Thesis: the first album — as a coherent work of art, not merely a collection of songs — was Frank Sinatra’s In the Wee Small Hours (1955); the last one was Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998). 

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 made 3
• Curry made 3
• Curry made 3
• Booker made 2

Sixteen points, and they didn’t miss.

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 commentators can talk about is how she got her tactics all wrong. ⚽️

This new post by Chris Arnade — faithful chronicler of forgotten America — is harrowing. And I come away from it just praying that something good will happen for the young woman he met named Caroline.

Tradescant’s Orchard (Bodleian Library) 

What a cool idea from Leah Libresco Sargeant: “I’d like to write a Chrome extension that delays opening certain webpages (like Twitter) and shows an interstitial page for 30 seconds or so, with a randomly chosen prayer intention from a list I can edit.”

I am aware that microtonal jazz-blues might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I love the new Alec Goldfarb record. ♫

I have no idea why, but I have received dramatically more fan mail — that is, messages of enthusiastic gratitude — about my essay on “the mythical method” than I am used to. (Usually people only write to tell me what I’m wrong about.) 

I wrote about colonialist owls.

I still don’t have my domain issues ironed out, but (a) I am beginning to have some hope of keeping the old blog up — even though I know that it’s the hope that kills you; and (b) I have imported my entire WordPress blog to micro.blog, so, while I don’t have the old tags, you can search for anything you’re looking for. You can also, of course, find the whole blog via the Wayback Machine.

While I’m trying to sort all this out, I’m going to delete my “changes ahead” post and resume new posting there, at least for now.

I love how for the Times southern Ohio and western Nebraska are both (waves hand) “the Midwest.” How can two politicians offer such radically different “views” of (waves hand) the Midwest?

There are several annoying errors in this piece, but let me single out one: the claim that Tolkien wasn’t invited to Lewis’s wedding. No one was invited to a marriage that took place in Joy Davidman's hospital room because it was feared that she was near death. Lewis's brother Warnie and a nurse served as witnesses. 

RE: this list, I am chiefly a bibliophile but also a bibliologue. 

Joshua Amirthasingh

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

Since It’s All About Me, when I read this and this about new security features coming in Mac OS Sequoia, I couldn’t help thinking of my recent misadventures with my hosting provider, in which unannounced changes to their security procedures borked a workflow I had been using for a decade.

One of the chief things we learned in the Covid era was that there’s no arguing with people who do anything in the name of security and safety. Those terms are the ultimate conversation-stoppers. You’re not even allowed to ask whether the new politices and procedures actually do make us more safe and secure, much less ask what other goods should be considered when we’re implementing policies.

Well, one thing I know for sure: I won’t be installing Sequoia anytime soon.

Thanks to a bunch of people for kind and sympathetic words about my current technical issues. While I’m getting the ayjay.org domain sorted — I’m determined to figure out the details and not be in this situation again — I’ll continue to post here as usual, but with some longer posts also.

On the possible end of my big blog, and my difficulties in getting the help I need to keep it alive. I’m starting to think that I don’t have the knowledge base to keep writing on the open web.

Angus strangely interested in Marvin Gaye. Well, I guess it’s not that strange, considering how cool Marvin was.

Douglas Anderson, a Tolkien scholar, recently reported seeing one of his books on a shelf in a TV series. The eminent critic Michael Dirda replied: 

More likely the books were bought en masse, without regard for titles and attention paid largely to their color and general look on the shelf. My friend Chuck Roberts, owner of Wonder Book and Video, has a strong business in selling books by the foot for movie and theatrical sets. — Still, sometimes thought does go into these background bookshelves. I remember Chuck once asking me to recommend titles for Hannibal Lecter’s library. 

This comment prompts an excellent thought experiment: What would go on Hannibal Lecter’s shelves? One might extend this to other fictional figures, which might seem like a vast field of inquiry except that many fictional movie characters obviously don’t read books at all. Tony Stark, for instance, reads only technical manuals and tweets. So: which famous movie characters read? And what do they read? 

Angus says hello!

I wrote about how modern identity was effectively created by the Great War.