Photos by Richard Hamilton Smith The maples of Hillside Cemetery down the road from my house in Center City are aflame with color. October is their fiery month, when the sedate trees that shade the headstones transform from green to gold. My daily walks now skirt the cemetery so I can stand in the presence … Read more
Forget baseball, it’s just a bunch of millionaires running around in a circle. Hot dogs are full of toxic elements. And the bald eagle, while a majestic site indeed, is actually a bit of a scavenger and bully. There is one symbol that all Americans can embrace, one icon that is known and loved by … Read more
When I bought a house in Prospect Park four years ago, I chose the area for the beautiful trees, stately homes, winding streets, and The Loft. Only after the papers were signed did I discover that The Loft was relocating from its long-time home in the beautiful old Pratt school building to a swanky new … Read more
Let’s begin at the beginning, even if it’s a little obvious. The classic road movie almost always involves a road trip—that is, a journey by highway. That’s where the word “road” fits into the name, y’know. The road movie is also deeply concerned with freedom—how people die inside without it, but risk getting killed trying … Read more
My grandfather’s grandfather invented kippers. The family tradition is that if he had not sold the patent for his method of making smoked herrings to Woodgers of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in northeastern England for 200 pounds, we might all have been rich beyond the dreams of creosote. Imagine a penny-a-fish royalty on every kipper consumed on the … Read more
According to African-American comedienne Moms Mabley, “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” Sounds like Moms could have been talking about conditions leading up to this past August melee in north Minneapolis. Once again, primarily white cops, who mostly live outside Minneapolis, confronted primarily black people … Read more
I adore a good horror film. I love these flicks because within 90 minutes I have the satisfaction of seeing the heroine prevail, and the delight of watching the monster meet a grisly death. Real life, sadly, is not like this. Heroes don’t win all the time, and after they are done tormenting you, monsters … Read more
It’s not as if I wasn’t expecting it. With tall genes scattered on both sides of the family, my kids were bound to surpass my (almost) 5’3” status eventually. But still it gave me a jolt to see my daughter Sophie’s shoulder edge above mine by a good inch when she sidled up to me … Read more
It’s been 20 years since Milan Kundera first published The Unbearable Lightness of Being and became literature’s equivalent of a rock star. It was the kind of book that American college students thrive on—Eurotrash romanticism, haphazard pop-philosophizing, and lots of adulterous affairs with mysterious Women of the Warsaw Pact. If you wore black back then, … Read more
It’s fittingly ironic that Umberto Eco finds such rich soil in which to plant his postmodern mysteries back in the Middle Ages. In his fourth novel, 12th-century Italy is a backdrop for the tale of Baudolino, an Italian peasant who becomes the adopted son of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, known as Barbarossa. Mixing … Read more