A few months ago, I ran a seven-part collection of near-random ruminations on Edward Gibbon’s monumental The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, not quite a book report, since I only read about two thirds of Gibbon’s work. Gibbon is famous/infamous for summing up his account of the D&F with the sentence “I have…
Thelonious Monk— “Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are”
https://youtu.be/CTijrDIU-m4 Why not hear from the man himself? Thelonious in Japan, 1963, with Charlie Rouse on sax, Frank Dunlop on drums, and Butch Warren on bass. Fuzzy picture, excellent sound, and excellent band. The elaborately phonetic spelling of “Bolivar Blues,” presumably some sort of in-joke, refers to the Bolivar Hotel in New York, sometime home…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here “Don’t be cute, Hälfgaard! This damn well does violate my ‘no pussies’ rule and you damn well know it!” “Because Hrolf the Wrathful don’t stop for kitty litter, that’s why!” “That’s not your pet, Hälfgaard! That’s my lunch!” “I don’t know which is gayer, Hälfgaard, your papoose or you!” “I hope it…
The Republican Party earned Donald Trump
Starting with the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, the Republican Party became the Irresponsible Party. Republicans in and out of government laid siege to the Clinton presidency, pursuing him with an endless series of shamelessly partisan investigations, law suits, and court decisions, finally impeaching him for lying about cheating on his wife, after having…
Bombs away? Please, far away!
Remember the B-1 bomber? It was, well, a disaster. President Carter cancelled it, on the rather sensible grounds that ICBMs had made manned bombers obsolete. But Ronald Reagan never let a little thing like obsolescence stand in the way of spending money, as long as it was for something cool, like a useless long-range bomber,…
If Tom Friedman wrote a prescient column and no one read it, did it make a sound?
Yes, you read that right. Tom “Falling Tree” Friedman wrote a prescient column, and you can read it right here. Tom points out that greatest source of terrorism in the Middle East is not Iran, not ISIS, not al Qaeda, but our most beloved buddies, the Saudis. I agree with Tom 100% on this one,…
Downtown Harold Brown
There was, of course, nothing downtown about Harold Brown, unless the Bronx High School of Science and Columbia University count. Brown picked up three degrees from Columbia, including a Ph.D. in physics at age 21. Later on, he served as Secretary of the Air Force and president of the California Institute of Technology before taking…
William Kristol now officially classified as “pathetic”
A week ago I noticed that poor Billy Kristol was so disenchanted with the entire field of Republican presidential candidates that he was calling for some new faces. I (somewhat facetiously) suggested Dan Quayle, but now I think Billy has one-upped me in the sarcasm department by proposing Mike Pompeo. That’s right, Mike Fucking Pompeo,…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here “You know something, Frenchie, there’s something about you that just doesn’t jibe.” “Am I down a tenner or a tanner? You keep changing it on me.” “What would I like? I would like you to stop saying ‘I say’ every time I take a shot.” “Oh, yeah, I like oolong, but oolong…
Gábor Bolla and Joey Alexander—“Ask Me Now”
Is jazz international? Ask me now! Indonesian piano phenom Joey Alexander teams up with Hungarian saxophonist Gábor Bolla, Swedish bass player Mattias Svensson and Danish drummer Morten Lund. Posted by Mr. Red Panda