“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…

“Based on the peer-reviewed papers I have been citing for more than a decade, and the supporting papers that have been published more recently, I cannot imagine it will take centuries to achieve…

“On Akadamias, we discover that the sidewalks are too narrow for our stroller and on-coming pedestrian traffic to share, but people are more than willing to squeeze against the buildings and allow us…

“The invitation jolted us out of our doldrums; we hardly had to think twice. We needed a change desperately, couldn’t face going to the island and spending days getting the house, empty for…

“I nag Mark Addison Kershaw. Every month. I nag all of Hubris’s Contributors, but I single Mark out for special attention. Because he makes me smile, always, and, many times, he makes me…

“. . .The horses can focus. They will not be disturbed by their vision. I am too loud when I speak. We are also too loud. The horses stay quiet in the city.…

“American professor and science educator Carl Sagan and Soviet astronomer and astrophysicist I. S. Shklovskii speculated in their 1966 book, Intelligent Life in the Universe, that technological civilizations will either destroy themselves within…

“When my mother passed 22 years ago, my siblings weren’t interested in most of her possessions (just as today, I’m told, many children don’t really want their parents’ old photos and dishes). But…