Look what the Post did with the layout of my latest review (I wrote about Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace, by Nikil Saval). Nifty! And slanty. The online version might be a little easier to read. What did I think of the book? It’s well and dutifully researched, stylishly written, and ultimately something… Continue reading »
Archives for The Way We Live Now
Busy, Busy, Busy
Are you busy? Of course you are. It’s the modern (Western, middle-class, parent, plugged-in) condition: For many of us, life unspools as a never-ending to-do list. Wake up, pack lunches, get the kids to school, get ourselves to our jobs, work all day, collect the kids, make dinner, supervise homework, do the laundry, walk the… Continue reading »
The Soul of an Old Machine
I hit an unexpected and unwelcome writing hiatus this past month when my netbook stopped working. I want to say that the netbook died or that it decided to quit on me, but that would be giving it a life and a sense of being that it doesn’t deserve, much as I loved it. (And… Continue reading »
In Praise of the Telephone
According to the New York times, it’s fashionable to hate the phone (“Don’t Call Me, I Won’t Call You,” by Pamela Paul, NYT, March 28, 2011). I appreciate some of the anti-phone arguments. If a telemarketer rings you up at the dinner hour , it tends not to improve the evening. If you work as… Continue reading »
Redesigns for Living
Welcome to 2011. A lot of people I know were happy to see the back of 2010. I know how they feel; I finished the year with what my doc called a “humdinger” of a case of pneumonia, which put me in the hospital for 4 days right after Thanksgiving and wiped me out for… Continue reading »
