The Shepherd of the Hills, by Harold Bell Wright, 1907, 1st edition cover

Books are fatal: they are the curse of the human race. Nine-tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the clever books are […]

Travel Tip: Special Dutch Travel Note if you are walking the city early one morning with your older but always cheerful Aunt […]

Caravaggio, “The Lute Player”, c. 1596, Wildenstein Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Italian Baroque master (1571-1610) composed three versions […]

Around 1620, Jacques Fouquières painted Germany’s Heidelberg Castle, a famous structure in both German history and art, in “Hortus Palatinus” (below). Although […]

It’s that time of year again. Summer interns, law clerks and of course “summer associates”””i.e., third year law students eyeing a shot […]

A private social club for men and women distinguished in “science, literature and the arts,” a learned profession or public service. Est. […]

My friend Hermann, still braving Berlin after all these years, notes that “Germans Push To Introduce Espionage Etiquette Manual“. Excerpt: Folks in […]

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (1869-1916). Wanderer. Holy Man. Mystic. Drunk. Insider. Healer. Player. Stud.

Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, New York

Is it now a requirement for males in DC to come off like Mr. Rogers? What’s happening to basic dudes and traditional […]

Return of EFGB and the Seven Habits. Lawyers who won’t take a stand is a time-honored tradition. Ernie from Glen Burnie, a […]

I would have won them all if my clients hadn’t kept reloading and firing. ~ Richard Racehorse Haynes, 2009 Below: Haynes in […]

Should I go to see Barbie or not? Be reminded that I’m way sensitive and trigger easily like my great-great grandad Virginian […]

The photograph above was taken in 1890 by Jacob Riis. This is Bandits’ Roost, an alley in Hell’s Kitchen, then in its […]

You may have dramatic cheekbones, pouty lips, Chiclet-white teeth, the neck of a gazelle, four feet of legs, a French manicure, and […]

Ms. Parker Posey

I’m not religious. But I like churches. Inside and out. Mainly, the architecture. But also the hope held out. The notion of […]

The satirist is to be regarded as our physician, not our enemy. —Henry Fielding, 1707-1754 Physicians–like lawyers–may no longer be the great […]

If you work for a peer firm, you will encounter me or someone very much like me. [Y]ou cannot avoid the essence […]

Julius Caesar 100 BC – 44 BC