Essays
1093 results
Page 84
Pennsic's medieval make-believe
Can't stand your job? Why not check out the good old days?
Every year thousands of enthusiasts gather to turn a Pennsylvania campground into a medieval city. Then as now, it's one way to escape the drudgery of the real world.
Essays
3 minute read
Ralph Lauren's Monticello makeover
Ralph Lauren remakes Thomas Jefferson
The designer Ralph Lauren sells fashion, not history. So why is this darling of America's nouveau riche redesigning Thomas Jefferson's dining room?
Essays
4 minute read
Our dreams, our movies, and "Inception'
From Freud to film: What do dreams really tell us?
Films with dreams, like dreams themselves, continue to fascinate us, mainly because dreams, like language, are at once common, immediate and identifiable, yet ultimately unexplainable. They seem to be meaningful. But are they?
Essays
5 minute read
Society Hill's revival: A memoir
Urban renaissance up close: A Society Hill pioneer remembered
In 1960 I took one look at Spike Stapleford's decrepit block in Society Hill and realized: This street seemed to possess the potential for all the elements of the neighborhood I'd grown up in. And so it did.
Essays
6 minute read
LeBron James makes his decision
Not just another superjock: The intuitive wisdom of LeBron James
No one outside Miami seems happy that the basketball superstar LeBron James has contracted to play for the Miami Heat. Yet a look at his decision suggests that this brilliant athlete and marketing engine made a decision based on personal values that celebrate the spirit of a game whose future development may rest in his enormous hands.
Essays
6 minute read
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A Caribbean cruise from hell
Are we having fun yet? Reflections on an ocean cruise
I'd never taken a cruise before. In fact I'd always derided cruises as an artificial form of travel. Then I took a ten-day cruise to the Caribbean and discovered I'd been right all along.
Essays
8 minute read
Test scores: A teacher's tale
The worst, or the best? A school teacher's tale
As the school year ended, I was summoned to see the principal. Our preliminary PSSA scores have come out, and my class did terribly, and so I am to blame. It doesn't matter if your kids have learning issues or attendance issues. All that matters is their scores.
Essays
5 minute read
Laura Bennett's "Didn't I Feed You Yesterday?'
Note to supermom: Your hemline is showing
In Didn't I Feed You Yesterday, Laura Bennett sends a sassy, irreverent look at motherhood down the runway. If that sounds familiar, it should: Most of her material is recycled from somewhere else.
Essays
4 minute read
Fear and integration in Wynnefield, c. 1970
You've got to be carefully taught: Wynnefield before the whites fled
To a kid growing up there, Wynnefield was a far more interesting, vital neighborhood in the years after integration and before our parents' panic ended that all too brief era.
Essays
4 minute read
On saving the U.S.S. 'Olympia'
Almost gone, and already forgotten
The U.S. Olympia, Admiral Dewey's flagship and long a prime Philadelphia attraction, seems headed for the scrap heap. But it was saved from that heap at least once before, as I can attest from firsthand experience.
Essays
6 minute read