Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4649 )

• Internet of Nothings

  

  I don’t suppose it’s actually a confession, since my background’s available publicly on my CV, but I do admit to not being a media expert. Read more

  Posted on 22 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Young and Headless

  

  Young adult literature is sometimes fun to read as an adult. In addition to going swiftly, compared to much “adult” literary literature, it has a way of... Read more

  Posted on 21 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Learning English

  

  English is a difficult language to learn.  Growing up monolingual, I was able to pick up German, Greek, and Hebrew (and other semitic languages) without too muc... Read more

  Posted on 20 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Have a Little Hope

  

  Optimism is a rare commodity these days. Reading Scott Edwin Williams’ new book, Lightbulb Moments in Human History: From Cave to Colosseum, served to remind... Read more

  Posted on 19 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Expiration Date

  

  One of the perils of trying to understand others—something that is vitally necessary for a humane and civil world—is facing difficult truths. Sometimes horror... Read more

  Posted on 18 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Local Haunts

  

  Local color. It’s what makes travel so much fun, even if not to someplace exotic. I’ve lived in five different states and two different countries and one thing... Read more

  Posted on 17 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• In Praise of Cardboard

  

  There’s an irony to it.  Using single-use plastic bags to ship books.  Now I know better than to stereotype book lovers, but I suspect it’s safe to say that... Read more

  Posted on 16 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Valentines and Bombs

  

  So what was I thinking, posting about bombs on Valentine’s Day?  Regular readers know my fascination with holidays.  Valentine’s Day is another one of those tha... Read more

  Posted on 15 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• How To Build a Bomb

  

  We see footage of the tragedy in Ukraine.  Or the miles and miles of film documenting World War II with its hell from the skies bombings.  Bomb after bomb... Read more

  Posted on 14 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Life Lessons

  

  Most of us know a bad movie when we see it. Some of us walk away. The rest of us linger and wonder. Some weeks ago now I watched Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer... Read more

  Posted on 13 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• More Scary Stories

  

  There might be a disconnect.  As a child the stories I had read to me were either Bible stories (Archway Books) or wholesome Easy Readers.  I think that was... Read more

  Posted on 12 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Irving the Writer

  

  From the Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons No writer is “on” all the time. I often marvel that, with the busy lives they lead, they manage to finish an... Read more

  Posted on 11 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• No Doubt

  

  The mind inclined toward doubt is in for a rough ride in an evangelical childhood.  I recall vividly my many, many hours struggling against doubt, trying,... Read more

  Posted on 10 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Knickerbocker

  

  Washington Irving is one of those people with an outsized influence on American history who nevertheless has become ignored. He met nearly every US president... Read more

  Posted on 09 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Natural Disasters

  

  Like many, my heart goes out to those in Turkey and Syria suffering through the destruction and aftermath of a major earthquake.  Such natural disasters often... Read more

  Posted on 08 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Pumpkin Season

  

  A creature feature with a moral. Not a bad way to think through ethical dilemmas. You see, we don’t have a lot of extra money lying around, so when I need a... Read more

  Posted on 07 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Scraps of Paper

  

  My wife is a saint.  She doesn’t throw away the little scraps of paper on which I write notes to myself.  They’re everywhere.  And this even though I carry... Read more

  Posted on 06 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Everything

  

  It’s been getting a lot of press, Everything Everywhere All at Once has. It’s been winning awards and it demonstrates that absurdism isn’t dead. Read more

  Posted on 05 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Urban Tiger

  

  Many things are universal. Ghosts, for example. What ghosts do and how they behave, however, can be culturally specific. The Jangsan Tiger is sort of a ghost an... Read more

  Posted on 04 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Sunk Costs

  

  The other day, in a fit of post-holiday tiding up, my wife found something that she couldn’t reach to put away.  As I took the thing and dutifully began to... Read more

  Posted on 03 February 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY