Newsletter
Ghosts of Thanksgivings Past
Or: "Lady, I'd Move."
Newsletter
The News from Hobbiton
Or, why we don't need advice from a guy wearing the Ring of Power.
Newsletter
Curse of the Bee-Wolf
Some thoughts on heroes and monsters after reading Beowulf.
Newsletter
Synecdoche, Metonymy, and Empathy
Updated thoughts on why two obscurely named figures of speech matter.
Newsletter
Beyond the Pale with Ghosts and GLLMs
A 4th-generation Litvak American traces her roots with the help of strangers and AI.
Newsletter
Pain and Healing in a Great American City
Or, why we are not Gregor Samsa.
Newsletter
Ways to Live in a Fractured Time
Or, there may be nothing more American than intentional communities.
Newsletter
The Disappeared: a Candle for Mónica Mignone
Take care of your wish. —John Ciardi, The Wish-Tree Often these days, I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep. I lie in the dark as dreams and memories, wishes and fears drift by like phosphenes. Night distorts distances and blurs
Newsletter
Wishes, Lies, and Dreams
Here is a list of five things I did last week to validate my proverbial parking space on earth. Just kidding; I’d rather share some books. Modern Masters for children: was that a good idea? Happy Birthday, [xx] year old! When my sister typed that line in a chat
Newsletter
The Power of the Clown
How a "fairy-tale figure" defied the Nazis with gentle wit.
Newsletter
Don Quixote at the Market
“His fancy grew full of…enchantments, quarrels, battles, challenges, wounds, wooings, loves, agonies…no history in the world had more reality in it.” —Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote The downtown EV charger hunches between progress and regress, optimism and depression. Across the street is the renovated market building, elegant but
Newsletter
My Mother's Angels
“A person always exceeds and resists the limits of a story about them...” —Catherine Lacey, Biography of X When the angels came to my mother, they were not, as might be expected, wielding flaming swords to avenge all wounds. Mostly, they were singing show tunes. In her last few years