a portrait of the artist as a young man

2009

December
November 6
October 50
September 37
August 24
July 36
June 43
May 64
April 48
March 64
February 64
January 89

2008

December 39
November 29
October 29
September 31
August 30
July 39
June 49
May 43
April 83
March 70
February 43
January 46

2007

December 34
November 29
October 51
September 40
August 25
July
June 4
May 6
April 24
March
February
January
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about...”
— Robert Frost (via krzywonos)
Oct 1st
My Fridge Food - Recipes you already have in...
Oct 1st
We’re confused by this sculpture Chinese artist Chen...
Oct 1st
“I do not … I don’t wish to touch hearts. I don’t even...”
— Nabokov, discussing Lolita....
Oct 1st
Warch Watch
leitch: Michael Jordan playing at Wrigley Field, being interviewed by Harry Caray, knocking in two...
Sep 30th
PaperBackSwap
Sep 29th
Old Economist Covers [via Creative Review: Penguin by...
Sep 29th
“That’s because despite the country’s notorious materialism,...”
— David Brooks on The Next...
Sep 29th
“So the next time you hear a writer on the radio or catch him...”
— Arthur Krystal (via Luke) (via...
Sep 28th
Warch Watch
Baker Tweet looks awesome
Sep 28th
ayjay: andrewromano: Ingmar Bergman’s library.
Sep 27th
U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Marie-Madeleine Lioux, André...
Sep 26th
Clearing the Smoke
Sep 25th
“It makes me very happy to see that, in the last three years...”
— W.H. Auden on Dag Hammarskjöld
Sep 25th
“Kristol grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn...”
— David Brooks-Three Cheers for...
Sep 24th
Listen Listen
“The Wolf and I,” by Louis and the Hunt
Sep 24th
Exiled from the Kingdom
Sep 23rd
The End of the Clove: Wunderkammer's...
Sep 22nd
“But when has happiness ever been the subject of fiction? The...”
— John Updike, introduction to...
Sep 18th
JRR Tolkien trained as British spy -...
Sep 17th
“The first prerequisite for leading any satisfactory kind of...”
— W. H. Auden, “Culture and...
Sep 17th
The Apostasy of Spencer Krug
Sep 16th
“Geniuses are the luckiest of mortals because what they must...”
— W.H. Auden, From his foreword...
Sep 16th
Philadelphia To Close All Public Libraries...
Sep 15th
“In fact, said Austerlitz, until the railway...
Sep 15th

a word from your host

Up until now, this blog has functioned as a commonplace book. I haven’t posted much of my own...
Sep 15th
“Whatever era we’re born, we think we have the definitive...”
— Paddy McAloon (via) (via...
Sep 15th

Auden on Hell

To think of God’s laws as imposed leads to absurdities.  Thus, the popular conception of what the...
Sep 12th
The Hubble telescope, space lepidopterist [via tilling]
Sep 11th
“God is absent, said Johann Christian Holderlin; God is dead,...”
— Walker Percy (The Coming...
Sep 11th

tumblarity--the final word

tumblaritysucks: jaimeleighfairbrother: Tumblarity measures popularity and activity—not...
Sep 8th
Love in the Time of Darwinism
Sep 8th
Listen Listen
“I Would Be Sad,” The Avett Brothers.
Sep 8th
“But, first, remember, remember, remember the signs. Say them...”
— C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of...
Sep 4th

Pious Girls

You know, by vulnerable I suppose I really meant—religious. Yes. Pious girls have tender hearts....
Sep 4th
One Man’s Trash ...
Sep 3rd

"The Old Bills," John Updike

How much better they were, the old bills— Lincoln and Hamilton, Jackson and Grant, engraved-steel...
Sep 2nd

"Friend, in the Desolate Time," Erik...

Friend, in the desolate time, when your soul is enshrouded in darkness When, in a deep abyss, memory...
Sep 1st
Travel companions for a transatlantic flight home.
Sep 1st