Columnist Madeleine Johnson argues that sometimes a college education is taken too far. The college-educated try too hard and end up complicating simple matters.
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Film: “Michael” (2026)
What’s not to like about this boisterous two-hour biopic about pop music legend Michael Jackson? It captures all the flamboyant [...]
Is the old man back again?
There is a scene in "It’s a Wonderful Life," Frank Capra’s 1946 movie, in which the protagonist George Bailey jumps [...]
Review: Reservoir Bitches
Longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2025 after its debut in 2024, Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda [...]
Dry plaster & dandelions
Did you know that Leonardo da Vinci chose to paint The Last Supper on dry plaster instead of the conventional method, [...]
Character witnesses
The other day I was thinking to myself, the way a totally normal, not guilty, super innocent person does, about [...]
Don’t speak
Whenever I make that fateful trip to my local Rome hospital to have my ruined eyes examined, my mostly steady [...]
Hong Kong attraction, part 5
After I stepped across the threshold of the legendary Mandarin Oriental, in Hong Kong, everything changed. That very long journey [...]
Cool cats of Whitehall
For centuries, Britain’s government has battled an unrelenting enemy that multiplies rapidly and invades the corridors of power of the [...]
Review: The Florentine Papers: A Novel
If you are a fan of lean, hard-boiled prose, you won’t find it in The Florentine Papers: A Novel, by [...]
Keeping Pesach
Passover is one of my favourite Jewish holidays. Partly because it's an easy one to explain to a Christian. Explaining [...]
Playground stories
Recently, I gave my students an assignment to interview someone in their major field. I wanted to introduce a skill [...]