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"Stealing ideas from contemporaries is rude and tasteless. Stealing from the long dead is considered literary and admirable. The same is true of grave-robbing. Loot your local cemetery and find yourself mired in social awkwardness. But unearth the tomb of an ancient king and you can feel free to pop off his toe rings. You'll probably end up on a ( Read more... )

I had a couple of responses to my post on poetry that made me think.  I just wanted to say I appreciated them, but unfortunately, know very little about poetry and don't have much of a response to them except, "Thanks."

I will say I go back and forth on worrying about how coarse and flippant our culture has become, to the point where I suspect a ( Read more... )

Proponents of school dress codes might be encouraged by this recent article from ESPN the magazine.

Remember when the NBA instituted a dress code three seasons ago? Remember all the caterwauling? Players balked at having to wear collared shirts and sensible shoes. And they were even less pleased with the no-chains-or-medallions clause. The code was ( Read more... )

Arby's has waffle fries!

Observation: I tried out Flying Burrito for lunch today.  I like it enough, but it doesn't seem to like me back so much...I really need to admit my intolerance for spicy food.

On a totally different matter: Peter Leithart thinks attempts to revive poetry are pretty much a lost cause.

I have had conversations with several people recently about the ( Read more... )

Do you ever open up your home page with news RSS feed, turn on the TV, read the News, etc. and have this strange nagging fear that you're going to see the headline "Everything Blows Up!!" or something to that degree?  Obviously not that level of hyperbole, but I keep dreading reading the news these days, unusually so, I'm not really that much of a ( Read more... )

Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.
Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'X' after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star “@” those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total at the bottom.

( 100 books )

Bill Clinton, the 'Calvinist.'

The odd thing here is that I bet a lot of 'internet calvinists' of which I suppose I am one, probably had to have the reference explained to them.  But then, so would a lot of people.  It took me a second to realize he meant Calvinist in the "Max Weber" protestant work ethic sense.  Which frankly still seems rather ( Read more... )

My Good Reads page.

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