I held a small wake for John Updike who passed away the other day. I did so by spending time with his 703-page compendium of essays and criticism, “Due Considerations,” to recall the pleasure I’d received in his presence.
Finding my way through the list of contents, I started with “A Case for Books.” This is [...]
Archive for January, 2009
A Wake for Updike
Posted in Uncategorized on January 30, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Hail to the Chief
Posted in Uncategorized on January 22, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Enter President Barack Hussein Obama.
Spent the day mostly in front the TV amid the emotion and the tears, mine included.
What is it that, even now, makes it seem this couldn’t, didn’t, happen? It is so worlds-shattering that the mind doesn’t seem capable of entirely talking it in, of wrapping itself around the fact.
The idea that [...]
Starlings
Posted in Uncategorized on January 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Sometimes your loves can become so overwhelming they end up being, frankly, a royal nuisance. Annie Dillard reminds us of this in the case of starlings.
There was once, she recalls in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, none of these darling birds in this country. And a bird-loving, bard-loving New York businessman sought to introduce into the [...]
Works that work
Posted in Uncategorized on January 8, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Thoughts collide and ideas come together. For instance, Roosevelt, Obama, the Works Projects Administration, and this new book, State by State.
Put them all together and what do you get? You get a notion that, apart from public works to revive the fortunes of the nation, a huge emotional quotient can be put into the mix [...]
200 years
Posted in Uncategorized on January 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
It was nothing as formal as a toast though there was a measure of champagne in our glasses when Barry brought it to our attention that we, the eight of us, represented more than 200 years of marriage. And so it was. Two couples had celebrated their 50th last year, another was pushing for 60 [...]
