Simple fact: Miklos Rozsa was one of the greatest composers of soundtracks.
Friday, July 31, 2026
First Paragraph
It was May 14. In a few days my class back in Jamestown, North Dakota would be graduating from high school, and I was in Singapore.
- From Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L'Amour
Lake Sebago
I have come to look forward to Stephen Landry's annual vacation at Lake Sebago.
The man worked at a university so he's used to dealing with loons.
As Europe Crumbles
I recall posting warnings about Europe's uncontrolled and slipshod borders policies years ago when books by Douglas Murray, Christopher Caldwell, Mark Steyn, and Bruce Bawer were sounding the alarm.
Some readers claimed it was an overreaction and that the numbers were nothing to be worried about.
Their views were either shared at top governmental levels or the decision makers actually wanted to produce chaos.
I confess that the latter explanation is not as crazy as it may seem. These are not stupid people.
But they are duplicitous.
Thursday, July 30, 2026
Substack: Eclectic Collections of Demonstrators
Beware of assuming good will. Not everyone wants the best.
[Photo by Karollyne Videira Hubert at Unsplash]
First Paragraph
When Elena Lang went missing, Sebastian Wolff couldn't work out what all the fuss was about.
- From Evil in High Places by Rory Clements
Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Living a Better Life
Nicholas Bate reveals his favorite book in the Companion series.
It is mine as well.
First Paragraph
On 2 August 216 BC the Carthaginian General Hannibal won one of the most complete battlefield victories in history. Outnumbered nearly two to one, his heterogenous army of Africans, Spaniards and Celts not merely defeated, but virtually destroyed the Roman army opposing them. By the end of the day, nearly 50,000 Roman and Allied soldiers lay dead or were dying in an area of a few square kilometres, whilst between ten and twenty thousand more were prisoners. Less than 20% of one of the largest armies ever fielded by the Roman State survived to reform over the next few weeks. Cannae became the yardstick by which the Romans measured later catastrophes, but only one or two defeats in their history were ever judged to have been as bad. The scale of the losses at Cannae was unrivalled until the industrialized slaughter of the First World War.
- From Cannae: Hannibal's Greatest Victory by Adrian Goldsworthy
Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Hmm
The first names of the authors of Amazon's "First Read" books for July:
Anna, Lindsay, Katie, Leslie, Carissa, Callie, Elba, Kristin, Faith, Lucinda, Melinda, and Brittney.
There is a bonus "short read" by Peter.
One to Study
At an incoherent company, employees stop believing that what they joined to do is possible. As that belief erodes, cynicism takes root. Passion drains away, replaced by quiet quitting and mediocre work. The best talent leaves for companies whose values they can believe it, while those who stay stop caring about the customers they serve or the products they build. The "values" become a residue of past aspirations, orphaned on the walls. Those cynical comments over dinner? They're not just venting but symptoms of an organization eating itself alive.
- From Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad...and How Great Companies Stay Great by Eric Ries
Monday, July 27, 2026
First Paragraph
During the last days of the Western Roman Empire and throughout the Middle Ages, Western Europe was threatened, and often invaded, by outsiders. First came the Huns, then the Arabs, then the Magyars, then the Vikings, then the Mongols, and then the Turks. Each in turn, they were described as ferocious warriors none could withstand. Each in turn, their hordes inflicted immense bloodshed, destruction, and suffering on a continent rendered almost defenseless by the prevailing socio-economic--political structures and the internecine struggles to which it led.
- From Pussycats: Why the Rest Keep Beating the West and What Can Be Done About It by Martin Van Creveld
Content Creation Major
I look forward to following the story.
Sunday, July 26, 2026
Saturday, July 25, 2026
First Paragraph
The noise was ended now. The smoke drifted like thin, gray wisps of fog above the tortured earth and the shattered fences and the peach trees that had been whittled into toothpicks by the cannon fire. For a moment silence, if not peace, fell upon those few square miles of ground where just a while before men had screamed and torn at one another in the frenzy of old hate and had contended in an ancient striving and then had fallen apart, exhausted.
- From Way Station by Clifford D. Simak
Get Well Soon Packages of Books
If you had a friend of eclectic tastes who was going to be recuperating at home for a lengthy period and who was a reader, which books would you placing in a Get Well Soon package?
My selections would include:
1. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Age 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
2. The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
3. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
4. Erasure by Percy Everett
4. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
5. Any of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot mysteries
6. Middle Passage by Charles Johnson
7. Directions to Servants by Jonathan Swift
8. Shogun by James Clavell
9. Station Eleven by Emily St. John
9. City Primeval by Elmore Leonard
10. Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
11. Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James
12. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
13. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Friday, July 24, 2026
You Never Know
A lawyer who read an early draft of Pilate's Magician predicted that the book would have a particular appeal to lawyers.
So far, he appears to be correct although I certainly sought a wider audience.
Christians? Jews? Roman history buffs?
Preparing for the Future
Teachers should prepare the student for the student's future, not the teacher's past. Most teachers rarely discuss the important topic of the future of their field, and when this is pointed out they usually reply: "No one can know the future." It seems to me the difficulty of knowing the future does not absolve the teacher from seriously trying to help the student to be ready for it when it comes. It is obvious the experience of an individual is not necessarily that of a class of individuals; therefore, any one person's projection into the future is apt to be somewhat personal and will not be universally accepted. This does not justify reverting to impersonal surveys and losing the impact of the personal story.
- From The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn by Richard W. Hamming
First Paragraph
Towards the end of November, during a thaw, at nine o'clock one morning, a train on the Warsaw and Petersburg railway was approaching the latter city at full speed. The morning was so damp and misty that it was only with great difficulty that the day succeeded in breaking; and it was impossible to distinguish anything more than a few yards away from the carriage windows.
- From The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Thursday, July 23, 2026
"Against Human Resources"
From The Lamp Magazine in 2024: Helen Andrews analyzes the changes in HR.
An excerpt:
"The result has been the feminization of the American workplace, the inevitable effect of giving H.R. ladies veto power over everything that happens there. This feminization has happened even in the most unlikely workplaces. Astrophysics is a predominantly male profession. Yet Dr. Matt Taylor found himself in the middle of an international scandal in 2014 when, during a press conference to announce that his team had become the first to land a spacecraft on a comet, he showed up wearing a rockabilly-style shirt with busty pinup girls on it. The shirt was denounced as disrespectful to women. His tearful forced apology was a conspicuous triumph for H.R. ladies everywhere."
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
Three Authors Who Should Be Better Known
Three examples of how fame does not always follow excellence:
[Photo by Ronald Crow at Unsplash]
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Co-Intelligence
Potential Serfs of the World, Unite!
Rob Firchau at The Hammock Papers has an important message for you.
Monday, July 20, 2026
Undergrad Reading List
Attention Book Worms!
The University of Austin has released its reading list for undergraduates.
Always Remember
...to check the definitions.
For example, many people nowadays regard politics as a religion.
And vice-versa.
Sunday, July 19, 2026
Saturday, July 18, 2026
A Hierarchy of Hells
Writing in Commentary, Irina Velitskaya examines the depravity of Russian aggression in Ukraine and terrorist evil in Gaza. An excerpt:
The point being, of course, that while Russia treats its own soldiers as “cannon meat” and doesn’t particularly care whether they live or die, they don’t deliberately put their own civilians at risk and encourage and facilitate their deaths in hopes of ginning up sympathetic media coverage and wringing tears and donations out of credulous sympathizers in the West.
First Paragraph
In May 2025, the internet briefly chose a new, unfortunate main character: Marco Buscaglia, a Chicago-based freelance writer behind a syndicated summer reading list. Though the list was credited to him, he wasn't its principal author. Rather, the list was written by a chatbot.
- From The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence - Before It's Too Late by Cory Doctorow
Friday, July 17, 2026
Scribbling with Scars
[Photo by Nick La Rovere at Unsplash]
I am almost done with the dermatologist diversion [stitches out/freezing to come] and we're having a strange weather condition here in Phoenix known as rain.
In other words, I'm being driven in-doors.
Where the files and the banker's boxes play.
And there's also the issue of writer's sloth.
Yesterday began a detailed review of the draft of my second novel.
Many months ago, I placed it on the shelf in order to complete Pilate's Magician.
My biggest "novel" chore right now involves reacquainting myself with the characters and deciding upon the correct tone.
The first part is easy. The second one is crucial.
And then, unless there is a mega-surprise, the book will go through multiple drafts.
I am more of a re-writer than a writer.
Nicholas Bate has been a major inspiration. The man is truly amazing. If you haven't read any of his novels, I recommend beginning with Pierre Lambert, Detective.
Thursday, July 16, 2026
A 1930s Perspective
If you think that our times are strange, curl up with these books and make some comparisons.
Holy Man/Iranian Gandhi/Man of the Year in 1979
Giscard d'Estaing admitted years later that President Carter had asked him to take in and protect Ayatollah Khomeini, whom the president described as a "holy man," while the newspaper Le Monde referred to him as the "Iranian Gandhi." Khomeini had been designated Time's "Man of the Year" in 1979, after being able to organize the downfall of his sworn enemy, the Shah of Iran, from his gilded retreat at Neauphle-le-Château. The abandonment of their friend and ally did not bring good fortune to the two Western heads of state.
- From The Suicide of France: The Quiet Revolution That Destroyed a Nation by Éric Zemmour
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Motivation
"The first time I walked into a trophy shop, I looked around and thought to myself, 'This guy is good!'"
- Fred Wolf
An Intellectual Feast
Let's have a Presidential Civic Fitness Program in high schools and expand perspectives.
[Photo by Getty Images for Unsplash+]
Tuesday, July 14, 2026
Perspective on The French Revolution
It is ironic that of all countries in Europe, France was the only one that could have had a revolution - not because she groaned under the lash of tyranny, but, on the contrary, because she tolerated and even invited every conceivable dissension and heresy. Restlessness, a passion for novelty and the pursuit of excitement were everywhere in the air. They were the fruits of idleness and leisure, not of poverty.
Paris was a "storm-tossed sea, blown perpetually by contrary winds." When, in 1789, the Revolution finally arrived it was everywhere acclaimed. It was not a single, self-contained or unified uprising, but a succession of revolutions. One after another, various men or parties emerged to seize power. One after another, they were swept away by forces stronger than themselves.
- From Paris in the Terror June 1793 - July 1794 by Stanley Loomis
[Photo by Ty Koh at Unsplash]
Modern Question
"Don't you wish you were free, Lenina?"
"I don't know what you mean. I am free. Free to have the most wonderful time. Everybody's happy nowadays."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
Monday, July 13, 2026
70 Summer Escape Movies
- Get Shorty
- Sullivan's Travels
- Beverly Hills Cop
- Other People's Money
- Back to the Beach
- His Girl Friday
- Moonstruck
- Amelie
- Galaxy Quest
- The Full Monty
- The In-Laws (with Alan Arkin and Peter Falk)
- My Favorite Year
- Napoleon Dynamite
- Annie Hall
- Some Like It Hot
- My Cousin Vinny
- Local Hero
- Field of Dreams
- Clue
- A Good Year
- Major League
- Delicatessen
- Topsy-Turvy
- The Hospital
- Ruthless People
- The History Boys
- The General (Buster Keaton)
- Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton)
- Best in Show
- It Happened One Night
- Network
- A Long Way Down
- O Brother Where Art Thou?
- Young Frankenstein
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Dr. Strangelove
- Shaun of the Dead
- Lost in America
- A Hard Day's Night
- Tea with Mussolini
- Shakespeare in Love
- Beetlejuice
- Barbershop
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High
- National Lampoon's Vacation
- Love Actually
- Tootsie
- Trading Places
- Cat Ballou
- Little Miss Sunshine
- Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
- Ghostbusters
- The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
- Animal House
- Being There
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Rustler's Rhapsody
- Airplane!
- Office Space
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- A Night at the Opera
- Tremors
- The Princess Bride
- It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World
- The Ladykillers (with Alec Guinness)
- The Naked Gun
- The Producers
- Groundhog Day
- Barcelona (Whit Stillman film)
- Caddyshack
[Photo by Ronald Crow at Unsplash]
Sunday, July 12, 2026
Saturday, July 11, 2026
First Paragraph
Snow falling upon water makes a sound so close to silence that no heart exists it cannot calm. It fell across the Chesapeake and in the harbors and inlets and far out to sea, surrendering to the waters with the slightest exhalation and a muffled hiss. Though few are there to see it, in winter this happens often.
- From The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story by Mark Helprin
Teaching Students to Debate
I plan on writing about this on Substack but for now will note that in recent years students have appeared to be more apt to level accusations than to argue for a particular side.
The idea that accusation is sufficient is very dangerous. The ability to convince instead of simple intimidation requires the ability to research and reason.
Absent those positive skills, we're at the mercy of smash and grab artists.
Just as a mother and a father are key members of a family, so too is reason a key part of education.
Unfortunately, a great deal of modern education has focused on accusation more than serious analysis.
[Let's call Rudyard Kipling a racist and dismiss anything he ever wrote.]
Healthy debates would be an important way to foster crucial skills.
And here is the simple question that should be frequently asked:
What are the best arguments for the opposing side?
We May Be Seeing Far More of These Outrages
Former Member of Parliament Ann Widdecombe was murdered.
An arrest has been made.
Friday, July 10, 2026
Grab These!
Nicholas Bate is offering a bargain on several of his books.
He's also working on another novel which I eagerly await.
Many of Us Achieve by Omission
What we choose not to do may - I suspect will - turn out to play a far more powerful role in our success than what we choose to do.
Along with your To Do List, consider your Avoid List.
Thursday, July 09, 2026
Two for Wisdom
When asked which novels present the largest amount of wisdom about life, these are my choices.
[I strongly recommend Ann Dunnigan's translation of Tolstoy's novel.]
As Maine Goes
People can reasonably shudder at the very idea that an unstable man with a Nazi tattoo who assaults women could be nominated for the Senate, but if they saw the campaign operatives who were behind producing this fiasco, they'd be even more horrified.
Don't ignore the men and women behind the curtain.
Wednesday, July 08, 2026
Bargains, Buffaloes, and a True Sense of Connection
Read this and remember: Buffalo Barbeques, Rummage Sales, and You.
[Photo by Bryce olsen at Unsplash]
Our Multi-Faceted Education Problem
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge."
- Daniel Boorstin
~
"The culture wars are not really about right vs. left; they are about memory versus oblivion."
- Benjamin Myers
~
"We need to get accustomed to the idea that there will be more Communist countries in the world and that this is not necessarily bad."
- Howard Zinn
~
"The American cultural elite used to resemble (more or less) the rest of America. Today it disdains the rest of America. That's a revolution."
- David Gelernter
Tuesday, July 07, 2026
Desert Blues
I went to the dermatologist yesterday and got carved up.
I'm to return in ten days so they can remove the stitches.
As the numbing wore off, I mentioned this to a friend who lives in New Mexico. He'd just gone through a similar experience.
Both of us grew up in the days when sunblock was unheard of and suntans were considered healthy.
Fortunately, I am now in the stage of life where a Panama hat, a white linen suit, and alligator shoes may be appropriately eccentric.
As if I'm not eccentric enough.
[Photo by Cphotos for Unsplash+]
Monday, July 06, 2026
Practice! Practice!
The first book I wrote was published in 1976.
My most recent book, Pilate's Magician, was published in 2026.
[I am deeply grateful for all of the positive reviews.]
"The Use of Knowledge in Society"
The peculiar character of the problem of a rational economic order is determined precisely by the fact that the knowledge of the circumstances of which we must make use never exists in concentrated or integrated form but solely as the dispersed bits of incomplete and frequently contradictory knowledge which all the separate individuals possess. The economic problem of society is thus not merely a problem of how to allocate “given” resources—if “given” is taken to mean given to a single mind which deliberately solves the problem set by these “data.” It is rather a problem of how to secure the best use of resources known to any of the members of society, for ends whose relative importance only these individuals know. Or, to put it briefly, it is a problem of the utilization of knowledge which is not given to anyone in its totality.
Read all of Friedrich A. Hayek's essay here.
Sunday, July 05, 2026
Saturday, July 04, 2026
Letter to America
Letter to America, from a Frenchman who has seen the end
of the movie.
You still believe you're the last free country. You are,
for now. I'm writing to you from a country that was free too, and which signed
its surrender without a single shot fired.
In France, the State captures and redistributes 57% of
everything the nation produces. Fifty-seven percent. Stop and dwell on that
figure. For every unit of value created by an engineer, a worker, a founder who
risked it all, more than half passes through hands that built nothing. This
isn't a budget line. It's a permanent mortgage on people's existence.
And here's what no one will admit to you: it never
happens through revolution. No one votes for decline. We vote for compassion,
for security, for justice, for the planet. At every step, we trade a piece of
freedom for a promise. And the promises are always beautiful. That's the trap.
Today's collectivism no longer waves the red flag; it has
understood that it doesn't sell anymore. It has learned to speak the language
of care. ESG, governance, compliance, "responsibility": these are the
new words for a very old idea. The idea that an enlightened elite knows better
than you what's good for you, and that power must therefore be transferred to
it, line by line, to decide in your place. It's not a conspiracy. It's worse:
it's a consensus. No one is hiding. Everything is done openly, applauded,
subsidized.
Hayek wrote it eighty years ago: the road to serfdom is
paved with good intentions and centralized planning. France has walked that
road with a smile. We nationalized risk, socialized failure, taxed boldness,
and administered everything else. Result: a magnificent country that builds
nothing anymore, that manages its decay with a funereal elegance, and where the
most gifted young person dreams of only one thing—leaving. Many end up with
you.
America still has what we've lost: the reflex to build
rather than administer. The founder is a hero there, not a suspect. Success is
proof there, not a sin to atone for. That's your treasure. And a treasure is
lost without anyone noticing—a form, an agency, a "good cause" at a
time.
So don't look for hidden enemies. It's useless and
unworthy of you. Look at the figure instead. Look at France. Every point of GDP
you let slip toward the State is a point of freedom that never comes back.
Freedom doesn't die assassinated. It dies anesthetized,
to applause.
Don't sign. Build.
-
Brivael
Le Pogam
[[
Hit the Books!
Back Again: Books for America's 250th Anniversary - Updated.
A few I'd add:
- Middle Passage by Charles R. Johnson
- Shiloh by Shelby Foote
- The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines
- The Known World by Edward P. Jones
- To Begin the World Anew by Bernard Bailyn
Friday, July 03, 2026
Federalist No. 10
The Federalist Papers were written to urge the adoption of the American Constitution at a time when there was the very real fear that the states might choose to continue the highly ineffective Articles of Confederation.
The Federalist Papers are packed with insight, and Federalist Paper No. 10 has become one of the most cited.
Read this and you'll see its timeless warning.
Thursday, July 02, 2026
Back by Popular Demand: "The Death of the Public Library"
Dowd’s essential belief is that not only do the homeless have every right to spend their days in libraries but that librarians should view their needs as a critical part of the job. He believes librarians should be trained to dispense Narcan. One of his seminars is called “Jerks with Homes: How to Deal with Members of the Public Who Are Being Jerks About Homeless Folks.” His scripts for addressing problematic behaviors include examples like, “Hey, I don’t care if you urinate on the Harry Potter books, but the politicians have a no-urinating policy. Therefore, I have to ask you to stop."
Read the rest of The Free Press article by Zac Bissonnette.
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