Whenever I hear someone calling someone else a ‘thug,” I think of the line in ‘The Princess Bride’ when Inigo Montoya says to Fizzini: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” Thugs were members of a secret criminal society called Thuggee, which began in the […]
I make the same two resolutions every year, even though I know I cannot keep them. The thing is to try. The first is never to be annoyed by the bad manners of others. It’s okay to deplore bad manners or even to respond with righteous anger, if that’s warranted, just not when you’re […]
When a family puts all their unwanted stuff out on racks and tables in the driveway, besides the bargains you might find on pillowcases and winter coats, you also get a glimpse into their lives — the Nordic Trak that Dad ordered from TV and never wound up using, the Babysitters’ Club books a young […]
I’m having a splendid time with Edmund Wilson’s book about the literature of the Civil War, with the strange title of ‘Patriotic Gore’. It comes from a song of the Confederate South, “Maryland, My Maryland”: “Avenge the patriotic gore that flecked the streets of Baltimore and be the battle queen of yore…” At a White […]
On August 13, 1837, in a sermon he preached at the Spring Creek Campground, six miles west of Springfield, Illinois, the Reverend Peter Akers predicted that a great civil war would put an end to human bondage in America. He declared there would come “a time when slave-ships, like beasts of prey, shall no longer […]
Finding a book you really like is great, but finding a whole series is even better. Tony Hillerman’s Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe, Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret — these characters all feel like old friends, and it’s always a pleasure to crack a new volume, or reread […]
Everybody’s got a lot of reading time nowadays, and I find it’s an especially good time for me to make a decision about all these books I have kicking around. No more “Maybe I’ll read that someday.” It’s either read it now or out it goes. One of the first books that came to hand […]
I had fun reading my Uncle Nat’s journals, which my cousin Max thoughtfully dropped off at the nursing home where I was recuperating. It’s a chance to sit down with my beloved uncle once again and hear what he’s doing and what he’s thinking about. Except in his journals, he’s scathingly honest about everything. Uncle […]