RattleBag and Rhubarb

Murder? Can you prove it?

I do remember the trial of Dr. Bodkin Adams. My family took The Daily Herald back in 1957 and I…

2 years ago

January, The Election, and A White Cat

Poems by Charles Simic (1938-2023) January Children’s fingerprints On a frozen window Of a small schoolhouse. An empire, I read…

2 years ago

Ronald Blythe, Akenfield, and The Age of Illusion

I follow the art historian Richard Morris on Twitter and his tweets are a daily delight - each one providing…

2 years ago

Marienbad

Every Christmas growing up my family received a greeting card from the Stingl family.  I knew that my grandmother, mother,…

2 years ago

Cats and Pronouns

Cats and Dogs Dogs have owners; cats have staff. That's now a familiar saying but just as accurate nonetheless And…

2 years ago

Classic Crime: Death Comes to Kellings

This is a review of a book I have not read that does not actually exist. Needless to say, I…

2 years ago

The View From Here: Signs of the Times and Chickens

I've been thinking about how we need to stop using the word "gender" to refer to people and why we…

2 years ago

Lists are the Origin of Culture

We like lists because we don't want to die Back, book, casualty, honors, naughty and nice, shopping, spelling, top-ten, and…

2 years ago

Making Change

On a daily neighborhood soodle a while back I saw this single golden sandal on a stoop on W112th Street.…

2 years ago

Fizz and Filth – Kate Atkinson and Babylon London 1926

A novel by Kate Atkinson is always something to look forward to and I've just finished reading her latest -…

2 years ago