Sunny Side Up

My friend J drew my attention to this rather remarkable full-page ad in today's New York Times , a snapshot of our unsettled historical ...

Behold the biggest Gothic cathedral in the world, newly rededicated this morning! The cathedral church (Episcopal) of St. John the Divine, b...

Spent the day reading a brand new book (so new, in fact, it's publication date is 2009) called Re-Enchantment , edited by James Elkin an...

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and my friend and neighbor J invited a bunch of friends and family over for a feast! I brought along an approxim...

In the blog today I was going to enthuse about a terrific film about Mumbai which I saw today, Danny Boyle's " Slumdog Millionaire ...

I like everything about commuting by subway (besides delays!) except getting off the 2/3 at Grand Army Plaza in the late afternoon or evenin...

Today in my verily religion-hating Theorizing Religion class (this batch of students, not me), we discussed Diana Eck's essay "...

My alarm radio goes off at 7 every morning. Monday through Friday, that means Morning Edition , which eases you genially into the real world...

Went to MoMA today (to see the movie " Sita sings the blues ," which was a somewhat perplexing delight) and peeked into the exhibi...

A last flash of autumn color, bright like a Tiffany window, as the crisp chill of monochrome winter arrives. A propos Tiffany, any idea wher...

Check out this painting. It's the work of Osman Hamdi Bey, who was the director of the Ottoman Museum in Istanbul at the end of the 19th...

In Theorizing Religion today, we were to discuss the second half of Mary Douglas' Purity and Danger , which ends with a famous account o...

Just watched online a recent NOVA on fractal geometry. Fascinating stuff, almost overwhelmingly so - since nature appears to be full of fra...

Never thought I'd sympathize with the authors of The Fundamentals , the series of pamphlets that launched modern Biblical literalist fun...

A cold November day, so I went to the Met. I went mainly to see the exhibition celebrating Philippe de Montebello's many years as direc...

Southern California's burning again! (Pics from the Los Angeles Times .)

Saw a lovely little film this evening with my friend D. (You can see it, too: here .) Good thing it was showing, as the main feature, Charli...

Fall's holding on - the ginkgos' resplendent gold mixes with maple reds and a few leaves still green - but it's already time to ...

Took my Secularism class to the Rubin Musem of Art this morning. It's the nearest museum to school (17th and Seventh Ave) but also well ...

A brilliant spoof - if it is a spoof, and not prophecy - happened this morning. Throughout the city, volunteers handed out free copies of wh...