Let’s face it, shoppers: over the next few weeks, everybody will be bringing pepper spray to Walmart. It’s cheap, it’s easy to get, and police forces throughout America have already shown how effective it can be when used casually against perceived threats.

To really get at the good… Read full post »

I'm writing this on an iPad 2, black, with Verizon 3G and a red leather Smart Cover. It's only got 32 GB. Even though the price was still less than many laptops, forgoing the most powerful model allowed me to add a wireless keyboard and handy charging dock. Certainly, I coveted… Read full post »

The Educational Program Director of the prison phoned me on Wednesday morning—the first day of class—to say that she was at a training session somewhere else, and was unable to “get back in,” but good luck, and tell the officer that the textbooks are locked up in a cabinet nea… Read full post »

A few days ago, the National Review‘s Kate O’Beirne took part in a panel discussion at the Hudson Institute, a “nonpartisan policy research organization” out of Washington, DC. During the discussion—entitled, “Less from Washington, More of Ourselves&rdqu/…

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DARLING: Old English deorling, “favorite minion.” —etymonline.com

All writers love their children, I suppose.

Lewis Carroll had his portmanteau words, like vorpal, manxome, and frabjous. Robert Frost loved what he called “the sound of sense.” Truman Capote said… Read full post »

Oliver Twist is back.

According to an August 22 article in the Rochester, NY, Democrat and Chronicle, 

Republican candidate for governor Carl Paladino said he would transform some New York prisons into dormitories for welfare recipients, where they would work in state-sponsored jobs, g

… Read full post »

At every instant and from every side, resounds the call of Love:
We are going to sky, who wants to come with us?
--Rumi

Why show me this, if I am past all hope?
--Ebenezer Scrooge

Just as the watcher in the night,
Upon the verge of sea and sand,
Looks up

… Read full post »

Full Disclosure: I never liked Frodo.

Where's that other guy? You know, the one who's carrying the pots 'n pans, talking about The Shire, wearing the Ring when he has to (and giving it up when he has to), and who will eventually carry it and Frodo on his own back.… Read full post »

I believe a poet once said, “The best-laid Essays o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley.”

Joel Stein, at Time, recently discovered the truth of this when his humor piece, My Own Private India, went viral, and not in a good way.

It was covered by The… Read full post »

It’s the last Saturday in August, and the local water park is in full panic mode. Despite the humidity, the baking sun, and the shimmering undulations heaving up from the tired pavement, the general feeling is: This is it, folks. Summer’s over. Great clouds of visitors make for the pools,… Read full post »

“With adolescent egotism and a lot of money one can pretty much rule the world.” —Glen Duncan, I, Lucifer

In his thousand year old Essay, “On the Cessation of Oracles,” Plutarch tells of a portentous voyage that a mariner named Thamus once took to… Read full post »

Good morning, Mr. Paul. Sorry to wake you, but I've been reading your comments on private business, fair housing laws, and Civil Rights legislation, and was especially struck by your statement that allowing businesses to discriminate as they see fit is "the hard part about believing in freedom… Read full post »

Dear Committee: Let me tell you a story.

Around 15 years ago, my wife and I began the process of adopting our first child from the Department of Social Services. He was 2 months old, and came “Legal Risk,” meaning that the adoption was being contested, and basically we… Read full post »

You've probably seen this before, but it seemed appropriate to bring it up again. (Especially after reading recent posts by Jeannette DeMain and bobbot.) For a while, I was literally addicted to this video, like an emotional drug.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo… Read full post »

I used to hate May.

If you've ever been in a faculty office suite at the end of the semester, you'll know why. If not, just imagine half a dozen students simultaneously making a last ditch effort to pass a course they’ve ignored since February, with the… Read full post »

It began like any other day: warm and sunny, hinting at both the passing of luxurious summer and the promise of winter’s quickening chill. The students, young and eager to learn, were turning in their first paper, the time-honored Narrative Essay, in which they described, in loving detai… Read full post »

I teach American Lit at a local career college, the kind of place that has signs on the doors saying, “Check and correct your clothing to ensure that your naval, buttocks, chest or cleavage is not showing,” and, “Remove your hat, stocking cap, ‘do-rag’ or bandanna (this… Read full post »

Sunday.  5:00 a.m. The lizard speaks.

The morning comes at last, and so the dead
Of night retreats into the corners whence,
Eating only skin myself had shed,
I dropped some mortal flesh in vain defense.
O God of lizards, I am cold, and seek
The light and warmth that quicken… Read full post »

The juiciest prey approach the watering hole at 8:00 on a sunny morning in early September. Fresh from their high school graduation, or flush with pride after earning a GED, they arrive for ENG101, sit at the computer stations without opening Facebook, take out their texts, and wait. Already,… Read full post »

Since this Kate person is giving the Gosselin women a bad name, I figured it was about time to introduce a few more. These are photos from my family, beginning in Quebec, and ending in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, I don't know who most of these people are yet.

The first 3… Read full post »

I'm always delighted to stumble across explicit directives designed to help certain groups get their message across. It's like finding some secret orders left in a desk drawer: fun to read, not too far removed from what we English teachers do in the classroom, and a hell of a good way… Read full post »

In no particular order, and painfully incomplete...

The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, G.B. Edwards

"Sing, Christine, sing! Be not bitter, as Lot's wife was. Forgive them, forgive them: for they have loved much!...I wish I could live my life again. I wish I could write my story again. I… Read full post »

We're culling our books. And not just any books: childrens' books.

Several stacks of them, in fact, fifteen years of bound words and pictures. Of dog-eared paper and kittenish clauses. Of holding your breath before turning a page because you knew what was coming, and it was both a comfort… Read full post »

It's been called "the world's most valuable domain asset," yet the company that owns sex.com just can't seem to get rid of it. According to Megan K. Scott, of The Associated Press,

"An auction for the much-sought-after domain name was canceled Wednesday after three creditors filed a petition forcin

… Read full post »

In 2004, shortly after moving to Rochester, we learned that a husband and wife had been killed in their car when a railroad signal malfunctioned at a busy intersection. Before long, a small cross had appeared by the tracks. It bears 2 names—Jack & Jenn—and is enclosed by a circle of… Read full post »