Light On Dark Water

September 6, 2015

52 Authors: Week 36 – Charles Dickens

I am not an expert on Charles Dickens, but I do enjoy his writing immensely. I have gone through periods where I thought I liked other Victorian authors more: Anthony Trollope and George Eliot notably, but I always return to Dickens with vigor and realize that he is the best. Wasn’t there an old McDonalds
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September 3, 2015

Christopher Lasch: The Culture of Narcissism

Forty years or so after it created a great stir, I finally got around to reading this book. I have to say it is not what I expected. I expected less, to tell you the truth. I expected a look around the culture of the times, and perceptive commentary on it. I didn't expect erudition
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September 2, 2015

Shut Up, Grandma

It's the 21st century, in which there is no place for bigots like you.
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August 30, 2015

52 Authors: Week 35 – Sydney Taylor

When I wrote the post about Anne Pellowski’s Latch Valley Farm series (the Catholic Little House books), I said that I would write another about a sort of Jewish Little House books. This is it. When I was about 8 years old, The All-of-a-Kind Family books by Sydney Taylor were my favorites. I fell in
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August 29, 2015

Mary Fahl: Going Home

From the under-appreciated Civil War movie Gods and Generals.
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August 25, 2015

Good Words for the Anglican Ordinariate Mass

I can't remember how I happened across this piece, but it describes very well what I consider most important and most appealing about the Ordinariate Mass, and also what I had hoped might come of it: that it would have broad appeal outside the Ordinariate, and perhaps in time be part of the liturgical renewal
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August 23, 2015

52 Authors: Week 34 – G.K. Chesterton

“Anything worth doing is worth doing badly” said Gilbert Keith Chesterton and that gives me the strength to tackle this post, when a fear of not being able to do it well enough would prevent me from even starting. From 6-8 August, I attended the American Chesterton Society's (ACS) Conference in San Antonio, Texas (a
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August 20, 2015

Stuff I’d Rather Have a Root Canal Than Do

Read Sandra Tsing Loh on Erica Jong, an opportunity presented by a recent issue of The Atlantic. If I'd had any doubt, the blurb on the Contents page would have convinced me: "In her 70s, she's as eager as ever for sex and adventure." These old people still preaching the sexual revolution are a sad sight.
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August 16, 2015

52 Authors: Week 33 – Marion Montgomery

Marion Montgomery (1925-2011) authored three novels, three books of poems, and several short stories, a few of which were award winners. He is best known, however, as the author of some 20 or so books of literary and cultural criticism, based on a Thomist reading of philosophy, history and literature. At the root of his
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August 15, 2015

Bassic: Televisionary

Ages and ages ago, when downloadable music was a new thing and Napster roamed the net, there was a site which I think was called mp3.com where mostly unknown or little-known artists could post their music to be downloaded free. I got half a dozen or so tracks from a Swedish electronic musician who called
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