Gerard Van der Leun

Organ, Earth, City, Penthouse, Omni, Time, Fortune, The WELL, and Houghton Mifflin Book Publishers. Over 300 books edited and published. Thousands of magazine articles. 40,000 AD items over 20 years.

Still (Almost) Standing

Hospitalized for a week. Very weak now but recovering at home. Sorry for now new posts. Coming soon: "In the Court of the Crimson Covid King"

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DISPATCHES #3

AMERICA

The Centenarian: Arthur Warner McNair

I'd escorted my then 94-year-old mother from her home in California to her childhood home in Fargo for my uncle's 100th birthday.

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DISPATCHES

Dispatches #2

CHRISTMAS

Hanukkah Candles on Christmas Eve

And the Light shineth in darkness: and the darkness did not comprehend it. — John 1:5 Throughout the night, the cold drew close, And wrapped our home in shrouds of frost. Within eight candles lent us light, Returning to us all we’d lost. Around us, all our village slept.

Waking in Winter Quarters

"I wake to sleep and take my waking slow."

CHRISTMAS

The Gift of the WalMagi

Inside the store stretched out before me like a land of dreams so wonderful so various so new…. Everything new. And shiny. And, well, cheap.

CHRISTMAS

Hands

"It's time to do some more walking," he said. "We need to get your balance back."

COMMENTING

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The Creche by the Side of the Road

It was the nadir of the year, two days before Christmas, climbing between dark mountains with millions of others, most aiming at some destination filled with the rituals of the season

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ART

This self-portrait, from 1556, is by Sofonisba Anguissola.

Dispatches #1 -- Because it’s judgment that defeats us.”

Regular commentary interwoven with ideas, issues, themes, and items pertinent to the day.

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AMERICA

Grace in the Blue Ridge Mountains

AMERICA

Your Rifle / Your Rights by Mike Austin

If a man went up to John Wesley Hardin in the 1860s and called him a low-down rebel liar, Hardin would have killed him on the spot.

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Bad Americans

Golden Age Government Comic Books: Social Security

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Strange Daze

Strange Daze as Seen from “a humble cottage with a thatched roof”

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Bad Americans

So Sorry

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The Man Who Carried a Dark Lantern

CHRISTMAS

The Star

The story of a road trip by three astrologers, kings, wise men. A journey by men who saw something special in the heavens and determined to follow it wherever it led, no matter what the cost.

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progressive

A Single #2 Pencil Outsmarts The Entire Progressive Movement

AMERICA

Gentlemen, start your Christmas engines

O Holy Night, the stars are brightly shining It is the night of our dear Savior's birth Long lay the world in sin and error pining Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices For yonder breaks a new and glorious

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Strange Daze

Strange Daze Beyond Shadowbanning

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AMERICA

2 Commenters Gone to Look for America

World War II

The Name in the Stone

"Gerard Van der Leun" was, of course, not me. He was someone else entirely. Someone who had been born, lived, and died before I was even conceived.

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Strange Daze

Strange Daze Half Asleep in a Fake Empire