Happy 2018. We’re still here, aren’t we, and that’s something, the way the world’s going. Kudos to us all for hanging in there. At year’s end/beginning, I’ve seen a number of journalists doing “My year in stories” roundups. I considered that–I wrote a lot of stories this year!–but am not sure I have the energy… Continue reading »
Archives for Uncategorized
Six Degrees of Voltaire
American culture loves results and products–“deliverables,” to borrow current managerial parlance. (“Deliverables” is the latest entry in my ever-expanding dictionary of the buzzwords that have taken over our working lives.) When time and money are on the line, the final question tends to be “What do you have to show for that?” That attitude puts humanities research… Continue reading »
Rag and Bone Shops
Victorianists! I need your help. I’m on the hunt for information about how people in the Victorian era thought about, managed, catalogued, and got rid of their stuff. And by stuff I mean household possessions: clothes, books, cookware, toys, papers and whatnot–the bric-a-brac and etceteras of daily life. I’m looking for accounts of the trade in… Continue reading »
Pictures of You
Like a lot of people, I don’t enjoy having my picture taken. Hold on. I typed “like a lot of people” almost automatically, as one of those thumbsucker openings that allows a writer to warm up before diving into what he/she/ze really means to say. As soon as I wrote it, though, I started to wonder…. Continue reading »
Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing died yesterday, aged 94. I haven’t read enough of her work to have much useful to say about it. (Maybe I will read more now.) But I like this Lessing quotation, which I came across via Ron Charles at the Washington Post: “Whatever you’re meant to do, do it now. The conditions are… Continue reading »
