It’s good to have friends, even after you have died. In 1939, the year H.P. Lovecraft died, he considered himself a failure. His life had been a series of mental and emotional battles. His relationship with his mother had been strange and destructive. His marriage had ended in divorce. His view of non-Nordic, non-white people […]
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Accused: a top-notch true-crime podcast, now into Season 3
After June 18, 1984, no one ever saw David Bocks again. He was a divorced father of three and, despite the divorce, a devoted dad. He worked as a pipe-fitter at the Fernald Feed Production Center, which was a cover for a U.S. Department of Energy facility that processed high-grade uranium for use in nuclear […]
Three grammar rules to ignore, according to the expert
A sharp-eyed, enlightened, and faithful newsletter reader sent me a link to a post by Benjamin Dryer, a copy chief at Random House publishers, who delineates his top three English “rules” that he believes should be ignored. He introduces the post this way: The English language, though, is not so easily ruled and regulated. It […]
Patricia Highsmith and her first job as a writer
Patricia Highsmith achieved international fame in the mid to late 20th century for her deeply psychological and suspenseful novels and short stories that often took the reader into a world of violence. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train (1950), cemented her reputation when Alfred Hitchcock made it into an award-winning movie. Her Repliad series, […]
Invisible writing, an essay of continuing interest, by William Tapply
Before his untimely death in 2009, one of the best mystery novelists around was William G. Tapply, creator of the Brady Coyne mystery series. Tapply’s novels live up to the cover blurbs — well-formed characters, tightly woven plots and elegant writing. Tapply practiced what many of us who teach writing often preach, and he gives […]
The library of Ashurbanipal: its discovery changed our view of history
Ashurbanipal was as cruel and ruthless as any of his Assyrian predecessors. All of the kings who had come before had sought to strike fear into their enemies by their spectacularly horrid treatment of those who opposed them — treatment that included blinding their children and jerking them around as their tongues were impaled by […]
The library of Ashurbanipal, Obama’s audacity of hope, and Highsmith’s first job: newsletter, January 10, 2020
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,632) on Friday, January 10, 2020. One of the post-Christmas-New-Year’s gifts I gave myself was Tom Richmond’s book, The Mad Art of Caricature, and it is both delightful and informative. If you remember Mad Magazine (or still read it), you would know that Richmond is one […]
The ‘withering’ of the death penalty in America
One of the few overtly political statements that I am willing to make in this newsletter is that I am against the death penalty. Relatively few countries in the world still use the death penalty in their legal system, and I fail to see why the United States is one of them. That’s why the […]
Rose O’Neill, creator of the Kewpie doll and the richest illustrator of her time
In 1887 when she was 13, Rose O’Neill entered a drawing contest sponsored by the Omaha World-Herald. Her entry was by far the best submission, and she was declared the winner. But there was a problem. Some of the editors did not believe that the drawing was original. It was too good, and they thought […]
Literary Hub’s 20 best works of nonfiction, 2010-2019
Despite the complaints of many, journalism is structured to tell the “bad” news rather than the “good” news. That’s when it works best — when it points out the flaws and evils in our society. But the bad news, when piled on top one after one, can be depressing. That’s the feeling I had when […]
The fight to save the apostrophe revives
Even though the brilliant, talented, and hard-working Anu Garg, creator of A Word A Day email, has declared “Death to the Apostrophe,” there may be another way forward for this much-misused punctuation mark. Things looked pretty dark when John Richards, creator of the Apostrophe Protection Society, announced a few weeks ago that he was shutting […]
Gretchen McCulloch and the ‘new way’ of writing
Gretchen McCulloch, the author of Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, has written an interesting piece for the New York Times hailing the new freedom that Internet writers, especially texters and Twitter scribes, have in using the language to exhibit their meaning and emotions. They’re doing for the written word, she argues, what […]
Candice Millard finds her real story, the demise of the death penalty, and Vietnam in fiction: newsletter, December 27, 2019
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,646) on Friday, December 27, 2019. We are in the midst of the holiday season with plenty of song, food, beverage, and fellowship. I hope that we all (especially me) can take a few moments for those who aren’t so blessed. Actions on behalf […]
A Detective’s Worst Foe: ‘Flawed Thinking’ | The Crime Report
On television, the police detective often “plays a hunch,” a gut feeling about a difficult case based on experience, a small piece of evidence, or even nothing at all. It usually works out to the benefit of all. In real life, however, that’s a dangerous game. Prosecutors and those who study the criminal justice system […]
Martha Gelhorn and the wars of the 20th century, parkour considered, and plenty of reader reaction: newsletter, December 20, 2019
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,661) on Friday, December 20, 2019. Readers of this newsletter know that I am partial to good stories, especially when they are true; they involve writers and journalists; and they are women. We hit the trifecta this week with some good stuff about Martha Gelhorn, who is often […]
Personality and intellect have vaulted Mary Beard to near cult status
When Mary Beard first went on television in Great Britain after her book on Pompeii was published, she did not look like a woman you might see narrating a documentary. She was more than 50 years old, the wrinkles in her face were not camouflaged by makeup, and her prominent front teeth were not straight. […]
Every Latin word ever, defined (almost): Thesaurus Linguae Latinae
It’s a dictionary that has been 125 years in the making, and it still isn’t complete. The Thesaurus linguae Latinae began in 1894 as a joint effort to compile a definitive dictionary of Latin words. It covers every Latin text from the earliest times to 600 AD, and it seeks to record not just general […]
Children’s book author and former mayor indicted on fraud charges
At first glance, it’s hard to imagine getting into legal hot water for writing and publishing a children’s book promoting healthy habits for children. But that’s what happened to Catherine Pugh, who resigned as mayor of Baltimore in May. Pugh had written a series of Healthy Holly books and had sold them to the Baltimore […]
America’s Fourth Man: the spies at Los Alamos
For many years, we have known that there were three spies at Los Alamos who passed atomic bomb secrets to the Soviets as the bomb was being developed during World War II. They were Klaus Fuchs, David Greenglass (the brother of Ethel Rosenburg), and Theodore Hall. Now there is a fourth: Oscar Seborer. His identity […]
Word of the Year 2019: for Merriam-Webster it’s ‘they’
The Oxford English Dictionary folks have had their say. Now, it’s the turn for the Merriam-Webster crew to weigh in. The Merriam-Webster Word of the Year for 2019 is they. It reflects a surprising fact: even a basic term—a personal pronoun—can rise to the top of our data. Although our lookups are often driven by […]
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