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"Luke Ford reports all of the 'juicy' quotes, and has been doing it for years." (Marc B. Shapiro)
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff) LATEST POSTS:
- Robert Putnam: The Man Who Counted What America Lost
- W. Bradford Wilcox: The Sociologist Who Tells America to Get Married
- Peter Moskos: The Cop Who Talks to People
- Julius Krein
- Ryan Burge: The Numbers Man in the Empty Church
- Emily Oster: The Economist in the Delivery Room
- The Most Ridiculous Story Ever Told
- Tanner Greer
- Economist Tyler Cowen
- Richard Reeves: A Life in Institutions
- Jake Adelstein: The Reporter Who Became His Story
- Jim Goad (1961-2026)
- Moira Greyland
- Robert Oscar Lopez: The Inconvenient Witness
- Two Ledgers: Decoding the Gurus and the Price of Talk
- The Pervert’s Progress: Costin Vlad Alamariu and the Making of Bronze Age Pervert
- Curtis Yarvin: A Life Against Democracy
- Mark Helprin: Against the Current
- Mark Brandt: The Man Who Asked Who Else Is Prejudiced
- John T. Jost: The Psychologist of Acquiescence
BEST POSTS:
- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
* Mr. Burge Draws The Line (6-23-26)
* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
* People Leak To People Who Are Fun (6-11-26)
* Why Does Australia Produce So Many Great Journalists? (6-11-26)
* Steve Wynn and the Press: Power, Litigation, and the Contest Over Las Vegas (6-3-26)
* Sheldon Adelson and the Journalists (6-3-26)
* The Vigilant Animal: Thinkers Who Reject the Myth of Human Gullibility (6-2-26)
* The Cost of Refusing the Misunderstanding Myth (6-2-26)
* Show Me How It Travels (6-2-26)
* The Norm Explainers (6-2-26)
* Centering Marginalized Voices (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Washington Post put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Financial Times put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for the Los Angeles Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for The New York Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* Why Wembanyama Lives on the Perimeter (5-31-26)
* The Emotional Palettes Of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco & Sacramento (5-27-26)
* The Administrative Capital: Sacramento Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* San Diego - The Quiet Republic (5-27-26)
* The Quiet Bar: San Diego Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* SF v LA Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* Why Talent Travels Poorly Between San Francisco and Los Angeles (5-27-26)
* San Francisco and Los Angeles as Rival Models of Urban Access (5-27-26)
* Social Cliques in New York, 2026 (5-25-26)
* Social Cliques in San Francisco, 2026 (5-25-26)
* The Rival Courts of Washington (5-25-26)
* The City of Private Rooms (5-25-26)
Category Archives: Literature
‘Black Cracker’ – Josh Alan Friedman’s First Novel
Wednesday night I stop by Book Soup on Sunset Blvd for the first stop of the New Texture literary tour with authors Wyatt Doyle, Josh Alan Friedman and Chris Desjardins. Josh Alan’s new book, Black Cracker, has seven glowing reviews … Continue reading
Posted in Josh Alan Friedman, Literature
Tagged autobiographical novel, dallas morning news, dallas observer, dawn rizos, Facebook, Josh Alan Friedman
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Middlemarch by George Eliot
I’m near the end of this novel. A few weeks ago, I saw the BBC miniseries. I’m struck by the shunning delivered to one of the major characters in the novel when it is discovered that he came by his … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Orthodoxy
Tagged bbc miniseries, george eliot, middlemarch, moral flexibility, moral standards, orthodox judaism, reading middlemarch, tanach
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Hatred Of Americans
I’ve never suffered from Jew-hatred in the United States, but I constantly meet online Europeans who loathe Jews and Americans. It would never occur to me upon meeting somebody obnoxious or shallow to attribute their bad traits to their race … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, America, Europe, Literature, Personal, V S Naipaul
Tagged achievment, jew hatred, patrick french, s books, uppsala sweden, V S Naipaul
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‘Bukowski: Born Into This’
I just watched this documentary and felt very sad, so sad that I had to watch an episode of Coupling afterward to laugh and feel good again. I’ve never read Bukowski because I hear he’s depressing and I want more … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Sex
Tagged bad acne, bukowski born into this, classmates, hot chicks, novel women, toilet paper
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Automatic Writing
I found out about "automatic writing" this week while reading the Richard Elmann biography of the poet W. B. Yeats. "Automatic writing" means writing without conscious control. Say you are watching TV or talking to a friend and your hand … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Personal
Tagged ceremony of innocence, desert birds, lion body, rough beast, stony sleep, w b yeats
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I’m Reading Shellard’s Biography Of Theater Critic Kenneth Tynan
The parallels between Tynan and I are frightening. He was the first person to use the f-word on the BBC. I am the first person to use the f-word on the internet.
Posted in Literature
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A Pilgrimage of Passion: The Life of Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
I’m reading an essay by the author Elizabeth Longford about her writing up the life of poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. She was all hot and bothered by Blunt’s voracious sexuality. She writes: …But I have to admit to a moment … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
Tagged cocksman, elizabeth longford, fin de siecle, love quot, love verse, lusts, sincerity, virility
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Cheever: A Life by Blake Bailey
I’m loving this 2009 biography. I love the insights into body use in this quote from Cheever: “In an upper-class gathering I suddenly think of myself as a pariah—a small and dirty fraud, a deserved outcast, a spiritual and sexual … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
Tagged blake bailey, deep breath, felling trees, fifty cents, impostor, mild objection, outcast, pariah, poker face, splitting wood
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Alexander Technique & Revolutionary Road
I’m reading this novel by Richard Yates and I’m struck by the number of allusions to Alexander Technique. I have no reason to believe that Yates ever heard of the technique, but here’s a profound insight from his novel: "And … Continue reading
Posted in Alexander Technique, Literature
Tagged Alexander Technique, nestling, profound insight, revolutionary road, richard yates, shoulder blade
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I’m Gonna Go ‘Kite Runner’ On You!
Here are my videos: The SOASstudent posts about my first video: "At 3:25 you refer to his second wife as a "journalist". She wrote brief, idiotic, inane, ungrammatical, misspelled ‘think pieces’ for a rag in a town called Bahawalpur. French’s … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
Tagged bad jews, black man, dehumanization, evil powers, jewish friend, nigger, second wife, sir vidia, V S Naipaul
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