Erictheblue

LATEST ARTICLES ( 375 )

• Pawlenty Makes a Call, Followed by Eric the Blue

  You might have thought, faithful reader, that to say something nice about Tim Pawlenty I'd have to be quoting my mother. But see if this counts. Read more

  Posted on 15 August 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Giants on the Earth

  Sunk, courtesy of W. Jackson Bate, in Dr. Johnson's London, it is hard to resist the notion that there were formerly giants on the earth, and that we do not... Read more

  Posted on 12 August 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• In The Southwest Journal

  The neighborhood newspaper, Southwest Journal, delivered to our house today has the page 1 headline, "Minneapolis property taxes higher than most other Minnesot... Read more

  Posted on 06 August 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Recreational Math

  Scraping around for a birthday present for one of my nephews, a college student majoring in computer science, I picked out a copy of Martin Gardner's My Best... Read more

  Posted on 31 July 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• I Read Power Line So That You Don't Have to

  There's a new look at the Power Line blog but the content is the same old sludge. In a post entitled "Norway: A Postscript," John Hinderaker begins: They are... Read more

  Posted on 26 July 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Bate's Johnson

  I've started W. Jackson Bate's biography of Samuel Johnson and am reminded all over again of why I love Dr. Johnson. Herewith an abbreviated miscellany gleaned... Read more

  Posted on 23 July 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Our Mutual Friend: I Come to the End

  I've just finished Our Mutual Friend, the last novel Dickens completed. The current critical consensus, one gleans from reading here and there, is that the earl... Read more

  Posted on 18 July 2011 BOOKS

• Watching Movies While the Country Burns

  Here in Minnesota, where Governor Dayton has capitulated to Republicans, accepting their plan to balance the budget without raising any new revenue (by... Read more

  Posted on 16 July 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Of Madmen and Tea Partiers

  According to H. R. Haldeman, his chief of staff, Richard Nixon subscribed to "the madman theory of the presidency." The idea is that, in adversarial... Read more

  Posted on 12 July 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Casey Anthony Verdict

  Now that I have the attention of all eight of my readers, I want to announce my disappointment with President Obama on the gay marriage issue that I've been... Read more

  Posted on 09 July 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Looking Back at Hemingway

  Fifty years ago today, Ernest Hemingway committed suicide at his home in Ketchum, Idaho. The New Yorker has a collection of photographs of him here. Read more

  Posted on 02 July 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Four More Things

  I am excited as a heterosexual Scandinavian person can be about what happened in New York over the weekend. Herewith a few more scattered thoughts. 1. Read more

  Posted on 28 June 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Love and Marriage in New York

  Not everyone is happy about the passage, in New York late Friday night, of a bill extending the right to marry to same-sex couples: Brian Brown, president of th... Read more

  Posted on 27 June 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Some Advice for Poor Angus from Robert Pinsky

  Our eight-year-old and I have evolving bedtime rituals. The current one involves Shel Silverstein. She has his book of children's poems, Where the Sidewalk Ends... Read more

  Posted on 24 June 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Minnesota Senate District 48: Meet the Incumbent

  Senate District 48 in the Minnesota State Legislature has been represented since 2003 by Michael Jungbauer, a Republican who, according to his website, "still... Read more

  Posted on 19 June 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Bloomsday, 2011

  Each June 16, as both my devoted readers know, I devote a post to James Joyce, whose novel Ulysses concerns a day in the life of Dubliner Leopold Bloom. Read more

  Posted on 17 June 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Republicans Debate. . .

  . . . and I go to the grocery store. I understand that, in this crowd, Michele Bachmann showed to good advantage. The only thing that says more about the... Read more

  Posted on 15 June 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Twins on the Radio

  Eight-year-old's softball game last night was played in drizzle that intermittently qualified as a shower. On our way home, I turned on the car radio, partly... Read more

  Posted on 11 June 2011

• Unchaste Thoughts

  I understand that Rep Anthony Weiner, D-NY, has been in the news? "Keep a chaste mind," advised Henry David Thoreau, but lord, it's hard. I surrender. Read more

  Posted on 08 June 2011 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Our Mutual Friend (on My Nook)

  Have been happily sunk for more than a month now in Our Mutual Friend, the last novel Dickens completed before dying, age 58, in 1870. Read more

  Posted on 05 June 2011 BOOKS