Living on an island in the middle of nowhere?

This has a visceral appeal right now.

So long as I have a large-enough library wing, I'd be set.

"Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire."

What the "Power of Hashtag" says about us.

Kevin Williamson guts, fillets and rolls in panko bread crumbs the mortifying narcissism of our social media bubble, and the supposed grownups who embrace it:

Slavery in Nigeria, the occupation of Ukraine, whatever: It ain’t about you, Sunshine.

The “Bring Back Our Girls” campaign, directed at the fanatical Islamist slavers in Nigeria, has inspired selfies fromU.S. senators and the wife of the president of these United States, while State Department spokesman Jen Psaki, the Pippi Longstocking of the diplomatic world, took to Twitter to photograph herself with a “United for Ukraine” placard. To confront the heinous crimes of Boko Haram, a U.S. senator has many options — for example, introducing an authorization to use military force against said terrorist franchise. The U.S. State Department has many tools at its disposal for confronting the expansionist tendencies of Vladimir Putin.

The selfie is not among those tools.

Imagine, if you can, the abjectly juvenile state of mind necessary to contemplate the hundreds of Nigerian girls taken into slavery by a fanatical Muslim anti-education militia — whose characteristic activity beyond slave-taking is setting fire to children— and, in the face of all that horror, concluding: “You know what this situation really calls for? A cutesy picture of . . . me!” Bad enough when your cousin Caitlin at Bryn Mawr does that — but senators? State Department officials? These are men and (disproportionately, I think) women of power and influence, who have the ability to engage with the world and change it. But they are enchanted by the unique witchcraft of the age of social media, the totemic power of the digital expression of the self.

Read it all--a few times at least. 

Then ponder how far we've fallen.

A musical interlude.

Rare is a dance-pop music number a source of sunny reassurance, but "Safe and Sound" by Capital Cities qualifies. It should be an annoyance--repetitive, synthesized and not especially creative lyrically. But for some reason it really works (have no fears about the video--the conceit is a dance contest involving people from different eras):



For those following along, Part III is in the revision stage, and will go up no later than tomorrow.

It will change your life. Forever.

I bring you...Italian Spiderman.



No, no. Don't thank me. I do what I do...out of love. Your joy is thanks enough.