It was Sun Tzu who said, “Always leave an escape route for a surrounded enemy, for a soldier with no prospect of escape will fight with the strength of ten men.” A person with no escape has nothing to lose, they have lost everything already, and so they will take many with them. When I […]
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A glimpse of infinity
“Be glad of life,” my student’s Facebook status said, “because it gives you the chance to love, to work, to play, and to look up at the stars.” The quote comes from American clergyman and author Henry Van Dyke, but the sentiment could’ve come from me. I love looking into the night sky and being […]
WordsDay: My grandfather's good advice, as remembered on his birthday
“You don’t want to be a ditch-digger when you grow up,” my grandfather used to tell me. Well, I don’t know if he ever said that or not, to be honest, but it somehow sticks in my mind that he did. It’s the kind of thing he would’ve said. Ditch digging is honorable work—but it’s […]
Scroguely Works: One Life
One Life, by Johnny Clegg, first released 2006, 16 tracks, ASIN B000I5YROM We’re on our way home to find our freedom and I’m on my way home to find you my friend where we can stand in the light of the people and breathe life into the land again. “When the System Has Fallen,” Johnny […]
Can the Earth survive?: Weisman's The World Without Us
by Chris Mackowski The World Without Us by Alan Weisman Thomas Dunne Books–St. Martin’s Press 324 pp. What would the world be like if the human race just up and vanished? “Unlikely, perhaps, but for the sake of argument, not impossible,†writes journalist Alan Weisman. Perhaps a human-specific virus wipes us out or aliens kidnap […]
The Case of Abraham Lincoln: how the Republican Party was created from the wreckage of the fractured Whig and Democratic parties
by Carol White The Case of Abraham Lincoln: A Story of Adultery, Murder, and the Making of a Great President by Julie M. Fenster Julie Fenster’s new book is not only a fascinating look at a side of Abraham Lincoln—his daily life as an influential Illinois lawyer in the years before he became president—but an […]
Scroguely Works presents: Il Principe (The Prince), by our newest Scrogue, Niccolo Machiavelli
The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli, first published in 1513, 176 pages, ISBN 978-0553212785 The worst that a prince may expect from a hostile people is to be abandoned by them; but from hostile nobles he has not only to fear abandonment, but also that they will rise against him; In 1513, early into the Great […]
Laughter yesterday, laughter tomorrow, but … no laughter today
I realised today it has been more than 21 years since I first came across Terry Pratchett. I was only 12 at the time; young, gawky, bookish. His books were like the opening of a window. Pratchett is the creator of the epic Discworld fantasy series. They started off as a light-hearted send-up of the […]
Scroguely Works: The Arrival
The Arrival, by Shaun Tan, first published October 2007, 128 pages, ISBN 978-0439895293 The dividing line between comic books and graphic novels – for many – seems to lie in the question: “Would I show this to a kid?” Maus, by Art Spiegelman, or When the Wind Blows, by Raymond Briggs, are astonishing reinventions of […]
Scroguely Works: If on a winter’s night a traveler
If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino, first published 1979, 254 pages, ISBN 978-1857151381 You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino’s new novel, If on a winter’s night a traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door; the TV is always […]
Scroguely Works: “How much land does a man need?” by Leo Tolstoy
How much land does a man need? by Leo Tolstoy, first published 1886, collected short-stories 256 pages, ISBN 978-0140445060 What things one does dream, thought [Pahom]. – “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” The greatest struggle in the American experience is the one between democracy and capitalism. As de Tocqueville observed, “As one digs […]
Scroguely Works: Five Moral Pieces
Five Moral Pieces by Umberto Eco, first published 2001, 128 pages, ISBN 978-0156013253 “The modern world looks at war through eyes different from those with which it looked at the problem early in the twentieth century, and if someone were to talk today of the beauty of war as the only form of world hygiene, […]
Scroguely Works: The Saint’s Getaway
The Saint’s Getaway by Leslie Charteris, first published 1932, 250 pages, ISBN 978-1558820845 For the song and the sword and the Pipes of Pan Are birthrights sold to a usurer But I am the last lone highwayman And I am the last adventurer Like so many serialised literary characters – such as James Bond or […]
Scroguely Works: The Master and Margarita
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, first published November 1966, completed 1940, 384 pages, ISBN 978-0679760801 “… who are you then?” “I am part of that power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good.” Goethe, Faust Hands on the table. This is my favourite book. I first read a tattered and badly translated […]
S&R Honors
Click here to learn more about past honorees...- The time a source has to respond to request for comment? Virtually none.
- Profiling the Tea Party: In defense of the IRS. Sorta. Or not.
- Saturday Video Roundup: “Imagine the Band,” by John Lennon and Wings
- The Rest is Noise (6)—Descent into the Maelstrom
- I hate handguns, but I have still considered owning one
- Mystery Unraveled: How a white, moderate, married, churchgoing, middle-class, middle-aged woman could vote for Obama
- An open letter to Burt Rutan, regarding his WSJ commentary on human-caused climate disruption
- Meet the men of Match.com: Really, guys, are you serious?
- Climate scientists still besieged
- Pelosi on Bush: “He’s not worth impeaching”
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Samuel Smith: I try not to draw too many conclusions about peopl…
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Frank Dilatush: Sam, allow me a moment of off point please. In a s…
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Cat White: "To him, obviously, the Tea Party is a viable poli…
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Russ Wellen: Eloquent post. The Tea Party right would do wise t…
