Fun on the Mississippi
Mississippi River, steamboat, dinner cruise, St. Louis, waterfront, excursion
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Naked Truth
While I have never had the courage to—another telling phrase—“prance around” naked in public, I can imagine how free it would feel. To move through the world naked as the day you were born, casting aside all costume, an emperor unashamed? To be unclothed is to be vulnerable, your flesh unhidden and unprotected; to be comfortable being vulnerable is to relax, easy in your own skin at last.
The Queen’s Corgis
Were they with her, I wonder, when she died? I hope so. No living creature is as much comfort at a deathbed.
The Memorial to Joan Didion in NYC
The memorial service for Joan Didion, who died December 23, 2021, was held this week at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. (You can watch it here. There is no audio during the slideshow at the start.) Organizers explained the…
Why Our Minds Wander
A wandering mind has slipped its moorings, severing connection with its immediate environment. No longer paying attention to what it can perceive in the surrounding world, it turns inward, self-referential, occupied by dreams and memories and stray thoughts. Instead of musing about what its partnered body is experiencing, reading, hearing, thinking, it slides away to a different destination altogether.
When the Void is Loud
You may be surprised to hear that St. Louis is an excellent place for a fall hike. But that is because St. Louis and its surrounding areas are full of surprises.
As Seen on TV
I return to the tv, determined to cure myself of the casual lust that overtakes me every time this crap comes on, the mild hypnotic state in which I watch messes wiped from a sparkling white surface, food prep bewitched, household glue used to hold a Volkswagen in midair.
The Art of Conversation
Conversation is just as vital now, a glue for friendship, a bridge to romance, a necessity in any workplace, and a source of energy and creativity and understanding.
How to Start a Book Club—and Keep it Going
The club would meet for eight months of the year. I would conduct the group in reading one book every month. There was a bit of concern if there would be enough books to keep the club going. I told them there was no shortage of books about jazz.
TV’s “Fancy Cowboy” and the Legacy of Have Gun—Will Travel, Which Premiered September 14, 1957, Sixty-five Years Ago This Month
"Have Gun—Will Travel" defined itself by its difference, with co-creator Sam Role supposedly worrying about its reception: “Who’s going to buy this radical?”