Author Archives: Anton

Inevitability

Libertango makes a couple of keen points about the war. (Cited by Terry Karney whom I don’t think I’ve seen since he was about sixteen.)

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Soapmaker

This Soapmaker is my former neighbor. It’s not a good likeness. (Posting mainly to save the link.)

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my tastes are not always unshared

For Dad‘s birthday I sent him the first season of Northern Exposure and of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I am gratified to hear that both he and Mrs Dad are enjoying them; Ruth particularly raves about NX.

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Alcohol Prohibition Was A Failure

Alcohol Prohibition Was A Failure, says a Cato paper of 1991. (No kidding?) This is the first time I’ve seen the data so thoroughly laid out. Here’s another survey. (Both cited by Radley Balko.)

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I tawt I taw a Caspian sturgeon

A spammer asks, “Can you imagine a Silvester without Caviar?” Well, no, I guess not. What’s a Silvester?

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do they didn’t done it or don’t they?

There’s an old joke that “there are no guilty men in prison,” i.e. that practically all inmates claim to have been unjustly accused. I’ve also heard that in fact most convicts cheerfully admit to the charges. The latter seems more … Continue reading

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collect them all!

In a review of a biography of Lillian Hellman, The Economist used the phrase “at the height of the first cold war in 1952.” I’m always the last to know. Is this usage widespread? When was the height of the … Continue reading

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