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…
New on Bright Lights After Dark
I have two new pieces up at Bright Lights After Dark, the blog for the Bright Lights Film Journal. The Journal, formerly an online quarterly, is now putting up all of its articles bloggy style. My first new piece is the not terribly heavy 1933 musical “Going Hollywood, which offers pretty definite proof that Marion…
The Horror
Yesterday I wrote about Harvard asshole Greg Mankiw. Today I’m writing about non-Harvard asshole Darren Forse, owner of a trucking company down in Texas, quoted in a recent post about Texas politics by Dave Weigel over at Slate. According to Dave, Darren had this to say about the current state of the nation: “You get…
N. Gregory Mankiw, aka Jivemaster Greg
Over at New York, Jonathan Chait points me over to the New York Times, where Harvard big-shot Gregory Mankiw is holding forth on the wonders of Robert Downy, Jr., noting that Bob’s latest performance as “Iron Man” was so abfab that the $50 mil Downy got up front for the film doesn’t upset people—“ when…
George Packer’s got the New York Blues
Over at the New Yorker, George Packer has a long, earnest take on Amazon, ebook thing, and what it’s doing to the publishing industry. George is earnest and thorough, and includes some intelligent quotes from some authors who say the New York publishing scene pretty much treats them like shit, but you can tell that…
Politico, Nothing If Not Polite
Jose Delreal, writing in Politico about the “controversy” surrounding the decision of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott ® to invite “controversial” entertainer Ted Nugent to campaign for him in the state’s gubernatorial primary this summer, notes that there is some “controversy” surrounding comments made by Nugent last month about President Obama that “some suggested at…
Mark Turner—“Crepuscule with Nellie”
Mark Turner (sax), David Virelles (piano), Ben Street (bass), and Paul Motian (drums) plays Monk’s salute to his long-suffering wife. Posted by li90ne
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “I know it’s not pretty, but it’s real!” “Oh, come on! That could be us in twenty years!” “Gentrification breeds blowback, honey. It’s the price of urban homesteading.” “It’s for their grandkids, for Christ’s sake! It’s not like they’re going out to buy crack!” “I can’t help it. I’m a sucker for…
Heather Mac Donald: Too mad to add!
Actually, that should be “too mad to calculate correctly,” but at this blog, “funny” beats “honest” every time. My current complaint with Heather occurred in a stridently written but basically correct takedown of the Obama Administration’s announcement that schools “disproportionately” disciplining black students could face federal lawsuits. Heather labels (correctly, in my opinion) as “fiction”…