I highly recommend this. Very thought-provoking.
Tuesday, May 19, 2026
Monday, May 18, 2026
Keep in Mind
“Don't listen to those who say, you are taking too big a chance. Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor, and it would surely be rubbed out by today. Most important, don't listen when the little voice of fear inside you rears its ugly head and says 'They are all smarter than you out there. They're more talented, they're taller, blonder, prettier, luckier, and they have connections.' I firmly believe that if you follow a path that interests you, not to the exclusion of love, sensitivity, and cooperation with others, but with the strength of conviction that you can move others by your own efforts, and do not make success or failure the criteria by which you live, the chances are you'll be a person worthy of your own respect.”
― Neil SimonFine Writing. Original Perspectives.
When was the last time you visited Sippican Cottage?
Well, that's too long?
[Obligatory Maine moose photo by Lesly Derksen at Unsplash.]
Sunday, May 17, 2026
Saturday, May 16, 2026
Friday, May 15, 2026
Greatness
A Large Regular has a reminder of the record and service of Ted Williams.
And yes, Ted Williams also served as a combat pilot during the Korean War.
At Which Point Will A.I. Reality Kick In?
I recall developing a workshop on the Americans with Disabilities Act. It was packed with practical information and case examples and was designed to prepare employers for when the ADA went into effect.
The class was ready well before the law would kick in.
We sent out notices to a wide range of employers and heard nothing. Not one call. Not one scrap of business.
Once the law went into effective, of course, the phone began to ring. The requests were urgent, if not panicked.
No mention was made of the previous warnings.
People had procrastinated. No one had wanted to be an early adopter.
An example of the Pearl Harbor mentality: wait until you're dodging bombs and the crisis is undeniable.
Now consider Artificial Intelligence. It's sort of like an unscheduled Halloween. We can hear noises in the bushes and howls in the night, but we're not exactly sure when it will come a-knocking or what an AI-altered workplace will resemble.
As a result, although I'm researching what I need to tell clients, I recognize that most of them will dally until the wolf is through the window and jumping for their throat.
In the meantime, of course, I'm advising them to read these well-written and practical books by Nicholas Bate:
How to Beat ChatGPT: How to Not Say AI Killed My Job
Old School: Future-proof yourself. AI-proof your career
They may give them the self-confidence to face reality instead of hiding in the corner.
[Photo by Steve A Johnson at Unsplash]
Thursday, May 14, 2026
Indoctrination at Penn State Law School
This is not traditional liberalism. It is hard-core leftism. And Penn State is a public, not a private, university.
A Recent and Eclectic Conversation with a CEO
Among the subjects in our 40-minute meeting were Human Resources challenges; classical education versus that in the usual public schools; the poetry of T. S. Eliot, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Elinor Wylie; Dave Shiflett's book on religion (Exodus); the importance of introspection; and the benefit of memorizing "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere."
The meeting ended with a plan of action.
The Felt Loss of Center
Perhaps the most painful experience of modern consciousness is the felt loss of center; yet, this is the inevitable result of centuries of insistence that society yield its form. Anyone can observe that people today are eager to know who is really entitled to authority, that they are looking wistfully for the sources of genuine value. In sum, they wish to know the truth, but they have been taught a perversion which makes their chance of obtaining it less every day. This perversion is that in a just society there are no distinctions.
- From Ideas Have Consequences by Richard M. Weaver
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
First Paragraph
In May 2023, Russian conscript Ruslan Anitin surrendered to an armed robot. Miles away, Ukraine's 92nd Mechanized Brigade controlled this cheap but effective grenade-equipped drone. It spent the previous hours hunting the man's comrades. The two Russian soldiers with Anitin were dead. After sustaining serious injuries, one detonated a grenade near his head; the other shot himself. Anitin chose differently, pleading with his unseen enemy for mercy. After some deliberation, the Ukrainians decided Anitin's intentions were genuine. They spared his life, directing him by drone across no man's land and into captivity as a prisoner of war.
- From Mobilize: How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III by Shyam Sankar and Madeline Hart
Tuesday, May 12, 2026
A New Transparency
Let's replace the American Cultural Revolution with A New Transparency.
[Photo by Anna King at Unsplash]
When the World Went Mad
Consider this: The world was at peace on June 28, 1914, when Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated.
Thirty-seven days later, it was at war.
Amazing.
For a great book on the subject, see The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark
Monday, May 11, 2026
"Dateline: Greeneland": The Politics of the Intelligence Thriller
We feel we know this world because it has been described for us not only in histories of the period but also, more atmospherically, in the thrillers of Eric Ambler (A Coffin for Dimitrios, Journey Into Fear), the “entertainments” of Graham Greene (Orient Express, This Gun for Hire), and films like Casablanca and Arch of Triumph. It is a world of secret policemen and spies, frontier incidents and concentration camps, refugees and collaborators, honest journalists and corrupt newspapers. It is outwardly civilized—it boasts piped water, fast cars, and the radio—but there are Vandals and Visigoths under the smart suits and Balenciaga dresses.
Read the rest of John O'Sullivan, writing in the Winter 2006 issue of The New Criterion.
Sunday, May 10, 2026
Saturday, May 09, 2026
First Paragraph
My name is Bruce Medway. I live in Cotonou, Benin, West Africa, along that stretch of coast they used to call the White Man's Grave because it was hot, humid, and full of malaria. It still is, but we don't die so easily now. Air conditioning and quinine have made us smell better and more difficult to wipe out.
- From Instruments of Darkness by Robert Wilson
Friday, May 08, 2026
Commencement Wishes
I will conclude my remarks by wishing all of you graduates, no matter what career path you choose, the best of luck with your job searches, bearing in mind that the final fulltime Applebee’s post has just been filled by an MBA from Stanford.
- Dave Barry
The Real Job Description
In many (perhaps most) cases, the real job description is covered by these words: "Other duties as assigned."
First Paragraph
We have an epidemic. The virus is known to travel on paper and transmit over the keyboard: it jumps from old lawyer to young lawyer, preys on the inexperienced and insecure lawyer, and thrives in the imprecise and indifferent lawyer. It spreads like wildfire in college towns and institutions of higher learning. And it mutates! Oh boy, does it mutate. Turning verbs into nouns. Adverbs flourish. Adjectives and jargon run free.
- From Zen and the Art of Persuasive Writing by Hon. David Weinzweig
Thursday, May 07, 2026
Wednesday, May 06, 2026
The Hunger for the Real
But the obituary might have been premature. Malls are staging a quiet comeback. According to the New York Times’ DealBook newsletter, higher-end retail malls are growing, driven in large part by demand for in-person shopping experiences by Gen Z (ages 14–29). According to the consumer research firm Ipsos, “58 percent of shoppers aged 18–34 said they shop at malls often, twice the rate of adults over 55.”
Read all of Christine Rosen's column in Commentary magazine.
[Photo by Caroline Hernandez at Unsplash]
Tuesday, May 05, 2026
She Thought She Was Going to Study Literature at Columbia
Liza Libes had a big surprise awaiting her in the Columbia English Department.
The Little Grey Cells
The art deco airport shown at Nicholas Bate's blog has been featured in at least one episode of the great Hercule Poirot detective series.
Monday, May 04, 2026
Nitwittery Update
Check out the Rolling Stone/Eric Clapton story on Cultural Offering.
The would-be commissar pool in this country is disturbingly large.
First Paragraph
The manuscript of Kaputt is a tale of its own, and it seems to me that the secret history of the manuscript is the most appropriate preface for the book. I began Kaputt in the summer of 1941 - at the beginning of the German war against Russia - in the village of Pestchanka in the Ukraine, in the home of a Russian peasant, Roman Suchena. Every morning I sat in the garden under an acacia tree and worked while Suchena, squatting on the ground by the pig sty, sharpened his scythe or chopped beets and cabbages for the pigs. The garden adjoined the House of the Soviets which was occupied at this time by a detachment of Hitler's SS men. Whenever an SS trooper came near the hedge, Suchena gave a warning cough.
From Kaputt by Curzio Malaparte
Sunday, May 03, 2026
Saturday, May 02, 2026
First Paragraph
At ten o'clock of a rainswept morning in London's West End, a young woman in a baggy anorak, a woolen scarf pulled up around her head, strode resolutely into the storm that was roaring down South Audley Street. Her name was Lily and she was in a state of emotional anxiety which at moments turned to outrage. With one mittened hand she shielded her eyes from the rain while she glowered at door numbers, and with the other steered a plastic-covered pushchair that contained Sam, her two-year-old son. Some houses were so grand they had no numbers at all. Others had numbers but belonged to the wrong street.
- From Silverview by John Le Carré
[This was his last novel.]
Friday, May 01, 2026
President Trump Should Be a Lincoln, not a McClellan
In the 1864 presidential election, George McClellan, the Democratic nominee, favored bringing the southern states back into the Union without the abolition of slavery.
Abraham Lincoln, the Republican nominee, favored both the abolition of slavery and restoration of the Union.
Since it was clear that slavery was a major cause of the Civil War, restoration of the Union alone would not have addressed the core problem.
A similar situation exists today in the war with Iran. Any solution that fails to replace the extreme and murderous theocracy that has oppressed the Iranian people; an odious cadre that has fostered terrorism since the fall of the Shah; will fall short of the necessary resolution of the matter.
President Trump should follow the example of President Lincoln and ignore those who would turn him into a McClellan.
[Getty Images for Unsplash+]
Spreading the Word
Now that Pilate's Magician is out there, I'm hearing from some marvelous people who are spreading the word.
The novel is neither dry nor preachy, but after one woman joked that she would be getting a new yoga mat along with the book, I've been tempted to add a new marketing slogan:
"It's not about Pilates."
So far, the award for dedication goes to the man who called from New Orleans to tell me that he was taking it to his Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
Thursday, April 30, 2026
Albert Had No Idea of What Was Coming
We live in a time when men, driven by mediocre ferocious ideologies, are becoming used to being ashamed of everything. Ashamed of themselves, ashamed to be happy, to love and to create . . .. So we have to feel guilty. We are being dragged before the secular confessional, the worst of all.
- Albert Camus, Actuelles. Écrits politiques, 1948
High Tech and Defense
City Journal: The Far Left goes after Palantir.
Hmm. Are the Chinese tech companies refraining from doing defense work?
Omar Bradley
Take a few seconds to visit A Layman's Blog and read the insight of General Bradley.
We need such reminders. We need such people.
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Black-and-White Film Flashback
The film version of the Nevil Shute novel. I recall when it came out.
Everyone saw "On the Beach."
First Paragraph
The Woke Army is an organized, well-financed global network of Muslim radicals and leftist activists who exploit the freedoms of the West to promote a system of beliefs that runs counter to any values of freedom.
- From Woke Army: The Red-Green Alliance That Is Destroying America's Freedom by Asra Q. Nomani
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
Monday, April 27, 2026
Free A.I. Classes
MIT Open Learning is offering classes on Artificial Intelligence and many of them are free.
First Paragraph
This book is about intelligence. On the one hand, it's a portrait of a remarkable human, a chess prodigy, a Nobel laureate, a polymathic thinker. On the other hand, it tells the story of his quest to build remarkable machines: systems that are intuitive, creative, and even original. At some point in the not-so-distant future, artificial intelligence will beat human intelligence at almost every mental task, and to say this marks a watershed would be a parody of understatement. Artificial intelligence heralds a transformation more profound than anything since Homo sapiens acquired the capacity for abstract thought, some seventy thousand years ago.
- From The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence by Sebastian Mallaby
Many Thanks for Your Reviews!
Many thanks to those of you who've posted reviews of Pilate's Magician online and on Amazon.
We're working out the Amazon pages, so the e-book and paperback versions show up on the same page along with the Amazon reviews.
The primary goal, of course, is to create a buzz in the circles that are most likely to enjoy the novel and spread the word.
I wrote my first nonfiction book in 1976 and received an early education on which books get reviewed, which ones get ignored, and how building an audience beyond the original group is vital.
That makes me all the more appreciative of your support.
Work
The Hammock Papers has an observation by J.M.W. Turner that should be placed in every classroom in America.
Sunday, April 26, 2026
Saturday, April 25, 2026
Sharp As A Tack
Ann Althouse got a very strange, and highly inaccurate, correction from ChatGPT.
An excerpt:
- Joe Biden did not withdraw after the primaries were over.
- He stayed in the race through the primaries and remained the nominee.
- Kamala Harris did not replace him as the Democratic nominee.
Friday, April 24, 2026
Rejection Letters
A great post by Patrick Rhone.
Bravo to Beatrice and her classmates!
I have a bias for people who've been punched and keep on going.
Side Conversation
"They've canceled all of their training and are hiring very few people. Not clear on the lay-off situation. We're in limbo."
I have seen that before. When uncertainty arises, the reaction is to hold in place. That's regarded as a safe bet. Anyone pushing for big spending outside of A.I. endeavors may be regarded as reckless.
Developing A.I. training is an option, of course, but even that is risky unless it presents the material with a good dose of modesty.
More of a conversation than a presentation.
First Paragraph
The end of Europe is upon us.
- From The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age by James Kirchick
Thursday, April 23, 2026
Bear with Me
I am meeting today with a group of managers to discuss how to analyze and prevent various types of discrimination cases.
Always timely. It will be a groove.
Back this afternoon.
Best First Lines
Sippican Cottage gives his list and a grand list it is.
And yet, because it was compiled several years ago, it missed:
"I, Julian Fabius, an advocate for discretion in all things, should have known better."
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
Room Ramble
I'm teaching a workshop later this week on employment discrimination. At the moment, much of my time is devoted to returning order to my office.
A chunk of material that was needed for "Pilate's Magician" is being filed, although boxed is more accurate. [I have misplaced things in files but never in a box.]
Several boxes of books will be going to the used bookstore. I'm keeping most of the Roman history and religion books related to the novel, but others have piled up and I'm ruthlessly culling those. Mainly management titles because if there is any field in which the book promotions tend to overstate value, it's management.
In contrast, history, government, religion, and philosophy tend to hold up well.
Anyway, progress is being made. It won't be a Marie Kondo make-over but it will produce a lot of floor space.
Monday, April 20, 2026
Books in My Reading Stack
- Old School: Future-proof yourself. AI-proof your career by Nicholas Bate. I'm starting this today.
- Lords of Misrule: Mardi Gras and the Politics of Race in New Orleans by James Gill.
- The Monastery of the Damned: From the Ivy League to the French Foreign Legion by Nicholas Tobias.
- AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order by Kai-Fu Lee
- Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin's War Against Ukraine by Owen Matthews
- Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future by Dan Wang
- Mobilize: How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III by Shyam Sankar
- Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939 - 1945 by Ian Buruma
Still The One
When a person who has not seen the film versions of A Tale of Two Cities said that the BBC is planning one, I advised her to see this one first.
Memorable with a great cast.
Sunday, April 19, 2026
Saturday, April 18, 2026
Detachment 201
The U.S. Army's Executive Innovation Corps.
I need to sign up.
See IP Wave: "Silicon Valley Goes to War."
Friday, April 17, 2026
Thursday, April 16, 2026
"We Shall Not Fight on the Beaches"
The plot is simple. A huge armada of rotting hulks, bearing a million impoverished and half-starved Bengalis desperate to reach Europe, which they suppose to be a land flowing with milk and honey, sets out from Calcutta and eventually reaches the south coast of France. The local population flees before this invasion, no official efforts having been made to repel it. French society collapses; the success of the armada spells the downfall of Europe, and the whole of the West, as a civilization.
Read all of Theodore Dalrymple's review of The Camp of the Saints.
First Lines
It hurt us to breathe.
Inside a small barrack room whose remarkable cleanliness derived from its inhabitants' sweeping, scrubbing, and mopping three times a day, six of us lay down on worn mattresses of wool, with thin cotton sheets to cover us. Yellowish lamplight outside passed through the room's square windows without curtains, mixing with its darkness and recasting our surroundings in grisaille hues.
- From The Monastery of the Damned: From the Ivy League to the French Foreign Legion by Nicholas Tobias
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
Tuesday, April 14, 2026
Marketing Twist
Have been getting marketing feedback on Pilate's Magician. I was pleased, of course, to hear that the novel has been recommended by a minister but was surprised at the primary nature of his audience: lawyers.
[Photo by Rick Rothenberg at Unsplash.
Recognize Free Iran
I don't want a peace agreement with the mullahs of Iran. I want them gone.
No agreements with a "mullah-lite" regime. It would be like negotiating with Vichy bureaucrats.
Today's diplomatic task should be to recognize the new Iranian government.
Period.
Monday, April 13, 2026
Europe Fails the Test
Batya Ungar-Sargon on Europe's dismal performance.
The European governments have one of the weakest batches of leaders in decades.
[I am old enough to remember when President Eisenhower met with Prime Minister Macmillan, President De Gaulle, and Chancellor Adenauer.]
First Paragraph
Boog warned me about Washington, but until I saw the rich lady set her pugs on the dinner table, I didn't take him seriously. A staple of my relationship with Boog is that he warns and I ignore.
- From Cadillac Jack by Larry McMurtry
Sunday, April 12, 2026
Saturday, April 11, 2026
"Why the Past 14 Years Have Felt So Insane"
Rogue Highway explains how society was affected by The Great Blurring.
Thought provoking. Most great changes don't arrive with trumpets.
[Photo by Luiz Gonzaga at Unsplash]
First Paragraph of a Major Book
For thousands of years, human civilizations did something unimaginable by modern standards: They set rules to limit the power of their technologies. In the Hebrew Bible, God commands the Israelites to build an altar for worship but forbids them from using stonecutting tools in its construction. Classical Greek philosophers warned that new inventions would bear costs equal to their power. Socrates tells the story of an ancient king who laments that the advent of writing will make men lose their faculty of memory and become ignorant. Plato looked down on the "base mechanic arts" of technology for weakening the body and enfeebling the soul.
Friday, April 10, 2026
Master List Follow-Up
In the wake of the usual income tax preparation madness, I sat down to update my Master List.
Prompted by Nicholas Bate's blog post, I quickly discovered that there had been some detours into separate lists.
I expected a one-page Master List but wound up with three-pages.
The largest portion, of course, is the Important but Not Urgent category from the Eisenhower Quadrants.
First Paragraph
The white men in jackets and ties were obviously out of their element. Normally, at this time of day, they would be preparing to leave home or office for a couple of drinks, lunch and maybe a card game at their clubs. Now, on December 19, 1991, they shifted in their seats, returning hostile glares from black men and women in the packed basement of New Orleans City Hall. The city council was meeting in spartan surroundings while its regular chambers were being renovated, but the physical discomforts were nothing compared to the general psychic unease as everyone waited for the great debate on an ordinance to desegregate Mardi Gras parades and gentlemen's clubs.
From Lords of Misrule: Mardis Gras and the Politics of Race in New Orleans by James Gill
[This was recommended to me by an old friend who, when Mardi Gras rolls around, can always be found throwing beads from a float. I may join him some year.]
Thursday, April 09, 2026
Why Keep a Master List?
Nicholas Bate, whose productivity shows that he a Master of Lists, tells us why keeping one makes a huge difference.
[I use Dingbat journals for most of my lists simply because they possess a certain beauty.]
First Paragraph
I wasn't trying to play the victim until the world taught me what a powerful grift it is. Believe it or not, all I wanted was to be successful. To hustle like my Pops but to keep my life and freedom in the process. My desperate chase for your approval was really all about that. I needed that approval in order to be considered successful. I needed it to feel like my life mattered.
- From Victim: A Novel by Andrew Boryga
Wednesday, April 08, 2026
Glory Road
Have recently been reading Glory Road before bedtime. Bruce Catton was far more than a great historian. There is a poetry in his prose.
Inspirational
My high school reunion is this weekend.
My job is to stand near the end of the bar so people can mutter, "Well, at least I look better than that guy."
I am a river to my people.
The Well-Being Gap Between Liberals and Conservatives
American Affairs: Musa al-Gharbi examines evidence indicating that liberals tend to be more depressed than conservatives.
Tuesday, April 07, 2026
AI Staff Work?
Writing on Substack, law prof and Instapundit Glenn Harlan Reynolds presents a fascinating and highly plausible possibility:
"So this is purest speculation on my part. But watching the incredibly complex multi-domain rescue mission this weekend, it suddenly struck me that new, powerful AI might be behind this. Moving all these units into so many places at once, making sure that they have communications organized, fuel, ammunition, food, the right troops with the right transports, and so on is enormously complex. It normally requires the work of hundreds of staffers to do this sort of thing, and that takes time. But it happened awfully fast, and nearly flawlessly."
[HT: A Large Regular]
The Art of Noticing
Live & Learn is an exercise in life and beauty.
The photographs of the birds are enchanting.
On the Proms
"I am going to run nightly concerts and train the public by easy stages. Popular at first, gradually raising the standard until I have created a public for classical and modern music."
- Sir Henry Wood on his formation of the BBC Proms in 1927.
Reverse Compass
The Free Press: Armin Rosen on the "experts" who insist that Iran is winning.
[Photo by Jordan Madrid at Unsplash]
Monday, April 06, 2026
Heard in the Heartland
"What if $36 trillion in debt looks a lot smaller the second you stop underwriting a continent that sneers at you in three languages?"
- John Konrad
Sunday, April 05, 2026
Saturday, April 04, 2026
Reading
“A man who has read a thousand books is armed for life; a man who has read none is easy prey. The man who has read a thousand books has lived a thousand lives. He has seen cities he has never visited, spoken to men who died centuries ago, and walked in worlds that no longer exist. Reading does not merely inform him; it enlarges him. It stretches the boundaries of his own experience until he becomes something more than himself.”
- G. K. Chesterton
A Lethal Sentence
I hope those who are in power in Western Europe understand the potential damage that can result when this line is uttered by a variety of Americans:
"They denied us airspace."
A Good Story is a Good Story
Book agents and publishers need to drop their bizarre word count requirements.
[Photo by Taylor Wright at Unsplash]
Friday, April 03, 2026
Thursday, April 02, 2026
And Speaking of Novels Related to Rome
In addition to the obvious, here's my short list:
Eagle in the Snow by Wallace Breem
Claudius the God by Robert Graves
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
Julian by Gore Vidal
Pompeii by Robert Harris
The Cicero Trilogy by Robert Harris
The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough [All of the books in her series are excellent.]
[Photo by iam_os at Unsplash]