2022-10-07: Now that I’m taking a break from my big blog and posting many small things here at micro.blog, …
2022-10-07: An extremely raucous murder of crows in the neighborhood this morning is reminding me of lines from …
2022-10-07: What an image. Among the silent trees a Russian rocket finds its resting place. (Taken near a …
2022-10-07: Currently reading: Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson 📚
2022-10-06: Temple Grandin: “Some visual thinkers, like me, are ‘object visualizers’—we see the world in …
2022-10-05: Currently reading: Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance by Ada Palmer 📚
2022-10-05: Noah Smith: “The authoritarians of the world are already making a pretty good case for liberal …
2022-10-05: The Cineaste’s Guide to Watching Movies While Stoned. This was basically my life back in the day. …
2022-10-05: Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt: “One day, a government source informed the synagogue that we would …
2022-10-05: Alternate spelling. Pangram!
2022-10-04: “If these problems are intrinsically linked to consolidated tech giants like Meta, Google, and …
2022-10-04: Announcing a blogging hiatus – though I’ll probably be here at micro.blog more than in …
2022-10-03: It me.
2022-10-02: ♫ Currently listening: Time Waits: The Amazing Bud Powell
2022-09-30: ♫ Currently listening: Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk. Fabulous record; the …
2022-09-30: Collections on micro.blog On the most recent episode of Core Intuition, @manton and @danielpunkass discuss whether micro.blog …
2022-09-29: ♫ Sweet haul from Waterloo Records today. Grooving to Delvon Lamarr right now.
2022-09-28: As Qatar 2022 looms the US look like who they are: Concacaf’s third best team. Too true to be good.
2022-09-27: The workshop.
2022-09-26: “The Godfather is shit. But there is a part of me that loves shit.” — Jean-Luc Godard
2022-09-25: Made pesto today in this food processor, which is forty years old. I know old people like to say …
2022-09-25: “There are no dull subjects, only dull minds.” — Raymond Chandler, “The Simple Art …
2022-09-20: Any word in The Lord of the Rings is a word as far as I’m concerned.
2022-09-16: Hmm, a couple of Premier League games at 2 — I wonder how VAR will ruin them?
2022-09-15: Currently lstening to: Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue ♫ (It’s good to be reminded what an …
2022-09-13: Currently reading: Their Finest Hour (The Second World War) by Winston S. Churchill 📚
2022-09-13: I continue to be interested in how the iPhone software handles low light, especially when using the …
2022-09-10: Currently reading: The Gathering Storm (The Second World War) by Winston S. Churchill 📚
2022-09-09: The rain did a lot for this fella.
2022-09-09: What the iPhone software does with very low light (don’t be deceived by the sky in the …
2022-09-09: I told them a while back that this is a word, but they obviously didn’t listen. …
2022-09-08: Currently reading: The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn 📚
2022-09-08: September update for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.
2022-09-06: Currently reading: Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War by Mark Harris 📚
2022-09-03: Currently reading: Awakenings by Oliver Sacks 📚
2022-09-02: Listening to: Mingus Ah Um by Charles Mingus ♫
2022-09-02: There’ll always be an …
2022-09-01: Watching Eurobasket this morning (which is awesome) and I just saw a European sports website …
2022-09-01: Currently reading: Mike Nichols: A Life by Mark Harris 📚
2022-08-30: Currently listening: summerteeth by Wilco 🎵
2022-08-30: I have always loved rain, but not until I moved to Texas did I really LOVE rain.
2022-08-30: Currently reading: Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark …
2022-08-26: Currently reading: A Light in the Dark: A History of Movie Directors by David Thomson 📚
2022-08-24: Currently reading: Making Movies by Sidney Lumet 📚
2022-08-23: Currently reading: And How Are You, Dr. Sacks?: A Biographical Memoir of Oliver Sacks by Lawrence …
2022-08-22: An annoyance: Online security systems these days assume that everyone is surgically attached to …
2022-08-20: “Repeated, long-term exposure to standing also has been implicated in the development of serious …
2022-08-19: National Parks Lifetime Pass? ✔️
2022-08-19: I’m borderline-obsessed with these differently-angled straight lines.
2022-08-18: Incoming.
2022-08-17: “Not in word list.” These people are barbarians.
2022-08-17: Bit of a scramble to get down to this part of the river, but it was worth it.
2022-08-16: Evening coming on in the canyon
2022-08-15: Glad to see this thread – the badness of what is now called “System Settings” in …
2022-08-15: Masa tres leches cake, from Barley Swine last night. Would like to have more for breakfast.
2022-08-15: Currently reading: Some Versions of Pastoral by William Empson 📚
2022-08-10: Big the-Virgin-and-the-Dynamo vibe going on at the local Methodist church. From this angle anyway.
2022-08-10: Rain everywhere … except in the little circle where I live. It’s like we have a force …
2022-08-10: I always quit Spelling Bee when I get to “Amazing,” because I think it would go to my …
2022-08-10: Currently reading: Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston …
2022-08-10: This is extremely uncomfortable for me, but over at my Buy Me a Coffee page I decided to ask people …
2022-08-09: Well, I’ve had more than enough of the heat, but this guy seems to like it.
2022-08-08: Currently reading: Science and Government by C. P. Snow 📚
2022-08-06: Currently reading: Albert Murray: Collected Essays & Memoirs by Albert Murray – Murray was …
2022-08-04: Currently reading: Collected Essays by James Baldwin 📚
2022-08-02: Some lovely photos of the recent Laity Lodge retreat with Sara Hendren and Claire Holley.
2022-08-02: Continuing a theme….
2022-08-02: I love how my buddy Austin Kleon uses his newsletter to riff on and extend some stuff I wrote.
2022-08-02: That really was a wonderful meal at Milo last night. Corey’s cooking gets more and more …
2022-08-02: workspace
2022-08-02: A woman loving her dessert. A lovely woman who has been married for forty-two years – to me!
2022-08-01: feeling kinda like
2022-08-01: Currently reading: Israel and the Dead Sea Scrolls by Edmund Wilson 📚
2022-07-30: In those first three tries, I guessed one letter correctly and twelve incorrectly. ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜ …
2022-07-28: Currently listening: Bach: The Cello Suites — Recomposed by Peter Gregson ♫
2022-07-27: Finished reading: Space Odyssey by Michael Benson – one of the best books of its kind …
2022-07-27: Finished reading: The Railway Children by E Nesbit 📚 (first time in many years!)
2022-07-27: What does my home town sound like? It sounds like Waxahatchee’s “Arkadelphia”. It sounds exactly …
2022-07-26: We only have one weather now.
2022-07-25: Currently reading: The Common Expositor: An Account of the Commentaries on Genesis, 1527-1633 by …
2022-07-24: Just playing around here … embedding a video in a post didn’t seem to work on all …
2022-07-24: Currently reading: Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece …
2022-07-22: One thing about this wild wild country It takes a strong strong It breaks a strong strong mind ♫
2022-07-22: I’m so happy about last weekend at Laity Lodge that I’m posting about it on both my …
2022-07-19: Currently reading: Collected Poems by C. P. Cavafy 📚
2022-07-19: Posted an update to my Buy Me a Dragon page.
2022-07-19: Sympathy for my northern European friends. (I could say “At least it won’t last …
2022-07-18: Didn’t think this guy was going to bloom this summer, but we returned from a few days away to …
2022-07-17: Well hello
2022-07-13: Small detail from Wildflowers (2017) by María Berrío
2022-07-13: At The Modern in Forth Worth today, I was totally captivated by the mixed-media paintings of María …
2022-07-12: Currently reading: Beyond Nature and Culture by Philippe Descola 📚
2022-07-09: Jemez River, New Mexico
2022-07-09: Currently reading: You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup by Peter Doggett 📚
2022-07-08: Currently listening: Fleet Foxes, A Very Lonely Solstice ♫
2022-07-06: 📚 Currently reading, in a copy I acquired in (I think) 1972:
2022-07-05: Currently reading: The High Sierra: A Love Story by Kim Stanley Robinson 📚
2022-07-03: Currently reading: The Passage of Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 4) by Robert A. Caro 📚
2022-07-01: Today’s harvest
2022-07-01: My iCloud issue: files I create on my iPhone take roughly 36 hours to show up on my Mac. This has …
2022-07-01: it’s the friends you make along the way
2022-06-30: Currently reading: Master Of The Senate (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 3) by Robert A. Caro 📚
2022-06-30: Finished reading: Means of Ascent (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 2) by Robert A. Caro 📚
2022-06-30: Finished reading: The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 1) by Robert A. Caro 📚
2022-06-24: Currently reading: The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam 📚
2022-06-22: Don’t know why this guy stands more than a foot higher than his friends, but he’s …
2022-06-22: Currently reading: Lucky Per by Henrik Pontoppidan 📚
2022-06-21: Currently listening: Danish String Quartet, Last Leaf ♫
2022-06-21: Currently reading: Milton and the English Revolution by Christopher Hill 📚
2022-06-20: Currently listening: Willie Nelson, Spirit ♫
2022-06-20: It’s a newslettery morning
2022-06-18: Currently listening: Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring ♫
2022-06-18: I’ve just revised and edited the page where I list the major themes of my big blog and link to …
2022-06-18: Remembering a visit to Sanibel with dear friends….
2022-06-18: Currently listening: Wood Works by Danish String Quartet ♫
2022-06-17: I wrote about mechanization, illiberalism, and the attempt to create a monoculture. Part of my …
2022-06-16: And this Yaupon tea pannacotta with fresh peaches and granola … I don’t even have …
2022-06-16: Odd Duck Austin is one of my favorite eating/drinking places.
2022-06-16: Currently reading: What They Heard by Luke Meddings 📚
2022-06-15: Currently reading: Tono-Bungay by H. G. Wells 📚
2022-06-10: Squirrel wars escalating. I am injured but I persist.
2022-06-09: My “productivity system” is … a calendar. That’s it, that’s all I …
2022-06-09: Currently reading: The Women Who Saved the English Countryside by Matthew Kelly 📚
2022-06-08: Currently reading: Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton by Nicholas McDowell 📚
2022-06-07: Just ordinary morning light, that’s all. But I like it a lot.
2022-06-07: Pretty typical message to my wife, who’s in Alabama with family
2022-06-07: Currently reading: London: A Social History by Roy Porter 📚
2022-06-06: Newsletter time!
2022-06-04: Currently reading: John Milton: Life, Work, and Thought by Gordon Campbell 📚
2022-06-04: Seriously, these guys are just exploding. They’ve all been in this one patch, but now …
2022-06-03: Currently reading: Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World by Leo Damrosch 📚
2022-05-31: “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.” — Samuel Johnson
2022-05-31: Currently reading: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins 📚
2022-05-27: Currently reading: Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh by Thomas S. Kidd 📚
2022-05-27: Good to see these guys back.
2022-05-26: I spend a lot of time just watching these guys come and go.
2022-05-24: When I grow up, I wanna be like Pop. And you should too.
2022-05-23: A festive harvest in the mail today. Listening to Wood Works right now and it’s utterly enchanting.
2022-05-23: Currently reading: The Code of The Woosters by P G Wodehouse 📚 – I almost know this one by …
2022-05-23: Another dashed-off newsletter, though with some prime Wodehouse content.
2022-05-22: Going around saying hello to the plants I wasn’t sure had made it through our cold snaps in …
2022-05-20: Currently reading: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 📚 – taking my own advice.
2022-05-19: Finished reading: The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers 📚 Lovely to renew an old friendship.
2022-05-17: Finished reading: Anarchy and Christianity by Jacques Ellul 📚
2022-05-16: Currently reading: The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie 📚
2022-05-16: Currently reading: The Recognitions by William Gaddis 📚
2022-05-14: Currently reading: The Recognitions by William Gaddis 📚
2022-05-12: Just posted an update to my Buy Me a Coffee page.
2022-05-08: Re: those eggs, once I tried Alton Brown’s way of boiling eggs – which is not to boil …
2022-05-08: Jacques Pépin calls this dish Eggs Jeannette, after his mother, because she would always make them …
2022-05-06: “The problem with my life is that I’ve said too much shit in the past and no one forgets it.” — …
2022-05-05: Last day in my Reading the New Testament class – a semester-long thought experiment in trying …
2022-05-04: Currently reading: The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies by David Thomson 📚
2022-05-03: Currently reading: Death and the King’s Horseman: A Play by Wole Soyinka 📚 (I’ve been …
2022-05-03: My newsletter is intermittent these days, but here’s a new issue.
2022-05-02: Currently reading: The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation by …
2022-05-01: This is gonna be fun
2022-04-30: I estimate that 73% of my RSS feed is stories about Twitter. Enough is enough, folks!
2022-04-28: Currently reading: A History of Christian Missions by Stephen Neill 📚
2022-04-28: Thanks for the kind words on my post, folks!
2022-04-28: I generally dislike unsolicited advice, but over at my macro blog I wrote a post offering some …
2022-04-27: Currently reading: Picture by Lillian Ross 📚
2022-04-27: I was so annoyed by the size and heft of my iPhone 13 Pro that I traded it to my son for an SE …
2022-04-23: Hummingbird clearwing moth visiting my patio – couldn’t get a sharp photo though.
2022-04-21: The Lindheimer’s beeblossom is back! – which means that soon the bees will be too. (I …
2022-04-21: Maybe my favorite thing about our house: It sits on a slight elevation, so when we look across our …
2022-04-20: Currently reading: Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star: The War Years, 1940-1946 by Gary Giddins 📚
2022-04-20: I had to suspend my regular newsletter – interrupted by Life – but I’m still …
2022-04-17: Currently reading: Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams — the Early Years, 1903-1940 by Gary Giddins 📚
2022-04-15: Currently reading: The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood by David Thomson 📚
2022-04-11: Currently reading: Tristes Tropiques by Claude Levi-Strauss 📚
2022-04-11: We have four mature live oaks on our property, but this is the one I look at the most often. It has …
2022-04-10: I do like a frittata.
2022-04-08: Currently reading: The Pat Hobby Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald 📚
2022-04-04: At the request of … several, I have enabled a subscription plan for my blog. Please spread …
2022-04-04: This is my link to my post about my essay on piety.
2022-04-03: Currently reading: Orson Welles, Volume 2: Hello Americans by Simon Callow 📚
2022-04-02: I almost always post my photos in square format, but not because of Instagram. This was my first …
2022-04-02: Diners.
2022-03-31: Currently reading: Orson Welles, Volume 1: The Road to Xanadu by Simon Callow 📚
2022-03-27: Watching the UNMNT and on this Sunday the goals (so far) have been scored by Jesus, Paul, and …
2022-03-25: Andrew Hudgins, “The Cestello Annunciation”
2022-03-23: Currently reading: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 📚
2022-03-23: This smoked-pastrami reuben at Milo – amazing.
2022-03-23: Taken as the tornado sirens sang.
2022-03-21: Currently reading: The Kindness of Strangers by Salka Viertel 📚
2022-03-20: Currently reading: Always Crashing in the Same Car: On Art, Crisis, and Los Angeles, California by …
2022-03-20: Finished reading: Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks 📚
2022-03-18: Those trees Texans call “mountain cedars”? They’re junipers. See?
2022-03-15: Professional musical instrument storage and display
2022-03-14: Pommes de Terre Persillade. IMO, the best way to eat potatoes.
2022-03-14: Persillade in process.
2022-03-08: Currently reading: An Essay on Man: An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture by Ernst …
2022-03-08: Currently reading: The Wood that Built London by C. J. Schüler 📚
2022-03-08: Currently reading: Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer 📚
2022-03-08: Currently reading: Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot 📚
2022-03-08: Currently reading: Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee 📚
2022-03-08: Currently reading: The This by Adam Roberts 📚
2022-03-08: I keep vacillating about whether or not to record the books I read here; it’s interesting in a …
2022-03-07: We have newsletter!
2022-02-28: Big Bend National Park, taken a while back.
2022-02-28: The mothership … um, I mean the newsletter has landed.
2022-02-24: When the skylight in your bathroom enables photo-as-abstract-art …
2022-02-21: Behold the newsletter!
2022-02-20: Currently reading: Constellations by Govert Schilling 📚
2022-02-19: Currently reading: Unattainable Earth by Czeslaw Milosz 📚
2022-02-16: Currently reading: The This by Adam Roberts 📚
2022-02-14: Behold the newsletter!
2022-02-14: Old loyalties.
2022-02-13: Currently reading: The Gnostic Religion by Hans Jonas 📚
2022-02-08: Gorgeous day on campus today.
2022-02-08: Currently reading: A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf 📚
2022-02-07: It’s clobberin’… um, I mean, newsletter time!
2022-02-07: Monday morning, at the desk, preparing to clear my head.
2022-02-03: Currently reading: The Metamorphosis: And Other Stories by Franz Kafka 📚
2022-02-03: I like this photo of the renovations being done at my church because it reminds me how the nave of a …
2022-01-31: Currently reading: Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the …
2022-01-31: Newsletter: Harmonies and Dissonances.
2022-01-30: Currently reading: The Time Machine by H. G. Wells 📚
2022-01-29: Well, this was different. ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟨🟨🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
2022-01-29: Currently reading: The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells 📚
2022-01-28: I sort of hate my office, but I just yesterday (after eight years!) realized that the windowsill …
2022-01-28: Currently reading: The Road to Middle-Earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology by Tom …
2022-01-26: Currently reading: Early Christianity and Greek Paideia by Werner Jaeger 📚
2022-01-24: Currently reading: The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien 📚
2022-01-24: Newsletter: Sir Shi and the Wanderer
2022-01-24: Can’t stop, won’t stop.
2022-01-24: Currently reading: Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud 📚 (trying to remember to put …
2022-01-21: Currently reading: Vermeer: The Complete Works by Karl Schütz 📚
2022-01-20: Guess I won’t be visiting the McDonald Observatory – one of my favorite places – …
2022-01-20: Prep
2022-01-18: Remember how I said that there are some trees around here that think it’s still autumn? (Photo taken …
2022-01-17: Newsletter: on fakery and Hittites.
2022-01-16: Currently reading: Andrey Tarkovsky: Life and Work: Film by Film, Stills, Polaroids & Writings 📚
2022-01-15: Okay, time to get this second career started.
2022-01-14: Currently reading: The Complete Works of W. H. Auden: Poems, Volume II: 1940–1973 by W. H. Auden 📚
2022-01-14: Currently reading: The Complete Works of W. H. Auden: Poems, Volume I: 1927–1939 by W. H. Auden 📚
2022-01-11: A number of trees here are convinced that it’s still autumn.
2022-01-10: Currently reading: Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens 📚
2022-01-10: Newsletter!
2022-01-09: Currently reading: History of England (Volume I) by David Hume 📚
2022-01-08: We found our old friend Nelson! – missing for many years. (Long ago a friend from South Africa …
2022-01-07: Currently reading: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins 📚
2022-01-07: Chilly and lovely morning in the neighborhood today.
2022-01-07: I don’t often read the New York Times, but when I do, I prefer to use lynx.
2022-01-06: Currently reading: The First Kingdom: Britain in the Age of Arthur by Max Adams 📚
2022-01-04: Currently reading: The Selected Letters of Wallace Stegner by Wallace Stegner 📚
2022-01-03: First newsletter of the new year!
2022-01-02: First 🔥 in many months
2022-01-01: FYI: I am doing Big Blogging again, and if you want to support that you can buy me a dragon.
2022-01-01: It was 80º here an hour ago – tomorrow morning it’ll be 22º.
2021-12-31: Cheers, London. Wish I were visiting you right about now.
2021-12-31: Currently reading: Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens 📚
2021-12-31: The Jesuit church, Mount Street Gardens, London (a few years ago). Looking through some of my London …
2021-12-30: Currently reading: Freud: The Making of an Illusion by Frederick Crews 📚
2021-12-29: Currently reading: The Control of Nature by John McPhee 📚
2021-12-27: Here’s a terrific conversation at The New Atlantis about whether it’s possible to write …
2021-12-25: Currently reading: The Sound of Mountain Water: The Changing American West by Wallace Stegner 📚
2021-12-25: A Christmas edition of the newsletter.
2021-12-24: Renovations to our parish church continue apace, including a lovely new rose window.
2021-12-24: Joan Didion, “Holy Water” (1977): Some of us who live in arid parts of the world think about water …
2021-12-24: Matt Mullenweg: “As more and more of our lives start to be run and dictated by the technology we …
2021-12-23: Currently reading: Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the …
2021-12-23: Scott Alexander: Science communicators are using the same term — “no evidence” — to mean: This …
2021-12-23: I got an email from the University of Austin saying: “Since we launched last month, our promise to …
2021-12-22: Matt Stoller: “The amount of utopian bullshit and fake promises on a technology that doesn’t really …
2021-12-21: James Rebanks, English Pastoral: One morning as I was waiting by the church with the other boys and …
2021-12-21: Currently reading: English Pastoral: An Inheritance by James Rebanks 📚
2021-12-21: Cecilia D’Anastasio: “The idea of the metaverse has reemerged under a new sky. The current …
2021-12-21: From Alex Ross’s terrific interview with Jonny Greenwood: There are scenes in “Spencer” that …
2021-12-20: “In God We Trust” should be retired as our national motto and replaced with Homer Simpson’s line: …
2021-12-20: Maybe it’s just because I live in Texas, but when I read techno-optimistic pieces like this one I …
2021-12-20: This essay in the Economist gives a pretty good idea of what level of social control would be …
2021-12-20: N. S. Lyons: At this point, you might be wondering why Communist Party media apparatchiks now sound …
2021-12-20: Newsletter!
2021-12-15: Katharine Park: “Every time I read something in The New York Times that Leonardo da Vinci had to …
2021-12-13: New issue of my newsletter – featuring fakery, a cathedral builder, and an Advent poem – …
2021-12-12: Friedrich Kittler (1992): “I am adamantly in favor of the clean separation of the inorganic from the …
2021-12-12: Treat ev’ry man according to his deserts, and who should ‘scape a scathing takedown?
2021-12-11: My local coffee shop (Dichotomy) takes Christmas very seriously.
2021-12-11: Brilliant essay by Mark Lilla on Julien Benda: “Our century will properly be called the century of …
2021-12-11: Kevin Kelly: “Security on a network is equivalent to pollution coming from a small source. If …
2021-12-09: Samuel Johnson, from his “Life of Milton”: It is told that in the art of education …
2021-12-08: Finished reading: The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David …
2021-12-08: Currently reading: Stone Age Economics by Marshall Sahlins 📚
2021-12-08: 12 Get Back Moments You Need to Know to Act Like You Watched the Whole Thing — I mean, yeah, if …
2021-12-08: My colleague Perry Glanzer is 100% correct: The reality is, when it comes to faculty formation, the …
2021-12-08: David Brooks with a shrewd inquiry: Donald Trump is the near-opposite of the Burkean conservatism …
2021-12-08: James Hankins: “One clear change [in historical scholarship] was the coverage of what my …
2021-12-07: Here in Waco we get “SpaceX thunder”: reverberations from the rocket testing site …
2021-12-07: Lovely New Yorker -ish image on the cover of the LRB.
2021-12-07: Adam Roberts again: I argue that how we configure the birth of the genre [of science fiction] has …
2021-12-06: New issue of my newsletter today – and as always, the version on the Comment website looks …
2021-12-05: Adam Roberts: Let’s say Hogarth sees religion less in terms of mystic or transcendent aesthetic …
2021-12-04: The Tufte theme by @pimoore is just amazing. With its shortcodes you could use micro.blog as a …
2021-12-04: As someone whose guitar playing is severely compromised by damage to my fingers – thanks to …
2021-10-29: Almost-November rose.
2021-10-16: Hello old friend
2021-10-04: Trying and failing to capture a beautiful crescent moon this pre-dawn I accidentally made an …
2021-09-15: Mid-century modern lives on.
2021-08-19: We thought the nightmarish winter storm we had in February had killed our oleander, but we cut it …
2021-08-19: Maybe it’s time to bring these out of mothballs?
2021-08-17: Wes at his first Cubs game, 30 June 1999. He’s singing “Take Me Out to the Ball …
2021-08-13: When it gets hot and dry the Lindheimer’s beeblossom seems to become very happy.
2021-08-03: Millennium Park, Chicago
2021-08-02: Forty-one years ago today this wonderful woman married me. I still can’t believe it.
2021-07-27: So grateful for the time at Laity Lodge with these dear people.
2021-07-26: Every time I’m at Laity Lodge I take pictures of this Japanese maple, because the light is …
2021-07-20: He likes parsley, I have too much parsley. So we’re cool.
2021-07-14: Earlier this year we planted this burgundy-leaved crepe (or crape) myrtle and (a) it’s …
2021-06-18: This was quite the find at the used book store. Wild Flowers of the United States was a 15-book …
2021-06-17: Texas FM 187 (one of the prettiest drives in the Hill Country) above Vanderpool
2021-05-29: It has rained so much in the past month that our live oaks are getting moss on them as though we …
2021-05-19: Summer companions.
2021-05-10: My sister lives out in the country, in the ridge-and-valley terrain of northeastern Alabama, so this …
2021-05-10: This is my sister’s dog Bella. Bella is a rescue and a very good girl.
2021-04-20: Welcome back, friend.
2021-04-14: We planted this Lindheimer’s beeblossom last year, and we’re delighted that it survived …
2021-04-13: Don’t give me any ideas.
2021-04-01: The Rock Church, Cranfills Gap, Texas
2021-03-31: Can’t tell y’all how excited I am about this.
2021-03-28: Used books.
2021-03-27: Dessert first, please
2021-03-24: Welcome, small stranger. Live long and prosper.
2021-03-22: A four-magazine mail day is my equivalent of finding a four-leaf clover.
2021-03-19: One down, one to go.
2021-03-18: So excited about the arrival of this one.
2021-03-15: I was 100% sure that this little tree had died in the recent big freeze, but here we are!
2021-03-10: Not everything was killed in our Big Freeze (but I fear a lot was).
2021-03-04: We said goodbye to our best friend this morning after fourteen years of endlessly delightful …
2021-03-01: Malcolm has become increasingly contemplative in his old age.
2021-03-01: My newsletter seems not to have gone out this morning, so while I’m trying to find out what …
2021-03-01: Currently reading: At Home by Bill Bryson 📚
2021-03-01: Currently reading: Either/Or: A Fragment of Life by Soren Kierkegaard 📚
2021-03-01: Currently reading: A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf 📚
2021-03-01: Currently reading: The Epistle to the Romans by Karl Barth 📚
2021-02-09: Much-used books are beautiful books.
2021-01-30: For Malcolm, affection is like being groomed: something to tolerate if there’s a biscuit at the end …
2021-01-06: Well, it’s nice to see how much more peaceful and orderly things are now that we’ve …
2021-01-06: I wrote about a new kind of school: The School for Scale.
2021-01-04: My newsletter features Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merryman.
2021-01-02: Malcolm wishes you a Happy New Year.
2020-12-16: My local coffee shop/cocktail bar, Dichotomy, does Christmas better than anybody. Even an Advent …
2020-12-14: Two years ago, autumn in central Texas was spectacular; last year, wan; this year, pretty darn nice!
2020-11-26: It begins.
2020-11-24: Coming attractions.
2020-11-24: In which I announce Gospel of the Trees 2.0.
2020-11-23: I was, am, and will be here for Richard Polt’s Analog College.
2020-11-23: Yeah, I’ve been doing this a while. What I like about this is that it shows that I’ve …
2020-11-22: Theo Epstein: Baseball “is the greatest game in the world, … but there are some threats to it …
2020-11-22: Things many people who haven’t published don’t understand: We writers rarely have any …
2020-11-22: Just discovered that a fairly generous except of my biography of C. S. Lewis is available online — …
2020-11-22: I think this post by Ilya Somin, especially if you follow up its many useful links, raises the …
2020-11-21: Santa Subito!!
2020-11-20: It’s just wonderful to me that friends of mine (Erin, Amanda, Alexis, Rob), have been doing this …
2020-11-19: In recent weeks I’ve expressed my gratitude to my students, who have been so faithfully disciplined …
2020-11-18: Currently reading: A Promised Land by Barack Obama 📚
2020-11-18: Currently reading: The Children of Men by P. D. James 📚
2020-11-17: Well, I knew this was coming. And let’s be clear: Krebs was fired for telling the truth. (The …
2020-11-17: That’s right, I’m playing Monument Valley 2 on my Mac.
2020-11-16: 48º, AKA perfect napping weather for a Sheltie.
2020-11-16: And speaking of newsletters not on Substack, I have posted an issue this morning.
2020-11-16: Overall, I think the move by some of our most provocatively interesting journalists to newsletters …
2020-11-16: Barack Obama: “ If we do not have the capacity to distinguish what’s true from what’s false, then by …
2020-11-15: Cheating-detection companies made millions during the pandemic. Now students are fighting back: …
2020-11-15: Cheakamus Lake, Garibaldi Provincial Park, British Columbia, 2006
2020-11-14: Someone’s not ready for autumn.
2020-11-13: New Mexico, June 2017
2020-11-12: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has an excellent page debunking rumors of …
2020-11-12: I just gave our student assistant Ifeoma a boring sorting-and-filing job to do, and said, …
2020-11-11: All my photographs are of trees and my dog, but, you know, I yam what I yam.
2020-11-01: Leaves just beginning to turn, but the autumn light angles are here.
2020-10-29: From Baylor’s covid tracking page. My students have been amazing: their consistency in doing the …
2020-10-24: Very excited to get this little treasure from my dear friend Tim Larsen!
2020-10-15: Currently reading: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky 📚
2020-10-14: Making lunch, gazing out back, thankful for these gifts but waiting and hoping for better days for …
2020-10-13: When I’m on on campus I always like to spend some time chilling under the live oaks.
2020-10-13: I wrote a post on some features of micro.blog that more people should know about. (Maybe many of you …
2020-10-13: Cool enough for a hoodie on the morning walk 😯
2020-10-13: Currently reading: The Elementary Forms of Religious Life by Emile Durkheim 📚
2020-10-13: Currently reading: If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future by Jill Lepore 📚
2020-10-06: Let’s never see this sight again. Let’s win them all for the big green guy. ⚽️ …
2020-10-06: Mesut Özil, Arsenal legend and hero of humanity. ⚽️ Also, #JusticeForGunnersaurus is the single …
2020-10-05: That’s it, Arsenal. If you don’t want Gunnersaurus you don’t want me as a supporter.
2020-10-02: Currently reading: Murray Bookchin Reader 📚
2020-10-02: Currently reading: Fear And Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard 📚
2020-10-02: Currently reading: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen 📚
2020-09-29: Not sure why, but our September roses are blooming with much more vivid colors than they had earlier …
2020-09-24: Well of course it’s expensive, it’s a 350-year-old book.
2020-09-18: My son and I are sorting through the Big Issues
2020-09-16: I’m a huge fan of Leuchtturm notebooks, but I’m a little concerned about their pricing.
2020-09-08: This is so cool from my buddy Austin Kleon.
2020-09-07: Tomorrow!
2020-09-04: Coming Tuesday!
2020-08-28: My beloved on the Rhine last fall (photo by her friend Fran).
2020-08-27: Now I can intimidate my students by looking like Immortan Joe
2020-08-25: Had to give myself a reward after my first class.
2020-08-24: This morning’s newsletter is about silence, and a legendary young woman of the Lakota Sioux.
2020-08-20: Looked all over the place for my beloved this morning. Finally found her in a tree.
2020-08-13: This spindly rose bloomed a bit in the spring, after which it offered no blooms at all for three …
2020-08-12: Campus was looking lovely this morning except for the ongoing construction of tent cities.
2020-08-06: current status
2020-08-03: Taken on the plane back to Alabama. She was with me then, and with me through the difficult years to …
2020-08-03: Honeymoon over; in the airport and about to return to Alabama. If I look a little worried, I …
2020-08-02: Reader, she married me. Forty years ago today. I still can’t quite believe it. (Photo taken …
2020-08-01: I’m happy for all Gunners today, but happiest for this guy. What a class act and first-rate keeper. …
2020-08-01: South Fork, Guadalupe River (2017)
2020-08-01: This monstrous thing is ten feet tall now.
2020-06-30: I wrote about sharing a typewriter (model) with Carl Reiner.
2020-06-29: Went down to the river today to make sure it’s still there. ✔️
2020-06-27: “Slowly”?
2020-06-26: Couldn’t possibly be more delighted with the blurbs for my forthcoming book.
2020-06-25: Jacob Epstein’s great sculpture of St. Michael’s victory over Satan at Coventry Cathedral — a …
2020-06-24: A more peaceful image from the same room
2020-06-24: Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2016)
2020-06-23: Hard to imagine a more damning chart. But what we will never be able to decide is who, primarily, …
2020-06-22: First tomatoes from the garden, full-size + cherry.
2020-06-22: Not just reading David French’s newsletter, I’m annotating it.
2020-06-19: Vieux Carré
2020-06-19: Ascending Wansfell Pike, 2011
2020-06-18: Malcolm wishes to register his approval of Dr. Kelly and her place.
2020-06-18: Took Malcolm to his vet, Dr. Kelly, today. She works mainly on horses and so her place is out in the …
2020-06-18: Jemez River, New Mexico, 2017
2020-06-15: Malcolm has just had an exciting game of garden hose to celebrate his birthday. He’s 13 today! …
2020-06-06: a green thought in a green shade
2020-06-06: I’m just taking picture after picture of my garden because (a) I like growing flowers and (b) …
2020-01-26: It begins.
2020-01-21: The chief texts for this semester — good companions for the journey.
2019-12-19: trigger warning
2019-12-19: … is the name of my new band
2019-12-18: Putting my toe back in the water here … it’s the best imaginable version of social media, but …
2019-09-03: Slightly worried as I ask myself just how much bigger this thing can get….
2019-08-21: Our dear boy Malcolm has always had trouble with stairs and steps, but it’s gotten worse …
2019-08-16: ?????
2019-08-13: Well, my fancy(ish) integrated amplifier died today — but never fear! I have a backup. This tiny …
2019-08-03: And one of the desserts: corn mochi with blackberry sorbet and various delicious accessories.
2019-08-03: A highlight from last night’s anniversary dinner at Barley Swine: fried buns (like a steamed bun …
2019-08-02: 39th anniversary dinner at the amazing Barley Swine in Austin. So, so grateful for my beloved.
2019-07-28: Hose time
2019-07-28: First the Eucharistic Feast, then the Breakfast Pizza at Moroso Feast.
2019-07-21: I’ve probably taken too many pictures of our huge oleander, but I think its combination of …
2019-07-21: Some of our container plants have been struggling a bit in the heat, but this little pairing has …
2019-07-19: Malcolm is relaxed but hopeful that there might be more play.
2019-07-10: Biscuit.
2019-07-05: LOVE it when my local (Pinewood) has a new beer on tap and it’s one of my very favorites (in …
2019-07-01: I dub thee SQUIRRELBANE 🗡 🐿 😵
2019-06-25: This is a little on-the-nose, don’t you think?
2019-06-23: current status
2019-06-17: Cliff swallows going to and from their nests.
2019-06-16: And the flowers strewn across my path.
2019-06-16: It was all worth it for the views.
2019-06-16: And of course I did it, I’m a manly man
2019-06-16: They said the trail is “a little technical in places,” but I didn’t know that meant I’d have to use …
2019-06-08: I really can’t get over this oleander. It’s 10 feet tall now and may soon eat my neighbor’s house.
2019-06-06: Morning in the back yard
2019-05-29: Welp. It’s time for some Serious Editing.
2019-05-29: So, Wired, it has come to this.
2019-05-26: Malcolm ten years ago today.
2019-05-20: ♫ I got friends in low places ♫
2019-05-16: Malcolm is very happy after he has played in the garden hose.
2019-05-08: These pictures are from the eastern side of the Skyline Drive this morning. The air was clear …
2019-05-08: Back to my old stomping grounds. Those Grounds haven’t become less beautiful.
2019-04-20: Malcolm is a very good boy. As you can see.
2019-04-01: Huge if true
2019-03-27: The third thing I do when I get a new computer.
2019-03-27: The second thing I do when I get a new computer.
2019-03-27: The first thing I do when I get a new computer.
2019-03-27: Lovely morning at Lake Waco Wetlands — though the wetlands are still waking up to springtime.
2019-03-20: I look like I’m singing “Old Man River.”
2019-03-09: still true
2019-03-06: It’s time.
2019-03-06: I think of this as two imperative sentences.
2019-02-27: A really special night last night at Milo. (That’s duck fat salted caramel popcorn, which you …
2019-02-07: Fabulous new issue of The Point.
2019-02-07: Been around the block with this one a few times.
2019-02-04: My son and I doing a postmortem.
2019-02-04: I’m needing to get back to Rufi’s Cocina for the incredible tacos (especially al pastor …
2019-01-31: I love these old editions. I don’t really use them any more, but I like to take them out and …
2019-01-31: Update: PDFpen is just as good as ScannerPro at OCRing my handwriting.
2019-01-30: Scanner Pro does an amazing job of recognizing my handwriting.
2019-01-29: Working on Lucretius, Plutarch, Charles Taylor — and being reminded of how blessed I am to read and …
2019-01-22: Count Malcolm as: intrigued but uncertain
2019-01-17: SRO for Jemar Tisby at Baylor
2019-01-17: It’s fun, but it’s also work.
2019-01-16: Sure, go ahead and reject the only person who can fix this mess. (Via Nina Massey)
2019-01-12: Tsundoku. Always tsundoku.
2019-01-11: Not that guy, presumably, but rather this guy.
2019-01-08: I think I’ve figured out how to deal with my overflowing inbox.
2019-01-08: Nobody yawns the way Malcolm yawns.
2019-01-08: This is my heart, right here.
2019-01-08: Didn’t really expect this editorial shift, but okay.
2018-12-24: same
2018-12-23: Festive post-church brunch at Milo
2018-12-21: Of course you did
2018-12-18: Represent
2018-12-18: Visitors
2018-12-18: before coffee
2018-12-17: Current status
2018-12-14: Milo is just KILLING it.
2018-12-14: A December volunteer
2018-12-13: Mail!
2018-12-10: Hey L.A. area friends:
2018-12-03: I’m thinking that from here on out I’m gonna imitate Steve Reich’s commitment to the baseball cap.
2018-12-01: My son helping me get perspective
2018-12-01: Goodness
2018-11-26: This is my sixth Texas autumn, and by far the most colorful. I suspect the key is that we’ve had a …
2018-11-24: And again.
2018-11-24: I seem to have accidentally taken a photograph of a masterpiece of abstract art.
2018-11-22: We’re not completely without autumn color here in central Texas. (No filters.)
2018-11-21: This is going to be hard to believe, but these pastries from @milowaco taste just as good as they …
2018-11-19: I love pretty much everything about Anglican worship, but I have a special fondness for the …
2018-11-19: Not really what I expected when searching for “Christian calendar” …
2018-11-17: Interesting data from Kieran Healy.
2018-11-07: And here’s something else new I want to try either tomorrow or Friday….
2018-11-07: The food-truck scene in Waco is getting better and better. Today I had a fabulous huarache al pastor …
2018-11-02: This is not a good book, this is a truly great book. I hope to find time soon to say why I think so, …