Reinventing Myself

 It’s been quite a shock at my age to discover that the values I’ve lived by all these years are...

Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.

- William Blake

Behind the Locked Door
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Best Commencement Speech Ever

Best Commencement Speech Ever

 This is our favorite commencement speech ever.  It was written by David Foster Wallace and delivered to the Kenyon College class of 2005. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI&app=desktop 

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Bleak America

Bleak America

 What I want to see is not a rush to judgment, but a rush to justice.   Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Don't understand the protests? What you're seeing is people pushed to the edge… fifth risk: the risk a society runs when it falls into the habit of responding to long-term...

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The Last Town On Earth: A Recent Novel on the 1918 Pandemic

The Last Town On Earth: A Recent Novel on the 1918 Pandemic

 It is the autumn of 1918 and a world war and an influenza epidemic rage outside the isolated utopian logging community of Commonwealth, Wash. In an eerily familiar climate of fear, rumor and patriotic hysteria, the town enacts a strict quarantine, posting guards at...

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The 1918 Pandemic As Seen By John O’Hara

The 1918 Pandemic As Seen By John O’Hara

 Think in the Morning continues our look into the literary memories of the 1918 Pandemic.  Our first read was Pale Horse, Pale Rider. Katherine Anne Porter gave us an unforgettable memory of the impact of the Spanish flu and the Great War on a young couple whose paths...

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Look Homeward Angel and The 1918 Pandemic

Look Homeward Angel and The 1918 Pandemic

 Previously on Think in the MorningPale Horse, Pale Rider: Katherine Anne Porter’s Classic Story of the 1918 PandemicWilliam Maxwell’s They Came Like SwallowsThe 1918 Pandemic And Willa Cather’s One Of Ours Then, under the terrible light which fell directly and...

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Book Review: The Lady With Balls by Alice Combs

Book Review: The Lady With Balls by Alice Combs

 Midwest Book Review just published an abridged version of our book review on Alice Combs’ The Lady With Balls.  The full review is below. I don’t want a mirror telling me I’m the fairest in all the land; I want another intelligent adult’s honest opinion.   Alice...

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The 1918 Pandemic And Willa Cather’s One Of Ours

The 1918 Pandemic And Willa Cather’s One Of Ours

 Previously Discussed Literature On The 1918 PandemicKatherine Anne Porter:  Pale Horse, Pale RiderWilliam Maxwell:  They Came Like Swallows This grey wall, unshaken, mighty, was the end of the long preparation, as it was the end of the sea. It was the reason for...

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William Maxwell’s They Came Like Swallows

William Maxwell’s They Came Like Swallows

 To deal with pandemics, read about them.  That’s my advice.The 1918 pandemic did not inspire much literature of its own.  World War I sucked up all the paper and ink with such greats as Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet On The Western Front (1928) and Hemingway’s...

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Some Personal Thoughts On Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet

Some Personal Thoughts On Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet

 “Cruelty to animals will get you punished, but cruelty to humans will get you promoted.”  (as one of Brit's friends said to her at the immigrant detention center where she worked in Ali Smith's SPRING) In a previous blog I explored Ali Smith’s Autumn, the first of...

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Here We Go Again

Here We Go Again

 One of the first blogs I wrote concerned a philosophical conundrum that is also a political conundrum: The Trolley Problem and the Winter of our Discontent.  The problem addressed is simple in theory but oh so difficult in practice.  How should we deal with a policy...

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