Some jackbag bint from Carcaliu, Romania told authorities that she stuffed seven original paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Monet, Gauguin, Lucian Freud and Meyer de Haan into her wood-burning stove and lit a match, rendering those particular visions of those master painters into ashes. The paintings were taken from the Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam in October […]
“And potter is angry with potter, and craftsman with craftsman, and beggar is jealous of beggar, and minstrel of minstrel.” – Hesiod, Works and Days, ll. 25-26 Hesiod thought this jealousy between peers was “wholesome for men.” It encouraged “even the shiftless to toil” in hopes of gaining wealth. Jealousy, rightly understood, was a positive […]
Christianity started out in Palestine as a fellowship; it moved to Greece and became a philosophy; it moved to Italy and became an institution; it moved to Europe and became a culture; it came to America and became an enterprise. – Richard Halverson, former chaplain of the United States Senate (sometimes erroneously attributed to Sam […]
OK, maybe more than three. Maybe a lot more. But these three sola are doing a fantastic job without any help: The right wing generally (see, for example, its latest obsession with MOOCs) Higher education (which is basically a quisling for Corporate America) Artists themselves (this one merits its own blog, let alone a blog […]
Elizabeth Gumport knows her stuff. That’s obvious from her piece in n + 1, “Against Reviews.” But that’s not why I printed a copy (yes, I am a Luddite) and carried it around to think about. It’s because Gumport asks a brilliant and necessary question. Why must we read strangers? I seriously love this question […]
I have no idea if this still works, or why anyone would want to make use of it, but here it is. If you are really, truly lonely or bored, and just want someone, anyone to talk to you – and aren’t particular – this used to be foolproof. I know from personal experience that […]
