This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,753) on Friday, January 6, 2023. Some people blanche at the word “resolution” especially at this time of year. They believe, often rightly, that New Year’s resolutions are meaningless if not harmful because they raise expectations and often result in frustration. I don’t really subscribe • Read More »
Archives: watercolor
Ignatius Sancho, jettisoning bad behaviors, local authors follow-up: newsletter, October 28, 2022
October 28, 2022 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, journalists, newsletter, watercolor, writers, writing.This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2, 491) on Friday, October 28, 2022. My various readings and searches during the last few weeks have included a number of items about the concept of the “Sabbath.” The idea of the Sabbath, whether you consider yourself religious, spiritual, or “none of the above” • Read More »
Celebrating Local Voices, Mary Seacole, and readers respond to the the watercolor collection: newsletter, October 21, 2022
October 21, 2022 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, journalism, newsletter, watercolor, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2, 491) on Friday, October 21, 2022. My local library, the Blount County Public Library, is having a special event honoring local authors on Saturday, October 22 (the day after this newsletter originally appears), and I have been privileged to be part of the planning • Read More »
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, speeding up the watercolors, and the pursuit of happiness: newsletter, October 7, 2022
October 7, 2022 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, journalism, newsletter, watercolor, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2, 491) on Friday, October 7, 2022. My hopes to participate in the Friends of the Smokies Quick Draw Festival in Maryville last Saturday crashed and burned when I woke up Friday morning feeling generally terrible. I did the COVID test, and it came up • Read More »
Cicero, The Feminine Mystique, a memoir, and the death penalty: newsletter, July 15, 2022
July 15, 2022 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, history, newsletter, watercolor, Women writers and journalists, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2, 480) on Friday, July 15, 2022. The United States is one of the few nations left on earth that allows capital punishment—the death penalty. And that punishment, according to Maurice Chammah, a staff writer at The Marshall Project and the author of Let the • Read More »
Henry VIII’s court painter, E.B. White, and the rich kids at school: newsletter, November 5, 2021
November 5, 2021 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: baseball, libraries, newsletter, watercolor, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,266) on Friday, November 5, 2021. We didn’t always wear the best clothes or live in the finest houses, but those of us who were lucky enough to receive musical training when we were young were the rich kids in school. We had something special, • Read More »
Axis Sally, North Korea, the world’s first real-life detective, and reader reactions: newsletter, May 14, 2021
May 24, 2021 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, history, newsletter, watercolor, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,350) on Friday, May 14, 2021. The Big Apple is the common nickname for New York City, but its origins are murky. What do apples have to do with New York City? The answer, according to an essay I found recently by Maria Popov (BrainPickings.com), • Read More »
Spy novels with a dash of humor and irony, an advocate of racial equality in the 19th century, and the results of denying readers: newsletter, March 12, 2021
March 14, 2021 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, history, journalists, newsletter, watercolor, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,392) on Friday, March 12, 2021. One of the writing roles that I have never pictured myself fulfilling is that of a memoirist. Tell other people’s stories, I would say to my journalism students, not your own. Your job is to write about other people, not yourself. I • Read More »
A look inside my caricatures sketchbooks
November 30, 2020 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, watercolor.Most artists (and people like me who are working at it) keep a sketchbook. It’s a place where they can try out ideas that they may have to bring to fruition on a canvas or a piece of watercolor paper. As such, sketchbooks are not generally considered things for public viewing. A lot of what • Read More »
Political debates and a few thoughts about the election, Harold Bloom on reading, and a century of Christie: newsletter, October 23, 2020
October 25, 2020 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, newsletter, watercolor, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,5xx) on Friday, October 23, 2020. Political debates in this country have never been especially uplifting affairs. Even the iconic Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 (see below) are remembered because they introduced Abraham Lincoln to the nation rather than for their soaring rhetoric and sweeping • Read More »
The birth of the selfie, why Japan bombed Pearl Harbor (part 1), and reader reactions: newsletter, October 2, 2020
October 4, 2020 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: history, newsletter, watercolor, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,519) on Friday, October 2, 2020. Johann Sebastian Bach is on my list of “things to be thankful for” this week. In fact, he’s not far from the top. Bach lived from 1685 to 1750 and was a composer of baroque-era music. He was also deeply spiritual, • Read More »
The 19th amendment, James Lee Burke, John Quincy Adams, and NYT’s typos: newsletter, August 21, 2020
August 23, 2020 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, watercolor, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,5xx) on Friday, August 21, 2020. Through muted celebrations, we noted the centennial of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution this week. This amendment guaranteed the right of women to vote, and it represented the largest and most significant change • Read More »
The movie and book that define noir, online teaching and learning, the hard-boiled detective, and a podcast recommendation: newsletter, August 7, 2020
August 9, 2020 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, watercolor, writers, writing.This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,5xx) on Friday, August 7, 2020. Churches can’t meet, businesses can’t operate properly, schools and libraries can’t open — none of this can happen without major concerns about the safety of the people involved. This is a deeply frustrating time for all of us. • Read More »
Baseball finally, the massive output of Georges Simenon, and the need for some creative thinking: newsletter, July 24, 2020
July 26, 2020 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: baseball, books, journalism, newsletter, watercolor, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,5xx) on Friday, July 24, 2020. A memory rattled through my brain this week of a newspaper column I read many years ago. It was in the 1960s, and the column was by Russell Baker in the New York Times (I’m pretty sure), and • Read More »
Presidential candidates who stayed put and the one who didn’t, Smokey Robinson, and the no-tears absence of baseball: newsletter, May 15, 2020
May 17, 2020 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: baseball, fiction, newsletter, podcasting, watercolor, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,579) on Friday, May 15, 2020. One of the bright spots we had going for us this spring — among so many spots that were not quite so bright — is the garden, which with plenty of rain and somewhat cooler temperatures had • Read More »
Clare Hollingsworth’s ‘scoop’ of the century, William Styron’s ‘mistakes,’ the Temptations, and reader reaction: newsletter, May 8, 2020
May 10, 2020 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: newsletter, watercolor, Women writers and journalists, woodworking, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,5xx) on Friday, May 8, 2020. {% endif %}One of the most enjoyable things about woodworking — besides completing a project itself — is something I had never really articulated before this week. I was watching one of Steve Ramsey‘s YouTube videos, and he managed • Read More »
Malcolm Gladwell talks books, banned books, Beatles books, and the godmother of forensic science: newsletter, September 20, 2019
September 23, 2019 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalism, newsletter, watercolor, writers, writing.
American Watercolor, an e-zine begun by Kelly Kane, has a short feature on my watercolors — thanks in great part to you, my faithful newsletter readers. I was named ambassador of the week and got into the running for that title because, several weeks ago, I asked those of you who were interested to sign up • Read More »
The father of American illustration – F.O.C. Darley
September 19, 2019 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, journalism, watercolor.Illustrators deserve a more prominent place in the history of American art — and in our own minds — than they have been given. This is especially true in America, where we have a rich cadre of great artists who have made their living, and their fame, by being illustrators. Chances are, with just a • Read More »
What we see, and what we think we see
September 7, 2019 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalism, watercolor.In June 1913 the Medical Research Committee held its first meeting. The objective was to implement a national scheme for health insurance which would provide hospital treatment for tuberculosis (TB) and to initiate research comparing TB in animals and humans. The committee is now known as the Medical Research Council (MRC). Research has been supported • Read More »
Walking, Arthur Ashe, and a new video: newsletter, Aug. 2, 2018
August 5, 2019 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, newsletter, watercolor, writers, writing.This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,716) on Friday, August 9, 2019. Living well, as any sensible person knows, is not just a matter of diet and exercise. It’s a whole range of behaviors, attitudes, habits, and choices. Susan Saunders and Annabel Streets, two women who have looked deeply into the science • Read More »