INTRODUCTION This is the 24th episode of “James Thurber, A Reader’s Guide,” a rambling consideration of Thurber’s works, examining his life and work in some detail. Generally, these appear every Friday. The links to the first part and the most recent part are given below. Part 24 is given over almost entirely to discussions of…
Nicholas Burns, fortunately no longer with the State Department
“It was one of the most unfortunate weeks of his [Obama’s] presidency,” moaned Nicholas Burns, former State Department official (under George Bush), now at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, to intrepid Politico reporters Josh Gerstein and David Nather, referring to that shocking occasion when President Obama actually consulted with Congress before launching an assault on…
Meet the new liberators, same as the old liberators
In the past, I’ve raved, or at least praised, Pankaj Mishra and his book, From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia. In his book, Mishra quotes a testy Egyptian on the original liberators of the benighted East, the army of Napoleon Bonaparte: “It is their custom not to bury their dead but…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. All cartoons here. and here “I’d like to order either an Uzi or about 60 pounds of salmon steaks.” “Usually he only shows up to watch the Mickey Mouse Club, but lately he’s been coming a lot earlier.” “They can’t read minds, can they? Because I think he’s reading my mind.” “Hey,…
MONK’estra Big Band—“Oska T”
John Beasley Conductor/Arranger, definitely takes his time to get to the melody, but once he does the sound makes the wait worth while. Here’s the line-up: SAX: Bob Sheppard, Jeff Driskill, Justo Almario, Tom Luer, Tommy Peterson TRUMPET: Bijon Watson, Willie Murillo, Ray Monterio, Brian Swartz, Gabe Johnson TROMBONE: Francisco Torres, Wendell Kelly, Steve Hughes,…
Guardians of the Galaxy: Raccoons are Jewish. Who Knew?
Yeah, I definitely think that Rocket Raccoon knows from knishes, you know what I’m saying? He talks like a digitized Phil Silvers. And Groot is a cross between Mother Nature, Jesus Christ, and the Jolly Green Giant. As for the rest of the film, well, the chicks’ boobs could have been bigger, and, of course,…
The dormition of the theocons*
I recently stumbled across a piece by Damon Linker—one not related to the burning question “Would you like your daughter to be a whore?”†—that intrigued me to the point of tracking down and reading his little book The Theocons, published back in 2006, telling the tale of Richard John Neuhaus and the First Things gang,…
James Thurber, A Reader’s Guide, Part 23
INTRODUCTION This is the 23rd episode of “James Thurber, A Reader’s Guide,” a rambling consideration of Thurber’s works, examining his life and work in some detail. Generally, these appear every Friday. The links to the first part and the most recent part are given below. Part 23 continues the discussion of Thurber’s 1942 collection, My…
Here come the blimps! Rinse, and repeat every ten years
Way back in the day, so far back that Ronald Reagan still had a functioning short-term memory, I worked for a very smart woman who had an odd passion for blimps. Not dirigibles, mind you. Dee was totally not a rigid frame gal. I don’t know why she insisted on the distinction so, you know,…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. All cartoons here. and here “So, we’ve got lots of bird feed, right?” “The great thing is they shit green.” “Yeah, that’s why they call it ‘Super-Gro’!” “OK, now we know where an 800-pound sparrow eats. Where do they sleep?” “What would be really cool is if you could hypnotize them.” “I…