I don’t ordinarily read the Chicago Tribune, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard of John Kass before, but this is one heckuva good column. I’m tempted to quote the whole thing, but I’ll just suggest you read it. In … Continue reading →
About a week ago marked the 75th anniversary of the disappearance of Juliet Poyntz. She’s hardly a household word, but her story is not atypical of those highly-placed Communists who turned on their former colleagues. Poyntz was a Barnard history … Continue reading →
Here’s a poignant photo of a man named Greg Cook hugging his dog Coco after his East Limestone, Alabama home was destroyed by a recent tornado and Coco was found inside the ruins: It’s one of many photos in this … Continue reading →
I have a weakness for books. If I freely indulged myself, I’d be poverty-stricken in no time flat. I’ve got such long lists of books to read that if I were to actually to get to all of them it … Continue reading →
When I hear a song or read a poem, other songs and poems often spring unbidden into my mind. They have some relation to the first, as a sort of harmonic vibration or echo. Sonnets are a particular form of … Continue reading →
…writes
Continue reading →Indulging in one of my favorite pastimes, surfing on YouTube, recently led me to a clip of a 2007 rehearsal of a new production of the musical “West Side Story.” The sequence begins with the cast of the 2007 revival, … Continue reading →
…has coincided with a rise in the rate of depression. The ravages of time didn’t used to be so well-documented. Then again—there’s a genre of YouTube videos that feature the morphing of photos of the same person over a long … Continue reading →
Shorter Daley on the EU: good fences make good neighbors. “Consensus” has become coercion. The imperatives of federalism and ever closer union have come bang up against the basic principle of democracy: that elected governments should be answerable to their … Continue reading →
The other day I was talking with friend, comparing the present feeling of unrest to the turmoil of the late 60s. We agreed that both times were tumultuous, but she thought things were worse now. I said I wasn’t sure; … Continue reading →
…and hope for the best. The latest suggestion is that nothing much that you can do matters—although of course it’s best not to off yourself prematurely if you want to reach three figures. One thing that might help would be … Continue reading →
I can’t say I knew much about Amy Winehouse until her death, although I’d vaguely heard of her. But from what I’ve read since, it appears she exemplified a type of addict who is extraordinarily difficult to help—defiant and resistant … Continue reading →