Subterms
A timely, clever analysis of why Shakespeare continues to cast a spell over American politics The readiness is all. Ever since president John Adams rewrote a passage from Henry V to demonstrate how a foreign power might conspire to place a more pliable president in the White House, Shakespeare’s plays have been at the heart […] More
That the film coincides with a pandemic which will kill the uninsured, sick and elderly is just another layer of discomfort My entertainment options this week were a movie in which “liberal elites” hunt down and murder “deplorables” for sport – deaths that are ultra gory and played for laughs – and a Hulu documentary […] More
The philosopher Martha Nussbaum has a prodigious output and, indeed, it takes a prodigious effort to keep up with it. No sooner had I completed reading the latest trio of her books than a new one was signaled, many of the recent works being based on her delivery of prestigious guest lectures at universities around […] More
A sudden controversy has exploded in the Netherlands. In March, the Dutch department store HEMA began selling a traditional Dutch pastry under the name chocoladebal (chocolate ball) instead of moorkop (referring to the head of a dark-skinned person). HEMA followed in the footsteps of a small baker who believed the racist connotation left the chocolate-glazed […] More
Jazz is a musical art form that cultivates complex and highly disciplined improvisational skills. In its brief history — hardly more than a century — jazz has always floated between being perceived as a style of popular, crowd-pleasing music or as a sophisticated art form produced by exceptionally creative artists and daring musical geniuses. There […] More
Singer says senator is the ‘Real Deal’ who offers the big changes needed to beat Trump Neil Young has endorsed Bernie Sanders for president, saying the Vermont senator is “the real deal” to win the Democratic nomination. Writing on his personal website, the 74-year-old folk singer said that Sanders’ policies on climate change, student debt, […] More
“The trenchocracy is the aristocracy of the trenches,” declared Benito Mussolini on the pages of Il Popolo d’Italia in December 1917. Reflecting on the new type of man emerging from the war, he went on: “What an immense moral force is contained in the patriotic spirit of those who come back from the front … […] More
According to current estimates, more than 3 billion people worldwide are routine users of social media. And if you’re one of those billions, then you know good and well that social media is used for far more than posting cat videos or wishing happy birthday to your long-lost college roommate. Now more than ever, social […] More
