Hans Eisenbeis Last week, as if you didn’t notice, the new Microsoft X-Box 360 went on sale, and serious gamers waited up until midnight for the chance to buy it. Of course, for the serious teenaged gamer who rolls out of bed at about lunchtime, midnight is the equivalent of high noon. I was not among them. … Read more
The other day, we noticed one of those traffic-counting devices on the Cedar Lake bike path—the little black hose that crosses the trail and enters the silver lockbox. It tallies the number of vehicles that pass. We also noticed some kids jumping up and down on that hose, and we did nothing. This … Read more
Yesterday was the 154th anniversary of Moby Dick. It was published first in Great Britain, then in the U.S. on November 14th, 1851. Longtime readers of this little cereal-box side-panel will recall my month-long rereading last year of what I still think is the best American novel, although I freely confess a fetish for long … Read more
The New York Times magazine’s style sections, which have lately been spun out as stand-alone quarterlies or something like that, have–to my eye–been kind of a mess. If you look to the table of contents, they are typically divided into broad, allegedly cute rubrics like “The Look,” “The Get,” and so on. But if you … Read more
I’ve had a few requests to post my commentary which aired at MPR yesterday, but is not archived over there. This isn’t precisely the final cut–sometimes the perfect word on paper just doesn’t work out loud. Actually, that happens a lot. Anyway, here it is: Coming around the lake the other day, I noticed there … Read more
Our friend Deborah Caulfield Rybak reports today that Garrison Keillor is apparently not interested in renewing his show’s handsome permanent lease at the Fitzgerald Theater. As DCR notes, the reasons are not entirely clear, and both Keillor and MPR chief Bill Kling expertly deflected questions about what might have really gone down. (Kling: Keillor makes … Read more
Chris Elliott, one of our favorite comedians, has published his first novel. It’s called “The Shroud of the Thwacker,” and it seems to be an historical novel about a Victorian-era serial killer named Jack the Jolly Thwacker. According to the Times today, it a spoof of sensational period mysteries. But part of the novel was … Read more
They say you can judge a person by which section of the Sunday Times he reads first. On that basis, this readers is moderately schizophrenic. It depends, but if I’m running out the door, and don’t wish to lug the whole shooting match with me, I’ll normally extract the magazine, the week in review, arts … Read more
Like the class weakling kicking sand in the face of the vanquished playground bully, some Democrats are now tut-tutting about the “far right” torpedoing Harriet Miers. “She deserved her day in court,” Mark Shields reliably repeated last night on NewHour, David Brooks in a pink tie smirking nearby. Understandable that the left was cautiously optimistic … Read more
Neglected for almost a week: In last Saturday’s NYTimes, you might have been sidetracked by MoDo’s salvo in her brief but incandescent public catfight with JuMi. I wasn’t; I noticed that the easy-to-overlook, irenic Nick Kristof wrote at length about why we all should fear a capricious indictment (or two) from an off-the-rails independent counsel, … Read more