I didn't know his first name until much later, when the problem of Santos had been solved for all of us except Santos, who would carry the problem of himself wherever he went, most lately to somewhere out in Montana. Read more about An Old Story
In any other era, we might be burning the witches who brought the plague, expelling the Jews who poisoned the wells, or clearing the miasma. This last theory – that bad air brought disease – was not dispelled until 1880 or so, replaced by the germ theory, but it was probably the most salubrious, not to mention humane, of them all.
In the 21st Century Covid-19 pandemic, however, we have mostly been left to our own devices – and thank all the powers that be, we have plenty of devices. Read more about Varieties of Diversion
“The Bulgarians had actually oscillated quite markedly over the years from enthusiastic pro-Germanism to ultra-Slavophilism. Neither served them well. As a local commentator remarked at the time, Bulgaria always chooses the wrong card … and slams it on the table!" Read more about Becoming Europe
Little did I know when I finished Michael Lewis’s The Fifth Risk a few weeks ago that by the time I got around to writing about it here the risks he writes of would have escalated to an unprecedented degree. Read more about Risky Business
Yeah, *that* Kissinger. Good old Henry himself.
Why, you may ask, is a 70-something hippie/deadhead/pagan/Democrat devoting a page of her website to the demon of 20th Century foreign policy?
Curiosity. That’s why. Read more about Kissinger
The President glanced up from his phone.
“What the fuck’s going on? Why aren’t we moving?”
“Apparently there’s a protest or something going on. The Secret Service has it in hand. Do you want me to check personally, sir?”
“Yes. Wait. No. I’m gonna go straighten this out right now. Who the fuck do they think they are, blocking the President’s motorcade? I just wanna get this Arlington bullshit over with.” Read more about Crossing the River
Over the summer I finished reading Hillary Clinton’s What Happened. You’ll notice there is no question mark. It is a simple statement. Hillary knows damned well what happened. This book is her attempt to explain it all to us. From her point of view. Which is valid and instructive and heart-wrenching in many different ways. But over the years I’ve come to believe that given what she was up against, there were very few and narrow paths to electoral college victory. Read more about What Happened
Prairie Fires
I am one of the millions of women who grew up with the Little House Books, the ethics of which likely had a larger impact on me than my mother’s strictures. So that, right there, suggests the best advice I have for young parents everywhere: look for the books that your child will love and when they are grown they will not depart from them. Read more about Prairie Fires
What do you remember of 15th Century Italian history? Guelphs and Ghibellines ring a bell? The petty wars between Florence, Milan and Genoa? Yeah, me neither. Read more about GGK’s Italy
I never know what to say to children. So few of them have read Toynbee. Read more about Toynbee