David Brooks Wants Us to Take Our Conversations Deeper
His talk won the kind of sustained applause that brings soloists back for an encore. In his version, this meant Q&A. How, as a nation, can we get past all this pain?
Dispatches
When Childhood Trading Cards and History Lessons Collide
Art Spiegelman, the force behind both Wacky Packages and the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Maus,” is that rare artist who knows great art may disregard the precision brush strokes of attempting “the masterpiece.”
Where’s Waldo Now?
Waldo accrued rather a lot of wisdom in his travels. His books teach us to pay attention, if we want to spot the hidden details of the universe.
Disappointment and Horror
We expect to get our way and often think we will get away with cheap and easy and quick. Nowhere is this more obvious than with food.
Why Lessons in Chemistry Reduced Me to Tears
Some griefs, like my overreaction to “Lessons in Chemistry,” overlap with our own past hurts.
Nick Cave’s “The Mercy Seat” Is the Best Halloween Song You Have Never Heard
“The Mercy Seat” is a five-minute tour of a death-row inmate’s dirge and final thoughts before death by electric chair pits an ancient Old Testament object against New Testament teachings, turns everyday objects into hallucinations, and laughs at the idea of knowing truth from falsehood, or justice from mercy, when faced with death.
Not-So-Random Acts of Kindness
Shepherd’s Centers is a network of fifty-seven affiliate chapters across the country that offers some 165,000 people “services such as transportation, handy helpers, friendly visits, grocery shopping, and respite care to help older adults remain living in their own homes and communities.”
On Losing One’s Letters and One’s Mind
These are tiny disturbances of the domestic sphere, brief incursions of chaos. They remind me of the finite limits of our budget, my patience, and my life span.
St. Louis’s Native Past Comes Alive
“The U.S. Constitution was derived from the Iroquois [Haudenosaunee] Confederacy,” he points out, and surreptitiously, I jot a note. How did I not know that?
The Magical Metropolis of Our Dreams Becomes a Real Ghost Town
Given several decades, money, and a certain angle on history perhaps planned cities can and do work on some level, and for certain people. The problem with politicians’ well-laid plans is that they rarely work for anyone but the well-off.