Rickrolled

January 4, 2012

Former Pennsylvania senator is currently the most interesting politician in the world. In 2006, I wrote a cover story on his last race, which he lost, for National Review. “I wasn’t born into a family that had a great name,” said Santorum at the debate in Pittsburgh. “I’m a guy who had to grow up [...]

View Comments Read the full article →

Happy New Year!

January 3, 2012

Start 2012 with a podcast. Here’s my interview with Jim Fusilli, Wall Street Journal rock critic and novelist (as well as my fellow AmazonEncore author). Next week’s podcast: Stephen Hunter.

View Comments Read the full article →

Treasure Chesterton

December 27, 2011

My podcast with Ian Ker, biographer of G.K. Chesterton, is now available via NRO. Next week’s podcast: Jim Fusilli on Narrow’s Gate.  

View Comments Read the full article →

Merry Christmas 2011

December 25, 2011

Santa Claus, by Thomas Nast, 1862.  

View Comments Read the full article →

Christmas Present

December 24, 2011

Christmas is for ghost stories. From my WSJ article on M.R. James: Each October, our culture turns its gaze to the ghostly and the ghastly. A century ago, however, James associated specters and their ilk with another season: Christmas. This yuletide linkage has deep roots: “A sad tale’s best for winter: I have one/Of sprites [...]

View Comments Read the full article →

Christmas Carol

December 23, 2011

Several Christmases ago, I wrote about A Christmas Carol for NRO: Dickens wrote a number of highly regarded books — Bleak House, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities — but this brief one is his best known and best loved. It also single-handedly created a new genre of popular literature [...]

View Comments Read the full article →