Erictheblue

LATEST ARTICLES ( 375 )

• Increasing Your Word Power: Susan Sontag and Eric the Blue

  

  Who would have guessed that the hyper-smart Susan Sontag, whom John Updike once described as our camp follower of the French avant garde, kept journals in... Read more

  Posted on 02 February 2014 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Language Notes

  

  Here is the first graf of the current New Yorker's opening "Comment," by Amy Davidson, called "Game Change": By the time the contenders for... Read more

  Posted on 29 January 2014 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Books of the Bible: Exodus

  

  While the so-called culture war has in our time elevated the status of Genesis, it is the second book of the Bible, concerning the exodus from Egypt and the... Read more

  Posted on 26 January 2014 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Falling Prices and the Public Servant

  

  At the end of the 1966 film A Man for All Seasons, Sir Thomas More, doomed by the perjured testimony of Richard Rich, notices as Rich leaves the witness stand... Read more

  Posted on 25 January 2014 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• At the Movies: Philomena

  

  Having heard that Philomena, starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, is an anti-Catholic chick flick, I was half-eager to see it.  Here's how--no spoiler... Read more

  Posted on 21 January 2014 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, SOCIETY

• Family Pics: Before and After

  

  A while ago, I posted the above picture of our girls.  It was taken back when marriage equality polled at about 35 per cent and Republicans loved getting... Read more

  Posted on 18 January 2014 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• At the Movies: American Hustle

  

  It happened that Amanda and I saw American Hustle on the afternoon before the evening that it claimed several of the high profile awards at the Golden Globes. Read more

  Posted on 16 January 2014 MOVIES, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Bridgegate

  

  I know that millions of Eric the Blue devotees depend upon me to provide the final, definitive word on the balls of fire accumulating flame as they roll... Read more

  Posted on 13 January 2014 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Leaving the NFL

  

  John Moffitt is the former NFL (and University of Wisconsin) football player who forfeited over a million dollars of salary by retiring--or maybe it's called... Read more

  Posted on 08 January 2014 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Career Advice from Radiolab, with a Punctuation Lesson Appended

  I found this Radiolab story, concerning the evident utility of self-deception,  really interesting.  It tends to corroborate the great theme of the... Read more

  Posted on 05 January 2014 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Books of the Bible: Genesis

  

  To most Americans, the Bible in general, and the book of Genesis in particular, is known, if it is known, as a document in the culture war, the chief adversary... Read more

  Posted on 03 January 2014 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• At the Movies: Nebraska

  

  The one-word geographical title, a reference to the Midwest, may remind you of Fargo, which Nebraska resembles also in its depiction of stolid, unintentionally... Read more

  Posted on 30 December 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• John Hinderaker's World Gone Mad

  Power Line's John Hinderaker offered up for Christmas three items of evidence showing that "we are living in a world gone mad. Read more

  Posted on 27 December 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Coming Midterm Election

  

  I see that some political prognosticator puts the Dems' chance of retaking the House in 2014 at 1%.  It's probably less than that. Read more

  Posted on 22 December 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Wherein I Come to a Sweeping Conclusion After Observing Who Uses Public...

  

  Over at the New Yorker blog, you can view photographs of Pope Francis "through the years"; my favorite, which shows him commuting on the Buenos Aires subway in... Read more

  Posted on 17 December 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Funereal

  

  Today I was as usual thinking about death and a funny story a friend once told me flew into my head.  I used to play softball for a team sponsored by a... Read more

  Posted on 13 December 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• At the Theatre: Frozen

  

  We all saw Frozen, the new Disney animated film, this evening.  It features Norwegian royalty, including an ice queen with wintry powers, and warns about... Read more

  Posted on 09 December 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Great Man Dies, Powerline Readers Weigh in

  Curious about what the Powerline philosophers might have to say about the passing of one of the great men of our time--and maybe, so long as I was polluting my... Read more

  Posted on 07 December 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Brush with (Hall Of) Fame

  

  Today, at the Lifetime Fitness on 98th Street, I did a double take when Tony Oliva mounted the stationary bike next to the one I was pedaling. Read more

  Posted on 01 December 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Joyce's Dubliners: "Ivy Day in the Committee Room"

  

  There was a golden past, when giants trod the earth, and current times represent a precipitous, lamentable decline.  That's the idea of "Ivy Day in... Read more

  Posted on 29 November 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY