Sunny Side Up

This onion spun its eloquent tale as I chopped vegetables for a curry. Click the pic to enter its gossamer glory - you'll be amazed at w...

I just succumbed to a Facebook solicitation for the first time - perhaps because it didn't require that I give it access to all my infor...

Omigod. As I'm writing a blog post about books and Australia, I learn (from The Age online) that Book Affair, the huge used bookstore o...

I thought I'd be writing today about how going to see the New York City Ballet in a mostly Balanchine program deepened my experience of...

You know things are going to pieces when the CNN sign facing the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle looks like this... [The next day, the...

In today's "Science Times" an essay by Dennis Overbye explores what it might mean to "restore science to its rightful pl...

Four hundred years ago this week (or thereabouts) Henry Hudson first arrived in these parts, signaling the start of European settlement. Wha...

I've already mentioned (Manhattanophile that I am) that you can see the Empire State Building from our new digs. (Yes - we've moved...

The cover of the February 2, 2009 issue The Nation , "An Inauguration for the Ages" by John Mavroudis, is a joy: it'll make yo...

Have I mentioned that my course, Religious Geography of New York, is one of nine courses sharing a rubric called "Reading NYC"? Al...

It is by now old news that most things we think venerably old are newer versions of old things, if not indeed brand new. I suppose I'm p...

The upstairs apartment is ready for us to move in. The hardwood floors have been cleaned, and the walls have all been freshly painted (unfor...

Don't it feel grand?!

President (!) Barack (!!) Hussein (!!!) Obama (!!!!) It was hugely historic as a whole ... even if not, I found, terribly memorable in its p...

Fourteen hours before Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, I feel almost overwhelmed by the sense of history...

A week from tomorrow our classes begin, including my "Religious Geography of New York" for the first time since 2005. Just in time...

Slavoj Zizek is the enfant terrible of contemporary philosophy and cultural theory. I've tried resisting his charms, but when some frien...

Dear Sir Obama, These are the first 10 things you should do as president: 1. Make everyone read books. 2. Don’t let teachers give kids hard ...

I'm flying back east today, from temps in the eighties to temps in the teens. My destination: just next to the big black frigid L . Brrr...

Have you heard about the double prank by David Cerny , the Czech Damien Hirsch? The Czech Republic is the head of the European Community for...