — all 1300 pages of it. It was okay, I guess. The …
: austinkleon: Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a diagram by Helena Wahlman I searched in vain for a view up …
: Voting is probably the least effective way to make your political preferences influence elections. …
: open letters and closed ones open letters and closed ones So far three friends of mine have signed up for letter.ly, and are …
: Although it seems that Facebook can be used by narcissists to fuel their inflated egos, Mehdizadeh …
: The single cutest photograph in history.
: For 25 years, the researchers have made detailed observations of bottlenose dolphins in the eastern …
: Try to promote the pro-life case that we have described within the Democratic Party and you will at …
: ad (non)sense ad (non)sense Micah White is upset: The vast library that is the internet is flooded with so many …
: Philosophy does not contribute to our knowledge of the world we live in after the manner of any of …
: The dismal performance of the experts inspired Mr. Tetlock to turn his case study into an epic …
: landscapelifescape: Glenorchy, New Zealand The Most Beautiful Road in the World
: ‘The battle for the American mind right now is between talk show hosts and comedians,’ said Alex …
: It looks, said Srivastava, as if ‘what is happening in America is a loss of self-confidence. We …
: Ideology is one thing. But if the tea-partiers do well next week, especially if the Republicans …
: oldhollywood: “It was on purpose that I started looking miserable, humiliated, hounded, and …
: The thing is, Harry Potter’s story is finished. He’s defeated Voldemort. Friends have died, lessons …
: landscapelifescape: Dover, Kansas, USA Country Road (by Marcos)
: cutaway cutaway Jonathan Safran Foer made his forthcoming story Tree of Codes by cutting words and …
: The moral authority of Jon Stewart is a baffling phenomenon. ‘He’s Cronkite,’ proclaims New York …
: The elegance of many of the engraved plates in Cartographies of Time and the chaste beauty of the …
: Dracula himself is a fabulous creation, not at all like the perfumed fop or melancholy poet of …
: nature as information nature as information Via Clay Shirky, some really important thoughts from Mike at The Aporetic: A …
: If one team is good enough to warrant beating another in 55% of its games, the weaker team will …
: Most type designers are understandably proud of their work. But Thomas Cobden-Sanderson, the maker …
: The odds of any given venture succeeding are, of course, low. But it’s rational to invest $1 million …
: The poet Jo Shapcott used a nice phrase recently about confessional writing: ‘chasing your own …
: amplified authorship amplified authorship Chris Meade writes — and please forgive the length of the quotation — The …
: Much of what I have read on Plato reads much as though he, to whom the whole of subsequent …
: And my saddened sympathies to colleagues at Virginia Theological Seminary, whose chapel burned down …
: The internet currently has two very different models of social networking. There is, of course, …
: I can’t really counter all the claims made about the Kindle by the true believers. It really is …
: Some writers, though, scribble and tap more fruitfully than others. Next month brings with it the …
: Of course Franzen wrote the autobiography—just as he wrote each word of the novel [Freedom]—and …
: Is liberalism any better off now that Juan Williams ‘got what was coming to him’ for going on Fox in …
: A plot, if there is to be one, must be a secret. A secret that, if only we knew it, would dispel our …
: landscapelifescape: Hunza, Gilgit, Pakistan Color Bonanza (by Atif Saeed)
: Amish country, in Kelly’s telling, is a version of the hippie-nerd Maker Faire without the colorful …
: the relative value of innovation the relative value of innovation Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From is primarily about …
: These people remind me of wine snobs - they can detect all these subtle notes and flavours but the …
: The narrowing effect of technology on language itself is something I discussed with the novelist …
: oh, for the good old days oh, for the good old days You know, the good old days when I could safely sneer at people who hadn’t …
: The rigid scripting of childhood and adolescence has made young Americans risk- and failure-averse. …
: Which brings me to the Clarence Thomas Rule. It goes something like this: When a black person …
: Steven Johnson and the connected mind Steven Johnson and the connected mind Folks, I’m still way busy, so posting will continue to be …
: what I would blog about if I had time what I would blog about if I had time Robert Pippin defends naïve reading. Kathleen Fitzpatrick and …
: E-readers have yet to dramatically alter the reading experience; e-ink still feels a lot like …
: unpopular highlights unpopular highlights Virginia Heffernan: Amazon is quick to point out that you can always disable …
: [Text is] a very flexible and pliable medium. You can skim or search. You can copy and paste. You …
: Things with stories became incredibly unfashionable for kids. There was a point in the eighties and …
: More and more people who are approaching retirement age now kind of know that retirement in …
: Cartooning isn’t writing and art – it’s poetry and graphic design. James Sturm, cf. the cartoonist …
: Instruction leaves a person trained and better informed – but otherwise unaltered. To stand at the …
: landscapelifescape: Trieves, French Alps Le soleil s’en est allé - The sun went there (by …
: landscapelifescape: Lushan, Jiangxi, China a huge tree in Lushan (by shenxy)
: A basic feature of the venture capitalist’s worldview is its narcissism, and with that comes the …
: I hoped, of course, that I can find the way out, but also the hopeless was an everyday guest. And I …
: Will an iPhone productivity app make you more productive? It will make you more productive if you’re …
: In the postideological YouTube-topia that Orwell couldn’t have foreseen, information flows in all …
: This is what I tell students: You should be proud of your profession because there’s less lying in …
: Isn’t it surprising when people don’t return books? I have lost Norman Rush’s Mortals, the complete …
: mwfrost: Cover of The American Penman Dec 1920 (by ddsiple)
: Alexis Madrigal on Pictorialists
: and while I'm being grumpy and while I’m being grumpy Let’s fact-check our meditations on the past and future of reading, …
: Enough! or, Too much! Enough! or, Too much! Kevin Kelly: Today some 4.5 billion digital screens illuminate our lives. …
: The spirit of the Gospel is eminently that of the ‘open’ type which gives, asking nothing in return, …
: Well, I say, being an anarchist, that I don’t believe in taking people by the hand and force-feeding …
: austinkleon: Art Spiegelman on the Woodcuts of Lynd Ward Ward’s wordless woodcut novels (like …
: Years ago when I used to drive by car from Prague to our country cottage in Eastern Bohemia, the …
: a brief, random thought a brief, random thought This week, as I’m helping my students get their first major projects …
: charting Harry charting Harry J. K. Rowling’s plan for key events in Harry Potter and the Order of the …
: Blogs — the best blogs — are public diaries of preoccupations. The reason why they are …
: The first decapitation in Spartacus: Blood and Sand occurs 11 minutes into the first episode of …
: Writing for an audience is a special and important sub-case: it’s writing with feedback and …
: The main vector for the execution of Zuckerberg’s vision is Facebook’s platform strategy. Summed-up …
: I’ve been using Google Docs for several years to do the bulk of my writing work. But not until the …
: Solomon Burke has died at age 70. From the AP report: “Burke combined his singing with the role of …
: Two years ago in Rangoon, I met a toothpick-thin, boisterous young Burmese man called Somerset. He …
: When it was a crime to pick up a bloodied body on the street, Haitian writers introduced Haitian …
: Beautiful Cray-1 Architecture rentzsch: Chris Fenton is cloning a cycle-accurate Cray-1A. In 1/10 scale. Awesome. I was especially …
: Another questioner asked [Bjorn Lomborg], why did he choose a conservative think-tank like Heritage …
: From the archives of the Foundling Hospital in London.
: stock overflow stock overflow Here’s a post by Peter Osnos on a book about Russian state security in the post-KGB …
: Poetry, in other words, is mathematics. It is close to a particular branch of the subject known as …
: first and last first and last Martyn Lyons, from an essay on “New Readers in the NIneteenth Century: Women, …
: A decade or two ago, students learning about, say, Stephen Shore, would head to the library and find …
: Les Murray, "Poetry and Religion" Religions are poems. They concert our daylight and dreaming mind, our emotions, instinct, breath and …
: Cell phones cannot cause cancer, because they do not emit enough energy to break the molecular bonds …
: learning Greek learning Greek Sure, people think it’s a good idea to learn Greek. But of course they would when you …
: I suppose we could just roll over and accept that this is the way the world is going. “Privacy is …
: If you want to be innovative, you need to put yourself into innovative environments: places where …
: Playing video games is a revolt against life. All art forms, even the polite ones, are escapist in …
: What we have in Hipster Christianity is a jaded ethnography written by someone who spent a …
: picture books picture books David Abrams, new Kindle owner and speculator about the future of reading: While I …
: I have no phone and no internet connection in my office. And the days when the BlackBerry comes …
: Procrastination is a basic human impulse, but anxiety about it as a serious problem seems to have …
: According to the analysis of procrastination I have developed in my work, one reason that …
: But what if religion is not primarily about knowledge? What if the defining core of religion is more …
: So, assuming that copyright holders will never be able to stop or even slow down copying, what is to …
: Yet I continue to love American (and Canadian) trains. I am trying to rebrand my debilitating and …
: the binding of the vanities the binding of the vanities Please don’t miss this wonderful post from Matthew Battles about Nathan …
: Over the years I’ve come to adopt a pretty extremist view on this, and I think I’m even prepared to …
: Peter Callesen, Dead Angels.
: creepy lines (and those who draw them) creepy lines (and those who draw them) Follow-up to this post: The end of the interview turned to …
: Why would a bestselling author, capable of garnering a six-figure advance on a book, forgo the …
: Yesterday, the NPD Group released the results of a survey of iPad owners. The most intriguing …
: Before I first acquired a Kindle, exactly one year ago, I didn’t usually buy books while under the …
: One of the premises of this entire debate is that religious people want to use religious reasons in …
: Zuckerberg faced no such barrier. For less than $1,000, he could get his idea onto the Internet. He …
: resisting print resisting print I’m reading and enjoying Andrew Pettegree’s The Book in the Renaissance, and as I …
: the saddest thing I have read in some time the saddest thing I have read in some time Arikia Millikan: Now, I am always connected to the Web. …
: the world between two covers the world between two covers I don’t think I understand all of William Germano’s essay on what books …
: In fact, one of the peculiar ironies of modern life is that the more successful we are, the more …
: Flood Lite: Apple's Attention to Detail Flood Lite: Apple’s Attention to Detail In July 2002, Appled filed a patent for a “Breathing …
: There are, of course, many other, less prominent reasons for the current anti-faculty climate. But …
: College costs a lot. I teach at BC, where a year’s tuition, fees, room, and board currently add up …
: This is pretty much what drives me up the wall about the cottage industry that’s grown up in …
: Quantification in most professions is being used to keep us from having to shoulder the messy burden …
: Cloud Atlas Cloud Atlas James Joyce once wrote to a friend that the thought of Ulysses is simple; it’s only the …
: discuss discuss “Fortune favors the connected mind.” — Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From. “City …
: Ramelli's wheel Ramelli’s wheel Yesterday I tweeted about Agostino Ramelli’s reading wheel, and this appears …
: "Anyone who doesn’t read Cortázar is doomed." “Anyone who doesn’t read Cortázar is doomed." Over at if:book, Dan Visel has a nice post …
: the Sunday morning prayer of Lancelot Andrewes Through the tender mercies of our God the day-spring from on high hath visited us. Glory be to Thee, …
: Richard Wilbur, "Advice to a Prophet" When you come, as you soon must, to the streets of our city, Mad-eyed from stating the obvious, Not …
: Claudio Rodriguez, "Eugenio de Luelmo" who lived and died near the Duero 1 When someone wakens with grace, so simple are the things beside …
: W. H. Auden, "At the Manger" Mary Oh shut your bright eyes that mine must endanger With their watchfulness: protected by its …
: Les Murray, "The Quality of Sprawl" Sprawl is the quality of the man who cut down his Rolls-Royce into a farm utility truck, and sprawl …
: Rowan Williams's Advent hope A great deal of the language that is around in the Communion at present seems to presuppose that any …
: Czeslaw Milosz, "Elegy for Y. Z." Never forget that you are a son of the King. — Martin Buber A year after your death, dear Y.Z., I …
: Les Murray on writing a poem It’s wonderful, there’s nothing else like it, you write in a trance. And the trance is completely …
: prayer as bird-watching The true disciple is an expectant person, always taking it for granted that there is something about …
: Brigit Pegeen Kelly, "Song" Listen: there was a goat’s head hanging by ropes in a tree. All night it hung there and sang. And …
: Richard Wilbur, "A Christmas Hymn" And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near—already on the …
: Trevor-Roper on CSL Do you know C.S. Lewis? In case you don’t, let me offer a brief character-sketch. Envisage (if you …