Kwa-Ra-Neema, they called him. “The Good Chief”. Christ knows what the Comanch called him, in their heathen tongue, but the ones who learnt English said he was the Good Chief. The Good Man. The Friend of the White Man. Most of the folks I knew, the decent folks, called him …
Hello there, ell p dot com readers! Your stumblebum author, from whom the site derives its name, is working on a major writing project to which he will be devoting the cheetah’s share of his ‘free’ time to completing, so content will be light for the next few whenevers. The …
Mark Doolittle, local historian: It really all started with the tourist trade. People started showing up from all over the country all wanting to see the “birthplace of Superman”. At first it was just snowbirds, retirees, people passing through on road trips, but word got around and the economy started …
WHY ARE JOKES, BIT ONE: QUIZ TO DETERMINE WHICH MEMBER OF THE CHRISTIAN HOLY TRINITY YOU ARE, IF YOU ARE ONE 1. My favorite food is: (a) manna (b) figs (c) I don’t eat 2. On the weekend, I like to relax by: (a) smiting the children of Israel with …
The first one I lost was a long time ago. To the Yanks, of course, back in ’78. That’s when I lost it, I mean, in 1778. I didn’t have it completely off until ’83, I think, but it was certainly the first. Wait, I tell a lie. Before that …
One of the plagues of historical thought is what might be termed the arrogance of modernity. From our lofty aerie here, at the crest of the 21st century, we mistake our point on a line for the peak of a graph. As did every generation before us, we assume that …
“It seemed bizarre that events so serious would be linked causally with a rarified form of academic talk,” Stanley Fish wrote after receiving a call from a reporter asking if September 11 meant the end of postmodernist relativism. “But in the days that followed, a growing number of commentators played …
Do I remember lung-scripting? Kid, I’m old enough to remember when tattoos were a big deal. Oh, believe me. There was a time. I know you don’t think there ever was a 20th century, but I was born way back in 1972. When I started working in the business, there …
It is often said by those in the business of making dire predictions about our current political system that the goal of the current generation of Republican radicals is the reduction of the American working population to the status of serfs. With all due respect to the thinkers who have …
Rodney Ascher’s Room 237, a documentary (well, actually, a film essay, but why should we split hairs?), has recently come to Netflix Instant after a run on the festival circuit that generated a noisy buzz. Ascher’s film concerns itself with a number of convoluted, complicated, possibly brilliant and definitely insane theories …
The best examples of social progress are always those who are themselves a living testament to the change they wish to make. When Frederick Douglass electrified the nation with his righteous speeches about the horrors of slavery, many in the South doubted that he was ever a slave, because no …
The first time where I got in trouble was right off. They come by the mall food court, ’cause they like to pick out people eatin’ alone which is what I was doin’ at the time. I was actually there with my friend Jimmy but he was in the toilet …
Dr. Grune came to the university in 1955. In this, as in all things, he was ahead of his time, as the great wave of visiting European professors did not otherwise begin until the early 1960s, but we had already heard great things about Dr. Grune. He was not a …
“Commissioner Gordon.” “Evening, Bruce!” “Let’s keep it formal, if you don’t mind.” “Er, all right. What brings you around, Br…Batman?” “It’s the Joker.” “Terrible business. Any clues yet?” “Oh, I’ve already caught him. He’s locked down back at the Batcave.” “Oh! Excellent. That’s good news. I expect we’ll have him …
Two weeks after the tragic murders at “Lieutenant Junior Grade Surfy ‘The Octopus’ McGrady’s Water Wonderland”, a community attempts to come to grips with such an enormous crime. Perhaps more intolerable than even the loss, the shock and the long and slow process of recovery is the presence of so …
