August 31, 2019
“The Prairie-Grass Dividing,” the Beer
The second in a series of seven Walt Whitman beer reviews: “The Distillation Would Intoxicate Me Also” There’s democracy in beer drinking, or so Americans like to believe. When the punditocracy […]
March 14, 2017
“What Have We Done?” Charles M. Blow on Donald Trump
On a Saturday afternoon in mid-February, Charles M. Blow, New York Times op-ed columnist and author of the memoir Fire Shut Up In My Bones, spoke at Cleveland Public Library. […]
February 6, 2017
Citizenship (Part One)
I’m writing this post on Super Bowl Sunday, a semi-holiday (or day of observance, literally) that’s wholly American. And I’m thinking about what it means to be an American in […]
November 25, 2015
Twelve Things
What follows are twelve things I’ve read or reread lately (and which may, on some level, speak to one another), and for which I’m grateful: Dean Young: Some things, like […]
January 21, 2015
Talking PBS NewsHour Live Video Blues
When President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress in September of 2009, I wrote about it for this blog. The speech has faded, of course, from national memory; only […]
March 16, 2014
Among Forty-Two Ferns
More than 54,000 people went to HealthCare.gov after watching President Obama spar with Zach Galifianakis last week; I went to the Between Two Ferns homepage and binge-watched the series’ other […]