• Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies, introducing this film, says it’s his favorite film noir, and one of the best. I agree. In preparation for writing this note, I’ve just watched it for the third time, and liked it even better. I’d have to say now that it’s one of my favorite movies, period. I

    Read more →

  • So Blue, So White

    For several weeks now I've established a routine of going down to the bay every morning with a folding chair, a cup of coffee, and my notebook, and writing for a couple of hours. I also take my phone with me, partly because someone might need to contact me, and partly so that I can set

    Read more →

  • Black Flag: TV Party

    Warning: Loud  

    Read more →

  • That is, attempts to fiddle with the rules and create the possibility of picking someone else have been defeated, and Trump is definitely going to be the Republican nominee.  "Looking to those colleagues, [Iowa committeeman Steve ] Scheffler admonished them to acknowledge their errors and unite around Trump." Ha. As someone or other said somewhere or

    Read more →

  • Vanilla does not equal plain! It's a delicious flavor. –Jay Nordlinger of National Review, in a tweet posted on the magazine's web site. (No, I am not on Twitter and don't want to be.) I love vanilla ice cream, and for that matter vanilla almost anything. A few months ago I saw these in the grocery store

    Read more →

  • Mija lives in a modest apartment in South Korea. She supports herself and her sullen, uncooperative grandson, Jongwook, by caring for an old, physically incapacitated man. She is the sort of person who slips unobtrusively in and out of the lives of others without making much of an impression—except for one thing. She is always

    Read more →

  • Possibly most people who read this blog also read these other two, but just in case: Craig Burrell describes his initial investigation of Heidegger.  As part of Janet Cupo's 52 Saints series, Grumpy writes about St. Bonaventure.  I have to face the fact that though I'm pretty interested in theology and philosophy, I'm never going to become

    Read more →

  • The thing is…

    …I don't want to submit myself with great confidence to God's holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself. I want him to fix the problem I'm asking him to fix. 

    Read more →

  • Still another "Samson and Delilah" variant. I love Patty Griffin, but when I first heard this one I didn't like it that much. But it grew on me.   I still like Ashley Cleveland's better, though. Older folks may remember that Peter, Paul, and Mary also recorded the song under the "If I Had My

    Read more →

  • Banana Leaf

    I think this is not only a leaf but some part of the flower apparatus, as the other leaves don't have this purple stalk. The flowers are purple. 

    Read more →