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…
How much does foreign policy rhetoric matter? Not enough, and too much
Over at the American Conservative, Daniel Larison riffs on a column by Dan Drezner, who claims that we shouldn’t worry about foreign policy statements like those recently dished out by Hillary Clinton that seem more interested in striking poses than solving problems. Says Drezner, “The most important fact about American foreign policy and public opinion…
Afghanistan expels U.S. reporters. Obama tries to put them in jail.
James Thurber, A Reader’s Guide, Part 22
INTRODUCTION This is the 22th 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 22 continues the discussion of Thurber’s 1942 collection, My…
Hillary Clinton, Warrior Princess
By now, you may have read that Hillary Clinton’s interview with Jeffrey Goldberg was not quite the unadulterated love-fest that Goldberg described in his intro to the rap session. It was only 99 percent unadulterated. At the Daily Beast, Michael Tomasky wants us to believe that Hillary isn’t really a neocon. She’s just a “muscular…