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I am 2/3 of the way through Wellington: The Iron Duke, and I am afraid that I am perverse enough to prefer Napoleon to the Duke of Wellington. I cannot say the human race would have been better off if Napoleon had beaten Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo, but I couldn’t help preferring theContinue reading “On My Perversity in Heroes”

This year we had a pumpkin left over from Halloween that had–alas–not been made into a jack-o-lantern. Well, I decided to make a pumpkin pie out of it for Thanksgiving. (Happily it did not spoil from October 31 to November 22.) I got the pumpkin in the pumpkin pie recipe online and the crust wasContinue reading “How to Cook a Pumpkin Pie from Scratch”

I have thought on and off about a question I long to read Hegel and Whitehead to further enlighten myself about–because I have only read some Whitehead and little Hegel, and yet I wonder if there ideas might be close to mine or at least enrich mine. I am not claiming to be that greatContinue reading “Beginning Thoughts on the Ideal”

I got sidetracked from reading the book I meant to finish today, Niels Lyhne. Maybe it is because I do not care for the book much. Yet I must finish it, and I suppose tomorrow I shall. What did I do instead today? Some grocery shopping, a trip to the dentist, eating out, watching TV,Continue reading “A.A. Milne on Knighthood”

All these years of struggling to be a professional author who makes real money are finally going to come true, and my chimerical-seeming dream will materialize. I will not give exact figures (that would be gosh), but I can see my ship coming in. So–if anyone is interested–I shall tell the tale of how IContinue reading “A Writer Lives the Dream”

I know it is a little like bragging to talk about book deals that have finally come my way at 42. Yet I am so thrilled that I want every friend and every friendly acquaintance to know. My 2nd agent–it is odd but I now have two, and perhaps (depending on how a third bookContinue reading “The Writing Business IV”

All of art, or at least most of it, lay on the same central contradiction of faith. If you read Ezekiel 18:2 (for those from the Jewish religion, forgive me for using the old JPS translation), it says: What mean ye, that ye use this proverb in the land of Israel, saying: The fathers haveContinue reading “The Bible’s Central Paradox”

I will admit that I am a Conservative Democrat. I am largely a liberal in things like economics, but in social issues I am some times conservative. I feel I am very patriotic and very religious, and these things go against the grain of those farthest to the left in the Democratic Party. At theContinue reading “Election Night in Kansas”

I have good news for anyone who considers me a friend. I have signed an early contract with Macmillan. They are considered one of the “Big 5” publishers in the English language. The bugs are still being decided as to when the book will come out, and I believe a new cover will have toContinue reading “The Writing Business III”

Andrew Roberts picks heroes men who go against the grain in America to celebrate. Well, okay: who doesn’t love Winston Churchill? But King George III? Or Napoleon, for crying out loud? Yet I am finishing Napoleon: A Life, and I find myself admiring a man I always assumed was a great rogue. I am onContinue reading “Napoleon, Hero or Villain?”