I am a fairly laid-back, low-key person. It takes a lot to get me riled up. This attitude has generally served me well. It’s only on very rare occasions that I become angry; only twice in my adult life have I ever actually been angry enough to yell at someone (yelling at sporting events, rooting on my favorite athletic performers, does not count). Generally, if I’ve been wronged – and it does happen occasionally – I forget it pretty quickly and move on with my life.

It’s not something I spend a lot of time on, but I do concoct revenge scenarios. [Read more →]

Tags: diatribes, ends & odd by Ricky Sprague
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Ah, the unpredictable world of the dictator. One minute you’re a living god with a gold toilet, multiple palaces and a personal bodyguard of nubile female ninjas, and then the next it’s all over, as if all that splendor was nothing more than a very long – and mostly quite pleasant – dream.

Such is the reality Muammar Gaddafi finds himself inhabiting right now. Until recently he was not only the planet’s most famous colonel (after the guy who makes fried chicken, of course) but also Africa’s longest reigning head of state. Less than nine months ago he was still being feted by world leaders and fawned over by a prestigious English university hungry for oil money. His children enjoyed expensive educations at European and American institutions. And what about those tender, personal moments spent leafing through his album of Condoleezza Rice portraits? [Read more →]

Tags: travel & foreign lands, trusted media & news by Daniel Kalder
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At first, I was greatly entertained. Joseph Epstein, a considerable talent and first rate intellect in his own right, had taken the time to make new enemies by the score among the reigning academic elite, with a single critical review of the recent Cambridge History of the American Novel. But then, having read it and wanting to savor the piece, I found myself overcome by a deeper depression. [Read more →]

Tags: books & writing by Vincent McCaffrey
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Forgetting English is a slim volume of haunting short stories. These are stories of loss, of deep emotion, and of women trying to find their way forward. The language is lyrical — poetic in places — and the stories were lovely to read. Author Midge Raymond provides a very short but entertaining collection. [Read more →]

Tags: books & writing, Lisa Reads by Lisa Hura
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