Huck Finn and Harper Lee in the crosshairs Fox reports (yeah, yeah, I know): Minnesota school district removes To Kill a Mockingbird, Huckleberry Finn from required reading due to n-word. “It’s wrong. There […]
N-bombs in American cultural treasures
Wondering with Mark Twain
I wonder what Twain is thinking as he stands there atop the granite steppes of the pedestal. Surely he’d chuckle if he could see himself that way, raised up like that, though […]
Mark Twain and public discourse
The prevailing argument among our brilliant crew of writers here at S&R lately over our public discourses v. those of our opponents goes something like this: some of us want to take […]
The difference between the almost-right word and the right word is really a large matter with Twain's Huck Finn
Mark Twain is rolling over in his grave. I should know: he’s buried not too far from where I live. NewSouth books has announced that it will publish a censored version of […]
Nota Bene #112: GOOOLLLLLLLL
“Freedom of any kind is the worst for creativity.” Who said it?
Nota Bene #96: Saturn's Hexagon and the Bulava Spiral
“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”
Meanings, pt. 1: Post-OJ America
by Michael Tracey “Everything’s got a moral, if only you can find it.” – Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland So on to the really interesting part: what has it all meant, what […]
WordsDay: the art of the possible
In case you’ve been off-planet, the dumpster fire that is Election Season 2008 is in full swing. While this can be entertaining if you’re cynical enough, it’s a process that can exert […]
Kiss the monster
First of all, I recall to your attention the extraordinary fact with which I began. To wit, that the human being, like the immortals, naturally places sexual intercourse far and away above […]
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