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A Vivid Picture of Timbuktu, in Words
ByadminIn the New Yorker this July, Jon Lee Anderson wrote a fascinating article about Timbuktu, where Al Qaeda is working to become a legitimate political power. A scary story. But a beautifully written one. Take this paragraph when he introduces readers to the city in question: Timbuktu is a small, unlovely city in shades of…
Quote of the Day
Byadmin“When many remedies are proposed for a disease, that means the disease is incurable.” -Anton Chekhov (Click here to view comments)
Military Tactics
ByadminWWII Gen. Terry de la Mesa Allen on military strategy: “Tactics are nine tenths audacity.”
A Cool View of Music
ByadminLeibniz once described music as an “occult exercise in mathematics performed by a mind unconscious of the fact that it is counting.” As someone currently working through some late Beethoven piano masterpieces, this description makes a lot of sense to me. Now if I can only find enough practice time to make my performances more…
What Iraq and Cuba Had in Common
ByadminInteresting take on the Bay of Pigs thinking in the Kennedy administration, as summarized in Jim Newton’s book on the Eisenhower Presidency: “The entire enterprise depended on an intelligence assumption that proved false, namely, that the Cuban people would greet the invasion force as liberators and turn against Castro.” Sounds eerily familiar to the Bush…
Writing So Good It Makes Me Think About Giving Up
ByadminIn his new book, Detroit City is the Place to Be, Mark Binelli describes the scene outside his residence in language so wonderful I had to share it with you: “By 9 o’clock on a Sunday morning, when I’d step out to buy a newspaper, I’d spot the tailgaters bundled up like deer hunters, clutching copied…