In America, in the lower grades, schools teach a class they call English or, when they feel like being specific English/Language Arts. I believe in the lower grades this is intended to cover two of the three “Rs” – namely “readin’ n’ writin’” even though one of the those “Rs” is spelled with a “W,” which could be why they don’t teach the three “Rs” anymore, it was just too confusing. (Don’t get me started on ‘Rithmetic.)

My Child, The Wilde Child, nearly 13, has been attending school...

About now, some people who might be reading this blog (not my Three Devoted Readers, they know me better) might be thinking to themselves, “Well, Irene certainly knows her booze, but does she actually read?” Indeed, I do! Amazing, but true. What I don’t do is write well-crafted and insightful book reviews, anymore than I write well-crafted and insightful cocktail reviews. I leave that for others. I just chat about both because both bring me pleasure. And so onward…

I don’t know...

I fear I need to begin by begging the indulgence of my three devoted readers. This week’s thoughts started off in one direction, and then life conspired to pull them in another, until finally it took from me my capacity to think at all (which in all probability is a short-term affliction). These things happen, and as my self-imposed deadline approaches for this week’s contribution, I am struggling to weave the various strands of my thoughts as they stood at the time into a coherent whole.
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I explained this to Jeeves and he said the same thing had bothered Hamlet.

The world can, at times, be a beastly place. I’m sure it has always possessed this tendency, yet in our modern times it seems particularly set on bedeviling simple people like myself. I don’t ask much of the world – a good book, a cold martini, occasional moments of good company among intelligent, cultured, good-humored people, every so often a meal prepared by someone else’s hand with thought and care, and,...

Friday morning, the little television panel in the elevator going up to the office, the one normally tuned into CNBC, was tuned to Sesame Street. It made me laugh. Since things are not greatly improved from Thursday, may as well carry on in the same vein...



Maybe I’m challenging my inner drag queen again, but I say when life gets you down, throw on some extra sequins and another feather boa. PG Wodehouse agreed with me. In “The Code of the Woosters” when Bertie...