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 parts 1 and 3 are given below. Part 4 continues my discussion of Thurber’s early life. Part 1 Part 3 Part 4…
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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…
James Thurber, a reader’s guide
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…
Detroit Denial: A Democratic Disease (but not entirely!)
Remember when we were told that the average retired city worker in Detroit was receiving a pension of no more than $19,000 a year? Well, it turns out that was only sort of accurate. In fact, when there was extra money in the pension system, it was paid out in the form of “bonuses to…
The Post Re-Bezosed
Why did Jeff Bezos buy the Washington Post? Knows God, as the saying goes. As everyone knows, Bezos and Amazon have been totally about the process; the customers sort out the content for themselves. As Felix Salmon notes, Jeff has never had to deal with “talent,” which is what journalists like to think they are….
Rich people like Kevin Roose threaten America, says Kevin Roose
Former New Yorker, and thus writing for New York magazine Kevin Roose exposes the horror by the Bay—San Francisco Bay, where ubiquitous Uber cars and other forms of high-end transportation, financed by dotcom mega-billionaires are undercutting support for public transportation, to the extent that a strike of BART employees shutting down the city’s subway system…
Thank you, Orson Welles!
The recent death of the late James Gandofini makes a convenient if tasteless springboard to a wonderful rap from the not so recently late Orson Welles that appeared this week in New York magazine, reproducing conversations Orson had with Henry Jaglom back in the early eighties, promoting Jaglom’s soon to be published book containing more…
Murderers, left, right, and center
Everybody’s doing it, so it must be good, right? Michael Moynihan leads off the hit parade at the Daily Beast with “How 1960s Radicals Ended Up Teaching Your Kids,” detailing American academia’s endless fascination with murderers—left-wing murderers, of course. They’re so gosh-darn authentic! The murderers in residence currently include Cathy Boudin, already a member of…
Acela Republicans Unite! You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Egos!
Yeah, like that’s going to happen! David Brooks, who’s been pretty damned tired of being a member of the, well, the Yahoo Party, wants to be able to go to a party and have a glass of decent port* without getting an earful of Jesus at the same time. So now he wants to have…
Jews getting all goyish on our asses, study says
That’s the gist of Ron Unz’s latest data dump over at the American Conservative, “The Myth of American Meritocracy,” even though you have to dig through about twelve column feet of mostly interesting, frequently disturbing news about likely discrimination against high-achieving Asians in America’s elite colleges. Sure, there are lots of Asians in elite schools,…