“I’m writing this while listening to news of devastating fires in California. Climate change has made catastrophic fire events a new normal in Western North America. Every household is now urged to put…

“What a great-looking group! So many beautiful women . . . a few maybe not so beautiful, but generally a good-looking crowd. Good evening. Thank you for asking . . . me to…

“Marie was organizing a photo shoot over the week-end in which a number of women would disrobe and hold sample ballot forms over their lady parts. The caption of the photo was a…

“We have a clearly conflicted relationship with our less virtuous traits, and that confusion is evident in our portrayals of the Prince of Darkness. Much of it is Milton’s fault. The devil is…

“The year of work was intense and solitary. Helen, on her coast, set me tasks; I, on the other coast, took them on. One involved visualizing the mindful subtraction—element by element—of parts of…

“This column, first published last May, was the result of several months spent exploring The Big Olive for a new book, 111 Places in Athens That You Shouldn’t Miss. I intended it as…

“For those of you currently living in fear of inhabiting a dystopian future dominated by artificial-intelligence-fueled robot overlords . . . fret not: for they can be entertaining!”—Tim Bayer Won Over By Reality…

“Now, enter Goldilocks on a planet that was finally just right. Observing the nearly universal presence of bilateral symmetry in the plants and animals who shared her magnificent planet, Goldilocks embarked on a…

“The earth’s supply of beauty is diminishing./Add to it what you can and say/I do this in memory of my friend, my loved one./I do it so that his light remains between two…

“I gather stillness in a cold/that hushes all but little sounds—/a woodpecker’s echoless tappings,/leaf-crackle of a jostling squirrel.”—William Thompson Speculative Friction By Claire Bateman   GREENVILLE South Carolina—(Weekly Hubris)—November 2018— William Thompson’s poems…