Erictheblue

LATEST ARTICLES ( 375 )

• John McIntyre: You Don't Say

  John McIntyre, proprietor of the You Don't Say blog, reports that his readers, unless their appetites can be satisfied by fifteen free page views per month, wil... Read more

  Posted on 10 October 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Put Downs

  The other day I'm reading along in Walter Jackson Bate's biography of John Keats when I came to the section concerning the critical reviews of Endymion,... Read more

  Posted on 08 October 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Nontransformational

  If you're suffering that kind of sunken mood for which any sensation at all might be therapeutic, I recommend going to Hendrik Hertzberg's blog--he's on the Blo... Read more

  Posted on 03 October 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Light Closes Down

  The last day of baseball's regular season. My Twins and most of the other teams have been living posthumously for weeks and weeks. They've played more than fift... Read more

  Posted on 29 September 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Falling Satellite

  A six-ton satellite falling out of the sky might seem like a metaphor for something, though if it were falling back to earth on a trajectory aimed roughly at... Read more

  Posted on 26 September 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Circus Goers

  The other day I quoted Lorrie Moore on the experience of watching the Republican presidential candidates debate: "There is always something if not a lot to lear... Read more

  Posted on 24 September 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Crime Stories

  In its Metro section today, the Star Tribune runs the following blurb: ARRESTED TWICE IN AN HOURAug. 29 A 41-year-old man was arrested for stealing a comforter... Read more

  Posted on 22 September 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• No One to Cheer for

  If I were to turn on the TV and find that Notre Dame was playing Ohio State in a football game, I'd change the channel. There's no rooting interest when you wis... Read more

  Posted on 19 September 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Netflix: The Thin Blue Line

  Sometimes (like in its Wikipedia article) called a "documentary," the film features reenactments of a Texas murder in which the wrong man, Randall Dale Adams,... Read more

  Posted on 15 September 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• 9/11: Some Responses

  If you have a fondness for the absurd, you might like something I saw today at the New Yorker website, which has of late been compiling and publishing answers t... Read more

  Posted on 11 September 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Still Watching the Twins

  Last time I blogged about the Twins, it was the middle of June, their record was 24-39, and I noted that, as they would have to go 66-33 to finish 90-72, there... Read more

  Posted on 10 September 2011 SPORTS

• A Poem

  I spent some time over the long weekend leafing around in Eighteenth Century English Literature, an anthology I had to buy in college. Read more

  Posted on 07 September 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• I'm Against It

  Sometimes--frequently--I get so annoyed by stuff I hear or read that I can hardly think of anything else till I've expressed my annoyance, thereby achieving a... Read more

  Posted on 05 September 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Rock Springs: Richard Ford out West

  Richard Ford is best known for the series of novels--The Sportswriter (1986), Independence Day (1995), and The Lay of the Land (2006)--about Frank Bascombe, a... Read more

  Posted on 03 September 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Writing Yesterday in the Star Tribune Newspaper, Katherin...

  Writing yesterday in the Star Tribune newspaper, Katherine Kersten explains the recent rioting in London to puzzled auditors here in the Upper Midwest. It is al... Read more

  Posted on 29 August 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Netflix: Heartburn

  Stars Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, which, together with the fact that neither Amanda nor I had seen it, is what made it attractive in the menu of Netflix... Read more

  Posted on 29 August 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Trades

  My Twins, who have scored one run in five consecutive games, and who were shut out in the game before that, have traded slugger Jim Thome to the Indians for a... Read more

  Posted on 27 August 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• I. Shameless Self-promotion; and II. At the Fair

  Eric the Blue has taken note of the fact that his competitors in the CBS Minnesota Most Valuable Blogger Awards 2011 are shamelessly trolling for votes at... Read more

  Posted on 25 August 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Some Modest Proposals in Re Political Reform

  The other day I was sipping a latte while listening to NPR and wishing I could afford a Prius, simultaneously worrying about the Tea-Party drift of affairs in... Read more

  Posted on 21 August 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• A Review of My Review of Johnson; Or, Johnson & Quoheleth

  Having come to the end of Bate's first-rate biography of Dr Johnson, it is natural to scan again my own brief review of Johnson's life, in my Authors category,... Read more

  Posted on 17 August 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY