Archives for August 2021

“Political history is far too criminal and pathological to be a fit subject of study for the young. Children should acquire their heroes and villains from fiction.”

W.H. Auden, A Certain World

From 2011:

This is my all-time favorite George Cukor story. It comes from No Minor Chords, André Previn’s autobiography. I hope it’s true!…

Read the whole thing here.

“How can we live without our lives? How will we know it’s us without our past?”

John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

Forgive my three-week absence from this space. I haven’t been sick, fortunately: I was completely crushed beneath the weight of work and work-related travel, in addition to some technical problems which temporarily stopped me from blogging. (I’ve also fallen in love, which distracted me very happily and about which much more later.)

The good news is that all is well again, and starting today, I’ll spend the week ramping up to my pre-hiatus five-a-week schedule. I have to spend the rest of today clearing the rest of the mess off my desk, but I did want to let you know that all was well.

See you Tuesday!

“History must not be written with bias, and both sides must be given, even if there is only one side.”

John Betjeman, First and Last Loves