Notebook

Fall is here. For some, autumn is associated with pumpkin spice and sweaters. For me, it’s the start of Japanese [...]

My memory contains many 50-year old snippets of overheard adult conversations. Misunderstood words and phrases would rise above the tinkling [...]

Doris Lessing stirred a literary tempest in the 1980s with an experiment intended to illustrate just how hard it was [...]

I ­have a friend who can watch any movie, no matter how suspenseful or violent, with complete detachment. She scoffs [...]

There are some words whose definitions you just never forget. One of these is “vapid”, which my mother used to [...]

I started out with World War I. The YouTube lectures and books I consumed while working on a family genealogical [...]

I have found myself up against a reality I thought had set aside when I returned to the United States [...]

An algorithm recently suggested that I learn about the Vikings. I took its advice and have just finished listening to [...]

The last 12 months have been no time for travel, with 2021 looking not much better. To avoid quarantine regulations, [...]

During his successful 2016 run for the White House, and well into the early part of his presidency, Donald Trump [...]

Some years ago, President Barack Obama ruffled feathers when he used art history as an example of an unproductive — [...]