The Blink of An Eye

Silver Anniversaries & Sundries

Dear Friends,

Today marks our 25th wedding anniversary. “Silver,” I guess they call it. I will not do that common thing where men get up on their platforms to give an encomium to their brides. I am sure that many wives like that sort of thing. But so shy of attention is my wife that the less I say, the better. So I’ll just say that she is a gift and I am blessed.

It probably cannot be said often enough for the younger crowd, but pay attention because you will blink and a quarter of a century will have disappeared. I don’t really know how it happened or where the time went, but we’ve got two grown kids now, one even married. It’s practically inconceivable to me.

Our plans are the same as our anniversary every year. We’ll sit around our table with our kids—and now son-in-law—and enjoy a fine meal. We’ve never been the sort of couple that feels the need to get away from our kids on special occasions; we like being around them too much.

But since it is a special occasion, I will venture to keep this week’s Quarter Inch on the shorter side. I’ve got a marinade to prep for the steaks.

---

There is apparently a really long video going around that is a “critical conversation” with Stephen Wolfe in which my colleague Andrew Sandlin and yours truly are mentioned. He says something like Andrew (and I?) have always despised him. Let me set the record straight for those of you who are new around here:

I didn’t know who Stephen Wolfe was until he published his book and I read it.

I wrote a very critical review.

The review apparently stung enough that he wrote a reply.

That “reply” completely ignored my critique, made theological admissions that tie his entire theory into knots, made no attempt to explain or solve the conundrum, and engages in at least one instance of egregiously illegitimate scholarly practice.

He is not credible and never has been, and I feel quite sorry for those folks who for whatever reason appear unable or unwilling to untether themselves from him and his brand of ethno-nationalism. It seems to me that Stephen Wolfe is basically a Turretin-quoting Richard Spencer and worthy of exactly that amount of attention.