“Albert Einstein, upon growing tired of answering questions about his thoughts on relativity, once gave this response: ‘Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour.…

“I remember being visually arrested by what seemed like a wave of bright chrome yellow, back-lit by my beloved Greek blue and lit by a sun so bright that I had to squint…

“As the esteemed composer and arranger Robert Farnon writes in the liner notes: ‘As the collection of Louis Bellson’s recorded performances increases, so do the limitless talents of this complete musician. In addition…

“As I followed a large contingent of UN representatives down the stairs towards the tarmac, I wondered at their numbers. Braced against the discomfort of temperatures I did not expect at midnight, even…

“Have I mentioned before that The Cartoonist Known as Addison and I have never actually met in person? I think our reluctance stems from the fact that, after all these years of working…

“What did I do with that time and space? I spent an inordinate amount of time gazing up. One of my favorite pastimes was pretending that the ceiling was the floor; the living…

“The basketball court was only a rumor when we searched our knapsacks for our sneakers on that cloudless July day in 1984. Nobody we knew had actually seen it. It was one of…

“I guess it’s no surprise that I grew up to be a book reviewer for several national magazines (for two decades, I mostly reviewed parenting and self-help books). But the best books for…

“Looking across the desk at the three—a symbolically weighty number when applied to biblical visitors—something didn’t feel right to the young pastor. She struggled to keep from nervously swiveling in the big chair.…

“Evolution’s unceasing determination to improve life from monocytes to mammals depends on clearing the deadwood, but the deadwood has its uses. Pico Iyer, a superb travel writer, has described the lotus blossom, the…