Essays
1090 results
Page 100
Gorbachev wins the Liberty Medal
Mikhail Gorbachev, winner of this year’s Liberty Medal, is indeed an overachiever. He lost his country. He lost a superpower. He lost the greatest land empire ever seen. And he did it all on his own.
Liberty Medal Award presentation. September 18, 2008 at National Constitution Center, 525 Arch St. (215) 409-6600 or constitutioncenter.org/libertymedal.
Liberty Medal Award presentation. September 18, 2008 at National Constitution Center, 525 Arch St. (215) 409-6600 or constitutioncenter.org/libertymedal.
Essays
6 minute read
Sarah Palin and the "C' word
Thanks to Sarah Palin, the 800-pound gorilla is out of the cage. The 'C' word— class— is the one word in the American lexicon that's even better hidden in polite public discourse than race. And it has little to do with money.
Essays
5 minute read
Sarah Palin as the new Nixon
So far, Sarah Palin's vice presidential candidacy reminds me of Richard Nixon's in 1952. And she could be even more electorally potent.
Essays
3 minute read
A few questions for Bristol Palin
I want to know about the kid. The Baby you have started. What’s her life going to be like growing up in a family where the parents married at the end of a shotgun or the back of a Bible? Say, Bristol, you ready to put away your dancing shoes and warm up the bottle?
Essays
5 minute read
André Breton's "Martinique'
Humphrey Bogart may have outwitted the Nazis on screen, but the real world of the Caribbean, circa 1941, was more depressing. André Breton’s slim volume is an intriguing memento of a hectic stopover in the tropics.
Martinique: Snake Charmer. By André Breton; translated from the French by David Seaman. University of Texas Press. 96 pages; $19.95. w
Martinique: Snake Charmer. By André Breton; translated from the French by David Seaman. University of Texas Press. 96 pages; $19.95. w
Essays
3 minute read
Fringe's New Deal walking tour
The Fringe Festival claims to be about openness to new ideas that erase the artificial lines that separate art, theater, dance and community. I took a chance and was rewarded with an enlightening tour of Depression-era Queen Village and Bella Vista.
ActivisTour. Through September 9, 2008, conducted by Design For Social Impact, 525 S. Fourth St. (215) 413-1318 or www.livearts-fringe
ActivisTour. Through September 9, 2008, conducted by Design For Social Impact, 525 S. Fourth St. (215) 413-1318 or www.livearts-fringe
Essays
4 minute read
The Harmony Society, revisited
Alchemy was supposedly consigned to the dustbin by the Age of Enlightenment. But a group of prosperous 19th-Century Pennsylvania Pietists revived it— not for wealth, but for eternal life. Too bad they were undone by a female lab assistant.
Essays
3 minute read
Discovering Dessau
Dessau had its moment of glory as the home of Walter Gropius’s Bauhaus in the 1920s. But this East German city today remains is a very modern city with great medieval credentials.
Essays
5 minute read
Olympic (and artistic) geeks
The geeks of Beijing Let us now praise the obscure sports
Once every four years, table tennis sharks and air rifle sharpshooters emerge from obscurity and become the standard bearers of mighty nations, just as great writers emerge from obscurity every four years or so with a new book. The true spirit of the Olympics is the force that has shaped much of the modern world: the relentless drive of the obsessive-compulsive personality.
Essays
5 minute read
Home design: My ideal kitchen
The kitchen has become the social center of the American home. But most designs fail to satisfy homeowners’ yearning for beauty, relaxation and personal identity. Why not take a lesson from those 17th-Century Dutch kitchens celebrated by Rembrandt and Vermeer?
Essays
5 minute read