Twenty-five years ago, on Jan. 27, 1989, a joint statement from the communist government of Poland, the Solidarity trade union, and the Catholic Church announced a national “Roundtable” to discuss the country’s future, including major structural issues of political and economic . . . . Continue Reading »
During the 1950s and 1960s, when Pete Seeger and Malvina Reynolds coaxed classrooms full of kids to join them in the singing of folk songs, no one paid much attention, not even those who, in the middle of the Cold War, saw America’s “singing left” as a threat to the republic. . . . . Continue Reading »
At the Grammys last night Queen Latifah officiated a mass wedding ceremony—with some couples heterosexual, some gay—followed by a surprise song from Madonna. Was it satire? I am a big fan of satirical mockery, even satirical mockery of important things such as marriage. Such satire . . . . Continue Reading »
New Year’s Resolutions tend to focus on new skills and habits to acquire. This is the year you’ll finally go to the gym or start taking lessons to brush up on your French or learn computer programming. But as the year begins, it can be salutary to think about what you already spend time practicing and if there are ‘lessons’ you’d like to drop. . . . Continue Reading »
Love and Salt: A Spiritual Friendship Shared in Letters by amy andrews and jessica mesman griffith loyola, 324 pages, $14.95Over the course of three years, Amy Andrews and Jessica Mesman Griffith wrote each other what were, for a while, daily letters. This regular exchange began as a Lenten . . . . Continue Reading »
The last few monks retreat in monasteries, the vigilant in town consult well-thumbed survival guides, and all the caged canaries left in the mines have recently . . . . Continue Reading »
The tourists traipse; the sights go by, a blur of cramped and cobbled streets where faux cafés and sellers of souvenirs administer the sacraments of our despairing . . . . Continue Reading »
Driving on the Solstice, tuning in to Public Radio, I heard a voice, legitimately trained, a little thin, but earnest; the soprano’s every . . . . Continue Reading »
Vincent van Gogh pencil and charcoal drawing, 1883 She has no gold, no myrrh, no frankincense, Yet comes to him this night on bended knee To rock his cradle, not a recompense, But a gift to him. This is . . . . Continue Reading »
François Noël Babeuf (1760–1797), known as “Gracchus,” was a French revolutionary and social incendiary. He was the instigator of Babouvism, an ideology of ferocious, leveling terrorism to bring about radical equality. He was guillotined by the French Directorate. Babeuf . . . . Continue Reading »
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