Lynn Vincent has a couple links to the difficult story of Captain Roger Hill being pressed b/w hard and rock inside Afghanistan. She calls it “no way out.” Her article has a good overview of the story, and the Washington Post article she links to has some horrible details. The most horrific point to me is the possible or suggestion that this situation occurred because of petty friction b/w two commanding officers. That may not be true. The Washington Post reporter offers a few possibilities, but as he says, it’s hard to sympathize with those who want to punish excellent commanders who believed following protocol would only get themselves killed.
All posts by Phil
St. Paul, MN Publisher Vaulted to National Recognition
Graywolf Press, a non-profit publisher of literary fiction (non-profit: are there any other kind?), has had great success recently, the latest being that one its poets, Elizabeth Alexander, will be reading a poem at the inauguration. They also publish Norwegian writer Per Petterson, author of Out Stealing Horses.
The Boston Globe reports: “By the day it’s getting harder and harder to do what they do,” said Alexander, also a professor of African-American Studies at Yale University. “They’re building the most important, interesting and rich poetry list of any press anywhere. They’re putting out more literary fiction, not less. They’re small, but they keep finding ways to step it up.”
A Year of Work in the New Yorker
Those who write for The New Yorker apparently believe in the abysmal boredom of life outside their city. Max Magee writes: “In revisiting all of the stories, one major over-arching theme emerged for me, the conflict between stories that center on what I call ‘suburban malaise’ (born out of ‘The Swimmer’ and ‘What We Talk about When We Talk about Love’ among many others) and those that don’t.”
Thank You, President Bush
For all of my differences with the president, I’m glad he was in office for the start of the 21st century. Thank you for serving, sir. They sell memorabilia for this here.
Idiots, All of Them
Author Larry Winget says people, generally speaking of course and not at all applicable to readers of BwB, are idiots.
Parents don’t talk to their kids or discipline their kids; give them everything they want and then wonder why their kids are a mess.
People barely do any work while they are on the job, then can’t figure out why they got laid off when times got tough for their employer.
People spend more money than they earn then seem to be surprised that the people who loaned them the money actually want to be repaid.
The majority of people can’t read and don’t read.
Winget has written a book about these problems, and I suppose hopes some of us will either skim it for knuggets or have someone who cares read it to them. Perhaps ripping out pages and stapling to them to foreheads would work for some too.
The Friday Fight: The Forum
Welcome to the Forum, on the way to which a funny thing happened. Why the crowd is laughing so much, I don’t know, but maybe I’m just visualizing the threat of battle too much.
I can’t help thinking the axe-welder at the beginning did not prevail only because of a technicality. I’d like the referees to examine the tapes. Doesn’t the axe touch the other player’s head and stomach (or hypochondriac region)? Shouldn’t that have put him down a good bit?
Sometimes, I Feel Live in Nowhere
Brian Riedl of The Heritage Foundation has ten questions about the “Economic Stimulus Bill.”
#10 Mayors have pledged to spend stimulus funds on items such as a mob museum in Nevada, a polar bear exhibit in Rhode Island, and curbing prostitution in Dayton, Ohio. As National Review asked, how come one Bridge to Nowhere is a national embarrassment and 1,000 Bridges to Nowhere are a “stimulus?” Given the 11,000 annual earmarks, why should taxpayers trust politicians to spend this money better than they would spend it themselves?
# 8 The economy sank because people over-borrowed for houses they couldn’t afford, and financial institutions over-borrowed for investments they badly misjudged. Washington’s solution is to borrow $800 billion that it cannot afford. How will adding $800 billion to the national debt (which will also raise interest rates) solve a recession created by imprudent borrowing? And who will bail out the American taxpayer when the bill comes due?
Why can’t we solve our current debt/economy problem by doing something reasonable, like selling California to private investors? (via World)
Complete Lack of Character
Ruth Madoff, wife of the Bernard Madoff in the recent news, supposedly co-wrote a kosher cookbook with a friend a few years back. Now the editor of that book claims she wrote the whole thing herself. The NY Times reports Karen MacNeil “was paid to write the cookbook in its entirety. She said Mrs. Madoff ‘was interested in having her name on something that would allow for some sort of fun.'” Maybe this ghostwriting is a small thing, even a common thing in publishing, but in context with the Madoffs’ story of late, it seems to reveal one more way in which the couple lacked any character. (via ArtsJournal)
Personal Random Musings
Having seen the imminent (eminent?) demise of personal blogging, I have decided to post my random musings for the day, adding to them as the day drags on. Feel free to join me by adding your own musings. Perhaps we will amuse ourselves a bit. Ha, ha! I crack myself up.
I like French Onion soup. A while back I had a great bowl of it at Big River Grill, which used one of their microbrews in the recipe. Yummy, heart-warming, reminding me of all the French matrons in my life who have urged me to have another helping of Marengo Veal Sauté or Tomates confites. I also had a bowl of Campbell’s Caramelized Onion Soup on Monday, and it could not compare. There’s something different with Campbell’s Select soups lately. They don’t taste as good as they used to.
I didn’t remember that Richard Montalban was Khan. I guess that means I am not a trekkie, even if I wanted to be. How could a fan forget something like that?
I see that it’s 25 below in Lileks neck of the woods. Continue reading Personal Random Musings
New Words, Nonce Words
Dr. Goodword is talking about those words people make up within very specific context, not really for broad application by all English speakers–like the word cyberchondriac, intended to mean “a person who believes he is sick because his symptoms appear on a web page.”
“Now the real meaning of cyberchondriac should be ‘stomach governor,'” the doctor says, “for kybernan means ‘to govern’ in Greek while chondria is a Latin word meaning ‘stomach'” Apparently, a hypochondriac is so called because of the greek hupokhondria, which is the stomach or abdomen region and believed to be the “seat of melancholy.”