Eric Scheske

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Biography

One Vicious Author

One Vicious Author

You remember the 1987 movie, Throw Mama from the Train? I learned last night that it was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 movie, Strangers on a Train, which was in turn based on the novel by the same name. The author of the novel? Patricia Highsmith, a nasty

Huberman Attack

Huberman Attack

I struggled about whether to post this story. I really like the Huberman podcast and this reporter wrote this story to show (by implication) that Huberman is a fake because he has demons . . . including a big libido. The thing is, I've always figured Huberman must have pretty serious

Was Albert Jay Nock Like Socrates?

Was Albert Jay Nock Like Socrates?

Nock’s Memoirs is the figurative equivalent of Socrates drinking the hemlock. But both are suicides that were necessary in light of their worldview. Nock’s Memoirs is his way of getting involved: the only way he could get involved and live true to his principles.

Henry Fowler and Ernest Gowers

Henry Fowler and Ernest Gowers

Henry Fowler (1858-1933) wrote A Dictionary of Modern English Usage after a career of pretty much nothing. He worked hard; he was honest and honorable, but he had never amounted to much: teacher, journalist, soldier (lying about his 57 years so he could fight), and editor. But then, in 1925,

William Cobbett: Radical

William Cobbett: Radical

Plough publishes pretty pieces. This piece about the 19th-century radical William Cobbett is the latest. It discusses the centralization of agriculture that took place in England in the early 1800s and Cobbett's resistance (which made him one of GKC's heroes; he wrote a biography about him)

Getting to Know H.L. Mencken

Getting to Know H.L. Mencken

I occasionally surrender to a Mencken spree. It’s something I’ve been doing since the early 1990s when I bought my first Mencken books: three cheap paperback editions of Mencken essays that I found at The Dawn Treader Bookstore in Ann Arbor. I’ve recently been reading the essays,

How to Hate Jordan Peterson

How to Hate Jordan Peterson

My man Ayodeji Awosika came out with a great piece at Medium.com awhile back: 12 Rules for Hating Jordan Peterson. This Jordan piece is a monster, consisting of nearly 4,000 words (Medium.com measures its stories by reading time: 265 WPM; this article is 14 minutes long . . . do

Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited

Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited

Paul Mankowski at First Things

Christopher Lasch Appealed on the Left and the Right

Christopher Lasch Appealed on the Left and the Right

By Christian Lorentzen at The Jacobin

Are Saints Sent at Specific Times for Specific Reasons?

Are Saints Sent at Specific Times for Specific Reasons?

Every so often, spiritual lightning sears across a culture's landscape. The example of St. Francis of Assisi immediately comes to mind. So does St. Antony. Their intense holiness was bright and powerful, and left an indelible mark on the earth. We can't know for certain why