Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports, but high-level sports are a prime venue for the expression of human beauty. The relation is roughly that of courage to war.

From Federer as Religious Experience, by David Foster Wallace, which I would like to dedicate, posthumously, to DFW and my...

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It’s a jolly good thing I am not a Fellow of the Royal Society, because if I were, I would be spending my time composing my resignation letter, instead of admiring the dreaming spires from my temporary gaff here in the home of good marmalade.

Why? Not because Professor Michael Reiss, a nice enough...

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Producing something that's enjoyed by the people you admire and respect is the greatest reward a writer can imagine.

He’s not the first to say it, and he won’t be the last, but for now Merlin Mann has the conch.

And then there’s this:¹

Learning about the goals and values of Slow Foo...

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If we want the land to be cared for, then we must have people living on and from the land who are able and willing to care for it.
Wendell Berry, in his essay Private Property and the Common Wealth, 1995

A propos recent discussions here and elsewhere about the need to have some skin in...

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I do not apologize for saying, once again, that obituaries are the cutting edge of modern journalism. I get my best ones in The Economist, which has a knack for doing right by the sung and the unsung. Case in point: Jack A. Weil, the man who puts snaps (press-studs), fancy yokes, pocket flaps and...

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