The Therapeutic Wonders of a Smashed Supply Chain
The supply chain is a royal mess, and I find it refreshing. Subtract serious delays and shortages and economic ruin, and what you have left is a strikingly effective form of psychotherapy.
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Time Bubbles
‘Ekaterina II’ in Sevastopol, 1902, public domain Travel—and here I do not mean tourism or flight from danger—is often no escape. If anything–if it is being done well–it makes obvious how we are individual bodies at the mercy of time and the world. Your library card is a…
Where Everybody Knows Your Name
I roll my eyes at people who are smug about ordering off-menu and having their whims catered to. But that is exactly what those Fridays represented: a chance to go someplace where we were known, our whims catered to.
Whoopi Goldberg and Why Blacks See Jews in the Way They Do
Goldberg's views about Jews and race have nothing to do with the Holocaust or Nazi Germany and everything to do with Blacks and Jews in the United States.
The Tragedy of Macbeth: A Review
No matter how many times one revisits the story, it is always surprising how quickly Macbeth turns from loyal servant to regicide. All it takes is the suggestion that it is meant to be, that in some sense it has already happened, for him to jump into action and do the unthinkable.
Swing Time
Swing gave us back a little joy after the market crashed. Swing kept up our spirits as we entered a grim war. What is accessible is not always dumb or devoid of talent; sometimes it is just something we can all share. There is less and less of that, these days, and we need it desperately.
Hill with a White Elephant
When I got out of the army I spoke with a heavy southern accent I had picked up from my roommate and another friend, who were both from north Florida. A cold caller once said to me in surprise [say this in the heaviest accent you can…
Nellie Bly, the Heroine Nobody Hears About
Elizabeth Jane Cochran, actually. Nellie Bly was her pseudonym. She landed her first newspaper job by writing a furious letter to the editor, words leaping off the page to slap a misogynist columnist. This was in 1885. Then she moved to New York and spent four penniless months persuading Joseph Pulitzer to hire her at the New York World.
The Uncanny Parallels Between Islamic and American Extremists
In "Home, Land, Security: Deradicalization and the Journey Back From Extremism," Carla Power—a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award—moves slowly, gently, into a terrifying psychology.
Pack Your Bag, We’re Going Out
Courtesy Fortepan, CC 3.0 Driving through the piney woods of the Georgia Piedmont this week, I was sure I knew where I was going so I turned off Maps. I was wrong, and by the time I discovered my mistake I was nearly out of gas. There was…