Monthly Archives: January 2020

Eyes Wide Shut to the Obvious

By Robin Bates | Published: January 30, 2020

A Stanley Elkin short story describes what we are seeing in Trump’s Senate trial: Republicans refusing to acknowledge what they know actually happened.

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Odysseus’s Emasculation Anxieties

By Robin Bates | Published: January 29, 2020

“The Odyssey” is obsessed with a fear of emasculation.

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The GOP, through the Looking Glass

By Robin Bates | Published: January 28, 2020

Cartoonist Tom Toles has a very smart Alice-through-the-Looking-Glass take on Trump and the GOP.

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What Do Odysseus’s Monsters Mean?

By Robin Bates | Published: January 27, 2020

My explanation for the monsters in “The Odyssey.”

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Kobe’s Farewell Poem

By Robin Bates | Published: January 26, 2020

Kobe Bryant’s farewell poem to basketball takes on new meaning in light of his untimely death.

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Nourished by the Mystery

By Robin Bates | Published: January 25, 2020

Two Mary Oliver fish poems complement well Christ’s invitation to become “fishers of people.”

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Starbucks Chose Wrong Moby Dick Name

By Robin Bates | Published: January 23, 2020

Starbucks took its name from the first mate in “Moby Dick.” The third mate, however, would have been a better fit.

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The Real Face of Patriotism

By Robin Bates | Published: January 22, 2020

When William McRaven asked, out of sympathy with John Brennan, that his own security clearance be withdrawn, he behaved like Brecht’s poet in “Burning of the Books.”

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Are Dems Hampered by “Moral Claptrap”?

By Robin Bates | Published: January 21, 2020

Wilkie Collins’s villainous Count Fosco will do whatever it takes to win–which puts him in the company of Trump and McConnell’s GOP.

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