"Devil Take the Hindmost"

"This time is different!"

Edward Chancellor's "Devil Take the Hindmost" is an in-depth study of financial speculation and panics over the last 500 years. The book's 400-plus pages really drive home two messages:

1. In the long run, greed is not good.
2. This time may be different, but probably not in the ways we hope.

"Till We Have Faces"

"Exerts, far beyond most novels,
that combination of ... wonder and
attraction." — The New York Times

C.S. Lewis's "Till We Have Faces" is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, but while the original Roman myth depicts Psyche's fall, trials, and ultimate ascendance into godhood, C.S. Lewis's version describes her sister Orual's redemption from disbelief.

A few thoughts on milestones

After three years of work, I completed my master's program and received my diploma at a nice ceremony last weekend. I enjoy graduations: the celebration, the sense of closure, the costumes, and the speakers, whose commentary adds a modern sensibility to old traditions.