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
HAVEN’T WE A WORD FOR IT? PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE BEGAN GLEANING TIDBITS FROM FRANCIS GOODING’S LRB REVIEW of Steven Mithen’s The Language Puzzle: How We Talked Our Way Out of The Stone Age. We continue here in … Continue reading
HAVEN’T WE A WORD FOR IT? PART 1
FRANCIS GOODING’S “ROCKET SCIENCE FOR MONKEYS” is the compelling title of his London Review of Books review of Steven Mithen’s The Language Puzzle: How We Talked Our Way Out Of … Continue reading
HORTUS DELICIARUM—THE GARDEN OF DELIGHTS
MY RECENT TREATISE ON PRETZELS got me consulting The Authorized King James Version of the Bible. Prompting of this biblical research was straightforward: Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus enjoying a … Continue reading
D.J. SIMS GOT THINGS RIGHT, SORTA
IT WAS MORE THAN A HALF-CENTURY AGO (AGG!?) that a math professor at the College of the Virgin Islands on St. Thomas submitted a freelance piece to R&T. Image by … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 