There was this Evil Empire, see. It was so bad it didn’t even believe in capitalism or the free market or democracy. The Evil Empire was, wait for it, communist. Not communist like Canadian-health-care communist, but worse. Communist as in we’re going to pay doctors the same as janitors and if they make a fuss [...]

African author. Something around the neck. Surely there is a reference here to the South African “necklacing” of the 1980s? Horrific summary executions carried out by “people’s courts,” necklacing consisted of filling a tire with gasoline, securing it around the neck of the victim (collaborators, business rivals, political enemies), and setting it on fire. This [...]

There was a kids’ show years ago that had a puppet who sang This is the song that never ends, it goes on and on my friends… That singing lamb never shut up. I sing it to myself sometimes, like halfway through Nairne Holtz’s second book, This One’s Going to Last Forever. Maybe because the [...]