Author Archives: Scott Foglesong

I have come to accept that my muse Doris is a morning girl. She does her thing very well when the sun’s in the East, but once we hit the afternoon she’s ready to pack it in for the day. … Continue reading →

This morning I woke early and, having no particular pressing need to get out and about, enjoyed a bit of wool-gathering and dream-waking. For whatever reason I started presenting an analysis of a Mozart piano sonata to a room filled … Continue reading →

We’re living in a tough world. I read the morning news and sometimes feel a little sick inside, appalled at our bottomless capacity for harming each other. But I’m usually reading the news on a iPad, a device that has … Continue reading →

“Nearly every sensible middle-aged person would give away all their money to be able to go back to age 22 and begin adulthood anew.” That’s David Brooks writing in the opinion section of the May 31, 2011 New York Times. … Continue reading →

The title is for all you Updike fans out there. I refer not to the ever-bland Henry Bech, but to Franz Ignaz Beck, a notably successful 18th century composer about whom posterity has remained mostly mum. Beck was just two … Continue reading →

I fulfill almost every standard criterion for an audiophile: I’m male, I’m middle-aged, I’m well-educated, I’m a professional with a decent income, I’m adept at technology but overall more left-brained than right. However, I depart the ranks in one critical … Continue reading →

The pundits are quick to point out that the Greeks could have invented sound recording. How cool would that have been? We could hear scratchy records of Aristotle teaching or a bootleg of the premiere of The Bacchae. We would … Continue reading →

Senility isn’t restricted to people. With modern nutrition and veterinary care, more and more kitty cats are becoming über-senior citizens, so feline gerontology is very much an ongoing concern. My cat April has recently passed her 25th birthday; that puts … Continue reading →

Thirty-three years is a long time to be a teacher. To have gotten this far without burnout is downright remarkable. But that’s my situation; I just wrapped up another year in the pedagogical saddle with my enthusiasm intact and no … Continue reading →

Bart D. Ehrman has produced another book that takes a gimlet-eyed look at Sunday-school attitudes towards the Christian writings. In this case, he is bringing up not only the notion that many of the New Testament books aren’t by their … Continue reading →