Christopher Morley’s The Haunted Bookshop begins with the mysterious disappearance from the Bookshop’s shelves of Thomas Carlyle’s biography of Oliver Cromwell, that bringer of the reign of Christian righteousness and short hair to a people who, after a taste of perfection and a lot of death, decided they preferred neither. The book disappears, reappears, disappears, […]
The Haunted Bookshop II: “Christianity Fails Again” Read More »
In the not too distant future, a young Hispanic woman will graduate from college. She may have a degree in Anthropology, Economics, or Chemical Engineering. At this point, she’ll be too young to run for a House seat, but having a desire to serve her country, she’ll get a job as a Congressional Aide. Over the
Reclaiming the Republic in Two Simple Steps Read More »
I saw the danger, yet I walked Along the enchanted way. . . . “On Raglan Road” More than three months now and I just can’t get the music of Van Morrison out of my heart and feet. After five full decades his voice, his songs, his high-art approach to backstreet blue ballads and stonegood
Van Morrison: The Little Giant of Blue-Eyed Soul Read More »
A harmonica? The thing’s only four inches long! All kinds of notes are missing! Harp players have to show up with a briefcase full of different keys, just to play! They’re so tinny and shrill! So why would a serious musician ever choose the harmonica to play music on? Admittedly, this is good question. But
A Full-Tilt Tribute to the 1896 Harmonica Read More »
The marriage of C.K. Ogden’s work with that of I.A. Richards yielded Basic English, an extreme narrowing of the English language whose principal aim was to eliminate misunderstanding due to clumsiness in manipulating the semiotic triangle. Reducing the dictionary to 850 words (with various ancillary vocabularies tailored to specific disciplines) would greatly reduce the possibility
Basic English on Mt. Fuji Read More »
Though I was eager to get back to The World and shed my fatigues, even before I was cut loose I felt grateful for my Army years. But I clearly didn’t belong in the Army or aspire to make a career of it, and during my tenure with the battalion, I had made this plain
Stars and Stripes Forever Read More »