News of my World
My year in books and reading, 2023
Just before I was born in 1960, my parents purchased a complete hardbound set of the Compton’s Encyclopedia; furthermore, they subscribed to the annual...
Archipelago Travels
Technically Challenged
Does New Albany even have an intellectual history?
Originally written and published at NA Confidential on October 30, 2014.
ON THE AVENUES: Does New Albany even have an intellectual history?
The last time I...
Miscellany
Our weekly editorial meme: “To the dimmer go the spoils”
Well, you KNOW the way they've always been. Vultures hunt by instinct, not college degrees.
Most popular
ON THE AVENUES: Welcome to “Pagan Life,” a weekly column devoted to heathens, infidels,...
ON THE AVENUES is the name of my longtime column at the former NA Confidential. It makes the passage to Exile on Spring Street....
Diary: For 11 years, NABC’s Fringe Fest added conceptual depth to Harvest Homecoming
Charles Dickens anticipated the record of my working career as it pertains to the late NABC Bank Street Brewhouse (415 Bank Street in New...
Travel: Sofia, Bulgaria in June 1987
Yesterday, a review of a book about Bulgaria during the Cold War.
https://www.rogerbaylor.com/2021/06/02/books-the-cold-war-from-the-margins-in-bulgaria/
34 years ago Tuesday (June 1, 1987) I arrived in Sofia, capital of...
REWIND: “This week in solipsistic beer narcissism” (2014)
Lightly edited to remove a couple of obscure topical references.
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Are you fed up with words you don’t understand?
Tired of scrolling down to your favorite...
Diary
R.I.P. Ralph Griggs … it is belated, but no less heartfelt
Originally published at NA Confidential on October 8, 2015.
And then you get sidetracked — and feel like crying.
30-odd years ago, when I was working...
Battered, bruised, and crawling back onto the non-band wagon
"The Dutch blueprint for urban vitality isn’t about bicycles. It’s about refusing to sacrifice vast amounts of the public realm to the private car;...
On Memorial Day, I’d prefer DRINKING beer
A few year ago at a bar I frequented, one of the younger 30-something employees was pushing hard for a Memorial Day promotion to...
Diary: Looking for a good biography of Eugene V. Debs? This isn’t it
This being an election year — and accordingly, utterly infuriating on a daily basis for the MAGA stupidity it embodies — I thought it...
Diary for 24 July 2021: Oversight of government entities? By the News and Tribune?
Let's begin by defining our terms for those just tuning in.
The News and Tribune (N&T) is a six-day (Monday through Saturday) daily newspaper serving...
Recipes for Chaos
Roger’s year in music, 2024
The intro remains the same, because I'm lazy.
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Music does something to me, and I’ve never been able to explain exactly why. It just happens. My molecules...