Classically Liberal (Free subscription) | 11/16/2009
There are flaws, in fanatical religion, which have been well known for centuries. Jesus referred to it in the religious leaders of his day when he said: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.” This moral hypocrisy was something...
At Home With Books (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
Friday Finds is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading . These are my finds for the week. (All product descriptions are taken from Amazon.com or the publisher's website.) Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women by Harriet Reisen - Found via an email from a publicist. Louisa May Alcott portrays a writer as worthy of interest in her own right as her most famous character, Jo March, and addresses...
Gumbo (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air." ~Nathaniel Hawthorne Rates of short-sightedness, or myopia, are rising to epidemic proportions around the world. Today, in some of the worst-affected countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, around 80 percent of young adults are myopic,...
You Don't Say (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
I wonder whether some of us in the paragraph game, finding ourselves abruptly deposited on the street after long tenure with a publication, may suffer from the psychology that Nathaniel Hawthorne describes in the “Custom-House” section of The Scarlet Letter . Here is how Hawthorne describes the fate of the long-tenured officeholder turned out after a change in administration: He loses,...
In the Treetop (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
There is a harmony In autumn, and a lustre in its sky, Which through the summer is not heard or seen, As if it could not be, as if it had not been! ~Percy Bysshe Shelley I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne
Chasing Ray (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
Like every other kid in America I learned about Thoreau and Walden in high school. I never really "got" him. So he went to the woods and he wrote about it. That was it. I can remember my tenth grade teacher going on and on for days about the beauty of his nature writing but it all went right past me. I was actually in nature, at the beach, constantly. Reading about someone else's view of...
post-gazette.com (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the greatest American writers of the 19th century, would have felt right at home this week in Bedford County. The author of "The Scarlet Letter" wrote brilliantly about private guilt and public shame. If he were still with us, Hawthorne would have recognized the scene Tuesday outside Bedford's courthouse square for what it was -- a sequel to his novel about sin...
BrontëBlog (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
Let's begin today's newsround by taking a look at writers and the Brontës. A few days ago we recalled Paul Auster's admiration for Emily Brontë, and today his own writing is differentiated from Wuthering Heights in the New Statesman . What distinguishes Auster's execution from that of Coleridge in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" or Emily Brontë in Wuthering Heights or Nathaniel...
Happy Catholic (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
I am continually surprised at the way people and events are connected both in the big wide world and in my personal experience. My own Rose has a passion for Nathaniel Hawthorne's writing which, combined with her and Hannah's love of The Scarlet Letter, made me pick up and read that book which high school English had taught me to despise. I found a complex and interesting book which made me admire...
American Presidents Blog (Free subscription) | 11/04/2009
Franklin Pierce served in the Mexican-American War. He achieved the rank of Brigadier General. He was reportedly a good commander but his reputation was damaged at the Battle of Churubusco. Here is how Wikipedia reports this: His brigade was designated the 1st Brigade in the newly created 3rd Division and joined Scott's army in time for the Battle of Contreras . During the battle he was seriously...
Bostonist (Free subscription) | 10/31/2009
Image of the Anthenaeum (complete with U-Haul ghost) by AntyDiluvian Even if you're not feeling spooky this weekend, the spirits might come to you in the right place. No, not the graveyard; not even the Lizzie Borden house . This Halloween, you might just be most haunted in a seemingly innocuous location: the library. The age of the Internet may have somewhat eliminated the need to lift heavy volumes...
An Enchanted Cottage (Free subscription) | 10/29/2009
...in historic Concord, Massachusetts. A perfect place to visit on a crisp October afternoon. (click any photos to enlarge) (Am I the only one who sees irony in the "One Way" stone marker above?) Come along as we head up to Author's Ridge .... Here we are at the top of Author's Ridge, facing the Alcott family plot... ...where Amanda stopped at Louisa May Alcott's grave. The monument marking...
Stavanger Daily Photo (Free subscription) | 10/29/2009
"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air . - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Bitterfig (Free subscription) | 10/26/2009
On Friday I went to an exhibit at the Fenimore Art Museum called “American’s Rome : Artists in the Eternal City 1800-1900 that spotlighted the Roman themed work of 19 th century American Artists. The exhibit included many painting of ruins and the commentary on these featured a quote from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Marble Faun that I really liked: “( America is) a land...
Nothing Elegant (Free subscription) | 10/26/2009
H alloween just wouldn't be the same without our classic tales of horror -- they've become so much a part of our collective concept of Halloween that some would say they are nothing more than tired clichés. But I respectfully disagree! Every time I read one of these works, I find something new and strange, something that taps into fears that we all might secretly harbor deep in our subconscious:...
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