The Look

Jacob Riis is famous for having photographed the tenements in New York City. Real estate rules about rooms having windows, and indoor plumbing, and fire escapes, did not descend upon us from angels. The relative liveability of modern cities was won by Mr. Riis and other activists. Today is his feast day in the Anglican calendar. […]

Still Waters

St. Paul was a New Yorker. People from New York are recognizeable by their svelte builds, the glow of 14 karat cultural immersion, and the easy eyes that own everything and are never impressed. Two thousand years ago, you see, Rome was New York. Now it is a tourist trap. That might give New York […]

Small Groups

I’ve had to read all this stuff about the Holocaust for some work I’m doing this summer. Spend two hours with the Final Solution, and you better be careful with yourself. To clear my head, I watched an episode of “The Wire,” in which a man was beaten to death. Oops. I had been reading […]

Lit

On Sunday, I lit a candle in each room of my house: bedroom (dresser), bathroom (shelf), and living room (windowsill). Usually I light one at a time. As I lit them, I thought, I am going to forget one. I will burn my house down! My mother always used to warn me about this. I […]