What is childhood made up of? Puppy dog tails, princess dresses? Forts in the living room, pancakes on Sundays? A bounce on a new mattress? A walk in the forest?
And what is remembered?
Parents provide the quotidien rythmn and orchestrate the …
The End of Language by Jean-Luc Godard and Endangered Languages at The Hammer
Spectacles of Language
A young friend of mine graduated from college with a degree in linguistics and landed a summer job at Google. Her classmates had scoffed at her choice of the seemingly antiquated course of study, but it turns …
1.24.15
Autumn in New England, Photos by Eliot Porter, & a 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act
Red Maple and Birches, Road to Passaconaway, New Hampshire, October 11, 1953
Okay, it’s in my bones. Born in Pennsylvania and raised in Massachusetts from the age of five, I’m a New Englander through and through. Being back East this …
10.28.14
The Honorable Woman: A well-timed tale of middle eastern politics (for mature viewers)
I’m just going to rave for a few paragraphs: I’m enamored of an original 8-part miniseries from Sundance TV and am heart-broken that it will end this week with the final installment of what has been a spell-binding tour of …
Book Report: The State of our Educational System
As the school year approaches, it’s good to take a moment and think about the point at which our individual and collective educational efforts are aimed. The race to get into the ‘right’ schools is all encompassing at each step …
8.28.14
A No Brainer for Parents: The 529 College Savings Plan
My favorite author discovery of late is George Saunders, who just came out with a delightful book called Congratulations, by the way. In it he urges kids to lead kinder, more fulfilling lives, with words of wisdom gleaned from …
4.25.14
MLK, Jr. Day Reflections: 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen & a Charleston, SC Plantation
Traveling produces potent memories, and one of the most indelible experiences I’ve had on the road took place on the grounds of a former rice plantation outside Charleston, South Carolina called Middleton Place. I can’t remember exactly why we …
1.20.14
Remembering Mandela
The media has been saturated with accounts of Mr. Mandela’s extraordinary life since his death last week at the age of 95. Much of it is worth reading — notably Nadine Gordimer and Philip Gourevitch in The New Yorker.
The …
An Extreme Soccer Mom Makes the Case for High School Sports
I am approaching the end of my tenure as a bonafide “soccer mom.” True confession: I was actually an extreme soccer mom who spent up to three evenings a week driving my son to a practice field 40 miles from …
11.17.13
