Monthly Archives: December 2025

Happiness is the uncle you never knew about

Posted on December 21, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

Happiness By Jane Kenyon There’s just no accounting for happiness, or the way it turns up like a prodigal who comes back to the dust at your feet having squandered a fortune far away. And how can you not forgive? You … Continue reading →

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Train Etiquette

Posted on December 20, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

They take train etiquette very seriously in Japan. Seibu Railway Company operations are concentrated in northwest Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture; the name “Seibu” is an abbreviation of “west Musashi”. The railway recently published a new series of travel etiquette and safety posters that are … Continue reading →

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I fell for rage bait how about you

Posted on December 19, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

Along with the inevitable “Books of the Year” lists, the always interesting, and sometimes controversial “Word of the Year” lists are popping off. The WotY-stakes so far: The Oxford word of the year is rage bait. Macquarie Dictionary (Australia) chose AI slop. … Continue reading →

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Language is a virus

Posted on December 18, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

“Language is a virus from outer space.”   —                              William S. Burroughs In a wonderful essay/book review in the New Yorker, Louis Menand wrote, “Quotations are in a … Continue reading →

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A Boy’s Life

Posted on December 17, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

The video below is fiction but based on the very real experiences of millions of Jewish children during the 20th century.  Shown from the perspective of a teenage boy, Daniel, this animated short offers great insight into the insidious, gradual … Continue reading →

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The Hawking index is not what you think

Posted on December 16, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

Mathematician Jordan Ellenberg created an imaginative means of quantifying a metric that book publishers and writers had long suspected: most people don’t finish the books they buy. He called it the Hawking Index, named after Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History … Continue reading →

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How well do you know geography

Posted on December 15, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

When I was just a nerdy little kid, my friends and I would play a simple game the we called “Geography”. It entailed a player naming a country and the next player challenged to name another nation starting with the … Continue reading →

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There was once a country where everyone was a thief.

Posted on December 14, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

The Black Sheep Italo Calvino There was once a country where everyone was a thief. At night each inhabitant went out armed with a crowbar and a lantern, and broke into a neighbor’s house. On returning at dawn, loaded down … Continue reading →

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Where in the world

Posted on December 13, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

I recently spotted the photo above on a random book blog. There was no attribution nor indication where or when the photograph was taken. However, I had the uncanny notion that at some unknown point in time I had actually … Continue reading →

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there are precedents for mystical encounters of various kinds

Posted on December 12, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

“A man breaking his journey between one place and another at a third place of no name, character, population or significance, sees a unicorn cross his path and disappear. That in itself is startling, but there are precedents for mystical … Continue reading →

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