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@rjnello
The Continuing Need To Encourage Kids To Read
“Postliterate?” Hmm. I am not as much of a pessimist as many are about reading. You, for one, after all, if in the U.S. especially, are READING this post. Which is one reason why I feel this sort of thing is being overcooked: [From Instagram.] A recent Atlantic article is to what that, uh, “short form” video person above is citing. Its assertion? “The age of reading” is (supposedly)…
If I Had “$100 Million,” Would You Still Like Me?
It is hotter than usual for a July here in much of the UK. It was not as hot back on Wednesday, but it was still pretty hot. The Classical Channel Regatta evidently ran into some trouble after the vessels below left Dartmouth and entered the Channel… because, in the heat… the wind also just died… [Dartmouth, Devon, just before 11am, on July 8, 2026.] Our outside sensor on our house said it hit…
The Stupidest President Ever
“You can’t call Trump stupid,” MAGAs whine, “because he is President and you’re not. Who the hell are you? He can’t be stupid.” [From Bluesky.] Let me re-phrase and clarify that then: “Trump is by far the stupidest man ever to have been President. He is a semi-literate meatball.” As we know, Thomas Jefferson, who would later be Virginia governor, then U.S. Minister (ambassador) to France, then…
250 Years Ago, It Was Not Great Britain’s “Revolution”
Not to “toot” my own horn here, but I have spent decades delving into 1750-1815 in the U.S., Britain, and France. From 2017-22, I penned three historical novels set mostly from “1775-1815” and as seen largely from an American “patriot’s” perspective. In 2025, I turned matters ’round, writing a novel largely from an American “loyalist’s” (meaning one who had opposed independence from Britain)…
"How much do we assume people know... that they do not know?"
ABC Los Angeles reporter Abigail Velez has apologized for this: [From Instagram.] In fact, it was actually worse than that Instagram posted meme/excerpt indicates. Omitted above is Ms. Velez also said “and I don’t wanna know” [anything about Bosnia and Herzegovina]. Here is the full bit: (more…)
Après The “Diet”
Toward the end of our 3 week and some stay over in France, on Saturday we drove north from the Île de Ré (where we had spent most of our time) to a coastal town called Damgan. And there, from Sunday, it was, as was most of France, uh, holy s-it dam[n] hot: [Damgan, France. Photo by me, June 2026.] I took that on the house patio, in the shade. After 3 nights there in Damgan… (more…)
How They Work In France
There is a big misconception among some Americans, particularly those on the right, and on the Trumper neo-Confederate far-right especially, that the French do not work very hard. Their argument goes that the French get lots of state benefits and masses of vacation days for not very much effort in return. The basic assertion is the French fundamentally do not know how to “work” (which is…
Please Stop Listening To Talkers Who Don’t Know What They Are Talking About
I post stuff like this immediately below, which I did June 9, regularly to my personal Facebook page. I no longer hold back – as I used to do even in the face of idiot posts I saw from Trumper relations. I want them to see information like this because they desperately need to… whether they like it or not: [From my personal Facebook, June 8, 2026.] Thus far, none have chosen to challenge such…
“I opened the door and saw Mademoiselle standing over a man’s body.”
The Fiction That Transforms The Historical Into “The Human”
Surprise! We are in France for three weeks. Taking the ferry from Plymouth, bicycles mounted on the car, we crossed over to Roscoff Sunday into Monday, and first spent two nights in Huelgoat, in Brittany… [Huelgoat. Photo by me, June 2, 2026.] …where it proceeded to go from sunshine to… [Huelgoat. Photo by me, June 2, 2026.] …pouring rain unpredictably, often within minutes, most of the time.…
What Is “Olden” Is, It Seems, “Modern” Again
It appears books are not just about authors and readers now. They are “cool” on social media. And by that I mean literal books – not Kindles or e-books, as Elle Canada (not a usual source I cite here, I grant you) asks: View this post on Instagram An interesting question is evidently going around: “Are Books the New Must-Have Accessories?” “Old” is increasingly, we sense, the new new. Lots of…
No, The 2026 USA Is Not “1930s Germany”
With today being U.S. Memorial Day, which is rooted in remembering Civil War (1861-65) dead… [Lt. Martin Kelly, of New York, died May 1864. Buried outside Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s house in what is now Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, USA. Photo by me, 2017.] …and is now about remembering all the dead from all U.S. wars, this post is, in that way, appropriate. For starters,…
"Mysterious" Once… But Not So Much Any Longer
I recall my (now late) mother once studying the back cover dust jacket of one of my (now late) uncle’s late-career novels. In seconds, she broke into laughter. “You are still using that same picture,” she said. “You haven’t looked like this in 20 years.” Obviously he wanted to look more youthful to regular readers and especially to potential ones. That was also around c.2000-ish, when the…
The Absolute Power Of The Creator
You just had to KNOW the casting of (Kenyan parentage, born in Mexico, recently naturalized U.S. citizen) Lupita Nyong’o in The Odyssey was going to cause bigots (like this apartheid-South-Africa-born, naturalized U.S. citizen) to have a meltdown: [From Bluesky.] We have long been told that marketer Elon Musk is some sort of a genius. However, that idiot statement alone demonstrates any…
Seminar Topic: "Fascists were, and are, definitely in it for the money"
I have to admit that this suggestion from Professor Timothy Snyder, a well-regarded scholar on fascism, caught me out: [From Instagram.] I was not alone in that reaction, as one “Andreea Simone” comments above. However, I do not think a “Janine Nicoll,” also above, in chastising “Andreea Simone” apparently for having the temerity to question the “world renowned” professor’s assertion “real…
Too Much Junk Is Bad For Us
That is one of the laziest “book lists” memes I have seen. It keeps popping up. I just saw it also on Bluesky: [From Instagram.] I certainly understand the sentiment that reading is generally better than not reading. But all books are absolutely NOT created equal, of course. There are, for example, bad books out there produced by half-literate vicious nutcases. Continue reading Too Much Junk…
Suddenly, It Was April
I deleted my post of May 7/8 because the publish date got messed up somehow, leading it to appear as if it was posted nearly a day before I actually did so, and I could not figure out how to correct that. (If you know WordPress, you are not surprised.) More important, though, it was too long-winded, and I just did not like it. In short, my post, my site, and I wanted it gone. If you got the…