A QUARANTINE QUERY
WHO’D YOU LEAST like being quarantined with? Anna Whitelock, head of history at Royal Holloway, University of London, assembled responses to this Twitter query in one of the Talking Points … Continue reading
ON POST-PANDEMIC NORMALCY PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE SHARED insights about post-pandemic normalcy from a professor of psychological science, public health, and medicine. Today in Part 2, young scientists focus their thoughts on the year 2040. … Continue reading
ON POST-PANDEMIC NORMALCY PART 1
I MAKE TWO assumptions here: first, that the presence of Covid-19 will eventually diminish to the point of other viruses. These include, in no particular order, smallpox, chickenpox, measles, mumps, … Continue reading
A LOVE POTION GONE AWRY PART 2
YESTERDAY, A WAGNER opera taught us that chemical enhancement of boy meets girl can lead to trouble. Today in Part 2, Tristan and Isolde aren’t the only ones encountering life’s … Continue reading
A LOVE POTION GONE AWRY PART 1
I ENJOYED WATCHING Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, part of the Metropolitan Opera’s free streaming. This opera generates ecstatic appreciation from some and bored derision from others. I place myself in … Continue reading
AUTO NEWS—THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE DOPEY
FOR AWHILE THERE, the world’s pandemic put something of a hold on automotive news. Now that we’re reopening and, not surprisingly, occasionally reclosing, there seems to be a lot of … Continue reading
A POSTCARD STASH
IT IS A commentary on our times that I send few postcards these days. For one, I’m not traveling. Plus, texting and e-mail are so immediately satisfying. And I don’t … Continue reading
SLED DOGS HAVE MUSHED SINCE THE HOLOCENE
GENOME STUDIES SHOW that modern sled dogs trace back to a 9500-year-old Siberian dog related to a 33,000-year-old Siberian wolf. In particular, they’re not related to any modern American wolves. … Continue reading
THOUGHTS FROM A PHILOSOPHER WHO HAS STUDIED EVIL
THESE DAYS, THE United States is into moral introspection concerning governance, divisiveness, immigration, Black Lives Matter, Covid-19, and many other issues. Isaac Chotiner’s article “How to Confront a Racist National … Continue reading
CALAIS, THE CHANNEL ISLANDS, HENRY VIII, AND THE NAZIS PART 2
YESTERDAY, HILARY MANTEL’S The Mirror & the Light inspired me to learn more about the Pale of Calais, an English outpost across the Channel during the time of Henry VIII. … Continue reading
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