Joseph Bottum is the former editor of First Things.

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Truth in Direct Mail

So the subscription request from Ms. Magazine reads: “Content and design that will not be uncompromised by the demands of advertising.” A weak attempt at cutesy honesty, or just bad copyediting? . . . . Continue Reading »

5 Oct 2010

A Bit of Rome

Just clicked through to read about something mentioned earlier : A 55-square-foot apartment is on sale in Rome for just over $69,000. 55 square feet. That’s 5’ by 11’. I mean, sure, it’s on the Piazza di Sant’ Ignazio , but $69,000? I’d trust the story a little . . . . Continue Reading »

5 Oct 2010

Why Mahler?

Every time I think I might be wrong about the essential meaningless of most music criticism, I read stuff like this—a catalog by Philip Kennicott of some of the idiocies he found in Norman Lebrecht’s new book Why Mahler?: How One Man and Ten Symphonies Changed Our World : Lebrecht is . . . . Continue Reading »

5 Oct 2010

Defining Politics

Interesting Senate race in Connecticut, writes David Bernstein : One candidate’s adult life has been spent in a profession in which testosterone-infused alpha male types engage in well-choreographed bombast for the benefit of the credulous masses. And the other has spent her career in . . . . Continue Reading »

5 Oct 2010

Religious Mysteries

Browsing an Agatha Christie anthology the other night, I reread for the first time in years the Poirot story “The Apples of the Hesperides,” which ends: In the little parlour of the Convent, Hercule Poirot told his story and restored the chalice to the Mother Superior. She murmured: . . . . Continue Reading »

5 Oct 2010

Defining Thumbsucking Down

Just in case any of you teachers out there need a definition of “the rule of law,” the New York Times today explained , in a long thumb-sucking piece on the Tea Party, that it is “[F.A.] Hayek’s term for the unwritten code that prohibits the government from interfering with the . . . . Continue Reading »

3 Oct 2010

A Uniter, Not a Divider

The (now-former) CNN personality Rick Sanchez will “be remembered as a uniter, bringing left and right together in shared amazement at his lunkheadedness.” Forget the politics for a minute. The line just has that kind of Web-perfect construction that keeps me reading online. . . . . Continue Reading »

2 Oct 2010

Impersonating a Scholar?

In the news: Man Convicted of Impersonating Scholar . How could they tell? Instapundit’s funny snark : “SHOCKINGLY, NOT MICHAEL BELLESILES.” . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Oct 2010

The Conservatives’ Spiritual Leader?

David Brooks writes today that “Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana who I think is most likely to win the G.O.P. presidential nomination in 2012, is the spiritual leader” of the new wave of conservative Republican candidates. Policy leader, maybe, although I prefer Bobby Jindal. Or . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Oct 2010

Names

As you probably know, First Things has a long-standing fascination with names and namings, and we write every year about the Census Bureau’s report on the year’s names for babies. Half our readers love it. Of course, the other half are utterly indifferent when they’re not openly . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Oct 2010