Monthly Archives: May 2024

A May Sarton Poem for Mother’s Day

A poetic reminder, by May Sarton, to remember the good times we spent with our mothers

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Jane Eyre, Teacher of the Month

To honor teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week, I look at teaching as it occurs in “Jane Eyre” and “Villette.”

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On Gulliver and Biden Putting Out Fires

Disagreeable measures used to combat Covid were like Gulliver pissing on a palace fire to save the structure.

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On Comedy, Seinfeld, and Tom Jones

Seinfeld has complained that wokeness is ruining comedy. Similar complains show up in Henry Fielding’s “Tom Jones.”

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The Founders vs. Dostoyevsky’s Inquisitor

Christian nationalists have the same objections to democracy that Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor has to Christ’s vision.

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This Is the Time of Loves

As we are still in the Easter season, here’s a Christina Rossetti carol that captures the joy.

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Blake’s Warning about Radicals

While students are right to protest Israeli violence in Gaza, the authoritarian streak in certain extremists is disturbing. Blake reveals the danger in “The Grey Monk.”

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Milton’s Sin as a Symbol for the GOP

A “Paradise Lost” phrase, delivered by the character Sin, sums up today’s GOP.

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