Luke Hill

Luke Hill

@masscommons.bsky.social

Posting about: books, food, history, music, politics, religion, sports…and anything else that comes to mind. https://masscommons.wordpress.com/

95 followers132 following1.5K posts

Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

Morning Song - Season of the Witch by Dr. John & the Blues Brothers Band “And it’s strange, Surely strange, You got to pick up every stitch, Beatniks are out to make it rich, Must be the….” #FirstRuleOfCoverSongs masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/10/27/m...

masscommons.wordpress.comMorning Song – Season Of The WitchThe Blues Brothers band is, of course, top-notch but what makes their cover of “Season Of The Witch” is the New Orleans hoodoo of Dr. John. “And it’s strange,Surely strange,…
Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

Morning Song - So Many Falling by the Wayside (Help Me to Stand) by Dorothy Love Coates & the #Gospel Harmonettes “Jesus, lead me, I need you every step of the way….” masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/10/25/m...

masscommons.wordpress.comMorning Song – So Many Falling By The Wayside (Help Me To Stand)One thing that that happens in hard times is people, well, falling by the wayside, including people you love and trust and never thought would fall. Then who do you turn to for help? In 1968 (when …
Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

Morning Song - Autumn Leaves by Nat King Cole "The falling leaves drift by the window, The autumn leaves of red and gold, I see your lips, the summer kisses, The sun-burned hands I used to hold..." #jazz masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/10/24/m...

masscommons.wordpress.comMorning Song – Autumn LeavesAccording to those who know such things, we’re approaching “peak foliage” here at MassCommons World Headquarters. In anticipation, we’re luxuriating today in the incomparabl…
Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

A Post "Pro-Life" Church? "What language & methods of teaching will best convey Catholic social doctrine in the 21st cen. USA has yet to be revealed. That the bishops (& others) are experimenting with how best to accomplish that end is encouraging." masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/10/22/a...

masscommons.wordpress.comA Post “Pro-Life” Church?For 50 years the core public policy teaching by the US Catholic bishops has been something like this (my words, not theirs): The Church is “pro-life”. That primarily* means it’s a…
Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon "One of the pleasures of being an old reader is reading #books one somehow missed and has always wondered about. 'The Wretched Of The Earth' did not disappoint." masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/10/21/t...

masscommons.wordpress.comThe Wretched Of The EarthIt is–with apologies to Tom Lehrer–a sobering thought that when Frantz Fanon was my age he had been dead for 30 years. It’s even more sobering that Fanon could, just barely, still…
Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

#Organizing America: Stories of Americans Who Fought for #Justice by @erikloomis.bsky.social "Cynicism is the worst mindset you can have. What we face today is certainly no more daunting than what these 20 individuals faced and overcame." masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/10/19/o...

masscommons.wordpress.comOrganizing America: Stories Of Americans Who Fought For JusticeGive Erik Loomis’ inspiring and invigorating 2025 book, Organizing America: Stories Of Americans Who Fought For Justice, to a young person you know. Or, if you’re in need of inspiration…
Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

Morning Song - Right By Your Side by Eurythmics "I need to swing from limb to limb, To relieve this mess I'm in, 'Cause when depression starts to win, I need to be...." h/t: @chrishillalx.bsky.social masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/10/16/m...

masscommons.wordpress.comMorning Song – Right By Your SideOutsourcing to one of our far-flung correspondents for commentary on Eurythmics’ exuberant, joyous 1983 single, “Right By Your Side”: “How many songs crack the Top 40 when f…
Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

Morning Song - You're the Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me by @gladysknight.bsky.social & The Pips "I guess you could say that I've been lucky..." #FirstRuleOfCoverSongs masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/10/14/m...

masscommons.wordpress.comMorning Song – You’re The Best Thing That Ever Happened To MeIn 1973 Gladys Knight & The Pips were in the sweet spot of what historian and music scholar Charles Hughes calls “country soul”, and no song exemplifies that better than their hit s…
Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

#BeingMortal - Epilogue @agawande.bsky.social “We’ve been wrong about what our job is in #medicine. We think our job is to ensure health and survival. But really it is larger than that. It is to enable well-being." masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/10/13/b...

masscommons.wordpress.comBeing Mortal – Epilogue(One in a series of posts about Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal: Medicine & What Matters In The End.) It was Atmaram Gawande’s wish that his survivors cremate his body and return his ashes to…
Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

#BeingMortal - #Courage @agawande.bsky.social "Our ultimate goal, after all, is not a good death but a good life to the very end.... Assisted living is far harder than assisted death, but its possibilities are far greater, as well." masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/10/12/b...

masscommons.wordpress.comBeing Mortal – Courage(One in a series of posts about Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal: Medicine & What Matters In The End.) Atul Gawande ends Being Mortal by reflecting on courage and this is, I think, exactly right. De…
Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

Morning Song - Straight, No Chaser by Thelonious Monk "Monk did things to chords & melodies that later generations still marvel at, not unlike the way painters are still amazed at what Rembrandt did with light & shadow." #jazz masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/10/10/m...

masscommons.wordpress.comMorning Song – Straight, No ChaserThelonious Monk, born this day in Rocky Mount, NC 109 years ago, did things to chords and melodies that later generations still marvel at, not unlike the way painters are still amazed at what Rembr…
Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

Morning Song - Long John #Blues by Dinah Washington I don't think she's talking about the #dentist. "Yes, I went to Long John's office and told him the pain was killing, He told me not to worry, that my cavity just needed filling...." masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/10/07/m...

masscommons.wordpress.comMorning Song – Long John BluesThe great Dinah Washington could sing just about anything, but there’s a reason she was known as “Queen of the Blues”. “He took out his trusted drill,And he told me to open …
Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

Morning Song - Give Me That Feelin' by Hank Mobley If you’re going to call a song “Give Me That Feelin'”, then it’s got to deliver *that* feeling. Hank Mobley’s “Give Me That Feelin'” does." #jazz masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/10/03/m...

masscommons.wordpress.comMorning Song – Give Me That Feelin’Some titles up the stakes. If you’re going to call a song “Give Me That Feelin'”, then it’s got to deliver that feeling. Hank Mobley’s “Give Me That Feelin'&#822…
Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

#BeingMortal - Letting Go @agawande.bsky.social “Our responsibility, in #medicine, is to deal w/ human beings as they are. People die only once. They have no experience to draw on. They need doctors & nurses who are willing to have the hard discussions.” masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/10/01/b...

masscommons.wordpress.comBeing Mortal – Letting Go(One in a series of posts about Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal: Medicine & What Matters In The End.) Here’s the dilemma Atul Gawande and his colleagues face: “..as people’s capac…
Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

#BeingMortal - A Better Life @agawande.bsky.social “The battle of being mortal is the battle to maintain the integrity of one’s life. Sickness & old age make the struggle hard enough. The professionals & institutions we turn to should not make it worse.” masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/09/30/b...

masscommons.wordpress.comBeing Mortal – A Better Life(One in a series of posts about Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal: Medicine & What Matters In The End.) In 1991 Dr. Bill Thomas took over as medical director of Chase Memorial Nursing Home in New Ber…
Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

Morning Song - Hope is the Thing with Feathers by @rhiannongiddens.bsky.social "That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all." #EmilyDickinson masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/09/30/m...

masscommons.wordpress.comMorning Song – Hope Is The Thing With FeathersEmily Dickinson’s Civil War-era poem “Hope Is The Thing With Feathers” provides the lyrics to the title track of Rhiannon Giddens’ new album. Giddens herself wrote the melod…
Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

#BeingMortal - Assistance by @agawande.bsky.social "...our elderly are left with a controlled & supervised institutional existence, a medically designed answer to unfixable problems, a life designed to be safe but empty of anything they care about.” masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/09/29/b...

masscommons.wordpress.comBeing Mortal – Assistance(One in a series of posts about Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal: Medicine & What Matters In The End.) “(W)hen Keren Brown Wilson…built her first assisted living home for the aged in Ore…
Luke Hill
@masscommons.bsky.social

#BeingMortal - Dependence by @agawande.bsky.social “We end up with institutions that address any number of societal goals...but never the goal that matters (most): how to make life worth living when we’re weak & frail & can’t fend for ourselves anymore.” masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/09/28/b...

masscommons.wordpress.comBeing Mortal – Dependence(One in a series of posts about Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal: Medicine & What Matters In The End.) “As fewer of us are struck dead out of the blue, most of us will spend significant period…