SCMOOZEMASTER-IN-CHIEF
Nobody does it better, as Joe Biden shows when swearing in new members of the Senate.
FOUND OBJECT
Jack Kirby‘s drawing table.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Ma and Pa Kettle learn their new iPhones.
THE TOP TEN OF 2012
This year that is fast disappearing will not be remembered in these quarters with very much warmth. It was a fairly hideous, sickening year, the year that I felt I got old. But like all good things, the bad ones come to an end as well, and thanks to some much appreciated end of the …
CHRISTMAS EVE
Our annual get-together was held this year at the home of Paul and Marcia Buckhout. At Paul’s suggestion, this year’s entertainment was given over to story-telling. After a little bit of reluctance to talk about oneselves, many of us donned the green story-teller’s cap and plunged in. As usual, fun was held by all.
HAVE YOURSELF A NAZI LITTLE CHRISTMAS
Amid all the photographs of Nazi atrocities, I find these placid images uniquely appalling.
BOND, THE TEMERAIRE, AND TENNYSON
My latest, in The American Interest: About ten minutes into Skyfall, the new James Bond film, I was already in love. Not because of the long, opening chase scene, which among its obligatory demolishment of fruit carts and motor vehicles, did feature one brilliantly iconic moment when Bond smartly straightens his cuffs after the narrowest …
HAPPINESS IS. . .
. . . listening to Allison Moorer and Steve Earle, Jon Levanthal and Rosanne Cash, and Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams sing songs about love, longing and happiness, at the Rubin Museum of Art on December 8th. Highlights: Larry and Tersea singing “If I Had My Way,” Allison singing a song about Alabama, and the …
TO THE VICTORS GO THE SPOILS. . .
. . .and a big meal! Here I am enjoying a celebratory dinner at McCormick & Schmick’s last Wednesday with Hugh Cook, the editor of Illinois Alumni magazine. We’re bodyguarding the coveted Eddie Award for Editorial Excellence, presented by Folio, which the magazine won for a profile I wrote last summer of the sportswriter Will …