Personal grooming on date night
You never appreciate how little your friends know you till they fix you up with a date
Life
Monday
I was on the floor in ’74
It’s hard to believe, but New York was a competitive state then
The peculiarly American attitude toward change
Until quite recently, the preponderance of the country viewed suspicion of change, let alone resistance to it, as un-American
The rational meaning of ‘surd’
A surd number or quantity is irrational, such as the square root of two
Tuesday
Perudo in Utah
Dicing in the desert
Thursday
I’m back for the Almanac
Benjamin Franklin’s masterpiece goes on forever
Bog bodies: mysteries of the Iron Age
There is a theory in Ireland that the country’s bog bodies may be the remains of failed kings, ritually killed on Samhain
The link between spick and span, spanking and spoon
Whatever spick and span reminds us of, it is as an idiom with a cheery meaning of its own
Americans, London needs you
I wonder if London — or any of the great cities — will ever be the same again?
Wednesday
Modern English
The English language as written today is often nearly incomprehensible on first reading
What’s in a name?
I pour myself a tumbler of rotgut and settle in with the names, these glorious names
Thursday
Rules for anarchists
American anarchism has always been a literary conceit more than a political (or anti-political) program
Tuesday
The importance of formality
Formality at each level of society and in every social venue is an indispensable source and preserver of morale
Monday
The language of lounging around
I was put in mind of lounging by video conferencing, which allows conferees to attend to their visible top half while wearing lounge pants below
Friday
The straitened situation of conservatism
The prevailing assumption has been that the natural historical trend is leftward
Cruiser control
That test drive was bliss, something like the feeling of your first cigarette after your third drink
Thursday
What’s the difference between ‘gifting’ and ‘giving’?
I started at the word gifting like a horse shying at a plastic bag caught in the hedge. Why didn’t I like it?
Tuesday
Walking to Byzantium
The lines that now smudge my map look more like the flight of a woozy bluebottle than the traces of a man with a plan
Thursday
The error of idealism
Idealism comes naturally to liberal societies because it has no inherent principles and no rules to follow
Wednesday
In the footsteps of Shoeless Joe
Greenville’s favorite son is the poetically tragic Shoeless Joe Jackson, the illiterate millhand whom Babe Ruth called ‘the greatest hitter I had ever seen’
