Knight Rider

January 11, 2011

I like vampires, but I’m also suffering from vampire boredom–a subject I explored about a year ago in National Review, in what has turned out to be one of the more popular pieces I’ve written for the magazine: I dig vampires as much as the next guy who has read Bram Stoker’s Dracula three or [...]

View Comments Read the full article →

The Compromiser

January 7, 2011

One hundred and fifty years ago today, John Crittenden of Kentucky took to the floor of the Senate and urged North and South not to split apart. It might be said that between Lincoln’s election and the outbreak of the Civil War, no politician tried harder than Crittenden to find a middle course to preserve [...]

View Comments Read the full article →

The Dean

January 5, 2011

Here’s last week’s Between the Covers podcast, with Dean Koontz on his new novel, What the Night Knows. I should have posted it last week. With the confusion of Christmas, however, it got lost in the shuffle. In 2008, I profiled Koontz for National Review.

View Comments Read the full article →

Hunter Club

January 4, 2011

A couple of years ago, I enticed novelist Stephen Hunter (today’s podcast victim) to participate in a Friday the 13th symposium: What are you superstitious about? Do you avoid walking beneath ladders? Or do you go out of your way to walk beneath them? Do you knock on wood? Here’s Hunter: I’m what might be [...]

View Comments Read the full article →

Rallying Point

January 2, 2011

“I was mustered into the service of the United States from the 2d day of January, 1861, on the special requisition of the General-in-Chief, and thus was the first of two and a half millions called into the military service of the Government to defend it against secession,” wrote Charles P. Stone, recalling the events [...]

View Comments Read the full article →

Crystal Ball 2011

January 1, 2011

My predictions for 2011, from NRO: Sarah Palin will announce that she won’t run for president. Large numbers of American troops will remain in Afghanistan. Fidel Castro will die. The New England Patriots will win the Super Bowl, the Detroit Red Wings will win the Stanley Cup, the Los Angeles Lakers will repeat as NBA [...]

View Comments Read the full article →