Thanks to Patrick E. Purcell, who gave Commander Will Cushing a terrific review in Civil War News. “With a skillful account of the Cushing brothers’ careers,” says Purcell, “Jamie Malanowski has created a well-written and often thrilling story that is as engaging as an action novel. His book is highly recommended.” Thanks, too, to Rea Andrew …
A snowfall, a foot or so, fell on January 26th (it clobbered Boston and New England, with multiple feet,) The temperature dropped into the teens a lower and stayed there, so the snow went nowhere. A number of snowfalls followed; none were major, but they all hung around, and hung around, and it stayed cold …
THE HUDSON RIVER, OFF OF GLENWOOD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, NEAR ONE PM Read More »
There is an asymmetrical quality to illnesses: they are fascinating to the afflicted, rather less so to well, I don’t want to bore you, but on Thursday, February 11, I woke with a kidney stone. For a condition that was painful but not exactly life threatening, I ended up losing a lot of time and …
Until January 7th, I had never heard of Charlie Hebdo, but when Islamic terrorists broke into the offices of what was described as “a small French satirical magazine’’ and killed dozen people, including the editor-in-chief, four other cartoonists, two other editors, an economist, a mainterance worker, and two police officers, I instantly identified with the …
I wish I had documented this observation, but this was the year when everything needed to happen twice: two trips to Home Depot to get a part, two trips to Daniele’s to repair a mirror, and so on. Much time wasted, but then again, what would I have been saving it for? One hopes 2015 …
Originally published in The Wall Street Journal, December 11, 2014 Let us pause in the day’s labors to raise a glass, preferably containing Madeira or a rich, full-bodied port, to the centenary of the greatest historical novelist ever, and one of the best novelists of our era. Patrick O’Brian was born Dec. 12, 1914—or, rather, …
Originally published in The American Interest, December 9, 2014 In October, when I began reading Bill Cosby: His Life and Times, by Mark Whitaker, the 77-year-old comedian was enjoying a bit of a boom: a new television series in the works, a new special set to get the Netflix treatment, an exhibition at the Smithsonian …
Senator Elizabeth Warren delivered this speech on the Senate floor last Friday night: “Democrats don’t like Wall Street bailouts. Republicans don’t like Wall Street bailouts. The American people are disgusted by Wall Street bailouts “And yet here we are, five years after Dodd-Frank with Congress on the verge of ramming through a provision that would …
“I know from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners will produce more bad than good intelligence. I know that victims of torture will offer intentionally misleading information if they think their captors will believe it. I know they will say whatever they think their torturers want them to say if they believe it will …