Essays
1090 results
Page 70
China's surprise Pritzker winner
An amateur architect, and proud of it
Unlike most celebrity architects, Wang Shu is concerned not with creating grand monuments but with what people want. Above all, that involves recycling old buildings and materials as a way of maintaining continuity from past to future.
Essays
2 minute read
Prostate cancer and radioactive love
When your boyfriend becomes your girlfriend
Thanks to modern medical science, most men survive prostate cancer. But the doctors don't tell you that sometimes the process can transform a macho man into a girly-girl, at least temporarily.
Essays
3 minute read
"The Clinton Years' on Public TV
PBS goes belly-up for the Clintons
The Clintons are back with a PBS documentary, but did they ever go away? Was Bill Clinton a political genius or just a born seducer? In four hours, this quasi-hagiographical biopic manages to say remarkably little of substance about the first two-term Democratic presidency since FDR's.
Essays
7 minute read
On Whitney Houston and drug addiction
Who killed Whitney Houston? Or: Straight talk about drug addiction
Whitney Houston's recent death revealed again the extent of public ignorance about drug addiction. It's not so much a moral failing as a condition that strikes vulnerable people.
Essays
3 minute read
The ultimate rejection: Failing to make a minyan
Did you hear the one about the Jew who failed to make a minyan?
The stranger explained that I was needed for a minyan— the ten-person minimum necessary to conduct a Jewish religious service. But when the assembled worshippers beheld my scruffy countenance, they decided I wasn't necessary after all.
Essays
3 minute read
My wild adventures in poetry
My night with Emily Dickinson, and other adventures in poetry
Tired of your boring, humdrum life? As I discovered, once you dip your toes into poetry, you could be off on the wildest ride of your life.
Essays
5 minute read
Heart attack, Part 3: A survivor's tale
‘Five years ago you would be dead'
I had survived one heart attack. I had followed post-operative instructions faithfully. Yet here I was, the victim of a second heart attack, and my doctor telling me, "You must stay positive.”
A belated Valentine to the body
My Valentine, my body, my self
Back in the day, we never thought of betrayals of the body— only betrayals of lovers. Now that the tide has turned, to whom should I send my Valentine?
Essays
4 minute read
The true nature of economic growth
Can we talk seriously about economic growth?
There's more to economic growth than the mindless production of more and more material goods. As people get richer and smarter, other life forms benefit too. And so does the planet.
Essays
5 minute read
Newt's open marriage, and mine
Scenes from an open marriage
Did the talk of Newt Gingrich's open marriage actually help him win the South Carolina primary? Maybe so. Many Americans cherish the same fantasy, as I can attest from personal experience.
Essays
3 minute read