Failure

If we’re too enlightened to beat up on the minority group of the hour, at least we have our school system to beat up on. I hear the phrase “failing schools” at least once a week, and last night Oprah went on a Godzilla-hits-Tokyo style hike through educational controversies. I watched skeptically, and barked at […]

Butterfly

Without gooey, wet music, nonfiction can get dry and flaky. Its author may also become too fact-heavy, which feels sort of like having eaten too much white rice. Tonight I read a survival strategy of a favorite writer: listen to opera when you write nonfiction. Makes sense. They’re cranking out the same goddamn “La Boheme,” […]

Stuck in the Middle

Americans like to think they are all middle class. If you are “middle class,” you can rest assured that you are a good person, not a lazy, snobby “rich” person, or a lazy, stupid “poor” person. It reminds me of middle school. We all must be “average.” A boy should be average height. Short boys […]

Remembrance

On September 11th, we are supposed to remember. People intimately involved with the events in 2001– people who lost loved ones or were injured or worked on the site– they, of course, don’t have to be prodded to remember. It’s the rest of us I wonder about–why are we remembering, and what are we supposed […]