Smith-Ruiu, On Drugs
"Human beings are the animals that have to do things they don't actually have to do. The name we use to describe these things is culture."
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The Way of the Cobblestone
Smooth makes things rough. Ease makes life more difficult. Soft makes us brittle.
We lost something when asphalt replaced cobblestone. Every step on those old, gnarled stones forced a man’s body to shift, recalibrate, and work. The more cobblestonish the surface, the more micro-exertions. The more asphaltish the surface,
Albert Jay Nock, the Remnant, and Our Need to Read
Picture a man, tattered coat flapping, rummaging through a dumpster in an alley. You wince, don’t you? That flicker of disgust ripples through your gut.
But hold on. Don’t judge him too harshly. He’s not much different from a stray dog, sniffing for scraps.
That’s not
Jeremy Clarke: A Great Reader
It's arguably the most popular column in Britain's oldest newspaper.
The "Low Life" column of The Spectator has entertained readers since 1975, when Jeffrey Bernard provided readers with, to quote Johnathan Meades, "a suicide note in weekly installments."
After Bernard's
Twenty 20th-Century Books for Young Autodidacts
(Actually, there are 33, if you count the honorable mentions)
Joseph Epstein is arguably the best essayist alive. He’s urbane, funny, self-deprecating. He’s a fine stylist, and he’s remarkably well-read.
I remember William F. Buckley marveling at Epstein’s erudition and wondering how Epstein could have so
The Reading Paradox
The Hemispheres Create Paradoxes. One is Brewing Right Now: We're Reading More Than Ever But Reading Reading Less Than Ever
BYCU: Bands that Sell-Out to Beer
Later addendum: John Densmore's excellent The Doors Unhinged: Jim Morrison's Legacy Goes on Trial is only $2.99 on Kindle.
5 Band Beers
1. Dogfish Head Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale (5.3% ABV)
2. Juice Runners Paloma Remix (5.9% ABV)
3. Hanson Brothers Beer
Escaping the Cocooned Mind
We’re all wrapped up in rationalist cocoons, spun not by our own hands but by the sticky threads of a world gone mad with reason.
Our spit’s in the walls, sure, but we didn’t design the daggone things. We were born into them, raised in them, schooled
The Thrill of Competition Might be Vitamins for the Left Hemisphere of Your Brains
And in this modern age, you never need to nourish your left hemisphere
The Third Way Fever
This modern world’s got a fever, and it ain’t for more cowbell.
It’s for third alternatives.
Everybody’s itching for that elusive other option, like it’s the last ticket out of a burning city. Ray Oldenburg lit a fuse back in ’89 with The Great Good