Joseph Bottum

From the Language Log , a note on Sir William Jones, the great scholar credited with identifying the Indo-European family of languages and founding modern historical linguistics: “At an early stage in his life, Jones’s father had considered attaching him to a chambers to get a legal . . . . Continue Reading »

I did read Lennard Davis’ new essay on Woody Allen—or, at least, I read it up to the point where Davis said that Woody Allen “stares at a world that Dostoevsky could not bring himself to imagine when he said that without God there could be no morality.” But then, somehow, I . . . . Continue Reading »

Christopher Hitchens has a column in the latest issue of the Atlantic on the short stories of Saki. It’s all right, I guess. Not my favorite account, but, then, any mention of Saki is good, if only to remind readers about him. But how could Hitchens leave out the single greatest Saki story, . . . . Continue Reading »

If you took an opinion poll, you’d probably find that the large majority of America’s Latin professors are fairly standard-issue liberals, politically indistinguishable from the rest of the nation’s academics. But, somewhere along the line, the public praise of Latin seems to have . . . . Continue Reading »

After some occasionally over-fevered speculation , Nature magazine, in its July 31 issue, finally announced the newest findings of the research team trying to decipher the Antikythera mechanism: The mechanism is an odd ancient device, discovered in the 1902 exploration of a shipwreck off the coast . . . . Continue Reading »

Well, now we know. NPR has just reported why Bruce Ivins mailed the anthrax letters in 2001. He was Catholic, and his family was pro-life. As NPR puts it: “Bruce Ivins may have targeted Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy with anthrax-laced letters in 2001 because he saw them as bad Catholics . . . . Continue Reading »

Back home in New York, after a month out in the Black Hills of South Dakota, this oldie but goodie came to mind: Paul Goodman, “The Lordly Hudson” “Driver, what stream is it?” I asked, well knowing it was our lordly Hudson hardly flowing. “It is our lordly Hudson . . . . Continue Reading »

My friend, Stephen Schwartz , sends this note from Kosovo: Although now independent, the republic of Kosovo remains subject to United Nations jurisdiction, regarding, among other issues, protection of the Serbian minority in the territory. UN policies on the Kosovo Serb minority have become . . . . Continue Reading »

The old C.C.C. buildings from the 1930s are more than a little run down, but they are what gives the place its tone and shape—at least, as I remember the Black Hills Playhouse when I was young. A sort of summer stock theater, run out of the University of South Dakota’s theater department . . . . Continue Reading »

What’s going on over at Popular Mechanics ? First, the magazine rains on the idea of using the international space station as an interplanetary vehicle (an idea I had applauded ). Then, on the unveiling of Richard Branson’s much-ballyhooed space-tourism plane, the magazine runs a . . . . Continue Reading »