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David Mills

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Select a Month January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014

January 2015

January 06, 2015

Speak Well, Says St. Francis de Sales

St. Francis de Sales is the patron of writers and journalists, and said a great many wise...

January 05, 2015

Rod Dreher Ashamed

Speak of others as you would have them speak of you is the rule for...

December 2014

December 23, 2014

Helping Readers

Just got a comment quoting a sentence from an item and saying "This sentence needs...

December 19, 2014

Father James Martin, S.J., Feeds the Trolls

Hysterical and absolutely accurate: Father James Martin's reconstruction of email discussions about his writing, What's THAT...

November 2014

November 07, 2014

Book Title Games

Last year's fad but I missed it then, playing on The Add a word, ruin...

November 06, 2014

Why Writers Writing on Writing Are Paranoid

At the end of a very critical review in The Spectator of John Cleese's autobiography:...

November 05, 2014

Sex, Drugs, and Learning Words

Expanding the number of words you know excites the same parts of your brain as...

November 04, 2014

To Burke

For those of you who find this kind of thing interesting. From my friend William...

November 02, 2014

Euphemisms: Anomaly

Virgin Gallactic's website reports that SpaceshipTwo "suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of...

November 01, 2014

Tom Ricks on Writing

From the same interview quoted in the previous item, defense analyst and Pulitzer Prize finalist...

October 2014

October 29, 2014

Sally Thomas’s Fallen Water

Advance notice for my friend Sally Thomas's new collection of poems, Fallen Water. Here's something from...

October 29, 2014

Ben Bradlee to the PR Flack

"Get lost," is basically what he said. Here's a letter from the famous editor of...

October 28, 2014

Speaking as Children of Light

At his homily this morning at Santa Marta, Pope Francis, reports the CNA, "turned his reflection...

October 23, 2014

Michael Voris Apologizes

This is surprising, and very cheering: Michael Voris apologizes for unintentionally seeming to attack the...

October 22, 2014

The Dangers of Autocorrect

A young friend who applies for jobs from his phone — this is apparently normal...

October 22, 2014

Newman’s Rules for Preachers

Something I wrote a couple of years ago readers may find useful. Here are John...

October 21, 2014

The Artist is Not Exactly First an Artist

Years ago I mentioned to an Evangelical friend over coffee at church that my then-fiance and...

October 16, 2014

R. H. Benson On Writing

R. H. Benson's Spiritual Letters to One of His Converts appeared in a bookseller's list when I...

October 07, 2014

His Teacher Gave Him an F

Raschad Jennings, the starting running back for the New York Giants, is writing a book....

October 02, 2014

Kasper’s Apprently Intentional Ambiguities

In his writings and talk on marriage, Cardinal Walter Kasper remains ambiguous but, or rather therefore,...

September 2014

September 24, 2014

An Exercise in Rhetorical Analysis

In this case, a guide to reading apartment ads in New York City. This is...

September 22, 2014

If You Comment, Just Stop

All right, after a few days not posting anything, to post a critical remark on...

September 01, 2014

The Intellectual Life

A few quotes of use to the student from A. G. Sertillanges’ The Intellectual Life. Sertillanges was a...

August 2014

August 24, 2014

The Lord of the Fly

In case you were curious, the meaning of Beelzebub, from the always interested Philologus writing...

August 18, 2014

The Rebbe and Congressman Chisholm

What happened when "fiery street activist" Shirley Chisholm became a congressman and asked the Lubavitcher...

August 13, 2014

Mike Aquilina’s *Terms & Conditions*

The prolific Catholic writer, EWTN personality, and notable public speaker Mike Aquilina is, I should...

August 03, 2014

Marilynne Robinson on Israel

"It was moving to see all the different forms of piety focused, concentrated in an...

August 01, 2014

A Lesson for Creative People

A useful lesson for writers, scholars, teachers, and anyone else doing some kind of creative work,...

July 2014

July 31, 2014

Writing Cartoons

For writers, two cartoons, not hugely funny but amusing: Creative Thinking and The Writer's Retreat.

July 09, 2014

Lewis & Orwell on Language

In Broken Families, Broken Words, I quoted C. S. Lewis's insight into what happens when...