Legal humor here. “Take it from me, Slim, fighting crime ain’t all fast cars and pretty girls. Batman ain’t afraid to get ugly if ugly gets the job done.” “Short answer? de Blasio.” “If you know a better way to clean up 8th Avenue, tell me about it.” “Look, don’t tell me about the L…
Author: Alan Vanneman
Delfeayo Marsalis and Future Focus—“Blue Monk”
Delfeayo on trombone, with Marlon Jordan, trumpet, Mark Gross, alto sax, Vincent Gardner, trombone, Charnette Moffett, bass, and Herlin Riley, drums. Posted by Uptown Music Theatre.
Ukraine—It’s like catnip for neocons!
I’m not going to bother linking to any of the multitudinous stories ruminating about the meaning of Putin’s latest folly. I’m sure that William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, et al. are fulminating at length over the Crimean Invasion. Putin is laughing at us! He’s eating our lunch! He is playing chess with tanks and we are…
The surge that wasn’t, the surge that didn’t
Max Boot’s rather un-Bootish* review of Robert Gates’ memoir, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, gives me an opportunity to take another whack at Bob, who in some ways was not that bad a SecDef. I mean, he didn’t bomb Syria or Iran. Nice guy! Still, there are things from Bob’s memoir that rub…
Thunk plays Monk! “Off Minor”
https://youtu.be/ScyQ96TIcyU Filmed and recorded live on September 11, 2013 at ShapeShifter Lab, Brooklyn, NY. Arranged by Stephen Gauci. Steve on sax, Kenny Wessel, guitar, Michael Bisio, bass, and Jeremy Carlstedt, drums. Posted by Stephen Gauci
Dick Cheney: I am so worse than Barack Obama! A whole lot worse!
It’s been a bit of a meme of mine for the past four years that Barack Obama is pretty much Dick Cheney without all the torture. Well, comparisons are odorous, and Big Dick clearly did not appreciate being linked with the president in this manner. A couple of days ago, the big guy reminded us…
Ross Douthat, in with a stand-up triple
I never seem to get tired of making fun of Ross Douthat, but on Ukraine the dude has really been pounding the ball, pointing out politely to his neocon confrères that it really doesn’t matter who runs Ukraine. Today he pretends to take neocon huffing and puffing about “grand strategy”* very seriously, letting Walter Russell…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “Now, this one is for the big boys.” “And with this little mother you can change channels on the moon.” “At Big Boy, we take your television as seriously as you do.” “You’ll never lose this fucker. Am I right, or am I right?” “Sure your wife will hate it. But that’s…
James Thurber, a reader’s guide
Introduction Some months ago, I thought I would write a longish piece on James Thurber—maybe five or ten thousand words at the most. Well, that was then. I’ve got about thirty-five thousand and counting, including footnotes. I’m going to start running this thing in thousand-word chunks, starting with this one. I’ve been learning about footnotes…
The Usual Suspects
Daniel Larison gives them each a good spanking over at the American Conservative—William “Bill the Shill” Kristol, Peggy “Peggy the Shrill” Noonan, and George “George the Pill” Will, all hawkin’ and squawkin’ about the failure of President Obama to 1) make all the world’s problems go away with a wave of his hand (in the…