a few LINKS in the chain
that leads to life's inexorable ball
Politics
The truth about 9/11 and its consequences is so convoluted as to make The X Files look like Aesop's Fables. But Marc Ash, in a 2000-word truthout report, has summarized what happened before, during the after in words so clear that if they were to be read and understood by our media-massaged populace, the leaders of the U.S. and Britain would be put away in straightjackets.
The Irate Codger One of the internet's undiscovered gold mines. The late Ned Paynter, one of my dearest friends, understood more of what is going on in our government's sordid upper reaches than do those who are paid so handsomely to reassure us.
Democracy Now! This daily news show, broadcasting to over 400 independent radio and TV stations, conducts long uninterrupted interviews with some of the most important news-makers and best informed political analysts from around the world. On the rare occasions when these pundits appear on the U.S. corporate media, they are hardly allowed to speak in complete sentences, let alone paragraphs. You may sign up for a daily email digest.
Tom Paine.Common Sense In the world of politics, common sense is the most uncommon sense there is. If you like your daily update on the unhappy state of the world spoken rather than screamed, then this website could serve as your home page. You may sign up for a daily email digest.
Food
The first source I go to for new Paris bistros is John Talbott's Paris. He has the advantage of being virtually as old as I am, with his memory intact, and also of being on the scene, thus having in his head a long history against which to measure both the newcomers and the survivers. Plus, of course, the fact that he's rather more intelligent and better educated than is usually required, expected or even permitted for restaurant critics.
Gastromondiale Vedat Milor is that rare oxymoron, a humane economist. He is also an equally oxymoronic unpretentious gourmet: on his site you will find careful attention to culinary detail, minus the usual oneupmanship.
Food Snob The chosen nome de plume of this American based in London doesn’t do justice to his reviews, which are so full of carefully researched information that the reader may safely reach a conclusion which differs from the author’s. It’s the difference between rant and reportage.
à la carte An elegant and invaluable source of detailed information about classic French cuisine. Peter Hertzman writes: I am obsessed [with] French cookery—its preparation, materials, history, politics, and culture. This site is indeed an ostensive definition of obsession; both content and graphic design are as elaborately complex as a Victorian sugar sculpture. And he has a sense of humor—see his entry for coq au vin.
Barry Foy has found a publisher for his Devil’s Food Dictionary. Not only does it take the cake, but it's a cut above the rest.
Other
The Eastside View, Eating Every Day Charles Shere is a widely travelled composer/ broadcaster/author/critic/restaurateur whose journals take you inside culture and cuisine in such a way as to demonstrate their total interpenetration.
Create your own Jackson Pollack. Move curser to create continuous line—fast for drip, slow or stationary for blob. Left click to change color.
MY LIFE Home blog of the world’s most famous unknown celebrity Cousin Ray is my last living blood relative with whom I’m in regular contact. In his early fifties, he survived Katrina, left professional employment in New Orleans and has set up as a free lance producer of hand-dyed yarns. Along with the difficult task of surviving in modern America, he somehow finds time to run a diatribal blog devoted to the non-sectarian debunking of religious myths, whatever their provenance. In the US and particularly in Texas, this is a life-threatening occupation; I daily await reports of his assassination.