First Looks category archive

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle.

I had a print copy of this book when I was a young ‘un, and it was one of my favorites. I must have read it four or five times.

Full disclosure: Howard Pyle was a Victorian author and illustrator who wrote this for younger readers, so Maid Mariam does not appear in this version of the Robin Hood tales, but it’s still a fun listen for younger readers of all ages.

Off to drink liberally.

King Arthur and His Knights, by Maude L. Radford Warren.

Le Morte d’Arthur it’s not, but it’s a fun listen.

(Note to self: Download the Le Morte d’Arthur *.epub from Project Gutenberg and read it with FBReader.)

The recent mass shoplifting sprees have received lots of press because the seem unprecedented. Leonard Pitts, Jr., suggests that they are symptoms of a larger fraying of the concept of the common good. Furthermore, he suggests that they are, indeed, precedented.

Here’s a bit of his piece; follow the link for the rest.

. . . we’ve seen police and other authority figures exempt themselves from mask and vaccine mandates – and dare mayors and governors to do anything about it. We’ve seen former public officials thumb their noses at congressional subpoenas. We’ve seen a seditionist mob breach the U.S. Capitol and be lionized for it by certain members of Congress and the media. And we’ve seen a president who delighted in shattering norms, refusing to provide his tax returns, flouting the emoluments clause of the Constitution, openly politicking on government property … the list goes on. And on.

The New Jersey Star-Ledger’s Paul Mulshine had enough of “Black Friday” (the phrase, that is) and wants it to just go away.

Fraudulent frolics.

Off to drink liberally.

Feel free to join us.

Lane Crothers shares a few thoughts on the proposed “University” of Austin.

Read more »

The University of Florida exercises its freedom of squelch.

Aside:

The UF’s defense of its actions is a masterpiece of lily-livered weasel-wording.

One more time, “social” media isn’t.

Aside:

Truth (sic) Social is already playing fast and loose with software licenses.

The EFF looks at the proliferation of what it refers to at one point as “neighborhood watch” apps and reminds us, once again, that “social” media isn’t. They mention three apps specifically: Citizen, Nextdoor, and Neighbors.

A snippet:

These apps might seem like a helpful way to inform your neighbors if the mountain lion roaming your city was spotted in your neighborhood. But in practice they have been a cesspool of racial profiling, cop-calling, gatekeeping, and fear-spreading. Apps where a so-called “suspicious” person’s picture can be blasted out to a paranoid community, because someone with a smartphone thinks they don’t belong, are not helping people to “Connect and stay safe.”

As I pulled into the parking lot at my barbershop for my October haircut, driving my new(er) car with the top down, a woman was coming out of the adjacent child care center with her son, who looked to be about four years old.

As I maneuvered into a parking space, I could hear her say, “It’s called a convertible.”

Off to drink liberally.