I came of age walking around Northwest Plaza, a then-novel “outdoor mall” with a pebbly version of cobblestones and several courtyard fountains so hypnotic I had their shapes memorized. By “came of age,” I mean that I became a person who made her own choices. Not the early Montessori choices my mom cribbed […]
A loud curse from upstairs, vibrating the air like a tolled bell. The dog looks at me, alarmed. “Oh, don’t worry,” I say. “That’s just Daddy.” Punching a hole through his cuff buttonhole with a pen because it is Monday morning, he is about to be late to teach a class, and everyday […]
Elon Musk’s fourteenth child was born last month. The names of the previous thirteen are deliberately unusual words charged with personal significance for their papa. The fourteenth’s name is Seldon Lycurgus. Seldon, for Hari Seldon, a mathematician in Isaac Asimov’s science fiction Foundations series. First Minister of the Empire, he develops a new […]
A dreary spring day, cold and wet, is what I remember. And standing, nervous, at the edge of a scraggly “crowd” of about twelve people. We were in Saint Louis U.’s quad, and this was my first (and almost last) protest. Something about hostages in Iraq? God help me, I cannot remember. All […]
There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to hang out with people who are like you. There is nothing wrong with wanting to live near them, work with them, and party with them. The problems start when the similarity is a stark, flat-out category with a history of larger discrimination, and people try […]
Oh, hell, the recipe calls for a can of tomatoes. No worries, there’s one in the basement. I’ll just go down and—wait, I should bring up the dog treats while I—there’s that tax folder. Better move it so I remember to file this year’s backup and—did I get Andrew to sign that form? […]
I had not been to Plaza Frontenac in quite some time, except to scurry in the Saks end to see a movie without pop or popcorn. For some sad, unfathomable reason, they no longer make concessions. And neither do the stores. My mom and I used to go to Frontenac regularly, […]
Latent and overt violence at public sporting events is catnip for sociologists, who see competitive sports as violence condensed to a more manageable form. Historians are drawn to violence in sports as well, fascinated by its gradations—from life-or-death struggles in Roman coliseums and battlefields to docile, but no less ruthless, chess […]
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. A simple idea, the core of Christianity and every other world religion. I remember parroting it as a kid. Later I realized it instilled equity—all human persons have the same value, and no one should be treated as somehow less than you. […]
His is not an easy name to forget. Selam Deutschmann. There is a story behind it. His partner’s first name is Eritrea, which was her heritage but not yet a nation when she was born. There is a story there, too. Selam Deutschmann is a chiropractor, Eritrea Habtemariam a nurse practitioner. They live in […]