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Had anyone else written Rex Chapman’s story, few publishing houses would have bought it. It relentlessly exposes Chapman’s compulsions, his weaknesses, his consistently poor judgments. At times it’s almost cruel.
Instead, the author is Chapman himself, the former Kentucky hoop prodigy who chased glory and money while addiction and injury were chasing him. The ensuing pileup was spectacular, removing loved ones from his life and stripping every dollar and almost every dollop of self-esteem.
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“To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
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The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No…
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I want to start this off by saying sorry. I am so so deeply and truly sorry that this recipe uses about half a can of coconut milk instead of the whole damn thing. And I’m sorry because honestly I find that really fucking annoying in a recipe- so don’t worry I’m already well aware of how sucky I am for that. But, with a whole can this cake was just TOO coconut-y and I couldn’t do that to you either.
For decades now, Kathy Castner and her cousin, Charlie Bowen, sing duets whenever they have one of those rare chances to be together. Their musical connection goes back a long way.
As a child, Kathy regularly was brought to visit relatives in Ashland. Whenever she was, their grandmother usually assigned her cousin to sing her to sleep at bedtime. (Yes, Grandma Robertson was prescient about Bowen’s mad skills for putting audiences to sleep.
I posted this fact, along with this image, earlier today on Bluesky, not thinking twice about it. I am a Civil War historian and thought it was appropriate to mark the bicentennial of Jackson’s birth given his significance both in history and memory.
Not everyone saw it this way.
It appears that some people have a problem drawing a distinction between describing somethinga about the past and celebrating it.
Here are a few choice responses to my post:
Newsletter # 148
These days our screens are filled with heart-crushing images of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and the terrible death and destruction in its wake. I grieve for the more than 15,000 Gazans, 70% of them women and children, who’ve been killed in this tragic incarnation of a century old conflict. I despise Hamas for starting it. I’m sad that the Palestinians rarely get the leaders they deserve. I deplore Israel’s high tolerance for “collateral damage.
Taylor Swift has always had an innate gift that allows her to perfectly imbue songs with distinct emotions by using hyperspecific details to create the sound of a feeling. It’s one of the things that has made her songwriting stick so hard and for so long, and it mostly recurs in her love songs – it’s difficult not to be affected by the momentary lovestruck fantasies of “Enchanted,” the intense passion of new romance in “Fearless” and “Sparks Fly,” and the touching partnership on display in “Lover.
Listen to Joseph Bottum read the poem
A.A. Milne (1882–1956) needs no introduction. If anything, he needs a disintroduction. His Winnie the Pooh books are so well known that they intrude in our vision, like rainbow glasses that make everything by the man seem giddy, gooey, and sappy. The truth is that Milne was very good at children’s art, and what we need is to cast aside the lenses that popular success, aided by the Disney corporation, have taught us to use when reading the man.
Weave a circle round him thrice, / And close your eyes with holy dread — What are we to do with such lines? Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” has the voice of poetry itself. Just think of the musicality of the opening lines, the magisterial diction of the second stanza, the tone of the prophet in the third — all mingled with enchantment. “Kubla Khan” gives us a sense of powerful truths swirling just beyond our understanding, like angels or demons dancing in the air a few feet off the far cliff-edge of meaning.