Categories
Archives
-
-
-
Recent Posts
- “I don’t cook and I don’t care.” — Ann-Margret
- “Sometimes I think no matter how one is born, no matter how one acts, there is something out of gear with one somewhere, and that must be changed. Life at its best is a grand corrective.” –Jessie Redmon Fauset
- “I’ve had my best times trailing a Mainbocher evening gown across a sawdust floor. I’ve always loved high style in low company.” — Anita Loos
- “I only began to sing because I couldn’t get a job as an actress.” — Barbra Streisand
- “I would rather take a photograph than be one.” — Lee Miller
- When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim, / Hath put a spirit of youth in everything …
- “We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory.” — Louise Glück
- “True success is figuring out your life and career so you never have to be around jerks.” — John Waters
- “After all, when God created Adam and Eve, they were stark naked. And in the Garden of Eden, God was probably naked as a jaybird too!” — Bettie Page
- “There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad.” — Charlotte Brontë
Recent Comments
- sheila on When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim, / Hath put a spirit of youth in everything …
- sheila on “I don’t cook and I don’t care.” — Ann-Margret
- Maddy on “I don’t cook and I don’t care.” — Ann-Margret
- sheila on “I only began to sing because I couldn’t get a job as an actress.” — Barbra Streisand
- Kristen Westergaard on “I only began to sing because I couldn’t get a job as an actress.” — Barbra Streisand
- sheila on “I only began to sing because I couldn’t get a job as an actress.” — Barbra Streisand
- Kristen on “I only began to sing because I couldn’t get a job as an actress.” — Barbra Streisand
- sheila on “I only began to sing because I couldn’t get a job as an actress.” — Barbra Streisand
- sheila on “I only began to sing because I couldn’t get a job as an actress.” — Barbra Streisand
- Stevie on “I only began to sing because I couldn’t get a job as an actress.” — Barbra Streisand
- sheila on 2024 Books Read
- Thomas Murphy on When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim, / Hath put a spirit of youth in everything …
- Larry Aydlette on 2024 Books Read
- Lyrie on March 2025 Supernatural Viewing Diary Season 15-12, working backwards
- Lyrie on March 2025 Supernatural Viewing Diary Season 15-12, working backwards
- sheila on March 2025 Supernatural Viewing Diary Season 15-12, working backwards
- sheila on March 2025 Supernatural Viewing Diary Season 15-12, working backwards
- Lyrie on March 2025 Supernatural Viewing Diary Season 15-12, working backwards
- Lyrie on March 2025 Supernatural Viewing Diary Season 15-12, working backwards
- sheila on March 2025 Supernatural Viewing Diary Season 15-12, working backwards
-
Tag Archives: politics
“The behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies.” –Robert Conquest
“I think once you accept that you have the answer to everything, you can do anything to bring it about because your enemies are trying to stop you, are enemies of reason, of truth of everything – enemies of the … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged England, politics, Robert Conquest, Russia, Sergei Kirov, Stalin, The Great Terror, war
4 Comments
“They are holding every Jew in Germany as a hostage. Therefore, we who are not Jews must speak, speak our sorrow and indignation and disgust in so many voices that they will be heard.” — journalist Dorothy Thompson, radio broadcast, 1938
Dorothy Thompson, 1939: testifying in Congress to repeal the Neutrality Act. American journalist Dorothy Thompson, whose birthday it is today, wangled and manipulated her way into an interview with Adolf Hitler in 1931. Before he even became Chancellor. Thompson had … Continue reading
“I knew that I had a facility with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts.” — George Orwell
Orwell was born on this day. When Animal Farm was released in a new edition, Christopher Hitchens (one of THE people you need to read if you want to understand Orwell, besides Orwell himself), wrote specifically about the quote from … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged 1984, Animal Farm, England, George Orwell, politics, Russia, war
6 Comments
“Fear and the absence of hatred may go well together.” — Niccolò Machiavelli
Prologue, The Jew of Malta, by Christopher Marlowe, written in 1589. Machiavelli died in 1527. You can see his posthumous reputation had ballooned, just 60 years after his death. Enter MACHIAVEL. MACHIAVEL. Albeit the world think Machiavel is dead, Yet … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Christopher Marlowe, Italy, Machiavelli, politics, war
2 Comments
Dynamic Duo #39
Mandy Rice-Davies and Christine Keeler, 1963
R.I.P. Dubravka Ugrešić
I return to her The Museum of Unconditional Surrender again and again. A classic in the canon of books dealing with being forced to live in exile. But there are so many other books: Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, Culture … Continue reading
Posted in Books, RIP, writers
Tagged Balkans, Croatia, Dubravka Ugrešić, politics, war, Yugoslavia
Leave a comment
Travis Bickle? Is that you?
Farmers listening to Senator Hubert Humphrey during the 1960 primary campaign in Wisconsin (detailed in Robert Drew’s groundbreaking documentary Primary). The guy at the top looks like shit’s about to go DOWN. Maybe he’s just tired. Maybe he’s bored out … Continue reading
“Would not these pointed Rods probably draw the Electrical Fire silently out of a Cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible Mischief!” — Benjamin Franklin
A re-post for Benjamin Franklin’s birthday, born in Massachusetts on this day in 1706. My grandmother had a big illustrated copy of Poor Richard’s Almanac, which I had practically memorized by the time I was 6 years old. The illustrations … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Founding Fathers, On This Day
Tagged Arguably, Benjamin Franklin, Christopher Hitchens, essays, politics, war
6 Comments
2022 Books Read
Some re-reads this year, but a lot of new-to-me authors as well. New novels written by faves. Been a year of upheaval and transitions. I’ve managed to keep up my regular reading schedule. I just don’t feel right if I’m … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged A.S. Byatt, Alfred Hitchcock, Anne Fadiman, art, Australia, Biography, books read, Canada, Christopher Hitchens, Edmund Burke, Elinor Lipman, England, entertainment biography, essays, Eve Babitz, friends, Germany, Greece, Hitler, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Janet Malcolm, Joan Didion, Joseph Cornell, Lorrie Moore, Machiavelli, Master and Margarita, Memoirs, Michael Curtiz, Mikhail Bulgakov, Mitford sisters, nonfiction, Paul Zindel, politics, Quentin Tarantino, Robert De Niro, Russia, Ryszard Kapuściński, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Shakespeare, The Beatles, Tom Wolfe, true crime, Victor Klemperer, Victor Serge, war, William Hazlitt, William Wordsworth, WWII, YA fiction
10 Comments