Paul Mitchinson is a part-time writer and a full-time father of two. He writes when he can. » more about me
Nicholas Hune-Brown has a generally excellent piece in the Toronto Star analyzing the long history of suburban stereotypes in the arts. (Arts & Letters Daily provided the link.) It’s really quite a fine tour d’horizon. Hune-Brown concludes, after surveying depictions of suburbia in pop music, television, and novels, that suburbia has changed radically… but artists [...]
I’m utterly dismayed at US ambassador David Wilkins’ controversial comments about Canadian politics. Why? Well, for starters, I now have to listen to Canadian media personalities, their voices aquiver with excitement, report ad nauseum on the amazing spectacle of the US paying us some attention. It’s all so mortifying. They noticed us! They really really [...]
Tim Naftali responds to Max Holland’s article on the 9/11 Commission Report, which I mentioned in my previous post. It strikes me as a rather weak response, especially given the final paragraph’s ringing declaration of principle: I would not present myself as the official historian of anything. I value my independence too much. Well somebody‘s [...]
The 9/11 Commission Report has been perhaps the most praised official government document in history. In a throwaway line he likely regrets, John Updike wrote in the New Yorker last November that it was a "masterpiece produced by a committee," comparable only to the King James Bible. But in a remarkable piece published in the [...]
I detest Daylight Saving Time, and will be glad to get rid of it for another few months. But lawmakers north and south of the border are determined to inflict it on me for a few more weeks every year. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that this will save fuel or make our [...]
On Monday, October 17th, Howard Kurtz wrote about David Frum’s efforts to derail the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers in the Washington Post. Frum was “reluctant to be interviewed and uncomfortable with being portrayed as Harriet Miers’s most vocal critic.” Two days later, his reluctance evaporated in Canada’s National Post, where Frum writes a [...]
I introduce this little screenshot of Google news in order to make a humble request to reporters and headline writers: open your thesaurus. In the coming days, Saddam Hussein will hurl abuse at the court, show disrespect to the judge, and generally act like a pain-in-the-ass. But resist the urge to call him “defiant.” Please. [...]
James Lileks asks a simple question this morning: [D]o you think that if President Clinton had invaded Iraq and knocked Saddam for power in 1998, we’d be seeing a movie about the dictator’s trial right now, with George Clooney as the prosecutor? Look, I appreciate the sentiment here. I’m sick and tired of all the [...]
I’m beginning to appreciate Seth Roberts’ point in my comments section about the “flaws in conventional scientific tests.” Not that I withdraw my objections to Roberts’ diet theories. But Roberts is right to say that the limitations of his “research” are shared by an awful lot of “conventional” science. Consider the latest findings on lower [...]
This is such a sleepy blog that I doubt folks like Carlin Romano read it. Still, it’s a wonderful coincidence that, two weeks after my post comparing Romano with William Bennett, Romano himself has weighed in with a defense of the radio host — or as Romano refers to him, an “academic philosopher by training.” [...]