Erictheblue

LATEST ARTICLES ( 375 )

• Obama v. Romney?

  As Republican voters head to the polls on Super Tuesday, it appears that Mitt Romney may finally be about to bury his remaining opponents beneath piles of cash... Read more

  Posted on 06 March 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Ann Romney's Reading

  In a post entitled "Woe is Mitt: Contraception, Tolstoy, and Taxes," John Cassidy takes up the kerfuffle surrounding Ann Romney having indicated, on the social... Read more

  Posted on 04 March 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Two Poems About the Sea

  Here's the text of the Frost poem, "Once by the Pacific," that I recently called the best ever written about the Pacific Ocean as seen from the shore: The... Read more

  Posted on 03 March 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Flying Home

  Back to Minneapolis yesterday evening. A week earlier, when we had just taken off and our plane was climbing to its cruising altitude, Rianna, our 9-year-old,... Read more

  Posted on 27 February 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• By the Pacific

  We drove to La Jolla today, where I stepped into the Pacific Ocean for the first time in my life. Spent most of the time trailing behind our two older girls... Read more

  Posted on 24 February 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Family Vacation

  We are on a family vacation in the American southwest. Phoenix, where my parents live in the winter months, is the hub for our activities, but yesterday we drov... Read more

  Posted on 23 February 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Poor, White, Republican, and Overwrought

  This--"Poor, White, and Republican," a New Yorker "Daily Comment" by George Packer--had elicited precisely 100 comments last time I visited. Read more

  Posted on 17 February 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• I King Henry IV

  I'm coming to the conclusion of I King Henry IV and my reaction, which I think is in line with that of millions of others over the past 400+ years, is: less... Read more

  Posted on 12 February 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Dickens at 200

  Charles Dickens was born 200 years ago today. I wrote about him most recently here; I am not one of those who loves Dickens unreservedly. Read more

  Posted on 08 February 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Electoral College: Jason Lewis Swings, Misses

  Jason Lewis's latest contribution to the Star Tribune's editorial page--"Here's what happens if the popular vote is made prime"--is a grab-bag of overused,... Read more

  Posted on 06 February 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Maybe It's Not About the Economy; Maybe It's About Contraception and Conscience

  Do Republicans really want to make the 2012 election about birth control? If the economy keeps adding jobs at the rate it has for the past few months, is the... Read more

  Posted on 04 February 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Shakespeare in His Sonnets

  A passage from Francis Meres's Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury, published in 1598, refers to "honey-tongued Shakespeare, witnes his Venus and Adonis, his... Read more

  Posted on 29 January 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Newt Ascendant; Hinderaker Dismayed

  With the Republican presidential nominating contest having taken another hairpin curve, it's time to check in with Power Line. What do the boys make of it? Read more

  Posted on 22 January 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Netflix and Newt

  While Newt Gingrich trod upon John King with cold feigned fury, we were enjoying "Moneyball," concerning Billy Beane's effort to make the Oakland A's champions... Read more

  Posted on 21 January 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Bridesmaids; and Other Mediocrities

  "Bridesmaids," the Judd Apatow-produced box-office hit, was our most recent Netflix rental. We all know that grossout scenes of overfed, overdrunk young men... Read more

  Posted on 15 January 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Republicans in New Hampshire

  A couple observations, on the day of the New Hampshire primary, concerning the contest for the Republican presidential nomination, if an outsider may speak of... Read more

  Posted on 11 January 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Scatological

  Internet down at our house! Aided by a strong imagination, I could almost make out the sighs as legions of distraught readers, clicking on "Eric The Blue" in... Read more

  Posted on 07 January 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Netflix: "Please Give"

  This one made it into our queue because several years ago, when we still were "going out to the movies," we saw "Friends With Money," directed by Nicole... Read more

  Posted on 02 January 2012 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Chaucer

  Geoffrey Chaucer was born into the growing English middle class, in London, most likely in 1343. His father was a prosperous wine merchant, and in the normal... Read more

  Posted on 31 December 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Stingo and Me

  Stingo, the narrator in Styron's Sophie's Choice, says that the prospect of spending an hour alone with the Brooklyn white pages aroused in him a sense of... Read more

  Posted on 29 December 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY