All Posts By

James Bratt

Echoes of the Year

The number of the new year always has a little magic in it for me, at least until I get to the point of entering

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The Same God?

I was going to write on why “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem” means so much to me as a Christmas carol, but the latest blow-up

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Sojourner Truth

As an escape from the terrorists–that is, from the obsessive coverage designed to keep us in fear, the media in cash, and the perpetrators in

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The Beautiful Changes

Another good thing about retirement is that if your schedule gets screwed up, you don’t have to sweat it so much; most tomorrows are open.

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Confidence Game

by James Bratt Two weeks ago, in his post “Ordinary Dust,” Jason Lief memorably described one of those bad teaching days that every college professor—maybe

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The Rest of Your Life

I’ve just finished the first two weeks of the rest of my life. As a few of you know, and as more of you may

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Casablanca

What makes a movie memorable? So memorable that we can watch it on almost infinite repeat? Well, it has to be of truly unusual quality,

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Doctor Zhivago

For this fourth in a series on the five films I could watch forever, I get to talk about David Lean’s 1965 epic about Russia,

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