Essays
1093 results
Page 64
War on Christmas: The Ken Burns version
The War Against Christmas: A film by Ken Burns
It was the worst of times, when atheists and humanists waged warfare against elves and gnomes, and an entire nation came apart at the seams. Fortunately, Ken Burns and his intrepid research crew were on hand to record the whole bloody mess for posterity.
Essays
3 minute read
Those drug ads on TV
Ask your doctor if these ads are good for you
Thanks to an inundation of pharmaceutical ads on TV, millions of essentially normal people now believe they need long-term drugs to cope with minor complaints.
Essays
3 minute read
A Kensington Christmas tragedy, 1950
A Christmas tragedy and a lesson in manhood
It was a Christmas like any other in Kensington, until an unexpected tragedy undermined all my father's hard work. But my father's response to it left an indelible impact on my six-year-old mind.
Essays
7 minute read
On throwing stuff out
The wordsmith's dilemma
As a writer, I have no paintings or pots to my credit. All I have to show for my life's work is my words. So why do they take up so damn much space?
Essays
6 minute read
The Pope's Tweets
The Pope's Twitter mentor, aka God's go-to guy
When I learned that Pope Benedict had joined Twitter, I sensed a job opportunity as the Pope's Twitter mentor. In the process I secured for myself the highest— and pretty much only— celebrity follower I've ever had.
Essays
3 minute read
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Is there life after basketball?
When the cheering stopped: Saying farewell to basketball
Do the lessons of organized sport prepare you for the adult world? Or is it all nonsense? Two former college basketball players who played half a century apart sat down recently to ruminate about their subsequent lives.
Essays
9 minute read
Physical fitness fascism
Fitter-than-thou? But can you read?
A sound mind in a sound body is a great idea— if only exercise weren't so boring, not to mention a waste of valuable time.
Essays
4 minute read
The real Petraeus scandal
Something about a soldier
A juicy sex scandal was the missing ingredient in the Obama administration, now happily supplied for us by Generals Petraeus and Allen. But the real scandal is a military that plots new wars even as it loses the ones it's fighting, and Americans' 200-year infatuation with generals and admirals.
Essays
4 minute read
The age of euphemism
Time to call a spade a spade
How can modern society, with its bandying about of the F word and its graphic depiction of sex in theater and film, be so squeamish about language?
Essays
3 minute read
2012: An election post-mortem
Stop the presses! Tweedledum defeats Tweedledee!
After a seemingly endless campaign, a 50-50 election has ratified the economic polarization of our 99-1 society, in which an elite as small as any Old Regime aristocracy controls nearly half the nation's wealth. Until Americans deal with this problem, our politics will remain on a symbolic level only.
Essays
5 minute read