Put a Time Machine in Your Closet

When Miyako Bellizi designed costumes for Marty Supreme, she spent “a lot of time thinking about Timothée Chalamet’s underwear.” One-piece union suit, typical in the early 1950s, or the newfangled boxers? She wanted to be period correct.

Hers was a professional choice. For the rest of us, wearing vintage…

World Cup Tourists Gushing About the U.S. (Really?)

My poor friend. She sent me this nice article from the BBC about how travelers to the World Cup “are discovering little-known slices of Americana away from the host cities.” The word “triggered” would be apt. I had already seen the social media reels and posts—and in my deep…

Busload of Faith to Get By

I took a Flix bus to Chicago, determined to be there for the Juneteenth opening of the Obama Presidential Center.

“You took a what?” friends said, bemused that I did not fly, drive, or even take the train. But I love buses. I love the way everybody shows up prepared,…

How Shopping Became Miserable

One foot on a tangle of tree root, I looked down at my beloved Merrell hiking boots and noticed big, frayed holes on both sides. Time to spring for a new pair. To be loyal, I went—in the flesh—to REI, but they had only waterproof hiking boots. “Tariffs,” muttered the…

The Man Was Not Talking About Fancy Food!

“Those poor brutish Epicureans that have nothing but the meer husks of fleshly pleasure to feed themselves with.” ~John Smith, 1660

How did we get Epicurus so wrong? Foodie websites, luxury magazines, gourmet shops…he would be aghast. His goal was to remove pain and fear, not pile up pastry. Limited…

The Painful Exhilaration of Downsizing

We have given ourselves two more years, ample time to continue spreading out in this friendly, comfy, century-old house. Two more years, my mother’s daughter whispers, to keep weeding, scrubbing, repainting the wrought-iron fence…. By the time we leave, we will be thoroughly ready for a smaller, more practical, inevitably…

Buddhaghosa Wants to Dissolve My Rage

Anger has never been my go-to. Now and then I fume, even simmer a while. But I recoil from rage; for me, it is far easier to find excuses or let slide.

Until now.

The Trump Administration has undone six decades of complacent serenity. No doubt its supporters would be…

Who Lost Their Sense of Humor, Me or “The New Yorker”?

Every week, I page through: nope, nope, nope. All I want is one New Yorker cartoon as funny as they used to be, so I can stick it on the fridge and grin at it when I start dinner. Is it me, have I misplaced my sense of humor in…

How Victor Hugo Used Sex to Fight Injustice

Every time I read the news, I hear a faint, French-accented cry: To the barricades!

Then I wonder what counsel Victor Hugo would give us.

The burning accusations in Les Misérables, his most famous and wildly popular work,drew so much attention that the National Assembly of

How to Love Past Reason

Irrational ramblings and outbursts need not get in the way of love.

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