Reading For Cranky Types

John Derbyshire has suggested five books for the curmodgeonly among us. Unfortunately, the June 12 WSJ Opinion Page link seems to be unavailable, thus depriving us of Derbyshire's accompanying commentary. His list:

Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
Life of Johnson, James Boswell
A Mencken Chrestomathy, H.L. Mencken
The Essays, Articles And Reviews of Evelyn Waugh, Donat Gallagher
Collected Poems,Philip Larken

Should the link become available, you'll find it here in an update.

Herzog's Nosferatu The Vampyre

In a superb post at NRO, Andrew Stuttaford recommends Werner Herzog's 1979 production of Nosferatu the Vampyre for your holiday viewing pleasure. It is remake of Friedrich Murnau's masterpiece, Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) and Stuttaford calls it "the grandest vampire movie of them all."

Here is the opening scene to whet - perhaps "wet" - the appetite of all vampire lovers in the blogosphere:

Blame, Justice, And The Damnation Of Memory

Why is the investigation of past national policy a bad idea? Victor Davis Hanson provides answers in his post at National Review Online.

William F. Buckley Jr.

Today is the first anniversary of the death of William F. Buckley Jr., founder of National Review magazine and the modern conservative movement. Whatever your politics, you have to admire this extraordinarily gifted man. Ramesh Ponnuru reflects on the subject in this NR Online post.