Saturday Good Reads

I’ve not read a story quite like this one, or at least written and recorded quite like this one. In 1991, a newborn baby was found barely breathing in a plastic bag in a cemetery in Oslo, Norway. Through the quick actions of several people, the baby is taken to the hospital, where he survives. Twenty-five years later, a reporter investigates what happened. Through photography, video, and text, the story is told in nine chapters, unfolding almost like a novel.

Higher education in America has a lot of problems, and not only of the students-terrorizing-administrations, destruction-of-free-speech, and political-correctness-run-amok kind. Rod Dreher has two posts on grade inflation – at Harvard. Harvard!

We all complain about it – civility in political discourse has disappeared, and everything has become political. T. Adams Upchurch asks a question we should all be asking – what has Facebook done to political discourse? It’s the precursor to a more fundamental question – what have all of us done to political discourse? – but it’s time to take a hard look at the big tech giants. And Bishop Robert Barron provides a partial answer to this question of civility on social media; it’s an age-old answer that is still true.

Alicia Stewart at CNN takes a look at myths surrounding the Emancipation Proclamation. The Gentle Author goes on a dead pubs crawl in east London. Good poetry. Good photography. And four ancient prayers. 

Life and Culture

Harvard: Extra Credit for Oligarch Kids and More on Harvard Grade Inflation – Rod Dreher at American Conservative. 

Reflections of a White Supremacist – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

The Baby in the Plastic Bag – Bernt Jakob Oksnes at Dagbladet. 

What Has Facebook Done to Political Discourse? – T. Adams Upchurch at The Imaginative Conservative. 

The Coming Software Apocalypse – James Somers at The Atlantic.

A brief history of retirement – it’s a modern idea – Seattle Times.

Faith

4 Ancient Prayers from the Earliest Christians – Rick Kosloski at Aleteia

Poetry

Cellar Door – Marjorie Stelmach at Image Journal.

A Rare and Beautiful Creature: On the Life and Work of Frank Stanford – James McWilliams at The Millions.

Publishing Poetry Today: A Renewal of the Spirit in Language – Dwight Longenecker at The Imaginative Conservative.

Mirror – Richie Hofmann at How a Poem Happens by Brian Brodeur.

Fall’s Leaves (Reverse Cinquain) – Maureen Doallas at Writing Without Paper.

Art and Photography

Thomas Rowlandson’s Lower Orders – Spitalfields Life.

Splendor in the Grass – Tim Good.

American Stuff

150 Years Later, Myths Persist about the Emancipation Proclamation – Alicia Stewart at CNN.

At the Center of the Storm: John Sullivan of New Hampshire – M.E. Bradford at The Imaginative Conservative.

British Stuff

The Gentle Author’s Dead Pubs Crawl – Spitalfields Life. 

Writing

Plotters and Pantsers for All Genres – Ann Kroeker.

Bishop Barron on Pride, Humility, and Social Media (Hat Tip: J of India)

Painting: Portrait of Gustave Geffroy, oil on canvas by Paul Cezanne.