In the summer, I saw a link to a news article about the civil war happening right now in Yemen. I had known for a few months about the fighting there; the BBC World Service covered it on Newshour when it really kicked into gear in February. I was aware of it, I could tellContinue reading “Embracing Refugees and Our Common Humanity”
War with Jihadists and the Republican Outrage
Friday night, shortly after I got home from work, my mom called me. She wanted to know what was happening in Paris. My sister had called her, and since she was out and away from any news source, she thought I would know. I gave her a quick rundown of what I knew at theContinue reading “War with Jihadists and the Republican Outrage”
Thoughts About Endings
This morning I was working on text for the UK edition of January’s catalog. (The UK has a special version of PREVIEWS with more pages and UK-specific items.) And I worked on the text for Canongate’s edition of The Complete Peanuts Volume 25: 1999-2000. The final volume. A wave of emotion washed over me thatContinue reading “Thoughts About Endings”
The Peanuts Movie
Last night after work I went to see The Peanuts Movie, the new CGI animated film based on Charles Schulz’s characters. I had tracked this movie pretty carefully over the last year and a half, from the first trailer to the second, and last month I even read the kids novelization. The Peanuts Movie isContinue reading “The Peanuts Movie”
Veteran’s Day
As Garrison Keillor might say on The Writer’s Almanac, a poem for today, Veteran’s Day. In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago WeContinue reading “Veteran’s Day”
Working the Problem
Two months ago, I was thinking about a blog redesign. To my surprise, I ended up going in a completely different direction from what I had in mind at that time. Anders Noren, a Swedish designer, released a new theme, Hitchcock. (His themes tend to have literary or creative names, like Hemingway or Rowling orContinue reading “Working the Problem”
Things I’ve Been Reading: Snoopy Vs. the Red Baron
Snoopy Vs. the Red Baron Fantagraphics Books Written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz Coinciding with the release this week of The Peanuts Movie (not seen yet, though my ruminations on the kids novelization are here), Fantagraphics Books, the publishers of the Complete Peanuts, has published a collection of all of the Snoopy as theContinue reading “Things I’ve Been Reading: Snoopy Vs. the Red Baron”
America’s Increasing Secularism and Its Personal Aspect
This morning, on my way into work, I heard a segment on NPR’s Morning Edition about how a new Pew survey indicates that Americans are becoming less religious, and this decline in religious belief has happened over a short frame of time. The share of Americans who say they are “absolutely certain” that God existsContinue reading “America’s Increasing Secularism and Its Personal Aspect”
A New Star Trek Television Series
Today, CBS announced that there will be a new Star Trek television series in January 2017, executive produced by Alex Kurtzman, one of the writers of 2009’s Star Trek and 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness movies. Suffice it to say, I had thoughts on this today, which is why I wrote about it on Facebook:Continue reading “A New Star Trek Television Series”
Horror of Dracula
For Halloween, I gave out maybe two dozen comic books. It was chilly and it was boring, and once trick or treating was over I went inside and put Horror of Dracula (the American title of the first Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing Dracula movie) in the DVD player. (As an aside, I wish there were aContinue reading “Horror of Dracula”