Author: Brad Zellar

  • No Hobgoblins, No Little Minds, No Consistency: Not This Team

    Riddle me this: Did that team that lost on Saturday and Sunday in Oakland look like a club that is 7-3 over its last ten games (counting the two weekend losses)? Hardly. It’s weird how quickly momentum can dissipate over the course of a major league season. Just as the piranhas are heating up (at…

  • Like This

    I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know what to say. I have absolutely no idea. I can’t even begin to imagine. I’m speechless. Seriously, words fail me. The cat’s got my tongue. I’m tongue-tied. There is nothing on the tip of my tongue. I can’t explain. I have no comment. I’m at…

  • Nice. Nice. Very Nice.

    Wasn’t that swell? Isn’t it always a fine thing to see the local nine kick the living snot out of those shitheels from Chicago? And wasn’t it comforting to see Ramon Ortiz get his feet wet coming out of the bullpen, in a situation where there was absolutely no pressure? He did a nice job,…

  • Ian McEwan

    Ian McEwan is at a stage in his writing life where he could be coasting on his laurels or organizing his papers for the inevitable memoir(s). McEwan, though, is not that kind of writer—at least not yet. More than a dozen books into his career, he seems to be getting only better and more ambitious.…

  • Woody Allen

    It’s been twenty-five years since a new collection of Woody Allen’s short humor appeared in print. You’re welcome to argue this point until you’re blue in the face, but he hasn’t made a truly great—or at least consistently funny—film in almost as long. It’s easy, then, to forget how truly fresh and funny Allen once…

  • Ron Carlson

    Hugely respected by his peers and routinely showered with accolades in the form of rave reviews and literary prizes, Ron Carlson remains a largely unknown writer to the sort of folks who pluck their reading choices out of the new arrivals pig pile at the local [sic] book behemoth. There’s no particular reason to expect…