Monthly Archives: June 2012

Where else but the New York Times? To the Editor: The reviewer of Alice Kessler-Harris’s book about Lillian Hellman, “A Difficult Woman” (June 10), complains that it doesn’t probe “inside Hellman’s character” but instead looks at how her life, as … Continue reading →

Happy Father’s Day!  Madame is off at shows in Texarkana this weekend.  I mowed the back three acres here at Stately Hlatky Manor.  The ground is more or less level and I use a riding mower, true, but 1) the … Continue reading →

Since there doesn’t seem to be much else worth discussing this evening, I’ll leave my readers (if any) with a couple of pictures from the show scene.  First, Mr. Ali (Ch. Soyara’s The Force of Destiny) taking Best of Breed … Continue reading →

Surely it’s PowerPoint, you will say.  Actually, no.  PowerPoint, while dangerous, is usually a threat only in meetings, which can usually be avoided. The worst thing Microsoft ever foisted on the public is the Office Communicator, which allows employees to … Continue reading →

The German Empire’s Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, once said that only idiots learn from their own mistakes; the intelligent learn from the mistakes of others. It’s a good thing that Bismarck didn’t live long enough to see what a cock-up … Continue reading →

Megan McArdle announces she’s leaving The Atlantic for Tina Brown’s Newsweek.  Maybe the money’s better, but Ms. McArdle’s professional progress has been for progressively worse publications:  she used to write for the excellent Economist, then for The Atlantic (never the same after Michael Kelly’s … Continue reading →

Lapidary words from Aaron Haspel’s Everything: The practical capitalist we call a capitalist; the practical anarchist we call a terrorist; the practical socialist we call a thief. Those who attack the status quo on the grounds that nothing could be … Continue reading →

We are going through a time where, unhappily, a number of things around the house are breaking down, requiring bringing people in to repair them.  Those repair people are, of course, part of small businesses if not the owners themselves.  … Continue reading →

A family portrait:  Dutch, Ilya and Carmen at the Houston KC show.  Dutch won the breed under Carole Beyerle.

Between Pearland and Lake Jackson, Brazoria County in Texas is overwhelmingly rural.  We live in Iowa Colony (pop. 804) and for miles around us are rice farms and horse and cattle ranches.  Apart from the chemical plants in Chocolate Bayou … Continue reading →

The usual and customary whinage about the National Anthem from the usual and whiny leftie Bill Press (via Joe Newby): “But it’s an abomination,” he said.  “First it ranges two octaves [actually an octave and a half] most people can … Continue reading →

Free Press Houston, one of those progressive newspapers available at urban diners, supermarkets and other bastions of captialist oppression, sponsors The Free Press Houston Summer Fest, bravely saying that: A recycling program, carbon off-set credits and a partnership with the Texas Campaign … Continue reading →

I promise to post more frequently. I promise to post more frequently. I promise to post more frequently. I promise to post more frequently. I promise to post more frequently. I promise to post more frequently. I promise to post … Continue reading →