Speaking of time of day, here is George C. Marshall opining on originality:
“No one ever had an original idea after 3 o’clock in the afternoon.”
A totally false statement, of course. But I don’t think that was his point!
As we watch the newspaper industry die around us, we should reflect on just how important newspapers have been for American democracy. Thomas Jefferson certainly understood this. “The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to…
In the book review section of the New York Times, Andrew Solomon poses a reflection on Adam Lanza, the deranged elementary school shooter in Connecticut: “If we want to stem violence, we need to begin by stemming despair.” How we will stem either of these problems I don’t know. But what a great sentence!
The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible. (Click here to view comments)
Albert Rees was a University of Chicago trained economist who wrote some of the most influential works in the field of labor economics. Despite his Chicago training – Chicago being the epicenter of the idea that humans are guided largely by rational choice – he was well aware of something crucial missing from economic theory:…
I don’t read much war history. I’m fascinated by what causes humans to end up in a state of war, but not so interested in the bloody details of how they fight their battles. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed The Day of Battle, a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson. The book covers the war…
Not long ago, I had the pleasure of reading Fooling Houdini, by Alex Stone. It is a marvelous book, part memoir about how his obsession with magic pulled him away from his career in physics, but also a wonderful explanation of the psychology of how magic works its wonders. Get rid of all those images…