Huck and Jim by Thomas Hart Benton. That's "Huckleberry," not "Huckabee." Explainer I realized, after asking some cordial readers whether they got my "Huck Honey" reference in the last post (see directly below), that I am older than sin and, on top of that, think that a literary critic whose best work was written almost 60 years ago could be considered K-Fed famous. His name is Leslie Fiedler -- born in Newark, New Jersey just after World War I, died in 2003, and was best known for a university-bookstore staple called Love and Death in the … [Read more...]

How to get a head in the art world (For the Love of God by Damien Hirst) Current Events Gosh, even with TV's long-compromised creativity halted by a strike, there's so much to write about right now. Like that Huckabee person's unretracted wish not only to concentrate HIV/AIDS types in some sort of germ camp, but his unembarrassed belief that we bent citizens -- Jodie Foster newly included -- are bad, bad, bad in a way that no proper under-God government could ever efficiently correct. Fall off the raft, Huck honey. "Aberrant, unnatural, and … [Read more...]