Dante, The Divine Comedy (Audible). I love Audible because it lets me listen to the classics on my (short!) commute. You can get a Kindle version for $0 (click the image). My current listen is Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained. Thomas Sowell, Discrimination and Disparities. This reminds me a lot of Wealth, Poverty, and Politics, which came out a few […]
I Watch Things: Silly Movies With the Kids
We’ve been watching a lot of movies in recent weeks with a move away from iPad and computer games and such, and as my wife recently spent a week out of town we watched more movies than we otherwise would’ve. Here are a few. Sherlock Gnomes. Our friend Matt and his daughter Cora invited us, […]
I Write Things: Economics and the Environment
I’ve always been interested in environmental issues, and I’ve written some papers, articles, and reviews on the issue. Here’s sort of a one-stop shop for those. The Creation of Knowledge in Society: Waste Defined by Property and Exchange (Independent Institute, July 25, 2017) More and Better: Resources Defined Through Property and Exchange (Independent Institute, May […]
I Read Things: 1848–or 8000 BC—And All That
Mike Rapport, 1848: Year of Revolution. This is a detailed look into the revolutions that rocked Europe at the beginning of the “treason of the clerisy”–Deirdre McCloskey’s term for the intellectuals’ rebellion against European liberalism and embrace of socialism, nationalism, and nationalism. James C. Scott, Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States. […]
I Read Things: Bedtime Stories With the Kids
She-Hulk The Complete Collection. Our youngest (David) loves superheroes, and we’ve been reading Essential Hulk vol. 1 and a bunch of other stuff–origin stories, Little Golden Books, and so on–we’ve gotten at the library. She-Hulk is pretty interesting, but there are definitely parts that aren’t NSFLKBT (not safe for little kid bedtime). Preview and skip […]
I Eat Things: New(ish) Restaurants in Birmingham
One of the biggest increases in my standard of living in the last few years comes from the fact that we recently went from zero Ethiopian restaurants in the whole state of Alabama to two in Birmingham. Both are outstanding. There’s Red Sea on Green Springs and Ghion Cultural Hall at the Pizitz Food Hall […]
I Eat Things: Ghost Pepper Cheese at Carrigan’s Public House
It’s official: I no longer enjoy really spicy food. One of Birmingham’s better places is Carrigan’s Public House. They make a very, very good burger, but I’ve learned that the ghost pepper cheese option simply isn’t for me. On a recent visit, I got the burger with the ghost pepper cheese, and while the fries […]
I “Read” Things: Audiobooks and Webcomics
Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises. I found it bleak, honestly–a story about people with what seems like nothing more to live for than the next drink. I could be completely off base with this, but I’m reminded of Deirdre McCloskey’s description of the characters in La Boheme. Audiobook: if you don’t have Audible, you […]
I Read Things: Bedtime Stories
Essential Hulk, Volume 1. This is bedtime reading with David (our five-year-old). It’s interesting to read comics from the 1960s and see, among other things, one of the ways in which fear manifested itself in the early cold war. Rise of the Isle of the Lost. This is the third novel in the Disney’s Descendants franchise, […]