Hubris
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Khartoum: A Recollection, Part 2
“I asked the architects if there were a museum or gallery where I might see Sudanese artifacts and explained, ‘I tailor my designs to reflect the culture of each country in which I…
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At Least We Will Have Tried
“A global economic depression will cause an even faster rate of environmental change. Will it be sufficient to reduce aerosol masking enough to cause loss of habitat for human animals? If not, will…
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Talking Greek Baseball
“Following baseball in Greece these days is much easier than it used to be, with most games streamed live over the internet, as long as you don’t mind the game starting at 2…
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The Poetry of Richard Allen Taylor
“Like my father and grandfather before me, I paint/these walls to the light of a torch usually held/by an apprentice, my son. Today, I wedge the torch/in a crevice as my boy crosses…
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Undersea Epiphany
“I wonder about rich people. They never have to grow up. They just keep buying toys to amuse themselves. These horrible machines are just appliances to them. Something to make their lives easier,…
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In Love with Lakes
“New York is teeming with lakes, but I don’t want to know them all. A lake is more like a marriage or long-term lover; one wants to revisit a lake over many years,…
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More Jesus than Paul: Anecdotes
“I credit my mentor James Dickey with convincing me that the best teaching is anecdotal. He told a rapt class that when Deliverance was being filmed, the body that Dickey as the sheriff…
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Rebecca Solnitt’s “Orwell’s Roses”
“Nineteen Eighty-Four was published in the spring of 1949, less than a year before its author’s death, in January 1950. In a statement published in Life magazine, addressed to the head of the…
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The Poetry of James Cervantes
“’There is no/such thing as/piano accompaniment’/becomes difficult/for him to say in/his mellifluous voice/of thick, dark oatmeal/However, if/‘There is no/such thing as/piano on the streets/of New York/at 9 a.m. this day/in the year of…
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Sojourn on Sikinos
“Sikinos, 41 square kilometres, with a permanent population of around 330, is the least developed of the larger Cycladic islands. This may be due to the fact that it didn’t have a ferry…