August 2011
What could Yocco, the Hot Dog King, be thinking?
by Justin E. H. Smith When I spend, as I often do, several days in a row without human contact, it starts to seem to me that the principal function of language is to describe, in written form, the contents of commercially available food items. This is more alienating...
Read More“No, you’re the dummy”
Talky Tina, aka the Living Doll, from The Twilight Zone, CBS, 1959-64 From The Paris Review: I’m waiting for the elevator in a medieval-themed hotel in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, when the elevator doors open to reveal a heated exchange between a bald man in a Hawaiian shirt and a puppet...
Read MoreSince the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has lost nearly 6 million inhabitants…
Tver, Russia, Inna Gluschenko From Le Monde Diplomatique: There is no need to travel to remote areas of Russia to find evidence of the country’s demographic crisis. Tver and its region (known as Kalinin from 1931 to 1990) are only a few hours from Moscow, but have recorded more...
Read MoreErik R. Seeman: Wendat Deathways
Four hundred years ago, when Wendats and French Catholics met in North America, their associations with human bones differed greatly from our own—but closely resembled one another’s...
Read MoreRobert F. Barsky on Zellig Harris
Zellig Harris by Robert F. Barsky I began corresponding with Noam Chomsky in the late 1980s, on a range of issues that concerned me as a young graduate student studying language and literature, but interested in human rights and the history of radical movements. From the very beginning, my...
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The tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right...
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The thing about new blooms is that they tend to bleed— / Those petals birthed / hugging close / that come warmer weather are tricked into jumping away...
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I spent a good part of my childhood at home staring outside my bedroom window, following the trail of planes approaching the nearby Paris airport in the sky from my banlieue. I envied the passengers...
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The tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right...
Read More
The thing about new blooms is that they tend to bleed— / Those petals birthed / hugging close / that come warmer weather are tricked into jumping away...
Read More
I spent a good part of my childhood at home staring outside my bedroom window, following the trail of planes approaching the nearby Paris airport in the sky from my banlieue. I envied the passengers...
Read More