The suddenly warm temperature on top of deep snow raised a lush fog. Last night, driving on a narrow road next to the lake, I said, "This is what death looks like in the movies. Driving into nothing." All the familiar l…
John S.D. Eisenhower has a NYT op-ed opining that presidential sons should not be permitted to serve in combat duty. He recounts his own experience, as a soldier assigned to combat duty in Korea in 1952, as his father was about …
Who asked that about whom in 1964? "They wear high, tight, wight collars, black jackets and what were once known as 'ice cream pants.'" What the hell are ice cream pants? Did people even know that in 1964? "…
I'm suddenly getting lots of traffic from people searching for "mellified man." I come up #1 on this search . Here 's my old post: Yesterday at Borders, I got completely absorbed reading "Stiff," by Ma…
Here 's a long piece by Hog on Ice about the Hunter S. Thompson suicide. ("I guess that if there's anything more ignominious than scrambling your own brain because you wasted your life and you can't write any mor…
Under big red block letters that say " ENTERTAINMENT " over on CNN.com: Thompson shot self while talking with wife 'He set the receiver down and he did it' ...She said her husband had asked her to come home fro…
Have you noticed the difference in how the press has covered the deaths of these two prominent writers? When Arthur Miller died, the press did what was necessary to mark the passing of the man who was generally recognized as a ma…
Here's Linda Greenhouse's analysis of the Oregon assisted suicide case, which the Supreme Court announced yesterday it would hear. (The Ninth Circuit case to be reviewed was decided back in May, and I wrote about it at t…
I'm glad to see that the Supreme Court has taken cert in the assisted suicide case: The Oregon law was intended to help adults with incurable diseases who are likely to die in six months. They can obtain lethal drugs from th…
Reality show producer Mark Burnett reacts to the suicide of one of the contestants on his new show, "The Contender." The show, which begins on March 7, is already filmed except for a final live episode. It's a boxi…
Earlier today, I asked readers to email suggestions for the official state rock song. I'm getting some good email, so I'm going to do a Part I post. More parts to come (presumably). If you're in a state other than Wi…
There is so much more to photograph in Manhattan than in Madison. And there's so much more to do in Manhattan than in Madison. But I can't post what I do on the web the way I can post my photographs. And I'm trying to…
I'm here in Newark for the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics Annual Health Law Teachers Conference (as mentioned here ). It's at Seton Hall University School of Law which has a beautiful modern building with…
Ah, Satan's Laundromat is photoblogging Newark . These are my kind of photographs, and I will be heading to Newark at the end of this week for the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics Annual Health Law Teachers Conf…
The NYT, reporting reporting on yesterday's Oregon v. Ashcroft case (which I discussed at some length here ), quotes Dr. Greg Hamilton, of Physicians for Compassionate Care, a group opposed to doctor-assisted suicide: "…
Today, the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion in Oregon v. Ashcroft rejecting the "Ashcroft Directive," the Attorney General's position that a doctor using a controlled substance to assist a suicide violates the feder…
The last abstract expressionist has died . The obit in the NYT has this: Volatile, acerbic, unfailingly blunt, widely read and singularly dedicated to the ideal of the painter's hard, solitary life, [Milton] Resnick was in …
Gray's Anatomy. We watched Gray's Anatomy last night. My son had rented it a few days ago, before the news came out that Spalding Gray's body had been identified . His (presumed) suicide changes the way I could see …
A front page obituary for Spalding Gray in today's NYT. He deserves it. (When there's a front page obituary, it makes the inside page obituaries seem hidden away. There's one today on the inside for Paul Winfield , w…