http://circleplastics.co.uk/a.php A book review which goes out of its way to dish the dirt on Gandhi, of which there is apparently plenty. Orwell apparently didn’t know the half of it. This is no surprise to those who have lived long enough. You can find really truly good people, but probably not if they have great achievements […]
Category Archives: Comments on Life
Interview with the University Bookman.
07-Feb-11I get interviewed by the University Bookman about the Staten Island book, Thoreau in the City, and the “go live where you are” principle.
On the treadmill.
28-Jan-11“MONDAY AUG. 23 – Told my mother today she ought to go live down South with the family instead of spending all her time slaving in shoe factories in order to earn just enough money to spend on the system of expenses that is our society. In Russia they slave for the state, here they […]
Why We Simplify.
01-Jan-11“To watch the corn grow, and the blossoms set; to draw hard breath over ploughshare or spade; to read, to think, to love, to hope, to pray — these are the things that make men happy; they have always had the power of doing these, they never will have the power to do more. The […]
Winter on Staten Island.
22-Dec-10The Staten Island book is a selection of the many essays I wrote about Staten Island life while living there. Not all could be fit into the scope of the published book. The following one, “Winter,” is one of four essays on the seasons; Autumn is found here. WINTER Who never ate his bread in […]
“Alien Brains For Dinner.”
26-Oct-10I was at a party on an organic farm last Friday, where the guest of honor was this gargantuan mushroom, found by the side of the road. And we had roasted chestnuts too, a first for me. My awe at drawing close to the processes of food growing and gathering only increases. Everything I do, […]
On the Canon.
28-Sep-10Lindsay Johns has a little piece worth reading on the literary canon, arguing for its universal validity. The most striking passage: The dead white men never had to face the evils of slavery or the physical and emotional oppression of racism. Thus their minds were freer to range over the great philosophical questions, metaphysical quandaries […]
Slave to Secrecy.
26-Sep-10The older my former students get, the more astonished I am by them – these people I knew as children now lead lives whose richness and complexity equals or exceeds mine, and it occasions strange thoughts in me – a kind of autumn feeling, watching the harvest come in, so fast, it seems. One story […]
A Little Plato for Pleasure (and Pain).
09-Aug-10On entering we found Socrates just released from chains, and Xanthippe, whom you know, sitting by him, and holding his child in her arms. When she saw us she uttered a cry and said, as women will: “O Socrates, this is the last time that either you will converse with your friends, or they with […]
The Problem With Men.
28-Apr-11A very nice piece by Roy Baumeister on gender differences and the oppression of patriarchy. It is consistently insightful and is a good explanation of a lot of male behavior (for women who don’t understand men or men who don’t understand themselves). It relates to the Atlantic piece “The End of Men” from last year, […]