I’m re-re-reading Ernie Pyle’s two books ‘This is Your Wat” and “Brave Men, Brave Men.’ I’m not given to hyperbole, but I would like to say, on this third reading, that Ernie Pyle, in his quiet, unpretentious way, is one of the greatest writers in the history of the English […]

My New Year’s resolutions are the same every year. I have two. The first is never to be annoyed at the bad manners of others. I know, I know; it’s impossible to keep. But it gives me the right attitude. If I find myself getting annoyed, I work on not […]

I’ve been going through the notebooks of my late friend Bob Hay, and in this second batch of notebooks I’ve found some excellent long poems of interest to me and possibly other friends of Bob, but not much to present to the general public without a lot of editing, But […]

“Once to every man and nation,” goes the poem by James Russell Lowell, “comes the moment to decide, in the strife of Truth with Falsehood for the good or evil side.” The poem was set to music as a hymn and I sang it as a chorister at St. Paul’s […]

There’s a funny scene in Gran Torino, one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, where Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) and John Carroll Lynch (Martin the barber) try to teach Thao Vang Lor (Bee Vang) how to talk like a man. They use a lot of racial and ethnic slurs […]

I was saddened to learn of the death of Mike Kittredge because I had hoped he would recover from his stroke and apply his immeasurable talents to making the world a better place, which he surely would have done if he’d been given the chance. I’m a pretty cynical guy, […]

I can’t resist sharing this poem by my friend Bob Hay. the late Bob Hay. He bequeathed me a whole box of notebooks filled with poetry and sketches, and I’ve only read the first one. This poem is called ‘Oratory (for one actor) in four parts’ and it comes with […]

My friend Bob Hay passed away last year, and I learned only recently that he left me a box of notebooks full of his poetry. I guess that makes me his literary executor, which I consider a great honor. I believe I will put out a selection of his poems […]

I’ve been having great fun reading an excellent biography of Edmund Wilson by Jeffrey Meyers, who tells the tale of three college chums. Edmund Wilson, John Peale Bishop, and F. Scott Fitzgerald all went to Princeton together in 1915, and they collaborated on dramatic productions by the Triangle Club, including […]

So how am I doing? Great! Ever since I started rereading The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. Here in the Happy Valley in July of 2019, it’s 80 degrees and sunny. In Stockholm, in November of 1967, the weather is ‘abominable’. Torrential, unremitting rain in the upper […]