I am literally typing this. I do not literally have steam blowing out of my ears.
Archives for September 2024
Song of the day
RIP, Kris Kristofferson
David Waldstreicher wins the 2024 George Washington Book Prize
Congrats to CUNY early American historian David Waldstreicher, the winner of the 2024 George Washington Book Prize for The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journeys Through American Slavery. Here is the press release: David Waldstreicher has been awarded the […]
CURRENT is looking for a part-time business manager. Come work with us!
Current, an online journal of opinion and commentary, is looking for a part-time Business Manager. The Business Manager will: Current is a trim, shoestring operation with a small budget and few expenses. We strive to be good stewards of the […]
Cornerstone University appears to have stripped the “emeritus” status of a professor who is critical of an administration that surrounds itself with “bullet-proof glass.”
The drama continues at Cornerstone University. Get up to speed here. David L. Turner, a retired Cornerstone University professor, has also been chronicling the sad state of affairs at the Grand Rapids, Michigan Christian college. He spent thirty-two years on […]
Romance writing, sports journalism, and narrative history
I don’t think I have ever read a romance novel, but I have read a lot of sports journalism. Over at LitHub, Jamie Harrow chronicles the similarities between writing romance novels and writing about sports. It’s a really interesting piece. […]
PREVIEW: The Spirit of the Game
Christians and big-time sports: It’s more than ‘Sportianity’
The Author’s Corner with Katie Singer
Katie Singer is a public scholar, writer, and activist. This interview is based on her new book, Alien Soil: Oral Histories of Great Migration Newark (Rutgers University Press, 2024). JF: What led you to write Alien Soil? KS: I wrote Alien […]
Something out of nothing? Not so fast.
One way that we hide hard realities is by pretending that nearly everything can be turned into or made from something else.
For the record: If a flight attendant tells you to have a “blessed” evening while exiting an aircraft it is not a marker of “creeping Christian nationalism”
Sometimes those on the cultural left say the quiet part out loud. In doing so they reveal the same level of ignorance found on the MAGA right. Apparently Clara Jeffery, the editor of left-wing Mother Jones magazine, was offended when […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Is Marilynne Robinson “illiberal?” Samuel Moyn reviews two new books on “equality” Patrick Iber wonders if Eric Hobsbawm’s The Age of Extremes still holds up today Emily Dickinson’s house is […]
Trump on phone apps
Remember last year when Donald Trump asked, “What the hell is a Blizzard?“ I was reminded of this story today when I learned about the populist presidential candidate’s recent comment on phone apps. Apparently Trump doesn’t realize that his own […]
Blessing of Unicorns: What’s in a name, Christmas in September, poetry, mom writers, the Midwest, and more!
Another week, another fabulous herd!
Seven Mountain Dominionist Lance Wallnau is hosting a ‘town hall” with JD Vance
Last weekend I was in Anderson, South Carolina speaking to a group of progressive Christians. I devoted one of my lectures to Christian nationalism and mentioned Lance Wallnau, one of the most prominent Seven Mountain Dominionists in the country. None […]
Dave Barry on how the 2024 election season is affecting his community
The humorist is part of a Washington Post forum that asked writers how the election is affecting their communities. Here is Barry’s answer: I don’t know if this is an accurate way to measure the enthusiasm surrounding the election, but: […]
REVIEW: The Salt of the Universe
Amy Leach reckons with her heritage while staying faithful to it
Will we accept the results of this presidential election?
Will Americans accept the results of this election?
Historian Patrick Joyce on peasants: “At the same time as the living watch over the dead, the dead watch over and care for the living”
Check out Gus Mitchell’s review of Patrick Joyce’s Remembering Peasants: A Personal History of a Vanished World. A taste: Joyce explores five key relationships of this peasant world: to the society of the village or commune, to the family and […]
The Author’s Corner with Adam Laats
Adam Laats is Professor of Education and History at the State University of New York at Binghamton. This interview is based on his new book, Mr. Lancaster’s System: The Failed Reform That Created America’s Public Schools (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024). JF: What […]
George Orwell on “Politics and the English Language”
Why warped political language matters.