I was surprised to see last week’s New Yorker, the Style Special, for a couple of reasons. First it was poly-bagged with a supplement called “Fashion Rocks” (more about this in a moment), and second, because it contains what I first thought to be one of the bigger flubs in New Yorker history. Considering that … Read more
I live my life in shrinking orbits, which move inward from the things of the world. Perhaps I can never fully silence my heart, but that will be my attempt. I am shadow boxing with God, around and around this small, dark room, and I have been plodding in circles for a thousand years. And … Read more
Time stands still And we and things go whizzing past it, Queasy and lonely, Wearing dogtags with scripture on them. —James Galvin, “Two Horses and a Dog” We’ll be all right if nothing goes wrong with the lighting. —Robert Frost, from “It Bids Pretty Fair” All day words were swirling, assembling themselves, unbidden, in inspired … Read more
Amid all the news of the End Times, you may not have noticed that the New York Times Magazine introduced a new department last Sunday. They are calling it “The Funny Pages.” They are not funny. The most obvious attempt at what would normally be called humor was Elizabeth Gilbert’s confessional essay on yoga, in … Read more
I see where there is a new biography of Mark Twain, and I intend to clean out the office to see if it might have arrived while I wasn’t looking. It is my shameful practice to deal with most of what I receive here in the mail by stacking it in small pillars that lean … Read more
As dangerous as an allegory on the banks of the Nile Yesterday this from the NY Times about the Biblical literalists’ invasion of natural history museums and how they are accosting and interrupting guides while they are explaining the scientific view of how we got here. The article explains how members of B.C. groups (B.C. … Read more
A pair of epigraphs and some random gleanings from the archives of the Wangensteen Medical Library at the University of Minnesota: When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise, and the night be gone? And I am full of tossing to and fro unto the dawning of the day. –The Book of Job, … Read more
Joe brought to my attention this morning that the term “mud duck” has emerged as a derisive name for Minnesotans. It’s trend enough to have made the pages of the Star Tribune, although to be fair, the Strib appears to have perched its considerable reporting credibility in this very important matter on the back of … Read more
A moment away from a very busy week of production: It’s too early to see whether the roll-out of Times Select is going to bung up the daily “most e-mailed” list–and whether articles behind the firewall, that is, primarily the celebrities of the Op-Ed pages, will even be emailable and thus eligible for the honors … Read more
For many months, on her way to and from school each day, Gloria had paused at the pet shop window to gaze with a combination of adoration and desire at the pretty little accordion nestled there in its kennel. Each night at the dinner table she would beg her parents to let her have an … Read more