Tour de France

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Sebastian Kruse (age 2) and his father, Corwin at the starting line of the 2006 Tour de France at Place Kléber in Strasbourg, France. Author(s) and Location: Cristy Kruse

Ugly, Expensive, and Very, Very Tasty

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The month of November is the prime of white truffle season. Never mind black truffles—the whites are where it’s really at. The most prized fungi in the world, they fetch up to fifteen hundred dollars a pound and look exactly like clods of dirt. Shaved thinly over a dish of hot pasta, their elusive flavor … Read more

Fraters knee RT right in his dignity

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You guys were supposed to catch me Their Latin sucks, but I have to hand it to Fraters Libertas for at least having a sense of humor to go with their conservative outlook. It seems RT hurt himself jumping from a Gay Pride float in last summer’s parade and the Fraters (or Fratres, if you … Read more

This is not technically about Kersten

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“Todd is the youngest and most impressionable member of the happy Flanders clan” I swore off writing about Kersten yesterday. I just got around to remembering the old proverb that goes something like “The only person more foolish than a fool is someone who argues with a fool.” So, this column is not about Kersten, … Read more

Why Don't We Do It in the South Atlantic?

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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 Lost Book Of Lamentations

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The magic that gleams an instant between Argos and Odysseus is both the recognition of diversity and the need for affection across the illusions of form. —Loren Eiseley, The Unexpected Universe Seven times the Bull of Divine Undoing brought down disaster and calamity on the Hamlet of the Unbelievers, and each time, spasmed by their … Read more

Mommy, those bloggers called me a Catholic

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If you’ll believe this stuff is edible, I’ve got a columnist I want you to read. It would be tough to pick the most idiotic version of a Katherine Kersten column, but today’s certainly has to be in the running. KK’s unhappy that people are attacking her for extolling the religious types who hate gays. … Read more

There, There Child

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We are not stuff that abides, but patterns that perpetuate themselves. —Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings If the human heart sometimes finds moments of pause as it ascends the slopes of affection, it rarely halts on the way down. —Balzac, Pere Goriot There, there child. Come now. Every day can’t be brass … Read more

Veterans Day

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Katherine Kersten let us know again today about the meaning of honoring our veterans. In case you missed it, it’s building memorials, like the one in Rochester. It was the typical superficiality we’ve come to expect from KK, but I’m sure she tries to do the best she can with what she has to work … Read more

Nom D' Plume

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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