Wednesday Blog by Seán Thomas Kane

This week, some words about silence in communication. --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane Photo: the poster for the new film "Lee" which is discussed in this episode.

This week, I want to write to you about the revealed joys found in the experience of editing. --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

This week, I discuss the two Irish words for the horse, and what they tell us about the history of the Irish language. --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

This week, a great celebration commences in our national pastime. --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

This week, to conclude a month of chaos I interviewed environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb about his book  Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter . --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane . Links Ben Goldfarb's Website: https://www.bengoldfarb.com NOAA Fisheries, " Oregon Beavers Engineer Better Fish Habitat, More Fish,...

This week, I address news that the latest version of ChatGPT will help with your math problems. --- Links: New York Times, 12 Sep. 2024, Cade Metz, "OpenAI Unveils New ChatGPT That Can Reason Through Math and Science." Eddie Burback, 1 Sep. 2024, "AI is here. What now?" YouTube.

This week, some moderation in Maverick’s “need for speed.” --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

This week, some animalistic thoughts. Photo credit: Fighting African Elephants in Stanley Field Hall. Taxidermy by Carl Akeley . 41411 is on the left with two tusks and its trunk is raised. 41410 is on the right, with one tusk. (c) Field Museum of Natural History - CC BY-NC 4.0 --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

This week, I take you along on an investigation I undertook recently into a family heirloom from World War II. --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

In the last week, I’ve learned about the impermanence of things after a flood struck our house. --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

In celebration of the last few weeks of the Summer Olympics in Paris, I want to write to you about the optimism that the Olympics embody. --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

This week, how it’s good to pause and notice the ways we supersede older things with the new while benefiting from the old all the same. --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

This week, some words on two books about exploration that I’ve read this summer: Hampton Sides’s  The Wide Wide Sea , and Michael Palin’s  Erebus . --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

This past weekend, history was made when President Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. The next 48 hours inspired tremendous hope again. --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

This week, I feel compelled by this past weekend’s events to write about the follies of political violence. --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

This week, I have a short story for you that I wrote three years ago after the death of a dear friend. --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

This week, I’m writing to you with this week’s holiday in mind, with some of my aspirations and hopes for America. --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

This week, a few words about the trip I just completed to London and Paris. --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

This week, I have a short story for you, in the style of an Irish  aisling,  a dream narrative, about a tiger basking in the warm February sun. --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

This week, I conclude my three-part reflection on Dante’s  Divine Comedy  with the  Paradiso . --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

Last week, I wrote my thoughts on the first  cantica  of Dante’s  Divine Comedy . This week then, the second part, the  Purgatorio . All quotations from the  Divine Comedy  come from Robin Kirkpatrick’s English translation published in the 2012 Penguin edition. --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

A while ago, I began reading Dante's  Divine Comedy . So, over the next three weeks I will be writing my own reflections on each of its three parts. This week then, I begin with the  Inferno . --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane --- Dante: Inferno to Paradise, https://dantedocumentary.com The Blues Brothers , "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love...

Last week, I listened to an essay from the  New York Times Magazine  about the possibility that one might lose their first language if they use another too much. Today then, I write to my own experience in this matter. --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane

Last week, the 7th of May 2024, marked the 200th anniversary of the premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's  Symphony No. 9 . Today then, I want to talk with you about the hope which runs through that  Ode to Joy . The recordings of Beethoven's  Ninth Symphony  heard in this episode came from the 1956 album by the ProMusica Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under the direction of Jascha Horenstein...

This past weekend, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art debuted a new retrospective exhibit on the life and work of Franco-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle. One of her great initiatives was to express rebellious joy in her art, especially later in her career. --- Click here to support the Wednesday Blog : https://www.patreon.com/sthosdkane