Saturday, January 31, 2009

The Zen of Tea on the Road to Taiwan

A Story for the Ox New Year. Travel to Taiwan for an American was still very exotic in 1987, before the Internet, before the English language invaded Asia outside of Hong Kong, which was still under the British flag. My BFF had been living in Taipei for 8 months when I went over to visit. She met...
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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

"Museums & Women" and Updike

“Set together, the two words are seen to be mutually transparent; the E’s, the M’s blend—the M’s framing and squaring the structure lend resonance and a curious formal weight to the M central in the creature, which it dominates like a dark core winged with flitting syllables. Both words hum. Both suggest...
              

Monday, January 26, 2009

Gong Xi Fa Cai, 4707!

“People born in the Year of the Ox are stable, strong, dutiful, reliable, tenacious, practical, industrious, determined, honest, loyal, sincere, persevering, down to earth, and tolerant.”We Oxen are entering our new 12-year cycle of the lunar year today. Based on the list of our characteristics, we...
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Friday, January 23, 2009

A Winter's Frothy Burn

USA’s Burn Notice is an oasis of hot bodies and smart talk in Miami in the dead of this cold and difficult winter. Michael Weston is a spy who has been fired from “the agency” (whichever it is). It’s more than losing a job: someone issued a burn notice on him, which means he has no identity, no...
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Give Me That Old-Time Separation

I thought Barack Obama’s speech was very good. I like his intellect. I like that his words don’t sound like beads on a string but are clear conveyors of actual thought. I thought the whole inauguration ceremony was moving and inspiring.Except for the Rev. Rick Warren. I find Evangelicals as annoying...
              

My Country 'Tis of Thee . . .

I pledge allegiance to the flag Of the United States of America.And to the Republic for which it stands,One nation under God, indivisible,With liberty and justice for all.Reciting the pledge of allegiance-—my small way of participating in this historic day. As a born citizen of this country, I am never...
              

Thursday, January 15, 2009

The Miracle in the Hudson in Prose

I missed seeing the rescue unfold live since I was in meetings all day. Instead I read about it in the multiple articles in the NYTimes. I actually prefer to read accounts of news like this than to see it. Good prose has a precision and vitality that I connect to on a deeper emotion level than video...
              

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Fiery Thoughts from the Deep Freeze

New York is in a snap of Arctic weather, that cold air that comes down from Canada every once in a while to wake up we island dwellers a bit.The subway home was more crowded than usual tonight, as usual walkers came in from the cold. It looked like a strange fat farm, or a scene from a Weebles Town,...
              

Friday, January 9, 2009

Before the Big Doings in D.C., Springfield Takes Center Stage

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to impeach Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich on Friday, setting the stage for a trial in the State Senate, where lawmakers will have the difficult task of separating the political theatrics of the governor’s problems from the legal...
              

Monday, January 5, 2009

First time in the "city of big shoulders"

I have struck a city - a real city - and they call it Chicago. . . . I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages. Rudyard Kipling, 1891Chicago is unique. It is the only completely corrupt city in America. Charles Merriam, unsuccessful mayoral candidate in 1911I think that's how...
              

Saturday, January 3, 2009

It’s Happy New Year, with Good Cause, Really

The words that ring down the curtain on the holiday season are clanging a little hollow this year wherever I turn. I returned home from the Land of Lincoln-—where Blagojevich’s actions are reaching surreal proportions--to be greeted with the New Yorker’s cheeky affront to the spirit of the new year...
              
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