‘Flame Alphabet’: Are Your Kids Making You Sick?
With our endless wars, collapsing economies and Snooki’s ever increasing celebrity, is it any wonder that dystopias are all the rage? The Flame Alphabet, Ben Marcus’ first novel since 2002′s Notable American Women, pitches us into an alternate and unremittingly grim reality. The book fits neatly alongside recent work by authors that Marcus has influenced [...]
Sandwich Monday: Hot Dog Super Bowl
Next weekend, the New York Giants meet the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. Here with a simulation match-up are the hot dog representatives from each team. First up: the Boston Dog. Wikipedia tells us: Hot dogs in the Boston area are associated with Boston baked beans, though this is probably not unique to [...]
Quiet, Please: Unleashing ‘The Power Of Introverts’
From Gandhi to Joe DiMaggio to Mother Teresa to Bill Gates, introverts have done a lot of good work in the world. But being quiet, introverted or shy was sometimes looked at as a problem to overcome. In the 1940s and ’50s the message to most Americans was: don’t be shy. And in today’s era [...]
Winter Doldrums Got You Down? Have Some ‘Hygge’
I don’t speak a lick of Danish, but recently learned a great word that describes a very particular feeling. Hygge (pronounced “hYOOguh”?) often translates to “cozy” — though it connotes much more. From what I gather, it means something like “fireplace warmth with candles and family and friends and food, tucked under blankets on a [...]
‘An Available Man’: Love After Loss
In my family, we referred to them as “the brisket brigade” — those single ladies of a certain age who began bombarding my brother-in-law with casseroles and commiseration soon after my sister-in-law died. It’s a cruel fact of life that nobody plies widows with months of home-cooked meals and baked goods; as Jonathan Swift might [...]
Falling In Love With ‘Norumbega Park’
When Richie Palumbo drives past the house in Norumbega, Mass., he knows instantly that he and his family are meant to live there. It couldn’t be more different than their modest home in the Boston suburbs — it’s almost a mansion, three stories, painted green and yellow. His wife objects — it’s well out of [...]
Teen Girls, Mean Girls: A Tale Of Karmic Revenge
Margaux Fragoso is the author of Tiger, Tiger, a memoir. Anyone familiar with upstate New York knows its formidable ice-greased winters, where the backs of your thighs sear and chap, and your teeth clatter like rickety marionettes. But the first time I saw my soon-to-be best friend she wore only a flimsy poncho, short skirt, [...]
Film Noir: Weegee Was His Name; Murder Was His Game
The way our society and the media cover the dead and the dying — the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, the body on a street after a firefight or violent demonstration — these are not new issues. At the International Center of Photography in New York, there’s a new exhibit of the [...]
This Puzzle Is ‘The Pits’
On-Air Challenge: Today’s puzzle is “the pits.” Every answer is a familiar two-word phrase or name in which the first word starts with “PI” and the second word starts with “T.” Last Week’s Challenge: This is a special two-week creative challenge. Combine the titles of some TV shows, past or present, into an amusing sentence [...]
‘The Snowy Day’: Breaking Color Barriers, Quietly
One morning many years ago, a little boy in Brooklyn named Peter woke up to an amazing sight: fresh snow. Peter is the hero of the classic children’s book by Ezra Jack Keats, The Snowy Day, which turns 50 this year. Peter has a red snowsuit, a stick just right for knocking snow off of [...]
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