Top posts
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A Nod is as Good as a Wink to a Blind Horse...
I've been wanting to write about Rod Stewart and his singing and music. So here's something... The above is, as I recall, the title of one of his early albums. The one I remember, though, and want to comment on may have been his first or second. It's...
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Literature? Art?
What is literature? What is good literature? Better yet... why is literature? And why not? I've often heard it said that a good book, or a good movie for that matter, is one that makes you laugh and makes you cry. Why is that... important, in a piece...
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Wolf
Theeb is Arabic for wolf. A movie by that name is out now; I saw it yesterday. Theeb is the name of a young boy maybe 11 or 12, who in 1916 follows his grown brother, and an Arab and English soldier into the Sahara desert on a mission. The 3 men are killed...
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Shoot the Moon
Well, why not? We seem to be shooting everything and everyone else. You can buy automatic weapons at many Walmarts, so why not use them? President Obama is very distraught over the most recent, and all the other previous mass murders. Jeb Bush says, "Stuff...
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Barack Obama as Jane Addams?
I've been reading Erik Schneiderhan's book just out titled "The Size of Others' Burdens, Barack Obama, Jane Addams, and the Politics of Helping Others." And yes, according to what Schneiderhan says, Obama had a lot in common with Addams. How so? Both...
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Snow Hiking
Winter is the loveliest season outdoors, and especially in the mountains. Falling snow makes everything white, pure and muffled. Animal tracks are visible, at least till the next snow. Hiking trails are still distinguishable by the open swath they cut...
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Danton vs. Robespierre
I recently viewed a movie titled "Danton" about the French Revolution, directed by a Pole named Vitlja around 1980. He used French and Polish actors for the film, each using their native dialect. French was dubbed into the Polish parts and there were...
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The Feminine Lipstick... I Mean Mystique
I started reading The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvois. Simone was a paramour of Jean Paul Sartre. She was France's second most brilliant and popular philosopher next to him, and in fact finished second on the nation-wide philosophy exam for university...
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John Brown's Body Lies a-Mouldering...
Most people are of the opinion that John Brown, of Harper's Ferry fame, was a total crackpot, a lunatic. WEB Du Bois took issue with that view. The highly intelligent Harvard PhD., first black to gain that degree from Harvard, wrote a book on Brown (titled...
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Lighten Up, Dude!!
Ok, I was thinking last night when I couldn't fall back asleep... these entries have been pretty heavy lately, maybe even getting a DULL edge! So, the solution? It's time for a little humor. I did have a few jokes in WAY earlier blogs, see "I Don't Need...
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Humanity - and Our Blackness
I'm almost done reading Maya Angelou's autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (the first part, from age 3 to 14 or so). I would like to read more of her later autobiographical books. She's an amazing writer and person. Coming from humble and...
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A Little Something on Albert Camus and Existentialism
I've read The Plague and The Stranger by Albert Camus, French philosopher and writer born in Algeria. I liked The Stranger, but The Plague was too unbelievable and contrived. The Stranger was interesting, though, even though I could never get a solid...
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The Magnificent Seven
A remake of the 1960's movie The Magnificent Seven has come out starring Denzel Washington, surprisingly enough. Washington continues Hollywood's new portrayal of the African-American cowboy in westerns. Known in reality as "Buffalo Cowboys" back in the...
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A Young Brilliant Mind
Answering Susan's comment just gave me the idea to write this. She likes older movies and liked my review of My Man Godfrey. Well, this one was just out recently, A Young Brilliant Mind, but probably just in the artsy theaters. It was a BBC production...
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Yogi Bear... or Yogi Berra !!!?
Well, now that I've already talked about Yoga Bear vs. Yoga Bare... Of course, cartoon character Yogi Bear (Hey, BooBoo) was named after the famous (infamous?) Yogi Berra. Who was the second Yogi, you youngsters may ask? Why, he was the most famous catcher...
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Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man
Mr. Ellison, an African-American, published his controversial novel Invisible Man in the early 1950's. He relates the struggles of an anonymous black male... in essence to escape his anonymity and figurative invisibility to white society. The narrator...
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Dialogue
The president of my college gave a talk here in Denver yesterday. She was quick to point out and emphasize that while many in the U.S. now are fostering political division, at Swarthmore College the students, faculty and staff are invested in dialoguing...
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I Am Not Your Negro
The movie I Am Not Your Negro produced by Raoul Peck, is based on 30 pages of an unfinished book by celebrated African-American author James Baldwin, who died in 1987. The 2017 Peck/Baldwin film draws on different scenes of the black struggle of the 1950's...
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Culver Military Academy
Lately, very late for me, I've been linking with a few of my old (don't take it personally, guys!) buddies and acquaintances from dear old CMA, on the beautiful shores of Lake Maxinkuckee in the otherwise drab state of Indiana. Back, back to Culver days......
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Autism... and Jory Fleming
Cases of autism have boomed in the U.S in recent decades, along with ADD, ADHD, bipolar disorder, and PTSD. While it may well be that we as a nation of people are just more neurotic and sick than before, the main reason is probably that psychiatrists...
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The Man of La Mancha
The Man of La Mancha is a 1960's play around the mythical Don Quijote de la Mancha, the Knight of the Woeful Countenance, or as he was known to his former acquaintances, Alonso Quijano. Legendary Don Quijote, the fighter but not bester of windmills, was...
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Lion
Lion is the title of an Indie movie out recently, starring an India-born actor named Dev Patel, and Nicole Kidman. It's a good movie, especially if you or someone you know was adopted. A little Indian boy 5 years old gets separated from his older and...
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A Renaissance Man
I went to the Renaissance Festival in Larkspur, Co. last Sunday with some friends. We had a fun, and funny, time. There are shops and stores galore, selling anything that might correspond to the Renaissance/Shakespeare era. Close to half the people were...
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Why a Duck?
Do you remember any of the Marx Brothers movies of the 1930's? Have you seen any? They're some of the funniest things ever produced. Groucho - everyone knows Groucho - Chico, supposedly an immigrant from Italy, and Harpo, so named because he plays the...
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Right Wing vs. Left Wing Populism
An op-ed column in the Jan. 28, 2016 Wall Street Journal by Ms. Allysia Finley compares Socialist-Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders to two early 20th century figures, Socialist Eugene Debs and Populist-Democrat William Jennings Bryan. She adds that...