“The creatures outside looked from CIA to Obama, and from Obama to CIA, and from CIA to Obama again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” George Orwell remains unfortunately on-point 30 years after, thanks to the absolute determination of our “most open administration in history” president to ensure that there shall…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “Fucking de Blasio? Fucking Chris Christie, I think you mean! “I didn’t cut you off, fuckhead! You cut me off! And now look!” “Just take it back to Jersey where it belongs!” “What’s your beef? The Tri-Boro is always hell at this time of day!” “It’s not the goddamn DDT! It’s the…
Republicans are not the stupid party; Republicans are the evil party.
Give the Fraternal Order of Police a whopping dollop of credit, for pursuing the notion that convicted cop-killers have no rights, and give another whopping dollop to seven—count ‘em, seven—Democrats who bowed to the FOP’s demagoguery and voted against Debo Adegbile, President Obama’s nominee to head the Justice Department’s Office of Civil Rights, but give…
James Thurber, A Reader’s guide, Part 3
Introduction Several weeks ago I began running the first episodes of “James Thurber, A Reader’s Guide,” a rambling consideration of Thurber’s works, examining his life and work in some detail. The links to the first two parts are given below. Part 3 continues my discussion of Thurber’s early life. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3…
Wynton Marsalis—“Tight Like This”
Wynton, coming within shouting distance of one of Louis Armstrong’s greatest records. From a 1999 concert celebrating the music of Louis. Posted by Austin Casey.
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “I’m listening to Ella—Harold Arlen, “Hooray for Love”—and this little fucker flies in the window and goes apeshit on my ass.” “He says it will make me a humanitarian, but it’s totally not working. At this point, I hate everyone.” “The chick next door hired him and she weighs like two hundred…
Robert Samuelson, idiot
I have been in the past quite complimentary of Wash Post columnist Robert Samuelson. Well, I can’t take it all back because Bob often gets it right. But in this wretched post, “Defunding defense,” Bob gets it grossly and gratuitously wrong. It’s the “gratuitously” part that I can’t forgive, although the “grossly” part is, in…
Alan Vanneman, eternally naïve
Yeah, it seems like it was only a week ago I was praising Ross Douthat for speaking intelligently about the situation in Ukraine. Well, that was then. Now Ross is on a roll, to wit: Is it really so ridiculous to believe that the Syria crisis confirmed certain impressions that Putin had already cultivated about…
James Thurber, A Reader’s Guide, Part 2
Introduction Last week I ran the first part of “James Thurber, A Reader’s Guide,” the first in a series of about, well, thirty-five. If you want to go back and read it, it’s here. The first part ended with me rambling on about how I liked Thurber much more than another *New Yorker* author, Wolcott…
Pseudo-New Yorker
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…