Newsletter Archive​
Newsletters from the current and preceding year
2024​
-
April 15, 2024 / Vol. IX, No. 8: notes on Ukraine, Israel/Iran, the novel Emotionally Weird by the incomparable Kate Atkinson…
-
April 1, 2024 / Vol. IX, No. 7: commentary on the kerfuffle over Easter, Transgender Day of Visibility, and prohibited egg decorations for the White House Easter Egg hunt, resurrection of the old chemtrails conspiracy theory, March Madness…
-
March 15, 2024 / Vol. IX, No. 6: reflections on the loss of NW Film Center and the Portland International Film Festival, Biden's SOTU, Britt's rebuttal, the Hur report, Jr Kennedy running mate possibilities…
-
March 1, 2024 / Vol. IX, No. 5: my friend Greg Bigler's new book Rabbit Decolonizes the Forest, the new Coen brother film, the "dissident" Donald Trump (sarcasm alert)…
-
February 15, 2024 / Vol. IX, No. 4: indication that Multnomah County's Central Library, closed for renovation for almost a year, will reopen soon, my take on Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country, commentary on the Hur report, epic hypocrisy on the border…
-
February 1, 2024 / Vol. IX, No. 3: coming out of January's snow, ice, and frigid temperatures to report on MAGA panic attacks over deep-state operative Taylor Swift, an immigration crisis at the border that is apparently not severe enough to risk giving Joe Biden a win…and on the bright side, basketball, Lady Gamecocks, Caitlin Clark, Embiid, Doncic!…
-
January 15, 2024 / Vol. IX, No. 2: brutish weather comes to our fair city, update on poet Chuck Oliveros, caucus day in Iowa, Republican savagery…
-
January 1, 2024 / Vol. IX, No. 1: greeting the new year with notes about a film, a book, wine, Wordsworth…
2023
-
December 15, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 24: holiday greetings, a new intellectual adventure, reflections on my city and its treasures, a cherished holiday memory…
-
December 1, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 23: holiday greetings, commentary on Tim Alberta's article about bogus historians who teach evangelical Christians they live in a theocracy, William Brangham's moving interview with mothers of two of the three Palestinian students shot in Vermont, Substack's Nazi problem…
-
November 15, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 22: Dostoevsky and intellectual ferment in mid-19th century Russia, congressional shenanigans and clownery headlined by Mike Johnson, the Taylor Greene-Boebert duo, and cheap-shot artist Kevin McCarthy's sucker elbow to Tim Burchett's kidney…
-
November 1, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 21: capsule review of Louis Garrel's film L'innocent, context missing from the decolonization narrative, Mike Johnson's opening salvo, the baffling mystery of why so many voters think Joe Biden is a radical progressive…
-
October 15, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 20: comment about the current crisis in Israel and Gaza, a celebration of films by Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Krzysztof KieÅ›lowski, memo from the sports desk…
-
October 1, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 19: poetry announcement, cranky memo from the cinema desk, commentary on passage of the CR to fund the government at FY2023 levels for 45 days, and a note about opening day of the House Oversight Committee's Hunter, I mean, Joe, Biden impeachment inquiry…
-
September 15, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 18: poem publication announcement, Putin's defense of Trump, Kim's defense of Putin, impeachment inquiry, budget chaos, Boebert escorted from theater…
-
September 1, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 17: reports on my recent return to a favorite poet first read when I was eighteen, Harold Bloom on Walt Whitman, the sentencing of Proud Boys leaders, and Moscow after eighteen months of war…
-
August 15, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 16: conservative case that Donald Trump and others are disqualified from holding federal office by virtue of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment, a closer look at Biden voters who are not all just coastal elites, trivialization of the prosecution of Trump when judges and prosecutors are treated as pop celebrities…
-
August 1, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 15: a note about an upcoming essay, analysis of an argument made by pretenders for the Republican nomination, comment on bipartisan gerontocaracy, Barbie frenzy…
-
July 15, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 14: Mona Charen's refutation of Trump's "bonkers" claim that during his presidency America was respected all over the world, the mysterious case of the disappearing whistleblower, a memo from the film desk…
-
July 1, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 13: deer sighting on Springwater Corridor, capsule review of Behind the Scenes at the Museum by formidable novelist Kate Atkinson, Prigozhin, the Supreme Court six's mutiny against the 20th century…
-
June 15, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 12: return to routine after pleasurable sojourn in Tulsa with thoughts about Cormac McCarthy and reactions to Trump's crimes and the indictment…
-
June 1, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 11: commmentary on the debt deal vote, the PEN America incident and controversial reception of Russian dissdents, new Substack posts…
-
May 15, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 10: links to recent articles at my Substack site, Mill Hill Scientist by James L Jim Stevens, some good memories, and baseball…
-
May 1, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 9: announcing transition to David Matthews Portable Bohemia at Substack
-
April 15, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 8: the trash talk affair, the Tennessee three and GOP disdain for democracy, classical education and cultural heritage…
-
April 1, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 7: indictment frenzy, book recommendations, prisoner rights crusader Marjorie Taylor Greene (extreme sarcasm alert)…
-
March 15, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 6: a day in the life of an obscure man, a dose of perspective on America's "ironclad" commitment to Israeli security, years of anarchy…
-
March 1, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 5: Marjorie Taylor Greene's call to blow up the union, federalism on amphetamines, the expurgation of Roald Dahl, furor in the newsroom of The New York Times…
-
February 15, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 4: review of the Indian film Adieu Godard, commentary on the State of the Union, the French and le wokisme, balloons and balloon-like objects…
-
February 1, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 3: melancholy farewell to the PBS NewsHour's Politics Monday feature, recommended commentary on trans issues, indictment of a former FBI agent with links to a Russian oligarch, department of speculation and rumor and more…
-
January 15, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 2: thoughts about friends in California, the classified documents mess, hope springs infernal as spring training looms just over the horizon…
-
January 1, 2023 / Vol. VIII, No. 1: tribute to Judy Woodruff, Ocasio-Cortez's nay vote on December 23, sudden Russian death syndrome…