Stumbling upon “Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy” by surprise was like waking up to Christmas morning, but reborn as an adult. The size, vibrancy, and overwhelming stillness of this painting are so impressive that it works almost as a trance, or incantation, of natural light.
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…
Friends of Vintage Flight must make strategic decisions when they choose a project, based on the group’s capabilities, the condition of available aircraft, and their historical significance. The Curtiss Robin has a fascinating history as one of the most commercially successful aircraft of the period between the world wars, and began production the year after Lindbergh made the first solo trans-Atlantic flight in 1927.
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…
One day, our professor asked the class whether we still believed a pure, just, and equal society was possible. I said “no” loudly without thinking, and I meant it. It is a dangerous place to go for me.
Contemporary writers do not inherit Chinua Achebe’s legacy as a neutral resource. They inherit it as a canon that has already been institutionalized, already been absorbed into systems of evaluation and circulation that reward familiarity. To write within this tradition is to encounter a set of formal and linguistic expectations that are both enabling and constraining.
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…
Irrational ramblings and outbursts need not get in the way of love.
I stressed I was not interested in joining their group but would like to write about their outdoors training, if they would let me, or else we could just say we had had a nice lunch, and I would go on my way.
Look at the holes in English vocabulary, and you realize what our culture lacks.