Category Archives: thinking out loud

Beached white males: the Great Recession comes home

At a graduation ceremony, I visited with middle-aged men of my acquaintance, and found many of them — maybe even a majority — living like me without steady work. When I talked about it a little, they readily admitted they were hurting. Taking construction jobs for a $100 under the table, despite having careers inContinue reading “Beached white males: the Great Recession comes home”

How can someone so young write such a good dark novel?

My favorite interviewer of writers is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a writer herself: Michelle Huneven. She's written for countless different outlets, but these days is interviewing for the literary site The Millions.  This week she published an interview with a young novelist who wrote a book called The Gin Closet. Here's Michelle's introduction to the book andContinue reading “How can someone so young write such a good dark novel?”

The paradox of being hard yet soft: Tennessee Williams

In l942, Tennessee Williams, living in Greenwich Village, down to his last ten dollars, at work on a fragment of a play called The Paper Lantern, about a woman named Blanche, living on a plantation called Belle Reve…began to recover the vision he long had lost in his left eye. In his diary, on theContinue reading “The paradox of being hard yet soft: Tennessee Williams”

Monbiot: Environmentalism is stuck

George Monbiot is not the first enviro to argue that the movement, if it is a movement, has argued itself into a corner. That it is, as he says, "stuck." But he has a knack for putting it plainly:  Those seeking to protect the landscape are not our enemies; nor are those advocating that renewablesContinue reading “Monbiot: Environmentalism is stuck”

“Mission Accomplished,” eight years later

From Dan Froomkin, exiled from the Washington Post to Huffland:  Ironically, Obama’s announcement [of the killing of Osama bin Laden] came eight years to the day after Bush famously and prematurely declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq after landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. Looks like Mike Lukovich sees the same irony:   

The frog metaphor that will not die (alas)

In which Conservation magazine demolishes the deathless metaphor/myth of the frog that supposedly will not jump out of a pot of water brought slowly to a boil. To wit: Dr. Victor Hutchison, a herpetologist at the University of Oklahoma, has dealt with frogs throughout his professional life. Indeed, one of his current research interests isContinue reading “The frog metaphor that will not die (alas)”

Go blue! The problem with sports as politics

The play-offs (and Ted Rall) remind me that the sports mindset, as the President might say, has its limits.  I hear Noam Chomsky also has some views on sports. In Manufacturing Consent, in front of an adoring audience, he marvels out loud at the intelligence with which "Joe Six Pack" types can on the radioContinue reading “Go blue! The problem with sports as politics”

Can nice guys finish first?

The Los Angeles Lakers basketball club were widely expected to sweep the New Orleans this month, on their way to a possible third consecutive NBA championship, but on Sunday were torched by the smallest player on the court, Chris Paul. Lakers' fans focused blame on the Laker's big man Pau Gasol, who put up aContinue reading “Can nice guys finish first?”

Surgeon resigns post for encouraging semen for women

The editor of an American College of Surgeon's publication has been forced to resign for remarks considered sexist. He wrote, from his post atop a bastion of male privilege, on Valentine's Day, that semen is good for women, bodily and emotionally, better even than chocolate. The argument focused on semen's physical powers; as evidence, he citedContinue reading “Surgeon resigns post for encouraging semen for women”