Assistant Village Idiot

This is another example of the fatuity of the idea that we only learn by listening.  I learned a lot from this essay that I never would have...

I have never liked the illustrations by Pauline Baynes for Narnia, though I reluctantly acknowledged that they evoked medieval tapestries an...

...Of Hutchinson, KS, years ago. I was emptying an old filing cabinet with an eye to getting it out of the house.  I don't know yet wh...

I just had a comment show up on a 9-year old post.  I can guess what google search led the young man to it.  I won't identify it - no ne...

As soon as I saw the headline for the girl accepted at all Ivies I thought "Nigeria.  Igbo." The Igbo are called "the Jews ...

Scott Alexander over at Slate Star Codex reviews Clayton Cramer's book My Brother Ron .  I have commented in a small email circle of min...

Sci-fi author Sarah Hoyt linked Food In The Hobbit today. Even on first reading I noticed that coffee was part of the Colombian Exchange a...

Football is a more dangerous game to play than baseball, and the truth of that is coming out now, with all the emphasis on concussions and b...

In soccer, the US Women's National Team is suing because they aren't getting given as much money as the men.  In most times and plac...

For National Social Work Month we had a celebration at department meeting yesterday.   There was free food, so that was good. We had a ...

I missed this summary of a sociology paper the first time around, but Haidt reprints it. Victimhood Culture Explains What's Happening At...

I reflected during "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" tonight that there are not many of us left who remember old hymns - and I am among ...

It's just an impression that occurred to me while walking around the block tonight. The analysis of the Trump voters includes the gene...

I am highlighting B en's bracket based on which team nickname would defeat the other.  I would mention that I laughed out loud, but i a...

Or Hitlertrump.  Whatever. This criticism applies to my own generation.  Those younger may not have been around this carousel enough times. ...

My theory about violence in the culturally liberal and conservative camps seems to be holding up.  You will notice that Trump supporters are...

There has been a lot written lately about the lack of replicability of many studies, of things we thought we knew but now have to hold ...

The young man who grew up across the street moved back in a few years ago.   Those kids grew up without a lot of supervision or discipl...