Erictheblue

LATEST ARTICLES ( 375 )

• At the Museum

  

  Amanda and I took the afternoon off and visited the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.  The museum routine of standing in one place before walking a short... Read more

  Posted on 26 September 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Local Controversy

  My wife Amanda and I have a possible disagreement about the following two sentences.  I say that they mean the same thing; she says they don't. Read more

  Posted on 23 September 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Kind of Liking the New Pope

  

  Were I determined to detest the pope--and cathedral-loads of my loyal readers know I have tendencies in that direction--I would say that his PR triumphs don't... Read more

  Posted on 21 September 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Middlemarch

  

  Finished Middlemarch yesterday.  According to Wikipedia, its author, Marian Evans, used the pen name George Eliot "to ensure her books would be... Read more

  Posted on 20 September 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Flannery O'Connor and Her Prayers

  

  The current New Yorker includes a selection of prayers (behind a subscriber wall) by Flannery O'Connor, best known as the author of A Good Man is Hard to Find... Read more

  Posted on 16 September 2013 BOOKS

• Dickens Or Eliot

  

  Having been happily sunk in Middlemarch for several weeks now, I finally got around to googling the author, Mary Ann Evans (pen name: George Eliot), and was... Read more

  Posted on 09 September 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Netflix: Jesus Camp

  

  Christian fundamentalism as child abuse.  A question, not explicitly raised in the movie, is how Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, the... Read more

  Posted on 04 September 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Stop That Cliche!

  I enjoyed this, by Teju Cole, on the way that cliches function as substitutes for thought.  It's fun to try to add on to his Dictionary. Read more

  Posted on 02 September 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine"

  

  Last night Amanda and I saw Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen's latest film.  The improbabilities include a State Department official who can afford an 8-figure... Read more

  Posted on 30 August 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• In a Hole, Republicans Keep Digging

  It's possible, if you spend your waking hours touring websites that feature political commentary, to find Republicans who appear to be in possession of the... Read more

  Posted on 27 August 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Elmore Leonard and Hooptedoodle

  I've been at The New Yorker blog reading the many reminiscences of Elmore Leonard, who died earlier this week.  One, by Joan Acocella, includes a link to ... Read more

  Posted on 23 August 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• To Sunburg

  

  Yesterday I drove out in the country with my dad so that he could attend the all-school reunion for Kerkhoven High.  He's a member of the class of... Read more

  Posted on 19 August 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Local Sporting Press

  Patrick Reusse writes a sports column in the local Minneapolis paper.  I think he turns out a couple of columns per week, and a lot of them make use of... Read more

  Posted on 13 August 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Baseball's B-list

  

  I'm in Chicago, and as it happens so are the Yankees, to play the Sox, so it's all A-Rod, or "A-Fraud," all the time here. Read more

  Posted on 09 August 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• In Chicago: the Field Museum

  

  We're in Chicago for a few days and the thing that has made the biggest impression upon me so far, if you don't count the way the TV in our motel room compels... Read more

  Posted on 07 August 2013 POLITICS, SCIENCE, SOCIETY

• Getting Old

  

  Fifty-five today. Three score and ten are the years of man, according to the psalmist--"four score if his strength holds." As if everyone is guaranteed... Read more

  Posted on 04 August 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Re-re-googling the Clergy

  

  I went to St. Olaf College, which according to its web page has "a vibrant faith tradition," and perhaps mainly for that reason I was once acquainted... Read more

  Posted on 28 July 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Royal Thoughts

  

  So his name is George!  How many possibilities were there?  It could have been Edward or William or Charles or Phillip, or George. Read more

  Posted on 25 July 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Trayvon Martin Case: Eric the Blue Speaks at Last

  I wonder whether I'm being investigated by the blog police for having nothing to say about the Trayvon Martin case.  Well, over at the Powerline blog th... Read more

  Posted on 20 July 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Living Words

  What do you say to yourself when you self-talk?  I mean the words that crawl across the figurative screen in that figurative region known as the soul when... Read more

  Posted on 19 July 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY