Erictheblue

LATEST ARTICLES ( 375 )

• The Malkin Award and a Local Hero

  One of the awards distributed by the indefatigable Andrew Sullivan at his Daily Dish Blog is for "shrill, hyperbolic, divisive, and intemperate right-wing... Read more

  Posted on 11 July 2012 SOCIETY

• Mavis Gallant Makes Me Hungry

  

  Last night, while Amanda was at work on our evening meal, I sat on the couch with our girls in front of Blue's Clues and read, in The New Yorker, excerpts of th... Read more

  Posted on 10 July 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Regoogling the Clergy

  I googled the clergy again, an exercise that unfailingly raises my hackles. The article I came upon, having entered the name of a classmate (Steve Paulson)... Read more

  Posted on 07 July 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Affordable Care Act: the Supremes Speak

  Count me among the ungiddy. What's amazing, in a chilly sort of way, is that there were four votes for throwing out the law in its entirety. Read more

  Posted on 01 July 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Chabon on Joyce

  It's the month of Bloomsday, and the Joyce articles roll past my hungering eyes. Here is Louis Menand, in The New Yorker, summarizing the life. Read more

  Posted on 01 July 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Patrick Melrose Novels

  Of two great figures in 18th-century English literature, it is sometimes said that Jonathan Swift despised the human race while esteeming individual specimens,... Read more

  Posted on 28 June 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Pride Sunday

  Sunday afternoon. Hot. Two kids napping, mom at the store. Twins on the radio. Feeling a bit like a bachelor, but in that event I'd be at the gay pride parade. Read more

  Posted on 24 June 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• More St Aubyn

  

  A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was reading Edward St Aubyn's Patrick Melrose novels, and I suggested that the grim view of life epigrammatically advanced i... Read more

  Posted on 22 June 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Bloomsday, 2012

  Today is Bloomsday, so-called because the action of James Joyce's novel Ulysses, whose unassuming nonhero of a main character is the Jewish ad canvasser... Read more

  Posted on 17 June 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Weekend Nonwarrior

  I'm subject to the Sunday Night Blues, but Monday morning is seldom as bad as the prospect of it. At least at work no one begs me to turn on another episode of... Read more

  Posted on 12 June 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Nouns and Verbs, Not Adjectives and Adverbs

  This interview, of Mary Norris, a copy editor at The New Yorker, is funny, smart, a little offbeat, and a joy to read. In maybe my favorite part, she comments: ... Read more

  Posted on 08 June 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Same-sex Marriage: Kersten Climbs Back into the Saddle, Rides in Place

  Katherine Kersten's latest argument--I use the term loosely--against same-sex marriage begins with the announcement that it is but a short step from Adam and... Read more

  Posted on 06 June 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Power Still out

  Last weekend, the long one, I surfed over to the Power Line site, where I have for months now been failing to monitor the foam-flecked effusions of The Four... Read more

  Posted on 02 June 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• St Aubyn; Schopenhauer

  I've been reading the Patrick Melrose novels of Edward St Aubyn, reviewed here by James Wood and here by Giles Harvey. So far, I like them a lot, though... Read more

  Posted on 28 May 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Alumni Notes

  It's getting on toward the end of May, time not only for graduation ceremonies but also for college reunions, and therefore the mails--US Post and modern... Read more

  Posted on 26 May 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Reading Leviticus

  Judith Thurman says she reads the Bible--"especially Leviticus"--to prepare herself for election-year arguments. Since she's chary with the details, here's... Read more

  Posted on 21 May 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Mitt, His Party, and the Electoral College

  This post, by John Cassidy, concerning the state of the presidential race, was one of the "thirty interesting things to read" that slowed me down the other day. Read more

  Posted on 18 May 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Richard Ford in The New Yorker

  If you like the short fiction of Richard Ford--and I do--then check out, at The New Yorker Blog, Jon Michaud on "Richard Ford's Fathers and Sons. Read more

  Posted on 16 May 2012 MEDIA, POLITICS, PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIETY

• Richard Lugar

  , who was pilloried by Tea-party candidate Richard Mourdock for being "Obama's favorite Republican," was one of my favorite Republicans, too. Read more

  Posted on 11 May 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• On a Spring Day

  A beautiful spring day in Minneapolis, the first one this year in which the hum of lawn mowers in neighborhoods seems a correlative of summer. Read more

  Posted on 11 May 2012 SELF EXPRESSION