ANOTHER STORM
Storm-free since the Super Bowl, snowfall Number Eight finally got around to arriving this morning, distributing a powdery six inches throughout Westchester.
THE IGNORANT SHALL RISE AGAIN
I am sorry to see that a couple hundred dead-enders met in Montgomery, Alabama on Saturday to celebrate the sesquicentennial of the inauguration of Jefferson Davis. I am sorry not because I object to grown-ups playing dress-up or even to people admiring aspects of the bravura Confederate spirit, but I do hate to see bad …
13 HEDGE FUND MANAGERS OR 300,000 TEACHERS?
The essential Robert Reich has nailed the current crisis brilliantly: “The Republican strategy is to split the vast middle and working class – pitting unionized workers against non-unionized, public-sector workers against non-public, older workers within sight of Medicare and Social Security against younger workers who don’t believe these programs will be there for them, and …
VIRGINIA, DAY TWO
On Day Two I was immersed in Williamsburg, and I continued to have a great time. In the morning, we attended a performance by some of Williamsburg’s historic character interpreters, most of whom were playing slaves in the Colonial Era. The scenarios did an excellent job bringing to life the conflicts and pressures experienced by …
VIRGINIA, DAY ONE
Somebody at Colonial Williamsburg, I’m flattered to say, likes me. Or perhaps to be more precise, like the Disunion Series, because I was extended an invitation to visit the the famous museum/educational center/resort and attend a conference entitled Storm on the Horizon: Slavery, Disunion, and the Roots of the Civil War. I had a terrific …
SPY COMES TO THE INTERNET
Thanks primarily to the efforts of Kurt Andersen, all of the back issues of SPY are becoming available on Google. About half are up now, and the rest will be rolled out soon. As Google says: Smart. Funny. Fearless.”It’s pretty safe to say that Spy was the most influential magazine of the 1980s. It might …
THE HUMILIATING CURVEBALL
Is this America’s most humiliating moment? The hubristic claque that ran our country–Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al–are revealed today to be ridiculous, ignorant goats. As revealed in The Guardian, “The defector who convinced the White House that Iraq had a secret biological weapons programme has admitted for the first time that he lied about his …
A RARE FORAY INTO RELATIONSHIP ADVICE
I don’t know many unmarried women–unmarried women, as opposed to single women, are out of their twenties and would like to be married–but there was a column today on Huffington Post called “Why You’re Not Married’‘ that was funny and seemed kind of useful. (I know, I feel less credible giving relationship advice to women …
THE DEAD OF WINTER
We’ve had snow on the ground since December 26th. Since the ice storm last week, nearly everything is covered in or has turned to pure ice. When temperatures momentarily spiked at 41 degrees last Sunday, we hacked out walkways, but these are the days when it feels like it will never get warm. But it …
TALKING COLONIAL LONDON WITH JULIE FLAVELL
I posted this interview with historian Julie Flavell on Georgian London, a wonderful site created by Lucy Inglis: Here in the States we always think of Great Britain as the place America separated itself from; what is wonderful about When London Was Capital of America is how Julie Flavell (below) reminds us of how much …