Diaries

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In the English-speaking world diary-keeping has traditionally been the province of "virgins and generals." I am neither of those things. Some childhood efforts aside, I have never kept a daily record of my thoughts and circumstances.

The impulse is there, though, in some weak form. Wherever I've had work writing opinion columns, I have always included a regular diary-style column in my output.

These pieces are for the most part not personal. Some of their segments are short observations on current events, where I had not enough to say — or was not sufficiently interested, engaged, or energetic to work up enough — to fill a regular column. Others pass comment on some book I had read or movie I had seen, when no editor could be persuaded to pay me for a full-length review. Others are random — but, I hope, passingly original — reflections of the kind we all have while walking our dogs.

From December 2001 to March 2012 the outlet for these miscellanea was a monthly diary for National Review Online. I didn't actually start calling these columns "diaries" until March 2002. Earlier contributions in the same basic genre have been grandfathered in here as diaries, beginning with my China Diary of summer 2001.

After I was dropped by NRO in April 2012 I tried to persuade Taki's Magazine, for whom I had been writing since 2001, to let me continue this monthly schedule. They weren't keen, but we compromised on a "Quarterly Potpourri." There were thirteen of these from May 2012 to July 2015.

In mid-2015 I retired from Taki's Magazine, leaving VDARE.com as my only regular outlet. They agreed to let me post monthly diaries. The first VDARE.com monthly diary appeared at the end of September 2015.

One fairly regular feature of my NRO diaries was the "Math Corner" at the end of most since August 2002. Sometimes this was a brainteaser, sometimes just a comment on some vaguely math-related topic. Some subset of the brainteasers seemed to me to justify a solution page of their own. Those solution pages are listed here. I have resumed these Math Corners in the VDARE.com diaries.

Go directly to: 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001

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2024
September	Scriptural isolationism — Fiction of the month — Clotheslines and Catherine wheels — Crisp explains Biden — Oboe stories — America's most hated — The Jew Thing — A Kipling Conservative — Triumph of the prudes — Nicotine fights back — Drudge sludge — Math corner: From the Carousel
August	Mozart in the Jungle — Vocal discontent — Get off the lawn! — Comedy collapse — A joke for the 2020s — Lips and teeth — Irony defined — Math corner: A cryptarithmetic puzzle
July	The Last Arcadia — Biden's choice, and Coolidge's — The Cycle of Life — Chiang Kai-shek's marriage — Death in the driveway — An odd literary pairing — Whatever happened to short stories? — Math corner: IMO winners, toothpicks, and a brainteaser
June	Milestones — A Knight of the Woeful Countenance — A story from the corporate world — A man who has found his work — A fine bromance — Lionel Shriver's Mania — Math corner: Self-descriptive numbers
May	A very male movie — Confessions of a gadget nerd — Fiction of the month: Buddenbrooks — Enstupidated software — Getting to know Schumann — Sexes apart — Thanatophobia — Math corner: Factorially additive
April	The busiest month — Total eclipse — Lost in Cuyahoga — Eclipse Lit. — Eclipse abroad — Middle East disclaimer — Bitter Klingers? — The young ones — The VDARE conference — Math corner: Factor sums
March	VDARE on the cross — Financial cancellation all over — Have I been canceled? — Occupational anecdotes — Physical therapy report — Doesn't anybody retire any more? — The seven-year laptop itch — Ramaswamy faceplants — Cold War memories — Sci-fi movies — Math corner: Prime Curios!
February	Against immigration triumphalism — Is mass deportation possible? — Does physical therapy work? — Better than "chocolate" — Natural selection for uhtceare? — Generating power in El Salvador — The ignorance of the Tutsis — Nostalgia Corner — Math corner
January	Squatter story — Epileptic dwarf pilots? — Lessons in humility — Pronunciation problems — January jigsaw — Salutes — Late remorse — Math corner: Blurb story
2023
December	An old-fashioned girl — The cruelest month — Find the factotum — Cold War verse — Is espionage still a thing? — Gadgets galore — Math corner
November	Hyperinflation centenary — The Musk biography — The wisdom of Jared Taylor — A lesson from the Stoics — An identitarian Big Crunch? — Turchin on AI — Derb's AI nightmare — Will AI make us mentally flabby? — Goodnight, Henry — Math corner: oldie but goodie
October	Colonialism (cont.) — In which I am a victim of racial discrimination — Globalism on colonialism — Colonial ambivalence — Orwell in Burma — Botanical investigations — Naming the demon — Evil portents — Sick or sweet? — Math corner: A nifty inequality.
September	Doomed, doomed: Mustafa Suleyman's The Coming Wave — The love that never fails — The value of forms — One small step for a man — Hubble and Schrödinger, a century on — Unreasonable anger — Math corner
August	Vermont mystery solved — Movie news — A childhood encounter — Terminological notes — Consolations of a language dunce — Jonathan Swift does early 21st-century China — For and against Tennyson's Ulysses — Math corner: An easy one.
July	The Cerulean Decade? — Color me confused — Chromatic creep — Bye-bye cerulean birdie — Architecture in black and white — Movie moments — Is love dead? — Handgun saga: the conclusion — Fiction of the month — Depths of pettiness — Moved by Voov — Change of the wind in China — Race, education, and fertility — Mysteries of oriental phonology — Math corner: Subtracting Around the Corner
June	Red Flag down — Jigsaw puzzle difficulty — Worse than Big Pharma — Muggeridge, Sailer, and the Guardian — A small milestone in Consciousness Studies — Hitting the Complex Systems wall — The perils of decline — Philip Snow's China and Russia — Math corner: a cute one
May	Puzzling for Western Civ. — The seasons of AI — An ontologist writes — Cookie-cutter doctoring — Gold, silver, and rhubarb — Britain's Coolidge (cont.) — What's driving Open Borders? — Stephen Miller on the border — My first house — Those Whitsun Weddings — Math corner
April	The stars at night are big and bright — The Lone Rock State — A superb museum — Wokesters stonewalled — Government digits — Something to remember — A city on a river — Invading the Capitol — For state rights — Is civilization better than barbarism? — All places, all times — Where are the Huns? — Will AI eat us? — Math corner
March	Gilley on colonialism — Reason and authority — Self-discipline fail — Philip Howard on unions — Mind? No matter. Matter? Never mind — Slave of the Huns — Avis tries harder … to vex loyal customers — Exploring Texas — Math corner
February	(Disclaimer) — Painkiller addiction explained — Striving to keep up — Ken Follett's Never — Was MacArthur right? — Suicide: last words — Linguistically challenged (cont.) — Derb ♥ Big Pharma — Math corner
January	Paul Johnson RIP — Paul Johnson: the work — Sharpe novels in order (but which order?) — Claremont Review — Colette: the girliest writer — Kids don't read — Chinese (Lunar?) new year — Medical interlude — Math corner
2022
December	Bruce Lee club meets — Dandelion and Burdock — Why is lawfare legal? — Suicide genes — Minor irritations — Euthanasia & assisted suicide — Sharpe's progress — Slow motion — James Webb Telescope canceled in U.K. — Math corner: Processed into silence; Derbyshire numbers; two exponentials
November	Dismantling the meritocracy — Nurturism is Hate — The Equity chimera — The Great Enstupidation — WW1 reflections — Colder dreams, sterner cares — Hyponatraemia — Math corner: Try the gāokăo
October	The End of the End of the End of History? — Satan's leaf blowers — A Moving story (sequel) — Don't laugh! — Bookstores not yet extinct — Remembering the Hittites — Oyster Festival — Movie Russians: spooks to crooks — Math corner: Vukmirovic sequences
September	Cindy does Maine — Falls Rome, falls the world — Cake contrarian — Incapacitation works! — Crime and impressment — Pandemic, meh — A moving story — Heroes of civilization — Wartime wedding — Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels — Math corner: An easy one
August	War on the imagination — Providers v. insurers — Brief lapse into melancholy — Fiction of the month — Bad manners in the job market — Ed Dutton's Spiteful Mutants — Ron Unz's American Pravda — Conspiracy season — Toponymical atrocities — Rural decline — Will Boomercide untie Derbyshire's Knot? — Math corner: An extraordinary theorem
July	Thought for the month — The Phone Booth Principle (cont.) — My grandson's christening — Bugocalypse? — Uselessness conserved — Kemi Badenoch, MP, IWSB — Race-denialist metaphysics — Contraband magazines — Yet another reason to favor Uruguay — Is Sean Hannity Chinese? — Wikiguilt assuaged — In the hour of thoughtless youth — Math corner: Zimbalist numbers
June	The blessings of insignificance — What does America stand for? — End of the nature-nurture Interglacial — The genetics of stupidity — Breathless Nature's dark abyss — When AI meets genomics — Out of Africa — Extraordinary occurrences — The household expands — Against the fall of night — Math corner: A little light wordplay
May	First duty — Re-remembering Bertrand Russell — Bring back asylums! — Nomen atque omen — My Dad the asylum orderly — Ernest Hemingway and me — Over-controlled in Scarsdale — The old man's friend — Are we over-doctored? — Who's paying for my pills? — Douglas Murray's The War on the West — Commencement report — Math corner: The icing on the cake
April	A Wordsworth moment — Check death — Amis centenary — Chitty chitty hama hama — Mongolians ♥ Russia — Glad to see the Russians go — The Shelley problem — Hyperpolyglottery — Math corner: A billionth power
March	More fun with lexicography — We Need to Talk About Kevin — We Need to Talk About Kojo — When the penny drops — Healthcare inefficiency — Nonfiction of the month: AI Superpowers — We need to talk about Russia — Whatever happened to Khrushchev? — A poetess takes a silent "p." — Remembering Game Theory — Math corner: A lot of primes
February	The Sick Man of the West — Streets without names — The joy of bhakri — Woke associations — No whites or Asians need apply — P.J. on Canadians — The mighty pull of human exceptionalism — A brush with greatness — Gun lovers rock! — Math corner: Next in a sequence
January	The paradox of American legalism — Rider Haggard — Wages of sin — The fate of small countries — The kompromat factor — Ukrainian nationalism experienced — Sacred soil of the Motherland? — Audacity of the witch-finders — Lionel Shriver's So Much for That — February's Chinese parentheses — Math corner: IMO 2021 easiest
2021
December	My pistol-packin' county — Empire State reflections — Game of the name — Bonny and blithe — The writing's on the wall for handwriting — The untact society — Vagabonds and strumpets? — Software sucks — Math corner: Culinary brainteaser
November	China's second Cultural Revolution — The curse of crappy websites — Nose tales — Minoritarianism — Memory-holing needs attention — Fiction fails — Year numbers as book titles — Book scammers — A war on cognitive decoupling? — Math corner: Farley's folly
October	Visiting Berkeley Springs — China retreats into xenophobia — The joy of humiliation — Adventures in the skin trade — Dermato-oncological humor — Rhinotomophobia — Remembering Dominic Behan — Me and The Economist — Math corner: Some wordplay
September	The debunking rabbit hole — Chinese masculinity — Usage and abusage — Nose cancer — The Master and Margarita — The passing of books — Allo-, not elo- — Block Island — New England piety fail — Yoko's chess set — Math corner: Books for beginners, brainteaser
August	The cruelest month — Peak crazy? — Geezer philosophy — Wisdom and woo — Bugocalypse latest — Novel of the Month — Bomu, Bozo, and Bobo — The furthest shores of bookishness — A good cigar is a smoke — The joy of carlessness — Pedestrianism — A hundred years ago — Movie of the Month —
July	Sleeping prone is harder than you'd think — Staircase wit — Guilt exhibitionism — So's your old man — A statue is forever … hardly ever — A guide to free housing — Twenty years of diarizing — Math corner: IMO 2021 results
June	George Packer's "Four Americas" — Tăng píng — Bookends: a bleg — Cancel culture, 1966 — The end of sex — Small Men on the Wrong Side of History — Who said "Courage lost, all lost"? — Ann Patchett's Bel Canto — Miss America 1968 — Math corner: College Math Journal, Bailey's Triangle
May	Covid, zzz — Sir Martin's bet — Trying Edward St Aubyn — Subjective truth the only truth — Charles Murray's new book — Curse of the woke bimbos — A funny feminist! — Homage to Classics Illustrated — Math corner:" Textbook racket? and semicircular brainteaser
April	Daffodils! — The little free library — The Giver of Stars — Lenin's secret diary — The Eastern Front — Neurosurgical preference — Canceling Tennyson — Math corner: False to true with one line
March	Meeting the challenge — Viral analogies — The problem with USPS — Pfizer memories — Supreme gratification — Images of the late-covid world — In the stars — The weight of your fate's eight — News from our cultural revolution — Math corner: Divisibility tests
February	Politicians with courage — Make America Ordinary Again — Home life at the Derbs' — Defund (some of) the police! — Checking in with the Bard — Ideology's downward slide (with case studies) — Suburban story — Math corner: Should Ibram X. Kendi get a Fields?
January	A race realism primer — Kathy Shaidle RIP — My first ChiCom shill — Introduction to the Four Ws — Whataboutism — Whateverism — Who-We-Are-ism — Who-whom-ism — Exit minimalism — A sane transsexual — [James/Jan] Morrisiana — Math corner: An outrage & a possible brainteaser.
2020
December	Quote of the month — Cruz kills a bill — James Flynn, RIP — A philocaptive anniversary — Digital Leninism — The power of humiliation — The tale of a book — Pascal's wager on China — A book recommendation, a book suggestion — Math corner: The badly-designed clock
November	Our Third World election — The world of The World of Suzie Wong — Is anti-racism a psychiatric disorder? — Jeet Kun Woo — Back to the Middle Ages — A family of talent — Yet another Indian novel — Rigging the election Indian style — America v. Europe on demographic collapse — Math corner Cartoon, revenge, balls in a box
October	Gypsy quotations — Paleolithic pleasure — Building for the ages — AI advances — Legacy IT systems — Escape from lockdown — Most improbable novel title? — India's social chasm — Never enough contrarians — Negro Fatigue — Math corner More Focus atrocities & brainteaser
September	Alternate pop-culture worlds — Mister Jones — Into Manhattan — Tyrants with a writing problem — And Quiet Flows the Don — A nation gone crazy — Basil's birthday — Caumsett — Jeet? — Math corner: Mathematical onomastics and a brainteaser
August	In Antiracism We Trust — Buying ammo — The guns of August — Mask rage — Man-management secrets — Hurricanes, real and imaginary — No power to deliver — A miserable war — The war without a song — Fiction of the month — Manual labor — Math corner
July	Notes from lockdown — Cheryl Misak's Frank Ramsey — My Ramsey connection — Conjugal collaboration — Mr Sai and Mr De — Getting tested for the virus — And yet it moves — The logical knot of ethnomasochism — Math corner: Boycotting law-enforcement algorithms; Graham's Number; A factorial-factorial puzzle
June	Hell of a month — It's anti-white all the way down — Elite overproduction? — Atheist humor — Back to church — Revolutionary esthetics — Life in Jim Snow America — Cultural appropriation conundrums — Cowboy fiction — Math corner: Gombaud's blunder
May	Not the riots — The Geezer Election — How are things in Glocca Morra? — A 400-mile beach with attached farm — Adjective alive — Yearning for normality — Lie of the land — Lie, Lady, Lie — The slow death of print newspapers — Movie Bomb of the Month — Math corner: A geometry puzzle.
April	Lockdown Lit. — Mr Brooke's Joe Biden moment — Quantifying the death of the novel — Great unpublishables — Remembering the Pioneer Hotel — Speaking truth to power — Michigan's strict governess — Over-lawyered? — The Fab Four Humors — Left behind — Central concerns — Math corner: RIP John Horton Conway
March	What, me worry? — The long URI — What time does the next ice floe leave? — Notes from our Cultural Revolution (1): Bo Winegard — Notes from our Cultural Revolution (2): Lana Lokteff — Goodbye, Handshake Game — Philippa Schuyler — Musical decadence — Can I get a ticket for my emotional support pangolin? — Math corner: best of seven
February	Our dumb ruling class — Martial arts — Gulled at the opera — Things I want to know — Finding the Mindy — Basilolatry — The 10,000-th Spectator — Remembering Bertrand Russell — Bernie Sanders explained — Things I haven't done — Fiction of the month — Math corner
January	Face fungus — Name that virus — Sir Roger Scruton, RIP — Hasidim having fun — Bolt-hole news — The sex recession — Power of the word — Where taboo words survive — The naming of parts — TV is for geezers — Muh Latin — Math corner: the hyperbolic soccer ball
2019
December	Out with the Tens … — In with the Twenties — Britain's Coolidge — Totally unjustifiable impulse purchase of the month — Groyper issues — Atrocity inflation — A small victory in the culture wars — The Long Firm Trilogy — Catullus' Bedspread — Nonfiction of the Month — The decade that normalized the f-word — An Asian-American Emmett Till — Math corner
November	Intellectuals are a danger to society — Springtime for Snowflakes — The Mandibles — Where is Mr Arbuthnot? — Exploring Chinese attitudes to eugenics — Puppy love — King of our hearts — Math corner: Dissidence in the AMS Notices, Africa's top young mathematician, and a brainteaser
October	2020s China = 1950s America? — No bottom, no facts — China footnotes — Nonlinear change — Decline of Christianity — Misleading advice — Book reports — Kipling story — Math corner: square and cube roots the old way
September	China Diary: Rating Air China — One less minor travel chore — Laoyi and Yifu — Impressions of Peking — The Installed Base problem — Celebrity! — A town transformed — Demography bites — Low-speed rail travel — Doing the sights — QR-Code Nation — Transport ageism — Breakfast treats — The Summer Palace — At the White Stupa — Bilingual China — A night at the Peking opera — Where are the roads? — Staying at Chiang Kai-shek's villa — Sightsmelling in Suzhou — A dog's life in China — The temple on Cold Mountain — Politics, East and West — Railroad station nightmares — Language learning and mimicry — A mutual acquaintance — What is socialism? — Wenming in the privy — Does he drink white liquor? — The old Malthusian China — Down the blue-red gradient — More Chinglish — Wine on a stick — The Chinese Orwell — Expelled from the palace! — Self-reflections — Another Yellowtopia — Joyful reunion — Middle-class Chinese life — China's ghost villages — Whitewashing the past — The click of the tiles — Ken Behring, RIP — Last stop — The kultprop and the dissident — Heroic materialism — Render unto the Party — Thanks, China
August	Cultural appropriation you can love — How Japan works — Married a third of a century — My Jersey girl — Fun with lexicography — More than I wanted to know about Dorothy Provine — Are dentists any good? — The real youngest science — Decline of the waiting-room magazine pile — Young Fogey takes Parliament — Math corner: a paradox about the rational numbers
July	Yearning for distinction — Virtual muster — China sources — The World's Most Important Map — The blessings of numeracy — Strip-mining the smart fraction — The case against any immigration — The case for a demographic supermajority — The myth of black poverty — Math corner: 2019 IMO results
June	Nonfiction of the month — Linda Fairstein's crime fiction — More Waugh stories — The red and the blue — Hot and noisy — Isaiah's automotive verses — The war against laughter — The fading of national character — Death of Bawdy-ville — Math corner: Moser's multiset recovery problem
May	Don't call me "Comrade"! — My days are numbered (cont.) — Remembering Auberon Waugh — Creationism is still with us — The 2019 AmRen conference — Road trip — Vague general impressions: Toronto — Dinner with Faith Goldy — Yellow Flight — Vague general impressions: Montreal — A city of character — Scourby's Bible (cont.) — Math corner
April	The transience of showbiz glory — Easter and Passover — Qing Ming — For the ancestors — Nonfiction book of the month — Breaking in to privacy's last citadel — Three to Conquer — Scourby's Bible — Math corner: Jousting with the Mrs
March	Eloquence of the month — A Kultprop explains the manifesto — Return of the ice-sheets — Royal NPCs — Hernán Cortés, twelve-pointer — The beauties of Nahuatl — Perils of a Harvard education — Math corner: Vaccination math
February	Nightmare on Main Street — Museum of the Dog — Book ends — Life cycle of civilizations — Quantified history bites back — Code archeology — No justice, no math! — Blackety-blackety black scholarship — The SJW-ification of math — Immatheracy in the human sciences — Math corner: A nifty number
January	Scarf management — Non-nits mis-picked — Celtic confusions — Disagreement ≠ disapproval — No enemies on the left in Tinseltown — Acronym of the month — Totally unjustified and improper smile of the month — Two Boris Zeldovich stories — Normalizing the f-word — Administrative bloat in Ed Biz — My first movie — Math corner: Triazzle; and 2019 is descript

2018
December	AI you can love — Mexico, China; the "front" and the "back." — The 0th of Pop — A safe space in Mexico — Under the Volcano — The power of fancy over reason — The Astronomer Moment — The Proust Questionnaire — Quantum-mechanical humor (cont.) — A feast of anniversaries — In which our diarist lapses briefly into self-promotion — Totalitarian dilemmas — Hairy soles and fighting frogs — Math corner
November	The CRISPR babies — Eastern eugenics, Western dysgenics — "He's on first," She told You — Opera buffa at the Derbs' — Match-maker, match-maker — Love and marriage — The Nation-killers — Nonfiction of the month — Fiction of the month — Math corner
October	Birds of a feather — Narrative defenders in the last ditch — Blinkered Goodwhites — Always look on the bright side — The Moon … and Mars and Venus — White Guilt porn still going strong — Dust to dust — Quantum humor — Where's my quantum time machine? — Day more to a snail, missy bottom — Math corner: Pure-math poker
September	Passing on stage — Little acts of kindness — Twisdom of the Month — Sad sacks — Poem of the Month — One more for Toby — Book of the month: The Perfectionists — The evergreen browns — The freelance life — Now hear this — The tire place — Math corner: Some random notes
August	"Sp—" watch — The de-hobbying of the personal computer — Great-Great-Grandad was a career criminal — Remonstrance in Peking — Isles of Illusion — Toby: a quiet passing — Math corner: Polyhedra websites, and a brainteaser
July	My enemy's enemy is … no good — Hungary's demographic insecurity — The ultimate race war weapon? — Numbers, numbers, numbers — Where's my star on the Walk of Fame? — American Shaolin — Down on the tank farm — A plague of lame puns — TDS all over — Math corner: Some recent math competition results
June	It's a white thing, you wouldn't understand — Open-borders fanaticism: political pros and cons — The Inner Circle — The Poconos love hotels: a report — Still not getting the Jew Thing — The decline of hate — Anti-Americanism as a career — Goodbye, cold world — Humani nihil a se alienum puto — Math corner: Why are there no (mainland) Han Chinese Fields Medalists?
May	Remembering the fallen — The Forever War (1): Light at the end of the tunnel — The Forever War (2): Is there a case for it? — Be as diverse as you can be — The disappearing white male — Medieval booze — It's OK to be John! (cont.) — Work without meaning — Heard around the house (cont.) — Math corner: Three light-houses
April	From showery to flowery — Tennessee does what Virginia didn't — Book of the month: the Murrays on Apollo — Fifty years on from 2001 — It's OK to be John! — Institutional memory — Foreign meddling — Skipping the begats — Rhetorical question — Heard around the house — Math corner: Happy birthday, Intelligencer!
March	It's the blecks (1): Guns — It's the blecks (2): Immigration — What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? — Only an 'opeless fancy — It passed from the roll of the Nations — Kevin Williamson to The Atlantic — Shakespeare guilt — Former Trumpers — Math corner: Waiting in line
February	Meritocracy 60 years on — Landline lament — The new sixty? — Will Japs cuck? — In Borisiam — Browsing Pinker — Oncologist humor — The Maine semicolon — The Jeep story — Math corner: P vs. NP cracked? And dangerous radical symbols.
January	A Hays Code for our time — The Anglosphere's worst year — God no globalist — Literature meets art — Acing the exam — Artificial stupidity — Fiction book of the month — Whither the Uighurs? — Mao reconsidered — Math corner: Another humongous prime

2017
December	New Year blues — Lightless in the quarry — Gentlemen, the Queen! — Teeming with kids — War on Christmas: It's a Puritan thing — One and a half books about reason — Turtledove's How Few Remain — Totalitarian capitalism (cont.) — In the realm of buncombe — Resolutions — Math corner: A counterintuitive result from track & field
November	Mencken Club postscripts — Rent-an-egghead — Where is Henry the Eighth when we need him? — Away with all pests! — Dark thoughts — In the dark depths — Soldier in the house — Glyphs vext quiz — Non-event of the month — Math corner: Mystery sequence
October	Livin' in a world of fools — When Danny comes marching home — Traces of habitation — Great progressive causes of yesteryear — Art and politics — Graph of the month — Book of the month — Reading Trollope in Manchuria — Math corner: Two cups from a disk
September	The power of the keys — Mocking goodwhites in other languages — The bug wars — Bug Lit — Exterminate the Four Pests! — One kind of American — Adventures in fiction — Geezerism vindicated — The decline of stuff (cont.) — Since when I have used no other — Math corner: Reverse Pythagoras and the unexpected e
August	That was the month that was — Vae victis — Married to Goldman Sachs — Software archeology — The open Internet: a fool's paradise — What comes after "Nazi"? — Literary eclipses — The whey that can be spoken of is not the constant whey — The face in the misty light — MWC and the bluenoses — Math corner: Existence and essence
July	Hatefest in Tennessee — Alt Right rising — The uselessness of Conservatism, Inc. — A great living American — RV-ing with the Derbs — Learning from the Big Man — Gissing in Calabria — Poet seeks privy — Liu Xiaobo, RIP — Math corner: Maryam Mirzakhani, RIP; and a brainteaser from Ramanujan
June	If we tried to use our nukes, would they work? — Nothing new under the Sun — The Phone Booth Principle — Who named the Cold Civil War? — Staring into the Abbess — Doom'n'gloom from old Russia — Bitcoin bites — Europe's quiet corner — Book of the month: fiction — Book of the month: nonfiction — Trivial achievement of the month — Math corner: "Greater than" v. "as great as"; Transylvanian geniuses; the CultMarxification of math (cont.)
May	Richard Emmanuel Goldstein Spencer — The Beggars' Democracy — Stuff girls know — Not gay but Goy — Don't Let's Be Beastly To The Germans — The froth story of the month — Chris Brand, RIP — Tucker Carlson fishes the ocean deeps — Book report: fiction — Book report: nonfiction — Hillbilly prosody — Math corner: Feelgood CultMarx blathering.
April	Trumpism: righting the world's wrongs — My low Party number — From active to passive — The Word versus the World — The hu-wite cliffs of Dover — Cancel my subscription! No, wait … — Book of the Month: a philosopher on octopuses — Baboon Metaphysics — Notable quote — Math corner: The 2016 Putnam results, electoral maps
March	North Korea: the natural solution — Remembering Heaven Pool — From the diffident right — From the Book of Clem — When Englishmen meet — Walker Connor, RIP — The paradox of nationalism — The very model of a modern movie theater — Hell is other people — Math corner: Happy centenary, Woodall primes!
February	Wanted: an Alt Right Style Book — President Johnson Deep in the Art of Taxes — Why not an Alt-Right Awards Ceremony? — The Curse of Politics — Weaponizing autonomous vehicles — Out of the frying-pan into the Ring of Fire? — Elite Overproduction — Learning nothing about everything — The Little Bang Theory — Math corner: Sphere packing
January	Women and Jews for Islam — News-itive dissonance — Sixty years on from Peak Happiness — R.I.P.(1): Mary Tyler Moore — Bring on the NATINTERN — R.I.P.(2): Zhou Youguang — Lecture course of the month — Presidential footwork — Math corner: Everything there is to know about 2017

2016
December	Yes, Obama would have won — The long (16,600 words) goodbye — Escalator race stories — The end of books — Middlebrow fiction of the month — The war lover — Refusing treatment — Silver cloud, dark lining — Stamping out oddity — Math corner: Pushing diversity; brainteaser; the number 2017
November	Oh, say, can you see? — Civilization gets tweetified — W.G., R.I.P. — Wearing us down — Fog over the Channel: Europe isolated — The wages of vanity — An encounter with antimatter — Transcribing Trump — New frontiers in anarcho-tyranny — Math corner: The gematriah of Trump.
October	Two essays on race — Slow day at the Pentagon — Another day, another cilop — Does he bill his patients via the web? — Borjas no bore — Galaxies like grains of sand — Warm happy glow of the month — Quote of the month — The Americans — Math corner: Threes and thirds
September	Quote of the month — Are we getting smarter, or dumber? — It's a contractor's world, we just live in it — The ch-word — Born on the … when? — It's rackets all the way down — Too much stuff — Chin. Lit. — States of mind — Math corner: The Ramanujan movie, and a brainteaser.
August	The Alt-Right breakout — The godless Alt-Right — What happened to Intelligent Design? — Academic timidity — Gemütlichkeit in Hong Kong — The localist phenomenon — The malling of Hong Kong — The art of the sub — The New Criterion — a tribute — Comrade Baron — Math corner: Rolling three dice.
July	Two weeks in Yellowtopia — Cultural Marxism with Chinese characteristics — The shape they're in — The persistence of difference — The rewards of ambiguity — Orthographic reaction — De gustibus — Keeping in with the supernatural — You can't go back — The China Problem — Math corner
June	Where there's a "will" … — England's flyover people — Cuck Lit.? — Oh, Shenandoah — Al-Walid the Cheap — Is hating Russia an Anglo-Saxon value? — Things that really matter — Math corner: Mean, median, mode; The Riemann Hypothesis — Update
May	The geezer election — Own the insult! — Careful! The fountain of youth is slippery — The long twilight — Out of Africa — Great Courses cops out on race — You Brexit, you own it — The three-book problem — Math corner: Missed opportunity
April	Spencer in Time — Did God die 50 years ago? — Great unpublished Letters to the Editor — The Hungarian War and Peace — My Adelstrop — The living fish swims under water — Si monumentum requiris circumspice — Is Shakespeare good for another 400 years? — WASP privilege — Expanding acronyms — Math corner: Seventy is weird
March	Roy Noel Derbyshire, RIP — Them he cannot take — A Trump supporter passes — The Old Country — More British than the Brits — Ge' yw passpw ready — Who the bell tolls for — Auntie shows her knickers — Too much politics? (cont.) — Math corner: No hiding place
February	Quote of the Month — Yellow journalism — Had enough politics yet? — The Devil makes work for idle thumbs — Middlebrow fiction find of the month — The Sicily of the British Isles — Getting right with McWhorter — Je suis circonflexe — Back to work — Math corner: A Ramanujan movie
January	Teen displacement? — The impregnable fortress of Diversity — Sam Francis: a prophet gets some honor (just a little bit) — My days are numbered (cont.) — Swiss too corrupt, bring in an African! — Reading current novels, so you don't have to — Limousine liberals, always with us — Bonny, blithe, good, and … what? — It ain't over until the fat ladies fight — Math corner

2015
December	Fruitcake apocalypse — Star Wars — the tilm — Muggeridge, Amis, and Mrs Orwell — Book reviewing tips — Event of the year — Reason versus History — Gadget of the month — It was the pits — A punchable face — Math corner
November	Reformocons are wan — Vladimir Ilyich Sanders — Crony communism — Low life in China — The Great Liberal Death-Wish — Math corner
October	The Great Northeastern Birthday Tour — Scenic high point — New England Gothic high point — White prole heartland — A reminder of Lost Eden — Canada's Ellis Island — Followers in folly — The cruise ferry — Still stands the forest primeval — Middlebrow fiction of the month — Movie of the month — Math corner The Annotated Alice, 150th anniversary edition
September	A decent Lefty — Peak white guilt? — A pitiful addiction — It's worse than you think — Keeping fit with Derb — Peak jobs, maybe — Oblomovitis — Reading list — Math corner: Education Realist sets a test
2nd quarter	Advice to investors — To cheat one Greek — Life lessons from an elder — Beware of the Kultprop — In and out with Derb — Taboos of the time — Veterans?
1st Quarter	Virtue totalitarianism — Was her name Kim? — Feasts, moveable and fixed — Easy Rider at 46 — Upstream variables

2014
4th Quarter	The Age of Krapp — Spongebob Squarefree — Stupid impulse purchase of the year — Smart impulse purchase of the year — New taboo word — Woodchipper humor — Animal crackers — Who are we?
3rd Quarter	Zero shades of gray — Forgetting how to hate — For the Engineer in Your Soul — Absimilation — Daemonical Hints of Truth — No hiding place
2nd Quarter	You can't faze a New Yorker — Animals more interesting than celebrities — Best bathroom book ever — Americans have no clue about race — Memorizing the Constitution — Three words for one
1st Quarter	Standing up for work — Who we are — Alternative history — What blacks are interested in — A working philosophy

2013
4th Quarter	Tightwad Corner — How to open a safe — Al Goldstein, RIP — Weather: the English philosophy — Planned obsolescence — Nut Kune Do — Country of the year — The war to end all wars — I guess it's great, but I still wish I'd never heard of it — Today's Army
3rd Quarter	The disappearing middle — Mnemonicizing the Civil War — Right and wrong — Beats the band — Smart mice
2nd Quarter	Oops, I did it again — Hank's last drive — Randomness in St. Louis — What happened in the fifties — The coming Midas Plague
1st Quarter	Intro — Assholes — Parsifal at the Met — Parsifal in 150 words — Worries — Horsemeat — Reactionary wisdom

2012
4th Quarter	Intro — Abstract politics — Killing birds — Admiring birds — Missing lunatics
3rd Quarter	Intro — Death with dignity — Me and my Mossberg — Cavalier swordsman foils robbery — Sectionalism for ever — The problem with nihilism
2nd Quarter	Intro — Alan Colmes drives a Trabi — Remembering Kathleen Ferrier — Middlebrow fiction report: The Danger — Why pig poop smells bad — The Higgs boson explained — Genetic vs. social determinism
March	Under the influence — Johnsoniana — Event of the month? — A night at the opera — Verdi in Tiananmen Square — The North Korean horrors — And the band played on — Misleading advice for foreigners — Math corner
February	Nothing happened — The over-sung anthem — Marilyn Monroe TV movie — Voices from above — Bilingualism in Wales — Prince Philip — Ghost towns — Bilingualism: the conservative case — Medical paperwork madness — America's space program, 50 years on — Math corner
January	How smart we are! — Tabloid Heaven — What Churchill Ate — VDH on Obama's race politicking — The biology of politics — Offside rule — I have a normal brain — Funny stuff, literature — Math corner

2011
December	Global warming hysteria hysteria — Men versus the Man — Manhood versus the Girly-Man — Moscow wrap-up — Christopher Hitchens — Joke of the year — Store of the year — Gift of the year — Literary self-improvement project of the year — Album photograph of the year — Pucker of the year — Person of the year — Challenge of the year — Major outrage of the year — Petty outrage of the year — Cheering surprise of the year — Depressing surprise of the year — Cruise of the year — Most salient auxiliary noun of the year — Inexplicably least-asked political question of the year — Annoyingly over-asked political question of the year — Reminiscence of the year — Math corner
November	Midnight in Moscow — Nothing but nice — Past and present — Trade secrets — Worth translating — Lt. Col. December — Local distractions — How do you want your lard? — Putin the joke killer — On failing to be an ideologue — The science of human nature — Inflating away pathos — An Oldies Identification Gap? — All shall have prizes — Thanatopsis — Math corner
October	Moral equivalence on protests — Liberty vs. order — Lip-reading — Chungking Mansions — Mervyn Peake — Hurricane Higgins, RIP — Singing despots — Buboes — Who's afraid of Herman Cain? — It's that hymn again — Useful work — Pretentious ad of the month — Math corner
September	The Sovereignty Caucus — Heart and head on immigration — A millstone for Christie — The problem of evil — Punctilious, or snotty? — The joy of coding — Top of the Pops — A new Hank Williams album! — News from Northamptonshire — Smoking through an operation — Math corner
August	Man of La Manga — Showbiz news — Hurricane Irene — Rediscovering the crossword puzzle — Public service announcement — Introduction to Academe — English riots: a suggestion — Hitler's sex life — First thoughts are best thoughts — A multiculturalism too far — Concert notes — Math corner
July	Premature anti-spenders — Silent Cal redux — Trojan asteroid — Fireworks: creativity needed — Shutting out dissidents — Adjectives with no opposite — Gold diggers, tiger wives, and Baby Doe — The extended self — Tragic truth or feelgood falsehood? — Pop neuroscience — Blind; not blind; metaphor blind — Math corner
June	The graduate — Optimists without a goal — Untold stories — Paying for discord — Follies of our youth — News from Derbyshire — Fighting the good fight — Just a show — Doing time — Sacking physics — Math corner
May	The limits of democracy — K-K-K-Katy — Please don't back into the bacon slicer, we're getting behind with our orders — Gadget of the month — Forms of address — Golden oldie — Partying with libertarians — My postilion has been struck by lightning — Pioneers of P.C.? — The news from Turkey — What Russian tourists do — Math corner
April	More anarcho-tyranny — Two Sisters — Mating Intelligence — Cleopatra — Bring back the nit nurse! — Milton the anti-Papist — The Charter school scam — Educational equality — Braggadocio — A deal of ruin — Adventures with the family shotgun — Math corner
March	Analysis Paralysis on Marriage — Is homophobia adaptive? — Camp of the Saints — New York Times profiles Secular Right — Tiger Mom chez Derb? — Pimsleur: New business plan needed — The joy of grammar — Back to Grub Street — Learning neuroscience — Math corner: more on Benford's Law
February	How bad will it get? — Tilting into chaos — Who not to have running your country — Books:Manning Up — Life at the bottom — Movies: Agora — Somerset Maugham — Singularitarianism — Petroushka Ball — Turkish grammar — Seducing the language learner — Books: The Towers of Trebizond — Bombardment of Algiers — The rudest person in America — The scuppering of the American Renaisance conference — Math corner
January	Dark tourism — The Long Walk — The most dangerous job in America — Born to be wild — The dash for freedom — Chinese Lit. — Discrimination in Kentucky — Jane Austen blooper — Ruthless meritocracy — Math corner

2010
December	Derb-Wehner punch-up — Don't Ask, Don't Tell the Pathans — Fashion stasis — Stuttering succotash! — Natural waist — Passwords — The programmer's art — World's biggest army — Environmental Determinism — A gap in the language — Light on politics — Math corner
November	Cruising: the blanket apology — The shabby Caribbean — Cruising for health — Morality and the law — Legal immigration: the hidden issue — Dame Joan Sutherland, RIP — An exceptionalism too far — The politicization of mortgage lending — Math corner
October	Election non-fever — Destroying the evidence — Obituaries of the month (1): Norman Wisdom — Obituaries of the month (2): Benoît Mandelbrot — Freedomnomics — Poetic negativity — Down Memory Lane (by bus) — Spotting a Carrington Event — Math corner
September	A test of nihilism — Listen to Granny — Measuring consciousness — Knowing your faith — Bishop Bling Bling — Uruguay Rising — Geert Wilders on trial — Math corner
August	Ron Paul for the mosque — Trendline Test — Eagle Scout — Iran's new drone — Fat poets — Get a Government Job, Series #19,846 — In the movies again — Chick flick — Europe's gypsy problem — Shared vision — Channeling Espy — When Spain was different — Flamenco memories — Marmite meets the love fascists — Human dominoes — Math corner: Derangement
July	Gun fun — Why you should make friends with guns — EFTA revisited — Cops belong to EFTA — County heroes — The office and the man — Long Live Our Glorious Asbestos! — The paragon of animals — Under the tombstone — Israel deports illegals — U.S. economy dodges a bullet — Math corner
June	Getting carded — Yuppie demography on the uptick? — Full circle — A celebration of Mexican heritage? — I'll have what she's having — General reflections — Grandad's war — Uruguay with no assets, aren't you? — People we're not supposed to like — Britain's great 18th-century mistake — Ivy Compton-Burnett — L.U.G. — Hearing what you want to hear — Math corner: Probability puzzle
May	My latest pull-over — Savage indignation — Hero of the month — Derb's Google Reader roll — Unputdownable — The Living Marxist Buddha — One less New Mysterian — Math corner: a ballistics problem
April	Skies darken over Korea — The Irish of Asia — Great modern inventions — Space plane — Premature technology — Book of the month — The joys of self-employment — The Eerie Silence — Making friends with the family gun — Pop culture ignoramus — Que sais-je? — Sinogynephile corner — Math corner
March	The Left in power — Paths of glory — Hayekians for socialized medicine — Intoxicating praise from Housman — Afghanistan, the happy country — So-Hoh — Bolt-holes (cont.) — Chrome the liberator — Get a government job, Series #28,497 — Ticking the boxes: shad roe — My Defensive Driving Course — Britcons — T-bonds for sale! Anybody want a T-bond? — Anarcho-Tyranny — Math corner: Perelman, Gödel, and onomatodoxy
February	February is the boring-est month — The Ice People Olympics — Mitt's problem — Obama the Roman — Blaming the victims? — Meeting Mr Arbuthnot — So … — Long live the butts! — Yanqui Go Home! — Mother knew best — The paradox of our time — Math corner: Ackerman's Function
January	Get a government job (1): Mrs Derb — Get a government job (2): Rubber room — Why Johnny can't write — Is there still a Third World? — Hurting a nation's feelings — Aftermath of King Philip's War — Killer English — Music to despair by — Auschwitz signs — The crack of a bullet — Spelling Stalin — Publication bias — Times of the signs — Math corner

2009
December	Ten years on the web — Jousting with Landsburg — State of unhappiness — A Koestlerian moment — Lipogrammatically yours — Voting like a gentleman — Red Cliff — Bad Sex Prize — Mightier than the sword — Math corner
November	The sawbuck economy — A jury of your peers — Happy birthday, Noddy! — United States of Attorneys — The price of understanding — The homeless scam — Invitation to a hanging — One great big thing — The graphic "Origin" — Math corner: A tribute to Martin Gardner
October	Mrs Clinton's workday — Geert Wilders on tour — An end to parole? — Follow Newman! — Pitching from the grave — Health care: the argument from libertarianism — Health care: the argument from fatalism — A proximity tax — Tweedleson and Tweedleberg — Chairman Mao is dearer to us … — People's Republic of Pollution — Math corner: A demography brainteaser
September	Cambodia down the memory hole — Dinner with old students — Cop-killer games system — Auntie Zeituni — COBOL again — Hawaiian hangover — Math corner: Some pop-math books
August	Uruguay — Are your nafses mutma'inna? — Eleven is the new fifty — Dog in a basket — Edward M. Kennedy — Hawaii notes — Hawaii kitsch — Algorism in Hawaii — Hawaii bumper sticker — PC orthography — Hawaiians assert themselves — Pineapple management — Traveling with teenagers — So you want to live in Hawaii? — Johnny come down to Hilo — Math corner
July	What's up, Doc? — Black-armband history — The role of pure reason in human affairs (cont.) — WW1 vets fade away — The worst of Obama — A rasperry for Obama's "teaching moment" — Assisted suicide — Free won't — Tonghua killing — On Holder — Math corner
June	Losing Mum and Pup — Book report — Iran's election — Golden lads and girls all must — Partying with economists — Germanophile Corner — Give us our drugs! — Grumbledon — The role of pure reason in human affairs (series #92,847) — Better dead than rude (series #2,792,045) — Lonely little petunia — Pat's no monkey — Math corner
May	Sotomayor's tribal allegiance — Can the protocols survive? — Appeasers vs. Confronters — Dinner with Pinker — Homogamy and the New Empathizers — Home security b.s. — Spelling Bee sour grapes — DoD gets a Cyber-czar — Dr Malthus, Call Your Office — Math corner: Dice War
April	Parallels — Swan of Avon — Bill Buckley's WordStar — Beginning of wisdom — Blurb stories … — … and permissions — Literary extracts — When curs attack — Classics corner — Fred Reed peaks — Personality Parade — Math corner: Monge's Theorem
March	Out like a lamb — Tax season — The zeitgeist sitcom — The fascination of slime mold — The month in political incorrectness — When did Rheinmaidens get so cute? — Simplify! Simplify! — Math corner
February	Is capitalism finished? — Wild apostrophes — Ty'Sheoma's school — Tibet lock-down — What is Facebook for? — What's in a name? — Holder's "Nation of cowards" — Math corner
January	Intellectually is not the way to make money — Sauve qui peut — A wealth-eater administration — The circus is in town — Crisis in Japan — Teen thugs — First Trentonian of 2009 — The apostrophe iceberg — Lady Luck — PC Magazine all digital — Math corner

2008
December	Radio Derb transcripts — Elizabeth Alexander — Too much poetry — Azores — Hero of the crash — Are old people wise? — Kings of the deal — Harold Pinter, RIP — Math corner
November	Perfect political contentment — Party poopers — A nice place, but … — Males not wanted — A nation of pussies — Onions — America's Half-Blood Prince — Fan mail — North to Alaska — Math corner
October	Rubble Doesn't Make Trouble (Cont.) — Sovietization of the intelligentsia … — … Just gets worse — Election fatigue — Career advice — Happy consumer experience — Child porn thoughtcrime — Hourly rates — The new sweatshops — Grow your own food — Creationist mind — Math corner: Regression towards the mean
September	Slave mentality — This month's most defiantly moronic assertion of blank slate orthodoxy — Silly-clever apologetics — Sam Harris on Sarah Palin — Mind science book of the month — Sexiest voice — World's most out-of-print book? — Wonders of the Internet — Math corner
August	Real Education — Dustsceawung — Greetings from Sheb-vul — Radio Derb in China — No armor against fate — Hua Guofeng RIP — While antlers clash — Shums and tee-ums — Olympic Poshlust — Where were the Irish? — Goodbye Gertie — Older Sisters' Club — Over the Boardwalk — Math corner
July	Hibernia Girl — State … — … and national finances — Chinese whining — Hero of the hour — Danny does Haiti — Math corner: A miscellany
June	Vile bezonians — Election downside — Young Adult fiction — Boots, boots, boots — Driving out demons — "Misogoneist"? — The Irish Washerwoman — Math corner: How to teach it
May	Raza Studies — Russian noses — Cougars — Reading list — Math corner: Computation conundrum
April	Atrocity of the month — Bowling for votes — Your baby has gone down the plughole — Halfway to disintegration — Picky, picky — Math corner: Solving the World's Problems on the Back of a Cocktail Napkin
March	Obama fatigue — The Typhoid Marys of socialism — Bawdier connotations — Long Walk exploded — The Tibetans they trust — We Give Our Hearts to Dogs to Tear — Missing Boris moments (1) — Missing Boris moments (2) — Big fat English wedding — Talk of the islands — Gratitude — Math corner
February	Bill Buckley RIP — The crack tax — Decline of stuff — Finding racism — Eat bugs for peace — Lottery winners — Healthcare options — Online diagnostics — When PCs were fun — For heaven's sake — Sir Hugh Despenser's bones — Math corner
January	Campaign onomastics — When Pippin the Short met Bertha Bigfoot — Corpse caper — Social Mensuration — Conan Doyle's patriotism — Dry thunder, no rain — The dog up and died — Math corner: How many ways are there to associate n symbols?

2007
December	Interesting times — Interesting places — COBOL memories — Standards of honesty — Eco-friendly banking — The company of women — Harvesting wasted time — That was the year that was — Math corner
November	No more n-words — Early drop-out — Food plan — Life's a what? — No-test IQ estimation — Reality check — Loneliness of the late-night Gentile — Nightmare on 21st Street — Fundamentalism lite — Dream time — Math corner
October	The James Watson flap — Driver's licenses for illegals — BET celebrates "beat-down" perps — the Chinatown bus — Rudy! Rudy? — Math corner: The Huntington Problem
September	Conceptual Art — "-phobia" and "miso-" — Whack-Muslim movies — How's the website coming? — Republicans say the darnedest things — Might we win? — O'Reilly goes to Harlem — Speed of light (cont.) — Greenspan on Nixon — Khrushchev on Khrushchev — Giselle — Missed cue on I.D. — Me out to the ball game. Take — Intelligence, athleticism, criminality — Kingdom of Heaven … where? — Math corner
August	Back to school — High School Confidential — Jim McGreevey's "dating" — Extraordinary sighting — Subprime — Pattie Boyd — Why cigarettes were popular — Death of a Tory — Nation wreckers — Wine in a box — Your brain on neuroscience — An I.D. prediction — Idiocy watch — Reader love — Faster than light — Math corner
July	Hope v. cynicism on Iraq — Ulster at peace — Craft Corner: knitting — Reagan diaries — Goddess dethroned — A legislature at war — Math corner: Making a torus with tetrahedra
June	Blair to Brown — Whatever Happened to the Alakaluf? — Term limits — Home on the Range — Islamophobia — Bombs in London — I see you — Allergic to nuts — Kesler's "Iraq and the Neocons" — John the Savage — Foxed by a card trick — Six wasted years — Math corner: 7/07/07
May	Status striving on immigration — Is the Middle East important? — Desert springs — Terry Major-Ball — Picture in the NYT — Not getting science — Not getting religion — Portugal & Portuguese — Math corner: Shape of the universe
April	April is the verpfuscht-est month — My days are numbered — Power of the primes — Lawn guy — Losing friends and embarrassing people — Lost in Manhattan — Perils of a primzahlfrei month — Mad about Mad — America the Dream — Math corner: Getting mega-rich via math
March	Secular Muslims meet in Florida — Worst FUBAR of all time? — Magic Flute verse précis — Elton in the cathedral — Hell is real, says Pope — A little bit of China in New York — Ruled by the Other — Zimbabwe and the obvious — Opening line of the month — Everlasting socks — Math corner: Irish math
February	Judy, Judi, Judee — Build a nuke, get stuff — Sullivan-Harris exchanges — Pro-choice Catholics — Danny's red belt — Dealing with Hypothesis solvers — Oh, Kolkota! — Balalaika brilliance — The Paris Hilton look — Best job for a writer — Frankie Laine — Math corner: Math sculpture
January	Unpardonable Border Agents — Bleak House — March of complexity — Reasons Why New York State is a Fiscal Black Hole, Series #971 — Where's Mohammed? — Ultimate death poet — Math corner: A Chinese-teaser

2006
December	Christmas concerts — Muddling through — The market for epic poems — Bring back … — Year of … — Threepenny bits — Speaking of Puddings — 200 Years to Christmas — Heavenly Estonia — Kitzmiller, one year on — Outrage of the month — Domingo in The First Emperor — My Christmas jigsaw puzzle — Math corner: What's interesting about 2007?
November	Fools for Iraq — Realism revisited — Borat and Jewish folk memory — Immigration sentimentalists vs. number-crunchers — Jeet Kun Do — Black cops in black neighborhoods? — Math corner: Girdle the Earth with silver
October	Kerrygate — "Chickenhawk" re-re-revisited — Joke Botchers Anonymous — Snobbery 101 — The Bush disaster — Does faith make stuff happen? — Atheist Civ. — Neal Stephenson-a-thon in progress — Not your father's Islam — Muslims at West Point — U.K. driving test … not for immigrants — Math corner: 100 coins for $5
September	"Islamo-fascist"? — Tom Wolfe praises Jim Webb — Why airlines issue yellow lifejackets — My psychoanalysis — Poul Anderson's Brainwave — Talking across the IQ gap — Zones of commitment — Math Olympiad Zoroastrian? — Literary duellists in old London — The last white war, the next civilizational one — Math corner: Prisoner box problem
August	Conservatives teaching Social Studies — DVD stinks — Ill fares the land — PC in the Rockies — Rocky Mountain flora — Lefties on the hiking trails — Race and the National Parks — A ghost town — Déjà vu in ghost town hotel — Location, location, location — Math corner: Cylindrical projection puzzle
July	Mel & the schoolmarms — Will he lunch in Hollywood again? — Mots justes — Death of a theory — W's weasel words — Walmart a paper tiger? — Attic heat mystery — Headline of the month — The real antisemites — U.N. scolds U.S. on Katrina — The dying middle class — Infantilizing women … — … and blacks — Answering Bill — Houyhnhnms & Ptthmllnsprts — Math corner: Russell as a mathematician
June	Not a W fan — Potemra on gracilization — "Gentlemen, when the barrage lifts" — Kid lit. — Words, words, words — The perfect footwear — Stamping out evil — A bolt-hole in Asia — Math corner: Math in The Simpsons
May	Blogging from Everest? I'm up for it — Plame's claim to fame — Big fat Sikh wedding — Kronicul uv Hiyer Edukashun — 5-1-6 — Clueless on pop culture — Omnipotence — ChiComs do Wiki — Math corner: Freud's number
April	Fool me thrice on immigration "reform" — Sam Beckett, hyper-Anglo-Saxon — Is the Big Mick imploding? — Math corner: Why 19,766?
March	A fritillary? — The Million Browns March — My office space — Yes, global warming is real — The Toymaker's Daughter — Sudden death? — Naughty teachers — Math corner: π Day
February	A Khrushchev anniversary — South Dakota fights for intellectual diversity — Larry Summers quits — An evangelical takes on postmodernism — The Singularity is Near — A piece not posted — A Kermitian exchange on the ski lift — Re-watching Grease — Math corner: Two puzzles by Michael Greenspan
January	Youth & age — Jeunesse & … — … Vieillesse — Please don't back into the bacon slicer, we're getting behind with our orders — Noveling (cont.) — Teaching, west coast vs. east — The Derbs' 1st vidcam — FAQ: Brit History — Redirecting I.D. email — You say zay-duh, I say zee-ta — Math corner: Man on ball on pole

2005
December	Lost a molar & fingertip — Center for Defense Cynicism — Apology of the month — Saudi America — Blogs fade — Death penalty — C.S. Lewis the crank — Paperwork — Math corner: Pairwise products
November	Northeast Asia heating up? — Enviro-catastrophe in Manchuria — Narnia — Jennifer's bristols — Loony right drops Jew Thing — Israel walls in — In memoriam Bruce Lee — Losing the Bible — Math talk — Math corner: Never mind scores, gimme a sigma
October	Plame, Wilson, Libby, Rove — Mandarin Games — The October Country — Er shun — Horrible Histories — Excluding included excluders — The Kitzmiller I.D. trial — Math corner: Alphabetizing primes
September	"Hate" laws: Kiss your liberty goodbye — Not a Tory war — W lost me — Breakfast chez Derb — I up and made some bloopers — If it harelips the Pope — One cheer for the Old Left — David Berlinski, gent — A few of my favorite things — Off message on modernism & race — Racism on the tracks? — Math corner: Babushki puzzle
August	Cutting a ms. down to size — The dishonesty of I.D. — Intelligent Design = Postmodernism — Alaskan humor — Blockbuster restocks — Bishop on the carpet — Iraq's constitution — The butcher's bill — Math corner: Chicken nuggets brainteaser
July	Irresponsible general wanted — Abusing episcopal authority — Tristan da Cunha — Genetics of Britain — 7/7, 9/11, 6-4, … — Judge Roberts too nice — Nellie checks in to Hilbert's Hotel — Math corner: Chords of a parabola
June	Scruton on Sartre — Shuttle to nowhere — Britain empties out — Curses for spyware — Last lawnmower in Sears — Birkhoff & Jews — Math corner: Bowling average problem
May	Stem cells — Reductio ad servitum — Knife control — The U.K.'s most successful politician — Delivery of a ms. — Verpfuscht — Race-based education — Math corner: A Pythagorean mystery
April	Holding paper — Caesar's bath — Flunking history — The law should leave us alone — Jobs we won't do? — Love in the Neurology Lab — Great letters — Not a hate crime — Immigration to Britain 100 years ago — Math corner: Joys of computation
March	I Am Terri Schiavo — Derbyshitler — Computers in school — Superstitious? Not me — touch wood — The Ould Cause — Math corner: Populating a 3×3×3×3 hypercube
February	Scientists libertarian? — The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists — Larry Summers — The hard problem — The spirit of science — Looking at Nellie — Lunch with the Bynums — Math corner: A calculus oddity
January	War mentality — The Larry Summers flap — Posner on probability — Tsunami theology — Maggy & the bishop — Math corner: How old was Diophantus?

2004
December	Back to Gin Lane — Illegal immigration a safety valve? — Bullying Taiwan — Partying with The New Criterion — Möbius's hankie — Mary Renault — Hanging out at the mall — Fun with cuneiform — Hilbert's Königsberg address — Prime Obsession thanks — Math corner: What's interesting about 2005?
November	The perils of parody — Trial lawyers & toothpicks — Armenicide — Aworldliness — Whopper of the month — So long, Yasser — Math corner: A sequence of triangle pairs
October	First vote for a president — Brits love Kerry … — … & power tools — Bring in African missionaries — Lowlife Derb — French labor laws — An Australian historian — Woods weds — Academic idiots — Borjas story — Geeks for Derb — Innuendo — Math corner: Neighboring powers
September	No-go areas — Kerry vs. Norks — Forged credentialism — Marbles too dangerous — Lord Curzon's lighter amenities — Shi Mo — Men & women different! — Math corner: First digit of 2^N
August	Privatize Yosemite! — Invasion of the language-snatchers — Shine upon the Aral Sea — Encounter in Permetyab — Affirmative action music — Stereotypes in running — Keeping the blacks down — MCMXIV — Math corner: Inscribed polygons
July	Commentarile dysfunction — Nork nightmare — Dealing with defectors — Breaker Morant — Hitchhiking through Romania — Ethnic pride — Newsday cooks the books — How gay are Cole Porter's lyrics? — Who's been reading Prime Obsession? — Math corner: 100 plus 100 equals 100, says math professor
June	Win war, lose election — Smacking the TV — "Moslem" or "Muslim"? — Don't mention Islam in France — Bob Dylan a poet? — Sir John Moore parody — The academic archipelago — Prof. Lerer on Milton — Billy Liar — Kittikachorn & I don't care — Johnson on the writer's mind (again) — Math corner:
May	Happy warmonger — Combat gals — RIP Melvin Lasky — Sir John Moore — From Yao to Mao — Yale or jail — Try cheating an Armenian — Math corner: World's highest concavity index
April	East Asian strings — Beware bland envelopes — Everything is equal — Zuo's Chronicle — No other stain — Diffugere nives — Daffodils — London in flames! — Math corner: This sentence has …
March	Gerald Amirault — Unstable under reflection — Reading Scruton — Decline of the American terrorist — A word for gay marriage — FDR was queer and gay — Free trade? — Call Me Madam released on DVD — Asteroid strike — Left behind — Me & the Gray Lady — Math corner: X years old in the year X²
February	They still like communism — Did Kim write Clementine? — Loneliness of conservatives — Keep the subjunctive alive! — Mel's problem — Awopbopaloobop alopbamboom — Little Richard's Christian virtue — I'm mediocre, I'm happy — The credentialist state — How many birthdays did Rossini have? — Math corner" The null version
January	Not an immigrant, a transplant — Saudi Arabianization — Good for immigrants — String Festival diversity — Draw! — Total pacifism in schools — A philoprogenitive movie — Face to face with 9/11 — The people with three names — Dyspraxia — Jay and Hank — Princess & pea — Homo homini lupus est — Posthumous pardons — Math corner: Collatz Problem

2003
December	225,961 words this year — Be of good cheer — Punctuation — The greatest century — 100 years of flight — Episcopopoly — The gladness of early Greece — Illegal immigration — Nursing — The power of words — Math corner: Three parcels
November	Not conservative, reactionary — The Bruce Lee biopic — Heartburn — Explaining Ireland — Operatic dislikes — Georgia — Deeper into Hankomania — Roll tide! — 11-22-1963 — Coming to America — Cause of Haiti's misery — Chinese Japanophiles — Math corner: 9M + 16N
October	Banned from campus — Derb, opera critic — Reductio ad Hitlerum — Will airline travel go extinct? — The peasant poet — Rooftop story — Hankomania — Math corner: Find the logic flaw
September	My country, 'tis of she — Claudius revokes citizenship — Encounter with Miss America — A California conservative — Jan Morris on pessimism — A fashionable V.D. — The politician point — The Left and Kissinger — Colin Walters, R.I.P. — The case for Hillary — Math corner: Smullyan problem
August	Why California is bust — Spats — Face to face with the Antichrist — PJ's nuclear nightmare — Pretty but not sexy — The great parents-childless divide — When Dos Passos met Orwell — Orwell on Hopkins — How old was Tom Sawyer? — 0.577215664901532860606512… — Math corner: Two six-letter words
July	Social liberal, fiscal conservative oxymoron — Out to the ball game — Everybody must be equal — Life must be filled up — Nothing unusual, nothing strange — Getting opera — Blacks don't suicide, Asians don't get AIDS — Kiddie drama show — Michael Wharton's Aztecs — Math corner: Product & sum
June	Die in dark, buried in rain — O'Reilly hits one — A second 9/11 — Andrew Roberts' hate mail — What Danny likes about Dad — Making money writing books — Soldiering, job Americans won't do? — When the what go marching in? — JFK's headaches — BURMA, BATH, LEEDS — Stiff competition — Muggeridge quip — What is truth? — Death worship — Barbara, Celarent, Darii, Ferioque — Math corner: Pop-math book recommendations
May	The national game — Laci Peterson case — Poverty and conservatism — Captain Underpants (cont.) — Chimps & us — Dictionaries and the writer — What's wrong with philosemitism? — Math corner: Selling sheep
April	Devil's Dictionary — Actuarial humor — Family humor (cont.) — What color is your underwear? — Proud parent (of book) — Internet dropouts — Elvis in Latin — Fay ce que voudres — Human Rights Campaign — More Hungarophilia — Income taxes, grrrr — Math corner: Numerators without denominators
March	Slice of crow pie — American innocence — Muggeridge on Orwell — Agendum, agenda — Family humor — Derb in the movies — Clever headlines — This Be the Converse — The Big Bang — Losing touch with UK politics — On hold with a telemarketer — Difference between men & women — Who lost China? — Means-testing free lunches — Math corner: What did he buy?
February	Rebuilding the WTC — Awful song lyrics — Conscience of the young — Dealing with burglars — Underperformin' Norman again — Great opening lines — Deporting tragic illegals — PC indexing — Unearthing family past — Math corner: Dog & lighthouse
January	Traveling, Houston & DC — An egregious lefty — Amtrak to DC — White collar jobs down the tubes — Blind people online — Aborigines & us — Noble savage alive & well — Psycho Dad — Groundhog Day — Math meets race — Great pop lyrics — Math & politics — Math corner: How old are your children?

2002
December	The trend line test — Nutso North Korea — Year-end Economist — Preteen usage of "gay" — First lines in Chinese Lit. — The prevailing structure of taboos — Poems in mind — Anti-anti-Islam — In the prime of life — Math corner: Conference brainteaser
November	Giving it back — Why kids from Asian families do well in school — Sufferin' succotash — A Blighty one — Religious discrimination in Ireland — The perils of amateur googling — You can lead a horse to water … — Ivy Mike — Small world — The news from China — Standing Committee clones — Don't know much about theology — White rabbits! — Math corner: 100 doors, 100 monkeys
October	The beltway snipers are what? — Criminalizing but not defining — Amiri Baraka's sources — Resisting Pinker's metaphysics — Baq'aq'i mq'aq'e c'q'alši q'iq'inebs — Michelle's Invasion — The b-word — Hating the Peace — Telephone solicitors vanquished — Johnson on a writer's mind — Math corner: Hockey tournament puzzle
September	Child abuse? Pah! — A pot — Saying grace — Why aren't I a hate speaker? — Niggardly history — China e-lobby — Betjeman's "Norfolk" — KBO-ing on 9/11 — Math corner: Chebyshev's bias
August	Smoking Saves a Life — Heaven Pool revisited — Is you is or is you ain't Mugabe? — Turkish delight — Columnists say the darnedest things — Where politics is everything — Cads & dads (cont.) — First things — How's the book? — Chinese lesson — Math corner: The Monkey's Mother
July	Cuomo the Dragon Slayer — If You Can't Take the Heat … — Derb, Financial Wizard — Jargon to Die For — Falun Gong — a True Story — WW1 Fading Away — Is Iran the Hope of the MidEast? — Computer bleg
June	Spanish salutitorial — The scholar's Britannica — Was Geronimo a barbarian? — Manhattan Stonehenge (cont.) — Talking to Iceland — States of disrespect — Bookish presidents — Knock and it shall be clopened — Math corner: A Nazi mathematician
May	Don't Trouble Trouble Till Trouble Troubles You — The Good Old Days — Settlers or Pioneers? — Sunset and Evening Star — Perfection in song — Telegraph Rorschach test — Is Chinese school a good idea? — Math corner: Mathematical correctness at Columbia
April	Capitalist verse — Rhymes for "God" — INS morale — Stuff from the Bunny — The first "real casualty" — Less is fewer — Hungarophilia — Pig Latin Bible — Hazard chase — Bootleg Call Me Madam
March	Virgins and generals — Asymmetry in politics — Oscar party pooper — Fractious family — Are Arab Christians antisemitic? — Freezy, sneezy, breezy, … — Do condoms spread STDs? — Three historians follow-up — Loyalist terror — All or nothing at all — Auden's Hegelian clerihew
February	To coin a phrase — Pet cloning — Boilerplate — Patriot's Day — Pastor anxiety — Hurting vs. killing — The late O'Connor brothers — Gun safety lesson — First French — Fo'c'sle and poop — Homo Tysoniens — Math corner
January	To Blog, Or Not to Blog — Free speech — The killer in the TV set — In the zone — Lost in translation — Librarian literacy — Reading matter — Self-defense — Math corner: Is math good for you?

2001
December	Slim pickings — Investing in China — Words, words, words — Chinese humor — Optimism & pessimism on China — Blogging: just a phase — The French know who they are — George Harrison, R.i.P. — India's population vs. China's — Keeping up with my magazines — Paul Johnson on singing — Economy & dictatorship — A Ground Zero journal
July-August	China Diary: Should Beijing get the Olympics? — Mysteries of the East — Busby Berkeley in Beijing — Nellie learns to simper — Distressed (Chinese) Gentlefolk Aid Association — Jobs Beijingers won't do — Sinogynephilia — The Temple of Heaven — For the phrasebook — The Four Beards, updated — China TV Guide — Dragons become hostesses — Ultimate Grandpa — Talking politics — Conversation practice — Manchuria under communism — So much for "hydraulic despotism" — Manchuria reading list — Single lady seeks suitable partner — Banquet fatigue — Heaven Pool — Droit de gendarme — Hard sleeper — A capitalist hero — Tears of the fairy — Putting up with politics — Support your local wang-ba! — Journalistic bias — Fifth Uncle joins the Party — Examination culture — Call me Madam — Propaganda fail — Onomastic fashions — We are one family — Taoist devotions — Life lessons from China — Antiquities: so many, so few — Yearning for respect — Adrift and rudderless on a sea of lies — Genocide tourism — Things that are done much better in China (1) — Life, what is it but a dream? — Defects of modern civilization — A Chinese slum — Seven "Kill" Stele — Things that are done much better in China (2) — Brief encounter — Travelling by connections — Liberty and the good life — Through the Three Gorges — Guns and social order — What do foreigners know about China? — Shanghai snobbery observed — Derbyshire's Laws breaking down — The kindness of strangers — Keep resentment alive! — Shanghai snobbery vindicated — Pre-critical society — Creeping Singaporism (1) — All the news that's fit to print — In which our hero strikes a blow for racial equality — Old Hundred Names speaks — Sometimes a stalagmite is just a stalagmite — Snake restaurant loses our custom — The Party is the nation — Creeping Singaporization (2) — Hong Kong is OK — When Earth is but a star

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