“Give me a boy until the age of seven and I will give you the man.” This quote is attributed to various Jesuits. Its meaning, I guess, is that our path is shaped early in life. Also, our path is predictable based on what we are like as little children. I do wonder how much truth there is to this idea. My own boy is interested in the following careers: […]
I was hanging out at the park yesterday with friends, and my friend Deborah brought a chess set to teach us to play. I’ve never learned to play chess because it’s just too daunting. All of those pieces move in different ways, and you have to defend your king and capture the other king, and it seems like there are infinite moves, and I have no idea which one to […]
You can’t roller skate in a buffalo herd, but you can be happy if you’ve a mind to. So sang the late, great Roger Miller. I’m inclined to believe him on both counts. Trouble is, I haven’t had the mind to be happy today. I’m still hurting over the loss of Buckley. I’ve had an evening of the best possible comfort: a wonderful family, some wine, chocolate, Pride and Prejudice […]
I really didn’t think I had feelings anymore when it comes to Aggie football. Years ago I would suit up for the team (yes, I literally wore a jersey) and watch the games. My mood for the weekend was determined by a win or a loss. In the last decade, however, it hasn’t made much sense to rely on a group of college football players to make or break my […]
After much internal debate, I’ve decided to renew my membership to The Folio Society. It’s a bit of a commitment to agree to buy four (pricey) books in the next year, but I can’t help myself. I’m a sucker for two things: beautiful books and British culture. The combination of the two is pretty much irresistible. The Brits slay me. Their dry humor, their correctness, their funny punctuation (no period […]
Do you remember being 12 years old and thinking that Mad Magazine was the height of comedy? I had a cherished collection that I just knew was going to bring me a million dollars when I grew up because I had just seen an episode of Amazing Stories in which the protagonist cashed in on all his childhood junk. That was going to be me. Then my sister shattered my […]
I’d like to extend a warm welcome to all of y’all coming over from Free-Range Kids. Please take a look around, and if you like what you see, come back to visit! I’d like to say “thank you” to Lenore Skenazy, first for her excellent book, and second for re-printing my post (below) on her site. I’ll be posting again about Free-Range Kids (the book) in the next couple of […]
I ragged on Dan Brown a bit in my last mention of The Lost Symbol. After reading it, I’d like to give him props for attempting to do something extremely difficult: seek out the universal truths demonstrated within six millennia of human history and distill them into a pop-fiction adventure. I get the sense that he buys into the idea that there are absolute truths out there and that he […]
Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day. It seems apropos that I am in Savannah, the literary home of Captain Flint, the oft-referred-to and never-seen star of Treasure Island. The treasure, you see, was Flint’s. He had buried it on an island and then died in Savannah some years before Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver, et al. went after it. Treasure Island is a lovely book. I read it […]
I’m going to Savannah, Georgia tomorrow with my sissy! We’ll be staying in a carriage house and eating lots of fried food beneath live oaks dripping with Spanish moss. In honor of the occasion, I picked up Dan Brown’s latest excretion, “The Lost Symbol”, which was released today. Why Dan Brown, do you ask? Picture me reading “The Lost Symbol” in beautiful historic Savannah: Now picture the reality: me reading […]
Flabby Brain 