Monthly Archives: August 2022

Surveying the Books of My Childhood

By Robin Bates | Published: August 21, 2022

I survey the children’s books in our family’s collection.

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A Stevenson Poem for My Mother

By Robin Bates | Published: August 20, 2022

My remarks and a Stevenson poem at an occasion remembering my mother.

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Don’t Mourn, Visit Paris Instead

By Robin Bates | Published: August 18, 2022

At my mother’s memorial service Saturday we will hear the same Prévert song we heard at my father’s.

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Immersed in Krook’s Rag and Bone Shop

By Robin Bates | Published: August 17, 2022

Going through my mother’s possessions is like a trip into Krook’s Rag and Bone shop in “Bleak House.”

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Agatha Christie’s Shallow Comfort

By Robin Bates | Published: August 16, 2022

The protagonist of “Rules of Civility” finds comfort in Agatha Christie–but it’s a shallow comfort.

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Trump Sycophants = Winged Monkeys?

By Robin Bates | Published: August 15, 2022

Mary Trump is likening Trump sycophants to Baum’s Winged Monkeys: They’ll support Trump until, suddenly, they won’t.

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Rushdie, a Voice for Reason

By Robin Bates | Published: August 14, 2022

In a recent fantasy novel, Rushdie describes the forces that, last Friday, led to an attempted stabbing of the author.

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Our Guide: The Light that Burns Within

By Robin Bates | Published: August 13, 2022

In his poetry, St. John of the Cross finds God in the heart of darkness.

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Merrick Garland as Birnam Wood

By Robin Bates | Published: August 11, 2022

Garland, like Birnam Wood, moves inexorably on the authoritarian in charge.

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