My brother and colleague, Scott Spires, has abandoned his old Lakefront Linguist blog for a Substack called Lakefront Review of Books. A couple years ago he lent me his copy of the Wyndham Lewis book Self Condemned. I never got around to reading it so I gave it back to him, and now he’s written… Continue reading Blog news
Category: Current events
RIP Ray Furness
The world recently lost an inspiring teacher and all-round excellent person: Prof. Raymond Furness of the University of St. Andrews. He was the first German tutor I met at St. Andrews, at a reception for overseas students. I saw “German” on his name tag and said, “Oh!” but when he turned my way I came… Continue reading RIP Ray Furness
An appreciation of Aileen Derieg
In 2007, I was a frumpy housewife in small-town Ontario with two children running in all directions and two German degrees gathering dust in the attic. My career up to that point had consisted of a couple of poems one of my professors had seen fit to publish, an annual review of the German legal… Continue reading An appreciation of Aileen Derieg
“Five Germanys”
Recent events have inspired me to re-read Fritz Stern‘s book Five Germanys I have known (grammar nerds will note that it is “Germanys,” not “Germanies,” because the usual plural spelling rules don’t apply to proper names), specifically the middle section about nurturing, preserving, and defending liberal democracy. Reading this book ten years ago, I skimmed that… Continue reading “Five Germanys”