SchneiderWeb

As remiss as I've been in posting this past month, I couldn't let today go by without acknowledging my father. Of course, I sent him a card (which I hope arrived on time), but this blog gives me the opportunity to acknowledge in public things about my father that I've only shared in private, and not even necessarily with him. To begin with, my father is a much more fascinating individual than he would ever let on. It's easy for me to imagine him emerging from the womb with a pair of thick-framed glasses and neatly combed hair, but that would be an exaggeration. I don't think he needed glasses until he was two. If you look up "conservative" in the dictionary, you'll find a photo of George M. Schneider: oldest of three children and father of five, tax accountant, staunch Republican (until recently), and even stauncher Catholic (until even more recently). In short, the Establishment's ideal conservative. But you'll have to read the fine print ...

I've been on summer break since May 17. Despite my best intentions of using my break to catch up on the course readings that I was not able to get to during the semester (or getting a head start on summer Greek), I have barely turned a page of that small stack. Rather, my productivity has been thwarted by my introduction to, and subsequent immersion in, Netflix and the instant gratification of Netflix's streaming movies (curse you, Peter!). It started innocently enough with wanting to watch again the James Bond film License to Kill , an underrated film featuring the very underrated Timothy Dalton. Then I was introduced to the BBC's modern interpretation of Sherlock Holmes, called simply, Sherlock . Then there was the 9-part documentary World War II in Color from the History Channel. Of course, having been a long-time fan of Michael Palin's travel documentaries, I had to see Michael Palin's New Europe (good), Sahara (very good), and Himalayas (great). Then ther...