the closing of the american mind by Alan Bloom -- or -- the author's admission that he is old, useless and in the way.

Allan Bloom is a hysterical, raving, reactionary lunatic. He and his academia ilk are exactly the reason why education teaches kids nothing, because they know absolutely zero about the children they’re supposed to teach. mostly, this book is little more than a “get off my lawn” diatribe against any and all (race, sex, drugs, rock [...]

when you're young, you're easily impressed

Recently re-reading “On the Road.” “On the Road” for me, like a lot of other kids, was one of those things, a secular bar-mitzpah like “Rocky Horror” or copping beer with a fake ID. It was some necessary fuel that propelled you–so I thought–into a trajectory of the wildest, most colorful, harmless-crazy explosion of youth [...]

Google book search settlement delayed…again

Google, authors (both for and against), net users and publishers will have to wait at least another four more months for the Google book search settlement-dust to [...]

the master at work

Call me a sucker. A rube. But, I just love it when Hemingway gets [...]