Featured
A “gentleman” undone
I am by nature impulsive. Some forty years ago that lifelong impulsiveness, complicit turmoil within the give-and-take of gender codes, conspired to produce among [...]
Thoughts on ethical culture
The restaurant at Paris’ Musée d’Orsay conjures up the bustling atmosphere of the train station this museum once was. The large clock gives way [...]
Grammar life lessons
There are few things that the world agrees on, but I think that a fairly universal opinion held by all genders, young and old, [...]
Persistence before aptitude
There I was again. Hunched over my paperback Bible, stricken with doubt and eager for inspiration. But this Bible offered no stories of Cain [...]
Boyhood Empire
7. Travel to Spain: Jolly Good!
When my father first announced we would be going to live in Spain, he also explained that we would be traveling via London on Qantas. [...]
6. Memories of Truancy: Firebug
If alienating the local fire department and turning my beloved cats against me wasn’t enough—and it wasn’t—I soon set higher and more elaborately mischievous [...]
5. Memories of Truancy: Tom Sawyer
Go ahead. Blame it on Tom Sawyer. Why not? It couldn’t have possibly been my fault. I was, after all, only following in a [...]
4. Memories of Truancy: Tree Lord
At the very front of the small house we owned in Washington, D.C. two score and some years ago, a majestic pine tree grew [...]
In Case You Missed It
Two Battles of the Bulge
Going through old letters, columnist Madeleine Johnson encounters her long dead uncle, who was a soldier in his own private battle.
In deep winter
The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. • Samuel Beckett, Irish novelist, short story writer, and playwright [...]
Discovering English literature
As a child, columnist Aldo Magagnino, discovered the pleasure of books, and then, during his university days, he found his way into English literature.
Film Review: “RRR”
To a lot of westerners, some Bollywood movies appear too over-the-top, too sensationalized, too bombastic, too whimsical, too clichéd. But [...]
Once upon a shoe
When I lived in Rome, I occasionally strolled through the fancy shopping streets near Piazza di Spagna. Mostly, I window [...]
On Christmas carols
The day was a cold one. The rooftops on Main Street in Flers, the town where I attended high school, [...]
Five stages of Christmas grief
At first, I didn’t believe it. One day I was arguing with my mother-in-law about where you place soup spoons [...]
A traveler’s advice
I have celebrated Christmas in seven states and seven countries. Sadly, my family is now gone, wife and child, a [...]
Fiction: “I Found Out, 3”
The penny-wagon worked its way up past Central Park West, before heading over to the Baptist Church on 79th Street. [...]