Thanksgiving Anticipation

Ah, Thanksgiving. That most unusual of holidays, one that is still celebrated for its original purpose. Santa and the Easter Bunny may have pushed the religious roots of Christmas and Easter to the sideline in much of the public consciousness, and Memorial Day’s...

Is Polling Dead?

A partially knee-jerk reaction on the political scene. Is political polling dead? Short answer: probably not. Pollsters may expand their margins of error and modify their methods, but the allure of reducing policy questions to percentages of voters in favor or opposed...

Billy Graham: An Appreciation

On November 7, 1918 on a dairy farm near Charlotte, North Carolina, a baby was born. William Franklin Graham, Jr., better known as Billy, would be known from an early age for his powerful voice, a voice that found its purpose as a preacher of the Gospel. A preacher...

Rear Window, Vertigo, and the battle for reality

Disclaimer and spoiler alert: Both of the movies which I am about to discuss are far too complex to be reduced to one theme. Books can and have been written to tease out all the layers in Hitchcock’s filmography, this little essay is a focused attempt to think about...

A Commonplace Book

What is a commonplace book? It’s an ancient tradition dating back to the Greek and Roman philosophers to keep a running record of thoughts and useful information. “a collection without order, drawn from many papers, which I have copied here, hoping to...