Enjoy the weekend. Snow is beginning to fall around these parts, so I’ll be sticking close to home and browsing the deep cuts of my Netflix queue. Suggestions?
Dec 072012
Nov 222012
Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers. I hope today finds you in good company with good food. As always, I’m grateful for your continued patronage.
Nov 192012
Slate columnist Dahlia Lithwick describes the current mood in Israel:
You want to hear about what it’s like here? It’s fucking sad. Everyone I know is sad. My kids don’t care who started it and the little boys in Issawiya, the Arab village I see out my window, don’t care much either. I haven’t met a single Israeli who is happy about this. They know this fixes nothing. The one thing we learned this week is how quickly humans can come to normalize anything. But the hopelessness seeps right into your bones as well.
The rest of her essay is worth a read. I don’t have anything insightful to add, other than to express hope that both sides can find a way to end the violence.
Nov 152012
If you’re in Minnesota, you still have a few hours to donate to your favorite charities as part of Give to the Max Day. Over the last few years, Give to the Max has become my primary means for year-end charitable giving. I made donations to several worthy causes and I hope you’ll do the same.
Oct 182012
Newsweek, a publication that hasn’t been relevant since the Clinton administration, is going digital-only next year. Its sad fate makes me a little wistful because the magazine did much to spark my interest in politics and policy. My mom was a subscriber and I remember looking forward to each new issue’s arrival on Tuesdays. I typically read it that same night at the dinner table, ignoring my parents’ admonitions. My favorite stop was the “Periscope” page, which featured editorial cartoons and newsworthy quotes from the previous week. Newsweek helped me dominate current events quizzes at school and added a political edge to my evolving nerdiness.
I stopped reading Newsweek when it began running endless cover stories about Jesus and Christianity. It still arrives in the mail, although I’m not sure why and I never read it. And I doubt I’ll give the digital edition much attention.
Oct 102012
Regular life interfered with blogging tonight. More tomorrow.
Sep 252012
I was going to post a tirade about the incompetent scab referees who stole a victory from the Packers last night. But some things are so obvious that further comment is unnecessary. For shame, league owners. For shame.
Sep 112012
Sunday’s Packers-49ers game put an end to any speculation about another run at an undefeated season. My hometown team still has a potent passing offense, but they still haven’t figured out how to run the ball with any consistency. I’ll reserve judgment on the defense until I see a few more games, but it hasn’t impressed me in its first outing. The Packers are a strong Super Bowl contender and I’m still expecting plenty of good things once the kinks in the playbook are worked out. Perhaps this loss will compel them to lay down the smack against upcoming opponents. More specifically, the Bears.
Aug 272012
My site statistics have revealed that the blog attracts the most hits on Saturdays. I’m guessing that many of you catch up on the previous week’s entries over a bowl of cereal. Or, considering this crowd’s sophisticated nature, a bowl of muesli. Whatever your preferred breakfast food, the increased weekend traffic is most welcome. When I cut my blogging down to weekdays only, I anticipated a steep dropoff in hits on the weekends. But I’m happy to assist you in frittering your weekends away. Perhaps I should start posting some sort of weekly video wrap-up. Then again, that might drive traffic away.
Aug 232012
Other commitments are getting in the way of blogging this week, so my apologies for the lack of substance. Consider this the final summer lull before I start obsessing over the election season.