Kevin L Nenstiel
@wordbasket.bsky.social
Author, blogger, theorist. Just some guy with an open mind and a whole mess of opinions.
I just realized: I'm a werewolf. Except, instead of the full moon, I turn into a slavering ball of all-consuming rage when confronted by Bing Crosby's "White Christmas."
December 10, 2025 at 6:46 PM
I just realized: I'm a werewolf. Except, instead of the full moon, I turn into a slavering ball of all-consuming rage when confronted by Bing Crosby's "White Christmas."
Knowledge That Died in the War
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2024/12/know...
Jayne Anne Phillips’ novels focus on lonely souls wandering an America they don’t understand.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2024/12/know...
Jayne Anne Phillips’ novels focus on lonely souls wandering an America they don’t understand.
Knowledge That Died in the War
Young ConaLee comes from a part of West Virginia hill country where people don’t need, or know, one another’s last names.
wordbasket.blogspot.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Knowledge That Died in the War
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2024/12/know...
Jayne Anne Phillips’ novels focus on lonely souls wandering an America they don’t understand.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2024/12/know...
Jayne Anne Phillips’ novels focus on lonely souls wandering an America they don’t understand.
Samantha Fulnecky and the Assault on Learning
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2025/12/sama...
Dennis Prager and Samantha Fulnecky share a premise that truth is something we assert morally, not something we demonstrate empirically.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2025/12/sama...
Dennis Prager and Samantha Fulnecky share a premise that truth is something we assert morally, not something we demonstrate empirically.
Samantha Fulnecky and the Assault on Learning
I’ve attempted to avoid OSU undergrad Smantha Fulnecky’s newfound celebrity for refusing to do her homework.
wordbasket.blogspot.com
December 9, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Samantha Fulnecky and the Assault on Learning
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2025/12/sama...
Dennis Prager and Samantha Fulnecky share a premise that truth is something we assert morally, not something we demonstrate empirically.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2025/12/sama...
Dennis Prager and Samantha Fulnecky share a premise that truth is something we assert morally, not something we demonstrate empirically.
I tried to make a Faustian bargain, but thanks to stupid Autocorrect, I wound up making a Proustian bargain, and now I just sit around all day remembering things.
#bookjokes
#bookjokes
December 9, 2025 at 8:23 AM
I tried to make a Faustian bargain, but thanks to stupid Autocorrect, I wound up making a Proustian bargain, and now I just sit around all day remembering things.
#bookjokes
#bookjokes
Capitalism and the Winners’ Society
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2024/12/capi...
When Elon Musk and his giddy evangelists call him a self-made billionaire, they overlook the environment that created his wealth.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2024/12/capi...
When Elon Musk and his giddy evangelists call him a self-made billionaire, they overlook the environment that created his wealth.
Capitalism and the Winners’ Society
I just did something I used to do frequently, but haven’t done for years: I watched a full episode of Jeopardy.
wordbasket.blogspot.com
December 8, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Capitalism and the Winners’ Society
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2024/12/capi...
When Elon Musk and his giddy evangelists call him a self-made billionaire, they overlook the environment that created his wealth.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2024/12/capi...
When Elon Musk and his giddy evangelists call him a self-made billionaire, they overlook the environment that created his wealth.
Wilderness Planets and the Human Frontier
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2018/12/wild...
Frontier mythology often looms large in science fiction: sometimes blatantly, as with Han Solo or Malcolm Reynolds, but more often covertly.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2018/12/wild...
Frontier mythology often looms large in science fiction: sometimes blatantly, as with Han Solo or Malcolm Reynolds, but more often covertly.
Wilderness Planets and the Human Frontier
Dr. Graysha Brady-Phillips never intended to become a frontier scientist, but she needed the money. She needed something else the colonists on planet Goddard might offer: a cure for her incurable chro...
wordbasket.blogspot.com
December 7, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Wilderness Planets and the Human Frontier
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2018/12/wild...
Frontier mythology often looms large in science fiction: sometimes blatantly, as with Han Solo or Malcolm Reynolds, but more often covertly.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2018/12/wild...
Frontier mythology often looms large in science fiction: sometimes blatantly, as with Han Solo or Malcolm Reynolds, but more often covertly.
I never wanted to become a political blogger, but it looks like that's what I've become.
December 5, 2025 at 10:15 PM
I never wanted to become a political blogger, but it looks like that's what I've become.
Baby, It's Pretty Cold In Here, Too
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2018/12/baby...
These debates matter, because how we interpret the outside world becomes, ultimately, how we interpret ourselves.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2018/12/baby...
These debates matter, because how we interpret the outside world becomes, ultimately, how we interpret ourselves.
Baby, It's Pretty Cold In Here, Too
Seems like every December anymore, we have the debate: is “Baby It’s Cold Outside” offensive?
wordbasket.blogspot.com
December 5, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Baby, It's Pretty Cold In Here, Too
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2018/12/baby...
These debates matter, because how we interpret the outside world becomes, ultimately, how we interpret ourselves.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2018/12/baby...
These debates matter, because how we interpret the outside world becomes, ultimately, how we interpret ourselves.
The Sadness of Reading Hamlet as an Adult
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-...
Hamlet reflects every black-clad teenager storming out of the house, screaming “You’re not my real dad!”
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-...
Hamlet reflects every black-clad teenager storming out of the house, screaming “You’re not my real dad!”
The Sadness of Reading Hamlet as an Adult
Almost any erstwhile English major will confess, I suspect, to having read Shakespeare’s Hamlet before being assigned it for classroom reading.
wordbasket.blogspot.com
December 4, 2025 at 1:31 PM
The Sadness of Reading Hamlet as an Adult
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-...
Hamlet reflects every black-clad teenager storming out of the house, screaming “You’re not my real dad!”
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-...
Hamlet reflects every black-clad teenager storming out of the house, screaming “You’re not my real dad!”
I keep going to community events which advertise a "Free Will Offering." Which is great, I suppose, but after all these years, I've received no updates on whether my Offerings have resulted in Will being freed.
December 3, 2025 at 5:56 PM
I keep going to community events which advertise a "Free Will Offering." Which is great, I suppose, but after all these years, I've received no updates on whether my Offerings have resulted in Will being freed.
New Delhi’s Romantic Rain Opera
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2020/12/new-...
Mira Nair set out to create a combination of an American low-budget indie film, and a Bollywood spectacular.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2020/12/new-...
Mira Nair set out to create a combination of an American low-budget indie film, and a Bollywood spectacular.
New Delhi’s Romantic Rain Opera
Beautiful, fresh-faced Aditi Verma returns to her family’s lush New Delhi manor, to participate in an arranged marriage.
wordbasket.blogspot.com
December 3, 2025 at 2:34 PM
New Delhi’s Romantic Rain Opera
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2020/12/new-...
Mira Nair set out to create a combination of an American low-budget indie film, and a Bollywood spectacular.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2020/12/new-...
Mira Nair set out to create a combination of an American low-budget indie film, and a Bollywood spectacular.
The American Armageddon Factory
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-...
Apocalyptic philosophies demand absolute devotion, and tend to treat skeptics like heretics.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-...
Apocalyptic philosophies demand absolute devotion, and tend to treat skeptics like heretics.
The American Armageddon Factory
The United States traditionally traces its foundations to the Mayflower Pilgrims of 1620. But schoolbook histories often overlook the Pilgrims’ apocalyptic beliefs.
wordbasket.blogspot.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:34 PM
The American Armageddon Factory
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-...
Apocalyptic philosophies demand absolute devotion, and tend to treat skeptics like heretics.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-...
Apocalyptic philosophies demand absolute devotion, and tend to treat skeptics like heretics.
Christians and the Basic Ability to Care
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2020/12/chri...
No wonder “no religion” has become America’s second-biggest religious affiliation, and Britain’s biggest.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2020/12/chri...
No wonder “no religion” has become America’s second-biggest religious affiliation, and Britain’s biggest.
Christians and the Basic Ability to Care
The two tweets (now deleted, and preserved only in screenshots) are dated just two days apart.
wordbasket.blogspot.com
December 1, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Christians and the Basic Ability to Care
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2020/12/chri...
No wonder “no religion” has become America’s second-biggest religious affiliation, and Britain’s biggest.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2020/12/chri...
No wonder “no religion” has become America’s second-biggest religious affiliation, and Britain’s biggest.
Internet Censors and Real Speech
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2025/11/inte...
Any reasonable person would agree that social media needs basic standards of appropriate behavior. But those standards are necessarily arbitrary.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2025/11/inte...
Any reasonable person would agree that social media needs basic standards of appropriate behavior. But those standards are necessarily arbitrary.
Internet Censors and Real Speech
I had no idea, until this week, that Sharon Van Etten’s folk-pop electronic album Remind Me Tomorrow might be off-color. Specifically, the cover art.
wordbasket.blogspot.com
November 30, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Internet Censors and Real Speech
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2025/11/inte...
Any reasonable person would agree that social media needs basic standards of appropriate behavior. But those standards are necessarily arbitrary.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2025/11/inte...
Any reasonable person would agree that social media needs basic standards of appropriate behavior. But those standards are necessarily arbitrary.
New Millennial Pop-Folk Blues
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2019/11/new-...
Pop music often requires artists to remain eternally teenaged and rebellious, because kids have more disposable income.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2019/11/new-...
Pop music often requires artists to remain eternally teenaged and rebellious, because kids have more disposable income.
New Millennial Pop-Folk Blues
“Sitting at the bar, I told you everything,” Sharon Van Etten sings mournfully to open this album. “You said ‘Holy shit. You almost died.’”
wordbasket.blogspot.com
November 29, 2025 at 1:30 PM
New Millennial Pop-Folk Blues
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2019/11/new-...
Pop music often requires artists to remain eternally teenaged and rebellious, because kids have more disposable income.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2019/11/new-...
Pop music often requires artists to remain eternally teenaged and rebellious, because kids have more disposable income.
Deep Canyon Blues and the 12-String Revolution
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2020/11/deep...
Though the Beach Boys pioneered the West Coast Sound, the real movement began when Roger McGuinn, a disaffected folkie, quit Greenwich Village and moved west.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2020/11/deep...
Though the Beach Boys pioneered the West Coast Sound, the real movement began when Roger McGuinn, a disaffected folkie, quit Greenwich Village and moved west.
Deep Canyon Blues and the 12-String Revolution
In 1965, as America struggled to handle the British Invasion, an answering sound emerged from the margins of Los Angeles.
wordbasket.blogspot.com
November 28, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Deep Canyon Blues and the 12-String Revolution
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2020/11/deep...
Though the Beach Boys pioneered the West Coast Sound, the real movement began when Roger McGuinn, a disaffected folkie, quit Greenwich Village and moved west.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2020/11/deep...
Though the Beach Boys pioneered the West Coast Sound, the real movement began when Roger McGuinn, a disaffected folkie, quit Greenwich Village and moved west.
I know the internet prefers sans serif fonts, but the fact that I can write "AI" and you have no idea whether I mean Artificial Intelligence or a man named Albert is a strong positive argument for responsible kerning.
November 27, 2025 at 2:07 PM
I know the internet prefers sans serif fonts, but the fact that I can write "AI" and you have no idea whether I mean Artificial Intelligence or a man named Albert is a strong positive argument for responsible kerning.
Andrew Tate, Master Poet
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2025/11/andr...
At the surface level, Andrew Tate’s macho posturing seems like the opposite of art.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2025/11/andr...
At the surface level, Andrew Tate’s macho posturing seems like the opposite of art.
Andrew Tate, Master Poet
Book, music, and movie reviews, with a mix of social and literary criticism.
wordbasket.blogspot.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Andrew Tate, Master Poet
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2025/11/andr...
At the surface level, Andrew Tate’s macho posturing seems like the opposite of art.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2025/11/andr...
At the surface level, Andrew Tate’s macho posturing seems like the opposite of art.
Freedom, Anarchy, and the Immortal Soul
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2017/04/free...
Great minds could spend years unpacking Ellul’s implications; in fact, Ellul himself did just that.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2017/04/free...
Great minds could spend years unpacking Ellul’s implications; in fact, Ellul himself did just that.
Freedom, Anarchy, and the Immortal Soul
Jacques Ellul became a committed Marxist during his membership in the French Resistance during World War II. Sometime following the war, he underwent a mystical experience and converted to Christianit...
wordbasket.blogspot.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Freedom, Anarchy, and the Immortal Soul
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2017/04/free...
Great minds could spend years unpacking Ellul’s implications; in fact, Ellul himself did just that.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2017/04/free...
Great minds could spend years unpacking Ellul’s implications; in fact, Ellul himself did just that.
In some countries, Presidents who attempt to overthrow the vote go to jail.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/25/a...
www.cnn.com/2025/11/25/a...
Bolsonaro ordered to begin serving 27-year prison sentence for attempted coup | CNN
Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro must begin serving his 27-year prison sentence for plotting an attempted coup, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ruled Tuesday.
www.cnn.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:30 PM
In some countries, Presidents who attempt to overthrow the vote go to jail.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/25/a...
www.cnn.com/2025/11/25/a...
Classical Folk Fusion for a Discerning Ear
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2019/11/clas...
Clearly this album comes from superior musicians more interested in creating music than kissing record executives’ rings.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2019/11/clas...
Clearly this album comes from superior musicians more interested in creating music than kissing record executives’ rings.
Classical Folk Fusion for a Discerning Ear
Listening to the title track, an instrumental, from The Arcadian Wild’s second album, I couldn’t help noticing something unusual: the fiddle and guitar were playing different underlying rhythms.
wordbasket.blogspot.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Classical Folk Fusion for a Discerning Ear
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2019/11/clas...
Clearly this album comes from superior musicians more interested in creating music than kissing record executives’ rings.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2019/11/clas...
Clearly this album comes from superior musicians more interested in creating music than kissing record executives’ rings.
Lights, Camera, Inaction
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2023/11/ligh...
Promises which this movie made in 2002, Hollywood wants to fulfill today.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2023/11/ligh...
Promises which this movie made in 2002, Hollywood wants to fulfill today.
Lights, Camera, Inaction
Veteran movie director Victor Taransky has grown disillusioned with Hollywood: with demanding actors, interfering producers, and insatiable audiences.
wordbasket.blogspot.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Lights, Camera, Inaction
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2023/11/ligh...
Promises which this movie made in 2002, Hollywood wants to fulfill today.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2023/11/ligh...
Promises which this movie made in 2002, Hollywood wants to fulfill today.
Conspiracy Thinking in the Halls of Learning
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2021/11/cons...
Entire books, vlog channels, and other sources deluged our eyes with untruths, false equivalencies, and misinformation.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2021/11/cons...
Entire books, vlog channels, and other sources deluged our eyes with untruths, false equivalencies, and misinformation.
Conspiracy Thinking in the Halls of Learning
We’ve witnessed the ascension of conspiracy thinking to the pinnacles of American political power in the last decade or so.
wordbasket.blogspot.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Conspiracy Thinking in the Halls of Learning
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2021/11/cons...
Entire books, vlog channels, and other sources deluged our eyes with untruths, false equivalencies, and misinformation.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2021/11/cons...
Entire books, vlog channels, and other sources deluged our eyes with untruths, false equivalencies, and misinformation.
Nonpartisan Jesus vs. the Apolitical Church
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2022/11/nonp...
Ancient Rome didn't distrust Christians because they prayed more, but because they pledged allegiance to another King.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2022/11/nonp...
Ancient Rome didn't distrust Christians because they prayed more, but because they pledged allegiance to another King.
Nonpartisan Jesus vs. the Apolitical Church
Atlanta megachurch pastor Andy Stanley endured intense criticism, some of it borderline violent, when he paused in-person worship during the pandemic.
wordbasket.blogspot.com
November 21, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Nonpartisan Jesus vs. the Apolitical Church
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2022/11/nonp...
Ancient Rome didn't distrust Christians because they prayed more, but because they pledged allegiance to another King.
wordbasket.blogspot.com/2022/11/nonp...
Ancient Rome didn't distrust Christians because they prayed more, but because they pledged allegiance to another King.