FLICK THE STORY OF FEMALE PLEASURE
I LEARNED ABOUT KATE LISTER’S NEW BOOK FLICK THE STORY OF FEMALE PLEASURE in “Sexual Her-Story,” by Sarah Jones, History Extra Magazine, Vol. 27 No. 6, June 2026. Its subtitle … Continue reading
GETTING HEP—NUMERICALLY
WHAT WITH POPE LEO XIV ACKNOWLEDGING 6-7 and all of us knowing 86-47, this got me interested in getting hep numerically. I cite Smoky Hill Museum for its “1920s Slang” … Continue reading
VIEWS FROM MCGUFFEY ECLECTIC READERS, SOME EVEN PROGRESSIVE PART 1
THE BROTHERS WILLIAM HOLMES AND ALEXANDER HAMILTON MCGUFFEY edited a series of Readers for grades 1-6. As noted by Wikipedia, these Eclectic Readers “were widely used as textbooks in American … Continue reading
EUROPE’S LAST PAGANS PART 2
WE BEGAN GLEANING TIDBITS YESTERDAY from Diarmaid MacCulloch’s “Fighting Monks,” his LRB review of two books concerning the Baltic region’s delayed Christianity. Today, we pick up with a tale of … Continue reading
EUROPE’S LAST PAGANS PART 1
I AM A FIRM BELIEVER IN THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. In fact, to quote an early wit, I liken myself to a flying buttress: I support Holy Mother … Continue reading
SALVAGING (AND SATIRIZING) THE FLOTUS PART 2
YESTERDAY WE BEGAN GLEANING TIDBITS from Thomas Mallon’s review in The New Yorker of Lois Romano’s book An Inconvenient Widow: The Torment, Trial, and Triumph of Mary Todd Lincoln. Part … Continue reading
SALVAGING (AND SATIRIZING) THE FLOTUS PART 1
THOMAS MALLON WRITES “A WOMAN SCORNED: Mary Todd Lincoln has long been derided. Is her reputation salvagable?,” The New Yorker, May 25, 2026; this, in his review of Lois Romano’s … Continue reading
USTA BE AN EDITOR, Y’KNOW PART 2
HERE IN PART 2, WE’LL CONTINUE OUR LINGUISTIC DISCUSSIONS encouraged by Professor Valerie Fridland’s “Despite All the Likes, Literallys, and Dropped g’s, English Isn’t Decaying Before Our Eyes.” It’s quite … Continue reading
USTA BE AN EDITOR, Y’KNOW PART 1
THOUGH THE GHOST OF MRS. GRIMBLY continues to remind me not to split infinitives, I confess to being otherwise hep in my modern English usage. One of my guides in … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 
VIEWS FROM MCGUFFEY ECLECTIC READERS, SOME EVEN PROGRESSIVE PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE STARTED STUDY OF MCGUFFEY’S ECLECTIC READERS, USING its annotated version edited by Stanley W. Lindberg. Today in Part 2 we continue with a lesson that’s a fundamental one … Continue reading →