-
1 month ago | 
wsj.com | Benjamin Shull
From his youth, Thomas Jefferson kept a commonplace book in which he jotted down memorable quotations from history, philosophy and literature. Nearly 30 passages that Jefferson recorded, Orlando Reade notes, derive from John Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost,” including 11 that center on the figure of Satan. Jefferson’s interest in Milton’s retelling of the rebellion of Satan and the fall of man may come as a surprise, since Jefferson held unorthodox religious views.
-
Aug 15, 2024 | 
msn.com | Benjamin Shull
Continue reading More for You Continue reading More for You
-
Aug 15, 2024 | 
wsj.com | Benjamin Shull
The term “tourist trap” seems to have been coined by Graham Greene in “The Lawless Roads,” a Mexican travelogue published in 1939. Greene, a man who knew his way around foreign locales, was referring to cheap souvenirs, but the phrase would soon denote the sort of crowded places that visitors flock to and locals avoid. The New Tourist: Waking Up to the Power and Perils of Travel Scribner 288 pages We may earn a commission when you buy products through the links on our site.
-
May 24, 2024 | 
sports.yahoo.com | Benjamin Shull
In 1918, Shoeless Joe Jackson of the Chicago White Sox announced that he had taken a job as a painter with a shipbuilding subsidiary of Bethlehem Steel. Shoeless Joe, one of the greatest hitters in baseball history, was taking a job in an essential wartime industry in order to avoid the draft during World War I. He was not the only player to do so.
-
May 24, 2024 | 
wsj.com | Benjamin Shull
May 24, 2024 11:52 am ET In 1918, Shoeless Joe Jackson of the Chicago White Sox announced that he had taken a job as a painter with a shipbuilding subsidiary of Bethlehem Steel. It wasn’t that uncommon for professional ball players to take jobs during the off-season, but this was the spring. Shoeless Joe, one of the greatest hitters in baseball history, was taking a job in an essential wartime industry in order to avoid the draft during World War I. He was not the only player to do so.
-
May 24, 2024 | 
sports.yahoo.com | Benjamin Shull
Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers is one of the greatest pitchers of his generation—and one of the greatest ever. Since joining the majors in 2008, the imposing left-hander has won three Cy Young Awards and led the National League in strikeouts three times. In “The Last of His Kind,” a biography of Kershaw, Andy McCullough writes about what he calls his subject’s “burden of greatness,” notably the expectation that regular-season prowess means nothing without playoff success.
-
May 24, 2024 | 
wsj.com | Benjamin Shull
May 24, 2024 11:47 am ET Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers is one of the greatest pitchers of his generation—and one of the greatest ever. Since joining the majors in 2008, the imposing left-hander has won three Cy Young Awards and led the National League in strikeouts three times. He has made 10 all-star teams, and in 2014 was named the league’s most valuable player, a rarity for a pitcher.
-
Feb 2, 2024 | 
wsj.com | Benjamin Shull
Consider the pork store. Satriale’s, a fictional meat market in northern New Jersey, was an important meeting spot for Tony and crew in “The Sopranos,” the HBO drama about an organized-crime family that ran from 1999 to 2007 and set a new standard for prestige television. The storefront appears on the cover of “On Locations,” Mark Kamine’s memoir of working on the set of “The Sopranos” and elsewhere during his career in the film and television business.
-
Feb 2, 2024 | 
wsj.com | Benjamin Shull
Ed Zwick broke into Hollywood by attending the director’s program at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. It was there that he met Marshall Herskovitz, the collaborator with whom he founded the production company Bedford Falls and later created the groundbreaking TV drama “Thirtysomething” (1987-91).
-
Nov 16, 2023 | 
wsj.com | Benjamin Shull
Why We Love Baseball Dutton 400 pages We may earn a commission when you buy products through the links on our site. Amazon Barnes & Noble Books a Million Bookshop Two years ago, the sportswriter Joe Posnanski published “The Baseball 100,” in which he attempted to rank the game’s greatest players. Mr. Posnanski puts his encyclopedic knowledge on display again in “Why We Love Baseball,” a history built around 50 individual moments.
