First Looks category archive

Dorothy Parker:

It’s not the tragedies that kill us; it’s the messes.

The Tampa Bay Times shares a Festivus List.

Off to drink liberally.

Edmund Crispin’s Gervase Fen mysteries.

They are extraordinarily fanciful and so extraordinarily well-written that suspension of disbelief comes easily.

In an interesting contrast, the novels are long and rambling and full of side trips and digressions and peopled with quirky characters, whereas the short stories, with a few exceptions, are short and quite bare-boned.

A warning, though: The author takes no prisoners. The stories are replete with classical and literary allusions, so have a dictionary and encyclopedia, real or electronic, at hand. Not looking them up does not interfere with the story itself, but looking them makes it richer.

Via PoliticalProf.

I’m trying to get into the Christmas spirit, but, I must confess, this year it is a struggle

Wait for it . . . .

. . . We have reached full pariah.

Via Juanita Jean.

Pauline Kael:

Kicked in the ribs, the press says “art” when “ouch” would be more appropriate.

Robin Hood.

Off to drink liberally.

I am somewhat relieved at the results of the election. I have been more stressed than I have let on in these electrons.

At the least, the Trumpling has been interrupted.

And I need a break.

Afterthought:

Perhaps “impeded” would have been a much better term than “interrupted.” I gather that today was a cavalcade of crazy in Trumplandia.

I’ll catch up with the news tomorrow.

As I said, I needed a break. Watching one’s country go crazy is rather stressful.

Look up these two words:

• venal
• venial

Compare the definitions.

Via Juanita Jean.