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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
"The Wire"–the best show on television and a guide to American decline
By Martin Bosworth Last night saw the premiere of the final season of “The Wire,” HBO’s long-running drama that started out as a gritty look at the cat-and-mouse battle between overworked, underpaid […]
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 […]
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: […]
Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues 