Erictheblue

LATEST ARTICLES ( 375 )

• Books of the Bible: Mark

  

  The first three books printed in the New Testament--Matthew, Mark, and Luke--are called the Synoptic Gospels, because they tell essentially the same story in th... Read more

  Posted on 15 July 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• A Joke

  Were it not for my father-in-law, nobody would ever tell me a joke.  That, and the alcohol-themed Christmas gifts, explain my man-crush.  Here is a... Read more

  Posted on 09 July 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Two Saints

  

  In religion news, the current pope is beatifying--awkward verb meaning: to make a saint--two of his predecessors, John Paul II and John XXIII. Read more

  Posted on 07 July 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• In Downtown Minneapolis, 29 June 2013

  

  I was in downtown Minneapolis yesterday afternoon for the Twins game.  Notwithstanding 36,000 mainly straight baseball fans, the alternatives may have bee... Read more

  Posted on 01 July 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Joyce's Dubliners: "The Boarding House"

  The trial of the neighborhood-watch champion of Florida has begun, the New England Patriots' tight end has been charged with an execution-style homicide,... Read more

  Posted on 30 June 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Provus and Gladden Go to the Movies

  Since I haven't been posting any of my inimitable film criticism lately, I thought I'd share some I heard on the radio today while running errands and listernin... Read more

  Posted on 24 June 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• How Not to Use the Bullpen

  

  Why, when trying to protect a small lead, are the field managers of major-league baseball teams so programmatic in their late-inning choice of pitchers? Read more

  Posted on 23 June 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Bloomsday

  

  Another Bloomsday, this one coinciding with Father's Day--which seems poignantly fitting, for Mr Bloom lost a son in infancy and has never fully recovered:... Read more

  Posted on 17 June 2013 BOOKS

• Joyce's Dubliners: "Eveline"

  

  Harry Levin once observed that, likely as a consequence of having lived his life in near blindness, Joyce's fiction is of "low visibility. Read more

  Posted on 14 June 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Joyce's Dubliners: "Araby"

  

  The third story in Dubliners is "Araby."  I wrote very briefly about it here.  It's the one you are most likely to have read, for it is... Read more

  Posted on 08 June 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Joyce's Dubliners: "An Encounter"

  

  The title refers to "an encounter" that two Dublin boys have while skipping out of their Catholic school one late spring day. Read more

  Posted on 04 June 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Joyce's Dubliners: "The Sisters"

  

  No one has ever been able to figure out why the first story is called "The Sisters," for it is about the troubled priest, who dies in the course of th... Read more

  Posted on 01 June 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Children's Stories

  

  What's going on, Louis Menand once asked, in The Cat in the Hat?  Two young children, home alone on a rainy day, the door unlocked, under the supervision... Read more

  Posted on 28 May 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Reading and Forgetting

  

  I got a kick out of this, from Ian Crouch at The New Yorker Blog.  I recognized myself, having come to the bottom of the last page--". . . Read more

  Posted on 23 May 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Jane

  

  I'm not a Janeite, but I enjoy Jane Austen's novels, and over the spare quarter hours of the past week have been happily sunk in Persuasion. Read more

  Posted on 18 May 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Books of the Bible: Job

  

  Its reputation is such that it pops up on lists of the masterpieces of world literature, such as the Guardian's compilation of "the top 100 books of all... Read more

  Posted on 11 May 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Family Pic: Before

  

  All my pretty ones. Now that the Minnesota House has voted to permit same-sex marriage, we're really worried about what will become of them! I'll post another... Read more

  Posted on 10 May 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• More About R.A. Dickey

  

  When I last wrote about R. A. Dickey, his book Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball had just been published, and,... Read more

  Posted on 04 May 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Roger Ebert and the Art of the Pan

  

  Though Roger Ebert, whom I tried to pay tribute to here, sometimes seemed to me too determined not to sneer, he also was capable of saying what had to be... Read more

  Posted on 03 May 2013 ENTERTAINMENT, MEDIA, MOVIES, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• In Our Democracy

  

  Since public opinion polls show strong support for tougher gun laws--around 90 per cent of respondents favor background checks like the ones provided for in a... Read more

  Posted on 27 April 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY