I’m what you might call a mid-level blogger. I’ve been doing this for eleven years, and I’ve reached a certain level of readership that’s more than I ever thought it would be when I began but less than I later … Continue reading →
The research for this post started a day or two after the pre-NH debate, after I—like so many others—had watched Marco Rubio seemingly self-destruct and repeat himself over and over even though that’s exactly what Christie was attacking him for. … Continue reading →
[NOTE: This is a repeat of a previous post that first appeared in March of 2013, repeated now for no particular reason except that I like it.] My mother’s very first memory was of being frightened by booming noises—guns? cannon? … Continue reading →
…a creature was stirring. Last night was Christmas Eve. I was expecting a visit from my son, who was flying in as a rare treat. I had tidied up, and was putting on the finishing touches while waiting for him … Continue reading →
Anthony Dowell was a British dancer of rare qualities. I write “was” because, although he’s still alive, he’s in his seventies. But those who saw him in his heyday—and that includes me—remember. Dowell wasn’t known for bravura technique, although his … Continue reading →
[NOTE: This is a post that originally appeared in 2008. I came across it today while responding to a comment, and I thought it worth repeating.] As a child who loved poetry, I memorized it almost without intending to. Just … Continue reading →
Commenter “Phil D” has some questions and observations [I’ve corrected one typo in the following]: When exactly did we lose the “courage to see things as they are”? When FDR recognized the USSR in 1933, just after that regime murdered … Continue reading →
There’s been quite a bit of brouhaha about this course: Visual arts students at the University of California, San Diego, must exhibit themselves in the buff before a naked class of 20 and a nude professor or fail an upper-level … Continue reading →
America has been so fortunate, and in many ways so outside of history’s darker corridors, that we have forgotten what we should have known, and neglected to teach it to our children. It’s like a population (think Native Americans before … Continue reading →
[NOTE: The other day I happened across an old post from March of 2009. As I read it, I realized that I was probably describing one of the earliest manifestations of my change experience, even though I wouldn’t have called … Continue reading →
[NOTE: Every now and then I re-post a previous essay that you might have missed first time around. This is one of them (slightly edited).] When I was a child, we were given a fair amount of homework. And although … 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 →