Lemurian Congress

I've spent over a month reading Thomas Pynchon's massive novel " Against the Day ." I have lugged it from home, to work, t...

The New Yorker was in a tizzy about humanism throughout 1930, as the philosophy had suddenly come back into vogue and gained national atten...

As annoying as Penn and Teller's " Bullshit! " program can be, one of their comments has really stuck with me. During a progra...

Early New Yorker magazines are absolutely AWASH with advertisements for Lux Toilet Soap . You can't turn a page without running across a...

Chapter 1 - A Most Unusual Discovery During my journies I happened across the widow McClure, a sweet Irish lass, long beyond her years and n...

For the last few months I've been on a Klondike kick. I've read all about the social, political, and historical significance of the ...

I've just finished Douglas Gilbert's " American Vaudeville ." It really is an exceptional book. Sloppy, yes, full of aside...

A few months ago I was forced to admit that Benny Hill -- at least, the '60s Benny Hill -- was funny. Now I'm going one further and...