No matter how I try to rationalize it, I’m going to vote for a liar for...
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Words of my Rwanda life
Goats Everywhere Banana trees Cover the hills Motorcycles Most popular mode of transportation Bare black baby butts Seen frequently around neighborhoods Hills Not a single part of Rwanda without them Carrying on the head The large items locals can balance continues to baffle me Dirt roads Main roads paved, side roads not AK-47 rifles All security and neighborhood guards carry them Tropical fruit Mango, [...]
Jim Booth guest commentary over at Southern Creatives
If you’ve been paying attention you know that our boy Jim Booth recently published a novel. And that it’s really good. And that it presents us with the opportunity to consider fame and substance at war over the soul of an artist. He has now authored a guest essay on “Southern Rock Stardom, Postmodernism, and [...]
Moby Dick Big Read
Now that the nights are getting longer, darker, and colder, here’s the perfect thing: a reading of Moby Dick, all 136 chapters—Moby Dick Big Read. This is not the 24-hour marathon reading that the charming New Bedford Whaling Museum organizes every year to welcome in the New Year. This is a more ambitious project, organized [...]
Sen. George McGovern, 1922-2012: a liberal sorely missed
I voted for George McGovern. After his astonishingly lopsided defeat at hands of Richard “I am not a crook” Nixon in 1972, I got the bumper sticker, too: Don’t blame me. I’m from Massachusetts. Two years later, Nixon waved goodbye to his corrupted presidency from the open door of a plane, a man ironically liberal [...]
ArtSunday: Are we seeing more character development in genre fiction?
Not long ago a good friend asked me if I’d take a look at this novel he was working on. He felt it was one of the best things he’d written, but was getting no bites from publishers. He was committed to making it work, and he wondered if I had ideas about what might [...]
Big Meadow in the crepuscular hour
It’s the time of change. Autumn. Dusk. 6:40 p.m. The crepuscular hour. Everything’s on the cusp of being something else. I don’t know what has compelled me to drive to Big Meadow tonight. Shenandoah National Park is an hour away from where I’m staying in Chancellorsville this weekend, and Big Meadow is a half an [...]
Tournament of Rock IV: the Boston pod
How it works. In our previous match #2 seed Aerosmith sweeps to a comprehensive victory, claiming more than half the vote. We’ll see them in the Sweet 16. Now, we move to pod #4, where no arena is safe. Five bands enter, one band leaves: #12 Seed: Boston Bob Seger Foghat Loverboy The Doobie Brothers [...]
A rich man’s insider trading deserves prison
The American government wants Rajat K. Gupta to go to prison for up to a decade. He wants to go to Rwanda to do community service and call that sufficient punishment for his crimes. A jury convicted Gupta in June of conspiracy and securities fraud for leaking Goldman Sachs boardroom secrets to billionaire hedge fund [...]
OMG! Moov deerz!
This has to be a prank call, right? I mean, NOBODY is this stupid, are they? If it’s real, have this woman call me. There are SO MANY things I want to ask her about. Thx to TheChive and hat tip to Rho and Terry for bringing this to our attention….
A binder full of memes
We’ve established my left-leaning bias, but I think that President Obama did a great job last night at the debate. He connected personally more than in past appearances and elections. He was smart. He was ready to engage Mitt Romney, to point out where the Governor’s plan didn’t add up, and then explain what his [...]
“Binders full of women”: Mitt finally lands a zinger for the ages
Remember back before the first debate when Mitt let us know he was working on his zingers? Yep. Clearly he wanted to land a punch that would push him over the top in the public consciousness, score the iconic rhetorical knockout blow that people would still be pointing to decades later. He wanted to be [...]
Are Americans becoming less religious? New Pew study says yes and Dawkins is optimistic
Given the course of Campaign 2012, the idea that Americans are trending toward less religion probably sounds ludicrous. But maybe not. In response to an audience question last night, Richard Dawkins said he’s “optimistic” about the future of religion. (If you’re a religious type, he doesn’t mean that in the way it probably sounds.) He noted [...]
Shaila meets the gorillas
I made my way toward town under a bright, star-filled sky. It was 4:30a.m. Locals still meandered their way home from the bars, but I had my hiking boots on in preparation for a new day. I was off to see the gorillas. An estimated 800 Mountain Gorillas currently live in the hills around the Rwanda, [...]
Tournament of Rock IV: the Aerosmith pod
How it works. The second pod was, perhaps predictably, a runaway, with #14 seed Van Hagar trompling the field with better than 60% of the vote. We’ll see them in the Sweet 16. On to group three, which features another hard rock monster act gone about as mainstream as it is possible to go. The [...]
Tournament of Rock IV: the Van Hagar pod
How it works. In our first contest, congrats to Duran Duran, who defeated their closest competition, Huey Lewis & the News, by a 45%-38% margin. They advance to the Sweet 16. In our second grouping, we have a delightfully diverse little melange of mainstream goodness to choose from. I’m certain you’ll find something to like. [...]
