The Precarious Joy of Eating Lunch
On Saturdays, my mom and I went shopping, and around three in the afternoon, I would ask, in a small plaintive voice, “Mom, did we have lunch today?”
Dispatches
AI’s Ethics Are Evolving…into Satanic Blood Rituals
Aw, you humans have been scared of tech forever, the AI says....
The Death of Parties Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
Are we too afraid to admit that other people are just boring compared to the internet? Are we too timid to say that what we really want is a “party” redefined, reformulated, or done up some other way?
Of American Frogs and Pirates
The handlers of the competing frogs were not seasoned adults with complex strategies for teaching a frog to jump from a dead sit upon a prompt. The frog handlers were children. Their contribution to training their frogs appeared to be getting their frogs to the competition alive.
What a Wise Greek Taught Me About Will Power
Prudentius offers “an ancient guide to not giving in.”
Lennon-Ono Documentary Also a Snapshot of America
Because this film cannot help suggesting a comparison of ’60s engagement with post-millennial numbness, it becomes a bit of an indictment of us, a spreading-around of Hannah Arendt’s evil.
Decoding—and Recovering?—the Veil
No other garment is as modest and erotic, humble and powerful, obvious and enigmatic.
The Presidential Fitness Test Is Back to Shame Us All over Again? Great!
If any single contradiction defines us as Americans, it is that we are gluttons for the spectacle of team sports, but for the most part we starve ourselves of individual exercise. Our nation’s high schools abound in football and basketball teams as social and civic…
I Am Not Very Happy Now: And Other Lessons from Small Children About Facing Pain
Diversity, inclusion, and the pursuit of equity may be on the run in the 2020s, but I look around this campus, this city, and this country, and I can see that a lot of different kinds of people are still here. I am still here. We are still here. What now?
Welcome to Cafe Coca Cola
Spies, revolutionaries, and film stars haunted the oldest cafe in Panama