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Or “profound imagery.” I swear, the same people who pour over music videos looking for Easter eggs will tell me I’m “reading too much into” the twentieth canto of the Paradiso.

In Class, Paul Fussell notes off-handedly that sports favored by the aristocracy tend to be played with small balls, whereas proletarian sports are played with large balls. Thus, tennis and golf and polo for the rich; basketball and soccer and football for everyone else. While he doesn’t explain this, I would note that in sportsContinue reading “Small Balls”

It’s rare in a film for plans to fall through. Nearly everything the hero purposes to do works out–and this is true of the major ordeal and all the minor ordeals, as well. I think this is why I find myself so bored with most action films. An elaborate plot is hatched to steal thisContinue reading “Can I Have Another Necklace?”

Jarvis Cocker has been looking forward to being old since he was quite young. All the preparation and anticipation has served him well.

Materialists was astoundingly good. I can think of very few films which treat on the subject of shallowness–let alone films which take the subject seriously, explore it forthrightly, and condemn it with appropriate humility. The first act of Materialists overstates the case for a practical, common sense marriage. The second act explores the limitations ofContinue reading “Favorite Film of 2025”

My most merciful and all-merciful God, O Lord Jesus Christ! In Thy great love, Thou didst come down and become flesh in order to save all. Again, I pray Thee, save me by Grace! If Thou shouldst save me because of my deeds, it would not be a gift, but merely a duty. Truly, ThouContinue reading “Perhaps My Favorite Prayer”

Dear friends, Early in the morning on November 13, Josh experienced severe neck pain and lost the use of his right arm and leg. He was taken to the ER and diagnosed with a vertebral artery dissection that produced a spinal stroke. He has been in the ICU since then while his doctors manage the situation with aContinue reading “Health Update From The Hospital”

Telling a teacher, “My child is very smart,” is like telling a doctor, “My child is very healthy,” or like telling a judge, “My child is very not guilty.” We’ll see.

While there’s some climate change claptrap in this book which will probably date it (badly), Ian McEwan’s What We Can Know is a genuinely wise work of fiction that will make it ripe for revisiting over the next thirty or forty years. The story’s unconventional but winning structure makes the reader want to start overContinue reading “The Rarest Quality for a new Novel”