Articles 355

For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; / Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

Ransom objected to a false dilemma.

If I were God, I’d keep other company.

The invaluable works of our elder writers, I had almost said the works of Shakespeare and Milton, are driven into neglect.

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Rod Dreher and I aren't close friends, but like many Front Porch Regulars, I've been blessed with the opportunity to associate with and learn from…

What are the compensations on the downhill side of life?

No one who cares about the condition of our culture can afford to ignore Conscientious Thinking. --Jackson Lears, editor, Raritan

They should be required to share a double bed and commit adultery with each other every night—twice if possible.

Front Porcher Rob Grano has a lovely little review of John Lewis-Stempel's The Running Hare: The Secret Life of Farmland. It's over at The University Bookman. Here's a taste: "Really:…

A few years ago I wrote something of an irenic essay on the annual, January, March for Life in Washington DC.  I was in the mood, then, for focusing on…

I wasn’t there. In fact, I’m not sure who all was. And as I write this sitting in Michigan, I’m far from those who might know. My Grandma was alive…

Eastern Ohio Jimmy the Greek, the odds-maker and point-spread pioneer who was born and raised and trained in Steubenville, the former (thirties-era) cigar store paradise thirty miles to my east,…

Given the unpopular and uncompromising stands that Wendell Berry takes, it’s only natural that many readers fiercely disagree with him. Some of these disagreements are simply matters of preference. As…

Bob Dylan: The Lyrics, 1961-2012 Reviewed by Robert Dean Lurie I am one of the infected; I am a Bob Dylan fan. It wasn’t always this way. When I first…

Utah Max Weber never visited the American Southwest, but few theories explain the mass tourism of the region better than his iron cage of disenchantment. The German sociologist saw the…

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Coming to grips with what the 2016 election means many things, especially for those of us who are hoping to find in Trump's victory a…

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] So at the beginning of the month, when I finally got my election reflections out of my system, I concluded by re-iterating what I said…

BURNED-OVER DISTRICT, NY -- As rumors of rogue electors spike the December air, I offer this piece from 2001, which is included in my Poetry Night at the Ballpark and…

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Yes, I know the election was a month ago. What can I say; I needed time to recover from getting everything entirely wrong, didn't I?…

Like many Americans I’ve struggled to put the election of 2016 in proper perspective the last few weeks, only to arrive at an unexpected conclusion: Trump may be America’s first…

Queens, NY The city goes on.  And this phenomenon, of a city continuing even as it is under threat or attacked-- of resiliency in a city-- is surely one of…

Queens, NY Under ordinary circumstances, with very few exceptions, it is these crews that do the actual work of the city. And under extraordinary circumstances, it is they that bring…

Grand Rapids, MI Leonard Cohen has done his last show, composed his last song, and breathed his last breath. When the news popped up on the screen of my laptop…

In the wake of the election, Taylor (and the New Yorker!) advocate for some of the central ideas of "Porchism." http://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/how-to-restore-your-faith-in-democracy