Saul Bellow's Ravelstein is twenty-five this year. I make the case for why it's the real thing in the new @hedgehogreview

Was the subject of the following newspaper headline: "Local man contracts swine flu".

If you had read some good books, you might know that not having read books is not the same thing as reading books.

15y/o is away for the month and at the end of our chat today she said: “ok dad, talk soon. I miss you….r cooking”.

Actually it wasn’t even a half—it was 15k.

Somewhat chubby Canadian dad half marathon in 30°C heat with 100% humidity: ✅.

Both Ravelstein and Sibylla are gifted educators who rightly view boredom as the greatest enemy.

Both novels do very subtle experimentation with form--TLS can teach you how to learn Greek in the same way _Ravelstein_ can teach you how to read philosophy.

Art, education, eccentricity, money, greatness, democracy. TLS is more egalitarian, but Bellow ends up in a very similar spot as DeWitt on the nature of the problem and the solution.

I finished The Last Samurai and am a little overwhelmed by what it has in common with the other best novel of the millennium, Ravelstein.

I like that we've had 15 years to loosen our grip on reality, and now some of us are going to become increasingly deranged one AI chat query at a time.

RT @dnduplessie: Rice is the baby’s breath in the bouquet of the burrito.

This better be going on a little shrine to blessed Carlo.

💯

Walker Percy, prophet, Love in the Ruins.

“Conservatives have begun to fall victim to unseasonable rages, delusions of conspiracies, high blood pressure, and large-bowel complaints;”“Liberals are more apt to contract sexual impotence, morning terror, and a feeling of abstraction of the self from itself.”.

Facebook marketplace is amazing: I’ll have something I want to get rid of and someone will come to my house and PAY ME to take it away? Come on.

Perfect!

My 15y/o’s friends are dismayed by her flip phone; my 13y/o’s friends all find it totally normal. By the time my 9y/o gets her flip phone, maybe we’ll be viewed as too indulgent.

RT @scriptumsent: “City” in the modern sense is not wholly adequate as a translation of polis, as not expressing the completeness of the co….

I’m still running around, doing chores, but it’s such a beautiful day, and one of my chores was buying a very nice hammock on Facebook marketplace that I will presently be setting up.