“We are Forerunners. Guardians of all that exists. The roots of the Galaxy have grown deep under our careful tending. Where there is life, the wisdom of our countless generations has saturated the soil. Our strength is a luminous sun, towards which all intelligence blossoms… And the impervious shelter, beneath which it has prospered.”

Home and away

Lord, but it is good to be home at last. I landed this morning after a looooong trip over from the States and am now thoroughly enjoying a quiet day spent at home with my dear mum, before we both fly out again tonight to meet my dad. Suffice to say that after a...

God Bless Texas

It’s always refreshing to travel from the North to the South in this country, particularly if you’ve been reading The South Was Right! by the Kennedy brothers in the meantime. Right now I’m sitting in a hotel room near San Antonio after seeing a...

The Three Greatest Paintings

Whenever I go to London, I make a point of visiting the Tate Britain. This, even more than the British Museum, is probably my favourite place in the entire city, not least because of its collection of works by William Blake and J.M.W. Turner. And when I am at the Tate...

“Marry in Haste, Repent at Leisure”

The Elusive Wapiti wrote recently about the consequences of entering into marital “bliss” without any game: In sum, my friend and I made several mistakes in the run-up to our marriages and in the years after we were married, mistakes that eventually proved...

Notes from an Asian Wedding

I spent the past few days in London, catching up with some very dear old friends, and attending the wedding of one of those friends. (Hence the total lack of new material over the past week.) My trip back to my old stomping grounds rammed home a few things- the...

Immigration is Not the Answer

As one of the world’s most open economies is beginning to discover: Singapore may well serve as a case study for what happens when leaders try to offset slowing economic growth with immigration and increased birth rates. There are lessons that Japan or Italy...

The “Joys” of London

Charlie Bushmeister from The Single Dude’s Guide took a trip to London and was rather underwhelmed: On my last trip to London I had a small apartment off of Brick Lane, in the Shoreditch neighborhood, which is Ground Zero for London hipsterism. Arriving by...

In Which a Serious Error is Made…

wrand starts off very well in an essay about whether men fear commitment, and concludes that it’s only American women who cause commitment phobia in men: I know of several men who are committed to their marriages. They have all been married more than ten...