Family
A selection of recent articles on this topic
True Detective and the Problem of Personal Significance
It has been several months since I saw HBO’s first season of True Detective, but something about…
How “Salem” Shows We Need To Be A Little More Puritanical
Some years ago, I read much of Perry Miller’s The American Puritans for a class. I came…
Bob Dylan’s Mormon Influences
Bob Dylan has a lot in common with Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet. Don’t take my word…
Hank Aaron Stretched out His Hand with His Rod
It is a moment etched in baseball history. On April 8, 1974, the Los Angeles Dodgers were…
Life Is Full of Failure. Bio Blurbs Should Be Too.
Rejection comes in all shapes and sizes. Thin envelopes, long conversations, and terse emails. Yet historically, the…
Bob Dylan Must Get Stoned
Journalists have always been puzzled by Bob Dylan, but the confusion is of their own making. The…
Slowdown
On your thirtieth birthday, you find that your clothes Belong to someone slimmer. It’s like only your…
Legislative Bullying
Who—in sensitive, civilized America in 2014—could possibly be in favor of bullying? Every decent adult wants students…
Mad Men Goes Meta
Readers of a certain age may remember a television commercial about a boy, a bottle of ketchup, and…
Editing Each Other
I am an editor. My job is to improve manuscripts submitted by authors and prepare them for…
Ascetic Aesthetics
One Hopkins is enough,” said the poet A. D. Hope. By this he meant: Enough with the…
Frankenstein Unbound
Read part one here. “Those institutions and reporters were never as good as their reputations. . .…
Close Viewing
The seventh and final season of AMC’s Mad Men premiered last night to a viewership quite different…
Hollywood Hates Humans
I have noticed a consistent plot in the fantasy/science fiction genre over the last several years. Surely,…
Lear vs. Lear
There is a block in Brooklyn where it storms every day—twice a day, on Sundays. It’s been…
