All Purls. No Swine.
I quite like Jordan Peterson. I don’t agree with everything he says. Occasionally, as do many of his critics, I find him a bit glib and superficial. But if a generation of young men (and even some of their fathers and grandfathers) are going to listen to a social media muse on matters of culture,… Continue reading Jordan and Camille’s Excellent Adventure
I'm not generally given to quoting, or even slightly misquoting, Friedrich Nietzsche, but I know the interplay between struggle and resiliency is true in my case. And perhaps, as we go forward in the coming months, figuring out what to do about "school" and "kids" and Covid-19, we'll puzzle our way through to something better… Continue reading School: What Doesn’t Kill You, Makes You Stronger
I just ordered the blu-ray edition of what I think may be Peter Jackson's greatest movie, They Shall Not Grow Old. I say this as a fan of the Lord of the Rings movies to the extent that I binge-watch the three of them every year between Christmas and New Year's Day. I did this… Continue reading Movie Review: They Shall Not Grow Old
I’ve always loved literature. By which I mean, I’ve always loved stories. I was never terribly academic about it, even during my university days, and I’ve certainly never been one of those desperate creatures the like-minded among us used to call (with a sniff), “Serious Students of Lit-ter-a-toor.” They could usually be spotted on Friday nights… Continue reading Shadow Lands and Cyber Worlds
Recently, as I was on my way to Looking Up One Thing On The Internet,™ I came across Something Else™ that really tickled my fancy, even though, or perhaps exactly because, it had nothing to do with the object of my search. This is something that frequently happens to me, and which I usually roll along with, because when… Continue reading Good Advice From ‘The Moderator’
There are some things that, when they erupt in my life, catapult me instantly back in time, or elsewhere in place or company. Certain smells, and I’m in Granny’s kitchen five or six decades ago. Or, it’s the early 1970s, and I’m cleaning fish on Court Brothers’ wharf in Rustico Harbour, PEI. Or perhaps I’m… Continue reading The Bard of the Yukon
My hometown of Birmingham in the United Kingdom has been rent for weeks by parental demonstrations against a new “Sex and Relationship” education mandate for primary (elementary) school children, and things are getting rather heated. Parents are objecting to the fact that, although they can request that their children not be taught the “Sex” part… Continue reading From the Annals of the “Careful What You Wish For” Department
This is my shocked face. No, really. I am shocked. From, of all places, National Public Radio, a report on a new approach to help kids with anxiety suggests that the best thing to do might be to–wait for it–“let them face their fears.” I about choked on my coffee when I read that. Of course,… Continue reading Dealing with Childhood Anxiety: A Radical New Approach!
I know many of you know them by heart. I’ve seen some of you say so, on Ricochet, over the past nine years. At some point in your lives, you probably had them thrust at you; you might have struggled through them; maybe you cheated with the Cliffs Notes; perhaps you said you couldn’t possibly… Continue reading Occasional Quote of the Day: The First Eighteen Lines
“Beware the enlisted man. He is stupid, but crafty.” Those words were first spoken to me by Bernie, my teacher, mentor, and friend. I met Bernie in 1972 when he was a teaching assistant, and I was a college freshman. My composition teacher had suffered a heart attack, was out for the rest of the… Continue reading Making Connections