Growing up, I often worked at my father’s printing business in downtown New Orleans. And I was often employed to deliver finished jobs and pick up new ones. Many a time I passed the corner of Gravier Street and St. Charles Avenue and saw a plaque on a small building wall. It simply read: “The Paul Morphy Chess Club.” I was reminded of that plaque this week when I read “America’s Greatest Chess Player Was a Confederate?” by Evan Portman at Emerging Civil War. The Historic New Orleans Collection also has an article about how Morphy brought chess to New Orleans.
With all the news coverage of the pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, what’s being lost, or conveniently overlooked, is what happened on Oct. 7. Sheryl Sandberg, the former COO of Facebook, is promoting a documentary about that day, entitled Screams Before Silence. If Hamas was set on outdoing the Nazis, they at least came close. And I ask myself, if it’s the Palestinians the protestors are so concerned about, why aren’t they screaming about what Hamas has done to them: stealing billions in aid, using women and children as shields, placing missiles and weapons in schools and hospitals, indoctrinating children in hating Jews (with a little help from the United Nations). Instead, all we see and hear are college students (and outsiders) chanting the slogans of Hamas and Hezbollah.
More Good Reads
The Campus Protests
An explanation of the campus protests – Charles Lipson at The Spectator.
There Are Two Set Rules of Speech – Abigail Shrier at The Free Press.
The ‘Micro-Intifada’: How American Protestors Are Being Trained in ‘Militancy’ – Francesca Block at The Free Press.
Parent Call to UCLA Police – via X (formerly Twitter).
Life and Culture
Understanding Russell Kirk: A Bold Biography by Bradley Birzer – Robert Stacey at The Imaginative Conservative.
A True Bipartisan Scandal – Matt Taibbi at The Free Press.
Writing and Literature
WITD (Writing into the Dark) is Not the Only Way – Harvey Stanbrough at Harvey’s (Almost) Daily Journal.
The Rare Entertainments of E.C.R. Lorac’s Death of an Author – Martin Edwards at CrimeReads.
2024 Edgar Allan Poe Award Winners – Mystery Writers of America.
Poetry
Canterbury Tales: The General Prologue – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.
Two poems by Christian Lehnert – a new translation by Richard Sieburth at New Criterion.
Judas in the Upper Room – Michael Stalcup at Rabbit Room Poetry.
3 sentient blues – Franco Amati at Garbage Notes.
Israel
Israel and the making of nations – Daniel McCarthy at The Spectator.
Faith
Antisemitism is the Devil’s Flagpole by Andrew Klavan, and The Tide of Battle Turns by Spencer Klavan,-- at The New Jerusalem.
There’s a Religious Earthquake Coming. Can You Feel It? – Stephen McAlpine.
Falling Slowly – Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
Painting: Old Man Reading a Book, oil on canvas (19th century), artist unknown but associated with the American School.
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