Well, it was just a conference that didn’t go, and these things have their annoying and ugly aspects, which David Brooks once described accurately in his Bourgeois Bohemians book; nor, I am having to go through a tropical storm/hurricane, as the residents of New Orleans currently are, but still, I was apparently looking more forward to seein’ friends, NOLA musicians, my wife enjoying a bayou nature tour, and even the road-trip back-side of the storm, than I knew.
So today, silly as I know it to be, my mood is “Awful Sad.” (No don’t let the 20s sound-quality or conventions fool you . . . one of the greats from the Duke, which of course puts it amid about 100 others!)
To cheer me up a bit, we’ll begin with Louis Armstrong’s “Basin Street Blues,” and then perhaps I’ll be ready for “Laughin’ Louie,” or some of that bon temps music I linked to below.
Anyhow, friends, I’ll miss laughin’ with you this weekend.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…