Sun

I saw Lincoln’s poor threadbare hat in the American History Museum, but my heart wasn’t open until I saw a Degas, a very rough Degas in reds and browns and blacks with awful lines and a turn in it that grabbed me. Somehow looking at paintings teaches me about form in writing, moving my eyes around […]

The Sweater

For a few hours, I had this great friend. I had both spent a long weekend at a writing retreat in the February-infected deep dark woods of Pennsylvania. It was lovely there, in a dim sort of way. The buildings of this Quaker retreat center were gorgeously simple rectangles, old white. There was a window […]

Hippo

The hippo emits a reddish fluid that led some people to think hippos sweat blood. They do not. The reddish substance is a sort of sunscreen for the delicate skin of the hippo. Hippos don’t sweat. They get in the water. What I like more about hippos is that I understood their name early in […]

Game Off

The storm was a media darling, as all storms are. This one got a week’s press. It looked like a reliable snow day to me. It is. My traditional snow day debauchery is postponed because it is actually that bad. People have driven up my street. Not people in Miatas. I’ve been clicking through job […]