Scenes From The Fourth Row

Recent Posts

• Sapiens

  By Mike on June 13, 2019 • ( 0 )

  

  Another book recommendation that showed up on my Kindle recently was Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. I’d seen the book at the store and on the Internet, but I had no idea what it was about except that it said… Read More ›

• Graduation

  By Mike on May 30, 2019

  

  So my adventure in getting rid of most social media ended sooner than I expected. But before you think of me as weak-willed, let me explain. In the past few years, my main activity on Facebook is to watch over… Read More ›

• Hamilton

  By Mike on May 23, 2019

  

  One of the nice things about being a history nerd is that it’s often easy to find good deals on books. If you’re patient enough, even highly acclaimed books will show up in the bargain section of the book store,… Read More ›

• Simplicity

  By Mike on May 16, 2019 • ( 1 )

  

  Recently, there was a set of articles in the Style section (strangely enough) of the New York Times that discussed Generation X and the oddities of the 1990s. Of course, I didn’t think the 1990s were weird at all. My… Read More ›

• Superheroes

  By Mike on April 26, 2019

  

  Like any decent pre-Internet teenage boy, I got hooked on comic books when I was in junior high. By hooked, I mean I would spend my entire $20 allowance on comics without thinking twice. I very carefully read every word… Read More ›

• Reset

  By Mike on March 25, 2019

  

  So…we moved into our new house a little over two weeks ago. I was hoping for the process to go by quickly, but I never expected this. Once we put our house on the market, it sold in 11 days!… Read More ›

• Moving

  By Mike on January 15, 2019

  

  I intended to write more often in 2019. Not so much a resolution…just a desire to get these random thoughts out of my head. There’s a saying about good intentions, but hopefully that doesn’t apply here. Instead, much of my… Read More ›

• Football

  By Mike on December 4, 2018

  

  I realized recently that despite the name of and inspiration for this website, I’ve never really actually written anything about football or any other sport. Today, I’m going to right this wrong…or write this wrong…whichever. Football was one of the… Read More ›

• Stories 11/2/18

  By Mike on November 2, 2018

  

  News To Me These stories may not interest you much, but they were all News To Me. Vox has a Q&A with Marion Nestle, author of Unsavory Truth, a book about how the food industry has influenced much of the research… Read More ›

• Vote!

  By Mike on October 30, 2018

  

  “Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.” George Jean Nathan (1955) Here in Texas, early voting numbers are setting records across the state. The same is true in other states as well. But considering so few… Read More ›

• Martian

  By Mike on October 5, 2018

  

  Late last year, The Martian showed up in the “Recommended Reading” section of my Kindle app. I read the description and eventually decided I would probably like the book. I had a faint recollection that a movie was made based… Read More ›

• Cherries

  By Mike on June 15, 2018 • ( 1 )

  

  After my aunt took me to Hawaii as a college graduation present, I came home with a newfound distaste for pineapple. It didn’t start that way. I used to really like pineapple. But after a week of having pineapple served… Read More ›

• Fiction

  By Mike on December 17, 2017

  

  After finishing the entire Harry Potter series this summer, I began reading more fiction than normal…normal for me, that is. I will pick up a novel on occasion, but primarily, I stick to nonfiction, mainly history or economics. Yes, I… Read More ›

• Harry

  By Mike on August 3, 2017

  

  It’s not uncommon for me to spend summers catching up on reading the backlog of magazines I subscribe to or reading various books that I don’t have time to read during the school year. This summer has fairly typical in… Read More ›

• Ideals

  By Mike on May 5, 2017

  

  Once upon a time, I would hear politicians speak of returning the United States to its “Founding Principles,” and I would simply chalk it up to a type of misguided patriotism – the “Spirit of 1776,” if you will. Recently,… Read More ›

• ‹ Older Entries