Been relaxing with a copy of Henry David Thoreau's Walden for much of this afternoon, and I came across the following passage on newspapers. I tend to think about journalism a lot–given that until recently it's how I made my living and will probably be my profession again–and have often thought that the practice has … Continue reading Newspapers according to Thoreau
Category: blog
THIS JUST IN: Irony Lives!
Seriously, I was beginning to worry. But good ol' embattled Maui County Councilman Wayne Nishiki has ridden to irony's rescue. Check out this Maui News story, posted this morning, about how Nishiki now says County Board of Ethics Chairman Alan Kaufman is actually too biased towards super-developer Everett Dowling to be fair about Nishiki's failure … Continue reading THIS JUST IN: Irony Lives!
8.5 trillion reasons why we’re screwed
I know I've written about this before, but today's Pacific Business News report saying that the current $8.5 trillion in taxpayer-supported bailouts is more money than that spent on all U.S. wars since the Civil War demands some kind of comment. It seems like only yesterday (it was nearly 20 years ago actually) that the Berlin … Continue reading 8.5 trillion reasons why we’re screwed
BREAKING NEWS: Irony is dead
Seriously, it's hard to draw any other conclusion after reading this story in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin about the growing national gaze being thrust upon some baby President-elect Barack Obama held during his recent Oahu vacation (click here for Oahu blogger Ian Lind's back story on the baby in question). Umm, politicians posing with babies was old … Continue reading BREAKING NEWS: Irony is dead
Just reading DFW
Been reading the late David Foster Wallace's 1997 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (a collection of thought-provoking and hilarious essays and journalism from the first half of the 1990s). I had forgotten the extent to which reading Wallace requires the reader to sit within relatively close proximity to a dictionary, and as … Continue reading Just reading DFW
Why I feel icky
I can't believe I just read this story. Nobody made me–I just up and read the whole thing, completely of my own free will. And yes, I did indeed read the entire story. Every single thing in it, from the headline to the very last word, is appalling. Appalling! So much so that I now … Continue reading Why I feel icky
Novels are for fools
Seriously, I think I'm wasting my time writing a novel. The fame and fortune these days is in fake memoirs. Case in point: today's New York Times story on Herman Rosenblat, an actual Holocaust survivor who's not-so-forthcoming memoir Angel at the Fence: The True Story of a Love That Survived isn't so true at all. … Continue reading Novels are for fools
‘Fretful little bureaucratic douche bags’
Freelance writing is all hell. When I left Maui Time Weekly in early June after five years as editor, I figured my days of chasing and kicking people were long gone. "I'm just a writer now," I told more than one friend. "It's going to be easy now because I just get to deal with professional … Continue reading ‘Fretful little bureaucratic douche bags’
Time for a little Bible-thumping
In honor of Christmas, I'm going to do something truly radical and quote from the New Testament–that holiest of holy books for the ostensibly Christian capitalists who run our great nation: "The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they … Continue reading Time for a little Bible-thumping
Death of a strategist
William Kaufmann died a couple weeks ago, at the age of 90. Unless you're a military history and strategy nerd like myself, the name means nothing to you (click here to read his obituary, published in yesterday's New York Times). Kaufmann advised five presidents on how to fight (and presumably, win) a nuclear war. He was, … Continue reading Death of a strategist
Anthony Pignataro 