No one could possibly be THE voice of Gen X, but Cobain was certainly A voice of my generation. In their seminal 13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?, published in 1993, Neil […]
Generation X, whatever, nevermind: reflecting on Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain: If you read you’ll judge
He never surrendered. Let me tell you about Kurt Cobain. In the fourth grade we had to do these stupid aerobics gym classes, plastic pink green black steps, Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” pounding […]
S&R Honors: Ellen MacArthur
I first became aware of Ellen MacArthur in 2001, along with everyone else, when she launched her first solo round-the-world sailing adventure. She was a sailor, all right, so I could empathize. […]
Remembering Nelson Mandela: the origins of hope and despair
Sunday afternoon in 1990. 11 February in Port Elizabeth. The height of summer, just after schools have returned for the start of the year. The wind howls as the air tears down […]
Dante’s Inferno and contrapasso
Dante created “contrapasso” – the idea that divine punishment of the damned in Hell would mirror the sin being punished.
Thank you, Elizabeth Warren
I first encountered Elizabeth Warren back in 2009, when I followed banks regularly for the hedge fund I worked for. At that time she was the head of the committee that the […]
S&R Honors Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard is dead at the age of eighty seven. Ten years ago, I sold my first crime novel to Otto Penzler, founder of Mysterious Press and a doyen of New York […]
S&R Honors: The Culture and Iain M. Banks
Iain M. Banks died in early June, but he left behind an amazing set of novels – the Culture series.
S&R Honors: Military historian John Keegan democratized the study of war
When John Keegan died on August 2, 2012, it escaped me — I’m embarrassed to admit that I was unaware of his existence. Keegan, a lecturer in military history of the Royal […]
A league of their own: S&R honors Lavonne “Pepper” Paire-Davis (and baseball-playing women everywhere)
Walt Whitman once said, “I see great things in baseball. It’s our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us.” You could look it up. […]
Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues 