Saturday Good Reads

The U.S. presidential campaign continues to devolve. There have been enough stories now to suggest that a light bulb is at least beginning to glow, dimly, for the Washington establishment, and especially the Republicans.

Unless you’ve been following the Clinton email server issue closely and in detail (I haven’t), it’s often hard to understand exactly what is going on without having to rely on partisan explanations (on both sides). Robert O’Harrow at the Washington Post takes an in-depth look at how the problem arose in the first place. (And the issue underscores the old political truism – the cover-up is always worse than the original act.)

Shakespeare’s skull may be missing from his grave.  Good poetry. A few people on college campuses are beginning to speak out against the crazies who would consign the First Amendment to the trash can, aided and abetted by university administrators (a new phrase is entering the lexicon – to be “Emoryed,” an improvement over to be “Mizzoued”). A wonderful story about a man known as “St. Paul’s Treasure” (that’s St. Paul’s as in the cathedral).

And the story of Eric Liddell, the man who would not run a race on the Sabbath.

British Stuff

Knocker Uppers: Waking Workers Up in Industrial Britain – Sitala Peek at BBC.

Maurice Sills, Cathedral Treasure – Spitalsfield Life.

Shakespeare's skull: New chapter in hunt for missing head – Rebecca Woods at BBC.

Faith

Keeping watch: Critic brings lens of faith to True/False experience – Aarik Danielson at The Columbia (MO) Tribune.

What’s the Real Use of Language? – Mick Silva.

Life and Culture

Are We at the Beginning of an Age of Barbarism? - Daniel Lattier at Intellectual Takeout.

US Election 2016: The 40-Year Hurt – Michael Goldfarb at BBC.

Campus Voices Against Coercion - Rod Dreher at American Conservative.

How Clinton’s email scandal took root – Robert O’Harrow at The Washington Post.

Poetry

Crack – Brendan MacOdrum at Oran’s Well.

A Loaded Gun: The Real Emily Dickinson –Jerome Charyn at Longreads.

Mary’s Rose – Troy Cady at T(r)oy Marbles.

Reading the Picture – Maureen Doallas at Writing Without Paper.

Faith in Spring – Tim Good at The Naked Alien.

Soaking – Jerry Barrett at Gerald the Writer.

Writing

15 Pieces of Writing Advice from C.S. Lewis – Justin Taylor at The Gospel Coalition.

Art and Photography

The New Old Masters – James Panero at City Journal.

The Story of Eric Liddell – Mere Christian

Illustration: Abraham Lincoln as a boy reading by firelight, chromolithograph by Eastman Johnson (1868); Library of Congress.