Why the Clothes of My Past Stay Closeted
The idea of resurrecting clothes of my youth half a century later, redeeming the hot sting of embarrassment with carefully chosen accessories, intrigued me. Until I remembered what I would be resurrecting.
Dispatches
Burying Carbon Dioxide Sounds Clever But….
New carbon capture technologies may be “a dangerous distraction” from the real reforms needed to wean us off fossil fuels altogether.
How I Was Told That Joseph Stalin Was a Mass Murderer Because He Was Abused by His Mother
I heard my most memorable account of Joseph Stalin while sitting in the pews of a Presbyterian church. I was near late adolescence, young enough to be bored by a church service but old enough to take intermittent interest.
The Fragile Pleasures of a Road Trip
For better and worse, travel has an emotional component. We see better when we do it, until fatigue and familiarity roll in like fog.
How Did an Estonian Violinist End up in St. Louis’s Concordia Cemetery?
Her early life was a blur, with all those moves—fleeing to safety, getting bombed, getting evacuated, being forced to Berlin, touring, Paris, New York. Her music was the home she carried with her.
Mozart Would Wince at Our Loud Pianos
Today’s pianist, Daniel Adam Maltz, is performing not on a big glossy piano but on the instrument Mozart wrote for: the elegant little Viennese fortepiano.
What if Today’s Elite Were Forced into Exile?
Rebellious eccentrics, these artists were brave in their art and, once they had to be, brave in reality. Had they been able to stay, safe and adored, in Paris, they would have remained remote to us, wrapped in mystique. In exile, they were vulnerable.
Get Ready for Roadkill
Roadkill resides at the end of the spectrum where our adoration for animals ends and nuisance begins.
Abracadabra! The Magic of Words
We forget to ask what our own words are bringing into existence.
Inarticulate Jann Wenner Dislikes Inarticulate Blacks and Women
Alas, it is not the music that is the relic but Wenner himself.