How to Love Past Reason
Irrational ramblings and outbursts need not get in the way of love.
By Jeannette Cooperman
Seven Words English Needs
Look at the holes in English vocabulary, and you realize what our culture lacks.
Seeds Hear the Rain Sing
How a seedling can hear the rain fall, and how the sound soothes away our stress.
How Vines and Stories Intertwine
Who knew reading and gardening had such overlap?
The Marital Coffee War
“Coffee, Brown”
Our morning habits,
For Each of us,
A pot brews
Poured over,
Estranged
~a contribution by Andy, in the comments section
In his New York Times column, Judge John Hodgman fielded an…
Cross Words at the NY Times
A few weeks ago, the Sunday New York Times crossword was printed with an error. Mistakes had been made before, but in eighty-four years of cruciform puzzles, this was the first all-out disaster. The error meant that the clues and squares did not line up; the puzzle could not…
Tales of the Bottle
Not since Prohibition has there been such a strong and widespread public warning. It feels a little odd.
The Dark Side of Gold
Chuck away all the awards and trophies? Absolutely.
Ray Hartmann: A Loss for All of Us
He had integrity, always. He could be sly and mischievous, and he had a sizable ego, and he could drive you crazy, coming round on deadline day to rehearse his topic for Donnybrook at length. But he came round to all of us because he wanted all angles, all opinions. By the time he wrote or spoke on air, he sounded sure and strong, because he had researched and read and listened all week.
Painted Ladies (Et Alia)
“Honey, you look sick without it,” my mom informed teenage me. Gentle and loving, she was hardly ever that harsh. But she was caught in the cult of femininity, and she wanted to make damned sure her daughter understood the need for artifice.
I would like to say…
How AI Manages to Sound So Wise
I ask chatbots for recipes and gardening advice. Bash Ahmed, a brilliant friend who works in IT, has long exploratory discussions about politics, culture, and finance. When he commented—after the president’s message to “Open the fuckin’ strait, you crazy bastards—Praise be to Allah”—that we were living in Dr. Strangelove,…
Thinking Outside the Box
Geometry needs to be part of the zeitgeist.