Essays
1109 results
Page 89
On hating Haiti
In Haiti: We have met the enemy, and he is us
For two centuries, according to conventional wisdom, Haitians haven't been able to get their act together. Perhaps. But if Americans are looking for culprits, we'd do well to look in the mirror.
Essays
3 minute read
The Bad News/The Good News (poem)
The Bad News/ The Good News
Poet and wine critic Lynn Hoffman ponders another eternal question: Is the glass half-empty or half-full?
Essays
1 minute read
When poets get drunk
poets drunk
Our resident poet discloses more secrets of the creative classes.
Essays
1 minute read
The making of an activist, 1960 (memoir)
'Let no dog bark': An activist's education
After I joined a “Ban the Bomb” protest in college, first my parents and then my fiancé scolded me for questioning the government. I had to choose between my independence and my survival. But in the half-century since, I've learned that I don't have to sacrifice one for the other.
Essays
9 minute read
Iceland's lesson for Americans
Financial crisis in Iceland? Party on!
The global recession hit Iceland much harder than it hit America. And it's colder and darker there to begin with. So why do Icelanders seem so much happier than we are?
Essays
5 minute read
Jig for my father (poem)
Jig for my father
Just in time for next Father's Day, or terribly late for last Father's Day: The last word about father-son relationships.
Essays
1 minute read
How we misjudged Obama
The conciliator vs. the fighter: Why Obama is no FDR
A year ago, many observers (including me) thought Obama was the second coming of Franklin D. Roosevelt. In retrospect, FDR and Obama have more differences than similarities. But FDR was changed for the better by a personal crisis, and Obama might do the same.
Essays
3 minute read
Is the English major dying out?
Betrayal of the intellectuals: A wake-up call to English professors
The Modern Language Association recently reported a dizzying drop in tenure-track academic jobs on American campuses. Professors who narrowly cling to the status quo and sneer at modern trends, foreign cultures and new media have only themselves to blame for this predicament.
Essays
5 minute read
Bar mitzvah boy (a memoir)
The reluctant bar mitzvah boy (and his not quite assimilated father)
My father took pride in the way he'd assimilated in a hostile society. But he was ambivalent about having a Jewish son in a gentile school. In his mind, my bar mitzvah was non-negotiable.
Winter getaway: Peru
Land of magnificent extremes
Peru, I discovered, is a place where Conquistador palaces coexist with thatched-roof huts, Catholic churches are built over Incan temples, and a physician practices alongside a half-naked tribal shaman. And in what other airport terminal can you purchase shots of oxygen alongside cell phones?
Essays
7 minute read