Erictheblue

LATEST ARTICLES ( 375 )

• Christopher Hitchens is Dead; Ross Douthat Comments

  Christopher Hitchens is dead and every journalist who ever had a drink with him wants us to know it. Ross Douthat, for example. Read more

  Posted on 23 December 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• On Miracles

  The Star Tribune had an article the other day about a sullied but possibly miraculous communion wafer at a Catholic church in South St. Paul. Read more

  Posted on 17 December 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Fun with Newt

  Everyone is having fun with Newt! Over at the New Yorker site, John Cassidy, whose Rational Irrationality blog is consistently a joy to read, has solicited... Read more

  Posted on 14 December 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Republicans Debate: the Beat Goes on

  I see that the Republican presidential candidates debated again on Saturday night and that the consensus is: Newt kicked ass--mainly, it seems, because his... Read more

  Posted on 13 December 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Chaucer and the Fabliau

  A fabliau, according to Merriam Webster's online dictionary, is "a short, usually comic, frankly coarse, and often cynical tale in verse popular especially in... Read more

  Posted on 11 December 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Gaming

  I have been playing a lot of Yahtzee lately with Rianna, our 8-year-old. If you've been exposed, you know that you play the game with five dice, and that the... Read more

  Posted on 05 December 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Fine Man

  I reviewed James Gleick's biography of the physicist Richard Feynman here. He (Feynman) is the subject of a television biography, "No Ordinary Genius," which... Read more

  Posted on 29 November 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Newt Rising!

  Ah, Newt Gingrich, the latest not-Romney and someone new to have some fun with! Andrew Sullivan, for example, has invented a drinking game: while watching the... Read more

  Posted on 25 November 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• A Professorial Oracle: I Demur

  In yesterday's Star Tribune, Stephen J Heaney, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of St Thomas, argues that a rule mandating "that nearly... Read more

  Posted on 20 November 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Netflix: The Special Relationship

  Dennis Quaid's bluff, voluble Bill Clinton schools Michael Sheen's Tony Blair, who could barely be heard above the shoosh of our dishwasher in the next room,... Read more

  Posted on 19 November 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Reading My Blog Roll

  Been reading my own Blog Roll. Amy Davidson, author of the Close Read blog at The New Yorker, has four questions ("for starters") about the scandal at Penn... Read more

  Posted on 14 November 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Party of Lincoln

  What's going on with the Republican party? Are its presidential contenders a fair sample of the whole? I'm afraid they are. If you're in quality control at the... Read more

  Posted on 12 November 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Netflix: Love Actually

  Of King Lear, Lionel Trilling said it is not enough that there is one broken man wandering the earth in despondency and madness; there must be two. Read more

  Posted on 08 November 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Two Aprils

  Chaucer is my new coffee-break companion--I've now finished the 850 or so lines of the "General Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales, wherein the pilgrims are... Read more

  Posted on 07 November 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Fun with Herman

  Is the Republican presidential race a conspiracy to boost the ratings of Stewart and Colbert? I admit, they're both clever, but, really, all you have to do is... Read more

  Posted on 03 November 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• In Re the Shakespeare Controversy

  At Salon, Laura Miller has a review of Anonymous, the new movie concerning how Shakespeare's plays were written by Christopher Marlowe. Marlowe seems an odd... Read more

  Posted on 30 October 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Jeff Johnson Speaks

  The local OWS movement has been camping out on the north plaza of the Hennepin County Government Center, where I work, for a few weeks now. County Commissioner... Read more

  Posted on 26 October 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• John Keats

  was born on October 31, 1795, in London, the oldest of five children born to the chief ostler at a horse-lending firm and his wife, who was the daughter of the... Read more

  Posted on 22 October 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Keats Toward the End

  I'm working my way toward the end of Walter Jackson Bate's biography of Keats. Such a short life, such a long book: at 700+ pages, it works out to almost 30... Read more

  Posted on 17 October 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Electoral College: George Will Speaks, Says the Emperor is Splendidly Dressed

  A few days ago, George Will used his syndicated column to defend the Electoral College. It's tempting to say that his bow tie must be restricting the flow of... Read more

  Posted on 13 October 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY