Lit City Blues

I'm trying to think where my fascination with this period of British history began and I think it might stem from a trip to visit relatives in the UK when I was younger where we went and saw a historical re-enactor present about the English Civil War at my cousins' school. The re-enactor in question was dressed as a Cavalier and I thought the overall look, but especially the hat was pretty damn cool. (He also, once he found out we were American informed us that at least one battle of the English Civil War took place in Maryland, which is true .)  As I grew older, I think it was a combination of picking up random books on various UK trips ( Cromwell, Our Chief of Men , King Charles II , and most recently, The Glorious Revolution ) but I think I have to give credit to Mike Duncan's incredible Revolutions podcast that got me interested not just in expanding my own knowledge of the period, but trying to trace back what influence it may have had on the development of American d

I tweeted this: What I’m 👀 for the campaign: 1. Harris VP pick 2. Convention Speech Would hope to see her do some interviews (actual, non-soft ones) after that. Am increasingly convinced that she’s a fundamentally different candidate from 2020. — Tom Nixon (@litcityblues) August 2, 2024 #1: Nailed it.  I get that Walz has some detractors in the Punditocracy, but Harris is working on a condensed timeline and has not time for an intraparty fight, even if it might be one worth having. Shapiro would have helped in Pennsylvania, but he also would have meant an intraparty fight and she ain't got time for that. Walz helps in the Upper Midwest (MN, WI and probably MI) and it doesn't hurt that he used to be a teacher, served in the national guard and is an effective communicator to boot. I have not worn a uniform, so I'm going to let the folks who have litigate any fights over the nature of his service. To me and probably a lot of other normie voters, the fact that he wore the un

This is a well-written essay . I will give the author all his flowers: it's well-written, it's compelling, it's even persuasive (in parts) but it's also utterly wrong. 'Reflections on the revolution in England' immediately grabs your attention, because: what Revolution? The anti-immigrant riots? The criminalization of speech? There's a reason people sailed away from that Island over there and landed on these shores, buddy and it's because there hasn't been a revolution on that sceptered island and its relationship with speech has always been sketchy. This is the same Kingdom that brought us the Star Chamber after all Full credit for this quote, however: The latter shed more heat than light-- the American grasp of European affairs is generally poor, a quality amplified by orders of magnitude when discussing the European grasp on American affairs, which is simply abysmal. Truer words have never been put to paper or screen. It's even worse because

Once, in 9th Grade, I filibustered on the cotton candy-filled goo of Olympic coverage for a solid thirteen minutes because all I wanted to do was watch some fucking speed skating, but no, whoever had the Olympics at the time insisted on filling so much time with human interest stories that it crowded out the sport . Of course, I was in 9th grade and was full of teenage arrogance and lacking in any sort of knowledge of basic media criticism, but I believed what I believed damn it . So when I watch the Olympics, I do judge the coverage. And the older I get, the more judgey I get about it. But, you know what: Paris was awesome .  Medium Spawn and I watched the tape-delayed broadcast of the Opening Ceremonies and, the weird menage-a-trois moment aside, it was awesome. It did something no other Opening Ceremony managed to do effectively and that was a showcase of the host city itself. The boat parade on the Seine? Perfect.  This-- which on the broadcast I remember being dead silent apart fr

I've always had a fascination with maps, dating back to childhood- but that, combined with now obscure 80s cartoons like The Mysterious Cities of Gold has always left me fascinated by the Tierra Del Fuego (because it's literally, 'The Land of Fire') and the Straits of Magellan. So, when I found a book that detailed the voyage that first circumnavigated the globe, it was an easy sell for me. Over the Edge of the World , by Laurence Bergreen tells the story of Magellan's voyage in 1520. It's tempting to credit Bergreen's writing for how quickly he keeps the narrative moving and the pages turning, but in reality, the subject matter does it for him. (That's not to say that the book is badly written, quite the opposite- it's just that sometimes authors need to paint a picture and jazz things up a bit to get the pages turning. Bergreen has absolutely no need to do that with this subject matter.) The politics of setting up such a voyage are interesting en

2024 is going to be the most fascinating election of my lifetime and my political science nerd brain has been running at *Red Alert* for the past couple of weeks now trying to sort all of my initial thoughts and reactions into something coherent and readable and this is my first crack at unpacking it all.  (If you have been living on another planet and/or under some kind of rock: President Joe Biden shortly after the end of the Republican National Convention, announced he was dropping out of the Presidential race and threw his support to Vice President Kamala Harris.) Hopium & Copium: Before The Convention Edition If you, like me, are a voter who's getting tired of feeling like you're trapped in some kind of insane asylum, voting for Kamala Harris is a no-brainer. If she can do a 100-day sprint of an election cycle and manage to win-- and do so convincingly-- it's a hammer blow to the primary system. This is something that has not gotten enough play in my opinion, The p