The Compass Rose

The Compass Rose is a new blog. I started it to join the burgeoning caravan of online discussion sites which have sprung up over the last de...

Never fear, there is always fodder for the delectation! On NPR, recently, Rene Montagne, a charming and attractive (note the code words, you...

Paradox. The attempt to self-describe has intrigued artists and writers for centuries. Is it possible to preserve objectivity and speak in...

As promised, we will devote the occasional blog post to personal discoveries and favorites from the distilleries. Though I'm much more a...

When I started driving in the 1960's, the speed limit on freeways was between 65 and 75 mph. People got into bad accidents, but it was f...

I am not a theatre-goer, so my familiarity with actual live performances is quite limited. Harold Pinter [1930-2008] was for half a century ...

I have a complex reaction to the above photograph, which is partly derived from my response to Irving Penn's work as a whole, and partly...