Essays
1094 results
Page 78
Paris in Philadelphia? OK, but why?
On recreating Paris in Philadelphia: Sound and fury, signifying… what, exactly?
With all Philadelphia's current cultural riches, the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts is preoccupied with Paris in the second decade of the last century. That was then; this is now. Let's lose Paris.
Essays
4 minute read
Reflections on culture and gastronomy
I cook, therefore I am: Why isn't cooking a respected art?
We can go naked, but we can't go hungry. So why is food relegated to its position as a weird outlier in the fashion world?
Essays
4 minute read
Pastor Jones, the Koran, and the rest of us
Free speech for morons? It's more useful than you think
The Reverend Terry Jones, whose burning of the Koran provoked four days of rioting and 22 deaths in Afghanistan, may well be a bigot and a moron. Can any good come from his public displays of idiocy? As a matter of fact, yes.
Essays
4 minute read
Culinary rebel: mica in Chestnut Hill
The newest culinary revolution
A few chefs are turning professional cooking upside down, challenging many assumptions about the way foods are prepared and combined. Most are overseas and charge hundreds of dollars for dinner, but one opened recently in Philadelphia, and it's a relative bargain.
Essays
less than a minute read
Japanese grace vs. American looting
Why Americans loot
When earthquakes occur, why do Americans engage in looting and the Japanese don't? The answer has less to do with cultural differences than with our society's definition of success.
Essays
2 minute read
Three centuries of diaries at the Morgan in New York
A writer's first vice
Diaries are mostly meant to be private, and an exhibition of them might seem almost a contradiction in terms. Still, if it's a guilty pleasure, it's an irresistible one too. Diaries are the most personal and direct way we have of bringing ourselves to the world, and vice versa.
Essays
6 minute read
Houdini at the Jewish Museum in New York
The Jew as the ultimate escape artist: Houdini's legacy reconsidered
Harry Houdini was the first Jew since Jesus who got people to care about his miraculous survival, and to witness his self-resurrection year after year. What's more, he got them to pay good money to see it.
Essays
5 minute read
Lessons from Japan's earthquake
Culture and catastrophe: What we can learn from Japan's earthquake
Pragmatism was far more important than pride in the community-minded Japanese response to this month's earthquake. But the Japanese weren't always so stoic and selfless when earthquakes struck in the past. Cultures can change.
Essays
5 minute read
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Religious fanatics: Muslim vs. Christian
We have met the enemy and he is us
So you think Islamic jihadists have cornered the market on wild-eyed religious fundamentalists? The U.S. military is breeding a Christian crop all its own.
Essays
2 minute read
In Memoriam: The poet John Haines
A patriot in the genuine sense
For John Haines, poetry performed a double function: as the vessel of personal integrity, and as an encounter with the world.
Essays
3 minute read