Eric Scheske

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Eric Scheske

Eric Scheske

Pixel v. Print and Five Hard Novels

Pixel v. Print and Five Hard Novels

I ran across perhaps the most-enjoyable Medium.com pieces of the past few months: Five Insanely Difficult Novels (and Why They're Worth the Effort). It, for me, is perhaps the quintessential online essay. I agree with Joseph Epstein that there is something fundamentally different between reading print and

Annual Thanksgiving Day Quotes

Annual Thanksgiving Day Quotes

“Thanksgiving Day originated in New England when the Puritans realized they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians.” Mark Twain “Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.” Samuel Johnson “Beggar that I

Christmas Eve with GKC

Christmas Eve with GKC

In the round of our rational and mournful year one festival remains out of all those ancient gaieties that once covered the whole earth. Christmas remains to remind us of those ages, whether Pagan or Christian, when the many acted poetry instead of the few writing it. “Christmas and the

Black Wednesday Arrives

Black Wednesday Arrives

Welcome to the biggest bar night of the year. New Years Eve is for house parties. Halloween is for frat parties. St. Patrick's Day is for Irish parties. Thanksgiving Eve is for bar parties. College kids come home and filter into the local watering hole that declined them

The Difference Between Superstition and Religion

The Difference Between Superstition and Religion

Personal Computer and Personal Choice

Personal Computer and Personal Choice

In 1968, Carver Mead, professor at California Institute of Technology, began to demonstrate the possibilities of placing an entire computer on one chip at a cost of just a few dollars. He also began to preach the possibilities of the innovation, asserting it would end the burdensome and expensive computer

The Stoics and Me

The Stoics and Me

As an uptight Christian, I've sought spiritual counsel from St. John the Apostle to Thomas Merton, from Augustine through Aquinas to Guardini. They all helped. But I still suffered from uptightness and swings of passion: worry about the future; sudden bursts of good emotional energy, mortgaged with my

BYCU

BYCU

Count Me In I love everything about Christmas. I even like its commercialization. And I love gin. The problem is, I'm not sure it's available in the U.S. Gordon’s Unveils Sugar Plum Gin Liqueur Just in Time for Holiday ImbibingAs the holiday season approaches,

The Origins of the Tavern: A Micro-History

The Origins of the Tavern: A Micro-History

The bar in English-speaking countries traces its roots back to Roman Britain where drinking establishments flourished. The establishments declined with Rome, but they came back in the Middle Ages, largely through the efforts of monasteries to provide for travelers. By the fifteenth century, three different drinking establishments were found in

Has the Rabble Breached Another Wall in the Castle of High Culture?

Has the Rabble Breached Another Wall in the Castle of High Culture?

The New Criterion properly considers itself an urbane journal of the arts. With this, comes a commitment to first-rate style, without regard to the Idiocracy that is overwhelming our culture. But I saw something interesting (or disturbing, depending on whether one cheers this cultural secular bear market or condemns it)