Essays

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Page 34

I love the snow

There are three reasons to love snow; they're the same three reasons for loving anything.
Kile Smith

Kile Smith

Essays 4 minute read
College prep? Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen in “Pride & Prejudice” (© 2005 Focus Features)

Raising the bar, dimming the lights

Nobody truly appreciates a good book the first time he or she sees it.
David Feela

David Feela

Essays 2 minute read
Celebrating the language that yanks us from the yadda-yadda-yadda of everyday speech. (Illustration for BSR by Mike Jackson of alrightmike.com)

Accidental poetry

Our time is less than infinite, and our monkey minds are full to bursting with the blather — so much of it repetitive, hucksterish, or simply dull — of everyday life. I say, take your poetry wherever you find it.
Anndee Hochman Illustration by Mike Jackson

Anndee Hochmanand Illustration by Mike Jackson

Essays 5 minute read
The shot that decided a game of Russian roulette. ((Illustration from the French newspaper “Le Petit Journal” on July 12, 1914)

The Russian Roulette theory of history

Russian roulette is a dangerous game

Why did the archduke’s assassination trigger a war when other crises didn’t? And is that a useful question, or does it obscure a more important truth?
Tom Purdom

Tom Purdom

Essays 5 minute read
Gathering around the TV to watch some centrifugal bumble-puppy.

How do we get our news?

Breaking: BSR contributor launches newsfeed!

We have all become fairly sloppy about where we look for information to feed our minds and possibly act on. However, it is what it is, and in that spirit I am happy to announce that on December 18, I transformed my Twitter feed into a highly respected newsfeed.
Rick Soisson

Rick Soisson

Essays 5 minute read
"When we buried her, we tossed dice into the grave along with our shovels full of earth." (Photo by Diacritica via Creative Commons/Wikimedia)

Remembering my mother-outlaw

Judy was an outlaw. She disdained phony niceness, Republican grandstanding, and ambitious young women who claimed they weren’t really feminists. She was direct and uncensored; if you gave her a book she’d read before, she nudged it aside.
Anndee Hochman

Anndee Hochman

Essays 5 minute read
Malcolm at work. (Photo by the author)

An autistic artist communicates

The power of art

I was moved by seeing all of those little brown faces become more animated as the half hour went by and all pretense of cool faded away. They were so excited about art and life.
Maria Thompson Corley

Maria Thompson Corley

Essays 4 minute read

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Is the family Thanksgiving extinct? (“Thanksgiving Grace,” 1942; photo by Marjory Collins for the Farm Security Administration)

The millennial war on Thanksgiving

What hath the kids' table wrought?

Just when you thought no stone was unturned in millennials’ degradation of decent values, they’re transforming one of America’s favorite holidays. Alaina Johns considers.
Alaina Johns

Alaina Johns

Essays 4 minute read
For who? For what? Ricky Watters as an Eagle. (Photo via rickywatters.com)

Other thoughts on patriotism

Oh, say can you think about the flag?

A problem with romantic effusion regarding patriotism is that, poetry aside, patriotism has nothing to do with the rightness or wrongness of anything. In other words, Samuel Johnson was sometimes right and sometimes wrong when he called it the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Rick Soisson

Rick Soisson

Essays 3 minute read
“A Flag on Constitution Avenue” (Photo by Elvert Barnes via Creative Commons/Flickr)

Thoughts on patriotism in the wake of the Paris attacks

National pride is not the enemy of world unity.
Kile Smith

Kile Smith

Essays 5 minute read