Economic policy in the West looks like an Iditarod race. Long lines of tightly harnessed economists, bankers and politicians strain to pull sleds into a frozen, trackless, horizonless waste. Hide-encased…
In ‘Why I Write’ (1946), George Orwell begins: From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be…
John Lincoln Wright, who died on December 4 at 64, could jolt a bar to life. A country singer-songwriter and band leader, his distinctive bass voice – backed by a…
In September 1961, ‘Joan Baez Vol. 2‘ appeared. Five months later, on a dark mid-February afternoon, a friend played it and ‘Joan Baez‘ (1960) for me. Then we played…
What does it mean when 78.9 percent of today’s Louisianans were born there? Nothing good, infers Richard Florida, Senior Editor at The Atlantic and Director of the Martin Prosperity…
‘If you’re going to be a great writer in English, you have to grow up speaking some … eastern European language!’ So I’ve complained while reading Joseph Conrad (Polish) or…
More than once – actually for a decade, more than daily – I’ve been accused of never saying anything positive about George W. Bush. So, critics, try this: A sort…
Since Facebook has told the world today’s my birthday – my Social Security and Medicare (Republicans willing) birthday – I wanted to honor the day by adding my hometown to…
This post started several hours ago. I had seen a note in the Boston Globe on an exhibit of photographs by Yousuf Karsh (‘Karsh of Ottawa’) (1908-2002) at the Armenian…
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