Author Archives: Scott Foglesong

"I loathe chicken pot pies!" said my friend, "those disgusting little green peas, that gloppy yellow snot, the salty and greasy pastry. Disgusting things, chicken pot pies. They make me want to puke." A bit of of gentle cross-examination revealed … Continue reading →

How nice it would be if people who created attractive things were equally attractive themselves. Alas, that's not necessarily the case. Composers, poets, writers, painters, sculptors, playwrights—a lot of them were well-spoken, well-behaved folks who lived blameless lives and left … Continue reading →

At this very moment my digital music library weighs in at 1.57 terabytes of stuff. That's 1607 gigabytes, 1,646, 264 megabytes. I store my audio in Apple Lossless Format, which stores the average CD (700 megabytes) in about half the … Continue reading →

The first compact disc was a Billy Joel album released in 1982. Well before that, studios had been making recordings digitally and releasing them on analog LPs. From the moment the compact disc was released, long-playing albums were headed for … Continue reading →

I began making my tea—an Assam blend from Upton's—this morning as usual. Water on the boil, teapot warmed, tea measured into the teapot infuser; fill the teapot with boiling water, fasten on the lid, and then reach up to snag … Continue reading →

I know why they do it. I sympathize. It’s short; it’s clearly written; it’s divided into ten tightly structured chapters; it has enough sex to titillate but is nonetheless G-rated by today’s debased standards; the author’s life provides a nanny-approved … Continue reading →

Reading Walter Isaacson's biography of Stephen Jobs is an unsettling experience. Not that there's anything wrong with the book itself; it's well-written, meticulously researched, scrupulously fair, and a class act all the way around. The shakeup results from the constant … Continue reading →

We all get the late-night willies sometimes. Last night was my sometime, the first in a good long while. What sets off a case of the bedtime jitters? Too many thoughts crowding together, all vying for attention? Underlying anxieties? Maybe … Continue reading →

It's December. Messiahs are popping up hither and yon. Handel's beloved oratorio is to choruses what shopping is to Macy's: this is the time of year when they break even. Messiah keeps a lot of choruses in the black. Which … Continue reading →

Perhaps it's a way of achieving balance. Perhaps it's a bad habit. Perhaps it points to some deep unresolved inner turmoil. Perhaps I'm making too much out of a trivial personal shortcoming. Allow me to explain, to confess, perhaps even … Continue reading →