On the rare occasion that I seek the advice of a medical professional, I’m careful not to offend the good doctor by asking if his adherence to the ethical standards of his profession remains, after all these years, unwavering. That supposedly “sacred” Hippocratic oath to which he pledged himself way back in med school–does he …
“Violence, which plays a most conspicuous part in war, is a thing which belongs to wild beasts; wherefore we should take most diligent pains to temper it with humanity, lest by too much imitation of the beasts we forget how to be human”. Hugo Grotius Lest we forget how to be human, we should, for …
“If I am occasionally a little overdressed, I make up for it by being always immensely over-educated.” Oscar Wilde John Fetterman, the junior senator from Pennsylvania, has taken Wilde’s bon mot and flipped it on its head; not even by accident has the hulking Reading-native ever been overdressed, and by no metric has his intellectual …
There are, for better or worse, two things with which Key West is synonymous: one is “Fantasy Fest”, the annual ten-day bacchanal at the end of October to which thousands of topless revelers flock. The other is Ernest Hemingway. With the exception of the striped concrete buoy that marks the island’s “Southernmost Point” , no …
Reflections on Ernest Hemingway, An American Icon Read More »
Babylon (and on…and on…and ON…for THREE whole hours!), like the ungodly city after which it’s named, was a confused mess of biblical proportions. The plot was senseless, the filth gratuitous, the writing sloppy, the budget bloated, the talent wasted, and the running time unmercifully long. *** There are certain sights, sounds, and substances to which …
The following is an essay/meditation from my sister project, Pneuma. If you’d like to listen to the podcast, visit my website, pneumameditations.com or search Pneuma By Daniel Finneran on any of your favorite podcast streaming platforms. Hello all you beautiful, brilliant, remarkable people, and welcome to this episode of Pneuma. The great sages of the …
“An Honest Heart and a Knowing Head” | Lessons from Thomas Jefferson on How to Live Well Read More »
It’s my habit, whenever I’m in conversation with someone of a strong and unconcealed political bent, from whom the gift of a sound civic education and a talent for an idea’s thoughtful expression haven’t been withheld, to ask him which of America’s two central documents, the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, he regards more …
Unlike most of his corpulent countrymen, John Montagu, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, spent more time at the gambling than at the dinner table. A founding member of the notorious Hellfire Club, to which only the most refined rakes and well-born lechers in England were granted admittance, Montagu was, by any measure, an extraordinary man. …
And, just like that, Rome’s conquest of Greece was nearly complete. The strong, sturdy, ageless foundation of Hellas, upon which the rest of the civilized world then firmly stood, suddenly began to quake. Those ancient, mighty pillars by which the early Western man was raised, atop which the hundred famous city-states he inhabited were built, …