Which, Let’s Face It, I Know a Fair Amount About. Like most people, I’ve led an unusual life. For me, part of its unorthodoxy is my insistence on trying to make a living as a writer. Let’s just say, it’s been an uphill climb. But occasionally I comfort myself with the knowledge that there areContinue reading “A Mercifully Brief Post About Knowing Nothing.”
Author Archives: Jack Canfora
Please Stop Assuring Me I’m Right
There’s a lot of hand-wringing in some precincts, or parishes if you’re in Louisiana, I guess, about Rachel Maddow semi-retiring from her weeknight show on MSNBC. Now, before I begin, I want to make clear I’m not criticizing her per se. Well, I’m not JUST doing that. I’m using her as a representative of primeContinue reading “Please Stop Assuring Me I’m Right”
Everyone Calm Down
This Is Going to Get Loud Does Trump realize what an affidavit for a search warrant consists of? In this case, it’s a document sworn out by a DOJ official detailing all the reasons the DOJ has probable cause to justify the warrant. I mean, I feel most affidavits for search warrants aren’t filled withContinue reading “Everyone Calm Down”
The Pros and Cons of Sleeplessness
In the grips of sleeplessness, I perform close readings of the whole canon of my inadequacies with what can only be described as a Talmudic intensity.
How Can I Live With Myself? Let’s See!
I moved into a new house in March and for the first time in my life, I am the only human living with myself. I find, almost five months in, that I’m generally OK to live with, albeit a little moody and quiet sometimes. I usually keep the same hours I like to keep, whichContinue reading “How Can I Live With Myself? Let’s See!”
Art: It’s Just Not That Into Me (Or a Lot of Us)
If you expect the Art Gods to act is if they have any interest in fairness, let alone thinking that all of your toil and hours of sacrifice somehow obligates them to give you a helping hand, you haven’t been paying attention.
June 24th, 2022
In Jewish law, a fetus attains the status of a full person only at birth. Sources in the Talmud indicate that prior to 40 days of gestation, the fetus has an even more limited legal status, with one Talmudic authority (Yevamot 69b) asserting that prior to 40 days the fetus is “mere water.” Elsewhere, theContinue reading “June 24th, 2022”
Happy Bloomsday!!
Why Wading Into this Famously Dense Novel Is Worth the Work
Judging Judgment (Ugh, What A Self-Consciously Cutsey Title. This Isn’t a Great Start)
In The Great Gatsby, its narrator asserts in the opening paragraphs that he makes a point of not judging people. He then goes on, roughly one paragraph later, to start judging and barely a page goes by in which he fails to not only judge people, but do so in a delightfully dry and atContinue reading “Judging Judgment (Ugh, What A Self-Consciously Cutsey Title. This Isn’t a Great Start)”
Memorial Day
So my great uncle was, I think, 19 (let’s say 19) and stationed in England as a private in the US Army on the eve of the Normandy invasion. And he was scared out of his wits. So much so, he placed a call to his oldest brother, my grandfather, and confessed he was thinkingContinue reading “Memorial Day”