August 27, 2014
Language, Race, and Reclamation
Aukeem Ballard, a friend and former student who is now a teacher himself, knows well the multiple and multivalent powers of language. His interest in how language works, how it […]
August 27, 2014
Mid-Morning of the Planet of the Selfies
A few weeks ago I started flagging stories about selfies. I’m not sure why. I think I wanted to make the late-to-the-party claim that the selfie may be the emblem […]
August 12, 2014
Robin Williams, What a Concept
“His bearing is intensely Zen and almost mournful, and when he’s not putting on voices he speaks in a low, tremulous baritone—as if on the verge of tears—that would work […]
August 6, 2014
Laurels and Hardy
I’ve been thinking about the North Carolina poet laureate controversy. As you may have heard, Governor Pat McCrory appointed Valerie Macon, a self-published and (from the little evidence available online) […]
July 10, 2014
Miranda July, Part 1
I’m calling this post “Miranda July, Part 1” because I want to promise (to myself, anyway) that I’ll continue to think about the writer-filmmaker-performing artist in the weeks to come. […]
July 6, 2014
Djoker in Five. Roger That.
What a week for Novak Djokovic! Did you hear that he’s getting married? Also, he won the Gentlemen’s Singles Championship at Wimbledon. Against the great Roger Federer. (I may need […]
June 30, 2014
A Tournament of Hunchbacks
Last month, at the University of Michigan, I took part in a faculty institute on pedagogy and the arts. We shared teaching strategies and classroom can-you-believe-its. (One professor reported a […]
June 28, 2014
Send in the Contemporary American Comic Fiction Writers
In the June issue of The Atlantic, Julie Beck offers a quick roundup of some recent studies on laughter. My favorite, by far: “Women undergoing in vitro fertilization were 16 […]
June 24, 2014
Fundamental, and Also Fun
In Lorrie Moore’s short story “Charades,” the central character Therese recalls a conversation with her brother Andrew: Last year, at least, they had joked about their upbringing. “I scarcely remember Dad […]
June 16, 2014
Their Aim Is Just Off
We all have our people: writers or singers or actors or comedians who shaped us and sustained us and to whom we remain loyal, because to forget them would be […]
June 12, 2014
A Faithful Word Against Government-Sponsored Prayer
The Supreme Court’s decision in “Town of Greece v. Galloway” allows government entities to continue beginning their proceedings with sectarian prayer. As a person of faith, I am troubled in […]
May 24, 2014
The Future, The Present, The Past
So, 2150 looks to be a terrible year. We’ll still be ordering plastic junk and inadvertently killing one another. But at least irony will survive! As will a trace of sweetness. […]