Month: November 2014

  • How I Found “The Hobbit”

    [Originally posted on December 13, 2012 by David Sheppard] I suppose everyone has a story about how they came to read The Hobbit. I’m no exception. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have been a part of my family for the last forty-four years. I ran onto it by chance. I was attending…

  • On the Passing of Seamus Heaney

    [Originally posted on August 30, 2013 by David Sheppard] I was saddened today by the news that Seamus Heaney passed away. Although I never met the man, I had read quite a lot of his poetry, and it seems he’d read a little of mine. In 1987, I submitted a poem to the Arvon International…

  • From Bonanza to Breaking Bad

    [Originally posted on September 19, 2013] This is a fifty-year-old beef for me. Television series have been retarded in so many ways, but perhaps they are now in the process of change. Here’s what they are now saying about Breaking Bad: “Breaking Bad” exemplifies a new sort of television series, one conceived with its ending…