Category Archives: Uncategorized

In the last two months, four of my friends who live in New London have confronted imminent job loss. Two were working for local Patch sites before owner AOL decided to shutter all but the most profitable locations.  Dirk and … Continue reading →

If you know me, you know I am a devotee of Simone Weil. Here’s how Weil thought war interacts with language (from “The Power of Words”): “In every sphere, we seem to have lost the very elements of intelligence: the ideas … Continue reading →

I wrote this piece some months ago as an exercise for myself.  The real Tom died recently, and I feel compelled to speak to the loss in my own fashion. Tom Bombadil is dying.  His beard thins and his eyes … Continue reading →

… the admiration of the present and succeeding ages will be ours, since we have not left our power without witness, but have shown it by mighty proofs; and far from needing a Homer for our panegyrist, or other of his … Continue reading →

So already this blog is taking on a New England cast.  That’s appropriate, since I live here.[1] Earlier this month, Rhode Island celebrated Gaspee Days, a festival that includes burning the British ship Gaspee in effigy.  The Gaspee incident is … Continue reading →

I spent much of this past Spring with Sophocles’ Antigone.  I taught the play in my course on Classical Athens, and a few weeks later I visited Deep Springs College where my friend was teaching a whole course on the … Continue reading →

I am a political theorist.  It is a strange vocation, not quite political scientist and not quite philosopher.  When people ask what I do, I sometimes say I work in creative anachronism, but not that kind (although I have been … Continue reading →