It’s official. A nation mourns. Mr Eugenides strikes a mournful, plangent note: Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy T-bone,Silence the tambourines and with muffled drumsBring out the burger buns, let the ketchup come. Let cattle trucks circle moaning round the barnScribbling in the dirt the message,
If you only read one thing today, read this. Then weep. Of course, don’t expect this sort of thing to be addressed by any of the Presidential candidates (with the possible exception of Ron Paul I suppose).
Romney in Iowa: “America is not happy with how the war in Iraq is going, and is angry. But America is not about to take a sharp left turn and put somebody in the White House who would turn America into a European-type state.” This is true in as much as no candidate is
A couple of days ago I mentioned the heart-tugging story of Shambo, the Heroic Hindu Bull in west Wales threatened with execution simply because he’s contracted TB. This is just the sort of story the British press, bless it, loves: peaceful Hindus, a placid animal, heartless bureaucrats, death, grim gallows humour…It’s the perfect silly season
Heaps and heaps of stuff has been written on the historic/revolutionary/awesome CNN/YouTube debate on Monday night. But what are the odds that you’d see and old friend from college days in Ireland pop up to ask one of the questions? Slim, I’d say. Yet it happened. Lucia Brawley, with whom I appeared in productions of
On Turkey’s lobbying to prevent Congress recognising the Armenian genocide, TNR’s Mike Crowley notes that people such as Dick Gephardt, who once supported the Armenian cause, now bat for the Turks: Even in modern Washington, where it’s taken for granted that everyone has their price, flip-flopping on genocide has the ability to shock.
Much gnashing of teeth in conservative circles over a TNR piece written by a soldier in Iraq that catalogues various episodes of unsavoury behaviour in Iraq. The Weekly Standard has been especially indignant, laughably accusing TNR of failing to support the troops and suggesting that Pvt Scott Thomas Beauchamp’s piece was entirely fabricated. Other conservatives
Good grief. Jonah Goldberg makes this argument: I think, even if broadly accurate, Frank made a mistake in running these pieces because they aren’t up to the standards of his magazine and they advance an argument I don’t think the New Republic should be making. Liberals don’t want to beat up on the troops anymore,
As a coda to yesterday’s posts on Not Reading Books, it was remiss of me not to quote the man who may make a decent claim to being the greatest newspaper columnist of the 20th century. I refer, of course, to Myles na Gopaleen (“Myles of the Ponies”) better known to posterity by one of
Does this sorry tale demonstrate a) the dangers of reading, b) the extraordinary idiocy of local government or c) both? I’d say it was extraordinary except for the fact that nothing local nincompoop politicians do should cause so much as a raised eyebrow these days. WILKES-BARRE, Pa., July 25 A bookstore owner’s obsession with the
David Frum is joking, right? I will never take Europeans seriously again (not that I took them so seriously in the first place) when they complain about the American gun lobby. I just discovered that the local tobacconist in the small touristy French town in which we are currently stopping has sold my 13-year-old son
Perhaps only a French professor of literature could write a book entitled How to Talk About Books You Have Not Read. Professor Pierre Bayard’s book became a best-seller in France this year, and one can see why. After all, a book that promises to lift the oppressive guilt one feels at not having tackled many
This is, perhaps, the funniest thing I’ve read all year. Possibly this century. Reviewing Steve Hayes’ biography of Dick Cheney, Ira Stoll dreams of a Cheney run for the Presidency. Yes, really. The book quotes Senator McCain as saying, “Dick doesn’t like campaigning.” Nothing in the Hayes book suggests that Mr. Cheney is about to
On the subject of not reading books, commenter Jim Barnett has an excellent idea: How about a new category: LR, for “Livres que je regrette d’avoir lus” – books I have regretted reading. I’d put Nabokov in that category – “The Gift” was just the sort of prissy, self-satisfied blather that I had always suspected
Megan links to the now almost famous Not Reading post and recalls a conversation we had: Me: I’ve never read Camus in English. Alex: That’s brilliant! I’m going to use that. Me: “I’ve never read Camus in English?” Alex: No, like this: “I’ve never read Camus in English” . . . That way I don’t
Just recovering from a 21 hour Istanbul-Washington trip (thanks American Airlines), so still catching up with correspondence and the like. Still, here’s a piece I wrote for The New Republic defying the (emerging) conventional wisdom – at least amongst some soccer snobs – that Beckham’s arrival is the beginning of the end for US soccer.
David Cameron is receiving some grief for zipping off to Rwanda to talk about the Tories’ new policies on global poverty, leaving behind the whines of some that he is ignoring his flooded constituents so-called plight. Well, too bad. Cameron had a good, welcome message to deliver in Kigali: Tory leader David Cameron has called
Marginal Revolution’s Alex Tabarrok writes: “On the famous Galata bridge fisherman cast from the top level while outdoor restaurants line the walkway below. The fishermen’s lines are hard to see so dining at dusk you are surprised when silvery fish, glittering in the last light of the sun ascend to the sky as if swimming
Mr Eugenides, guest-blogging in fine style at Jewcy, fills you in on the sad yet stirring story of Shambo, South Wales’ latest celebrity. Read all about how bureaucrats are doing their best to slaughter this sacred, er, bull, here.
Ah, Rudy, is there any limit to your shamelessness? Apparently not. In Iowa, the great ham has this to say: After about 10 minutes of prepared remarks, Giuliani began taking questions. Asked about increasing federal support for HIV medications, Giuliani discussed what he considers appropriate federal responsibility in health care. “I don’t want to promise