A recent court decision states that for US consumers, Gruyère is a type of cheese, not a geographical origin. Some people are unhappy. A cheese producer…
This week brought a news story about a man with a collection of guns, stolen from museums over fifty years. For untold years in the mouse-infested…
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February 2023

“Yes comes right away, No never comes”, is a phrase I learned from Gretchen Rubin. I’m a believer in her “four tendencies” and reading her books has…
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I read the story this week of a Japanese adventurer who is traveling up the Australian coast by scooter. (By “scooter”, I don’t mean a Vespa. He’s…
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This week has brought us a Chinese balloon floating over US airspace for apparently no reason, just an accident, blown off-course. After its lengthy…
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January 2023

The decline of many American cities is accompanied by the line “there used to be a trolley”. Cities are haunted by these old transit systems. If you…
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Recent days have brought us news stories of classified documents in Joe Biden’s garage and elsewhere, and it got me thinking a bit about what we mean by…
The gothic novel first appeared in Britain in the eighteenth century, and was quickly adapted into an American literary genre. The earliest American…
[This piece contains spoilers, both of classic literature and a recent film] I just finished reading Madam Bovary. I’d never read it before, and it’s…
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No, I’m not going to write about the self-reinvention many people try every January 1. (This year I will lose weight/quit smoking/get more…

December 2022

First, thank you for reading and subscribing. Every week I get a few more people signing up and I appreciate you. I’m not a big one for Auld Lang Syne…
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…and thank you for subscribing. Today I’m going to tell you a story from Christmas over 120 years ago. That was the birth of Humphrey Bogart. He entered…
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