Brando the Wonder Dog died peacefully in my arms at 10:35 PM (PST) on November 25th, 2011. He was 12-years old. The last words he heard were, “I love you, Brando.” Brando died from an overdose of barbiturates administered by a critical care veterinarian after he was diagnosed with cancer in his shoulder that had spread […]
It’s been a good run. Let’s face it, for four hundred years, we ‘owned’ the canon. Most ‘best twenty’ lists include nineteen of us, with Mary Shelley being the only interloper. This has come at great cost. A not uncommon experience was the 1895 reaction to the publication of Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, which
The Last White Male Novelist Hangs up His Quill Read More »
Surprisingly enough, a great many cooks and chefs remain completely disconnected from the processes that food goes through to arrive at a restaurant. This has to do with sustainability. They have the ability to do amazing things with it, but sadly, their understanding of food ends there. Fortunately, a greater understanding of food origins is
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One thing all the founding fathers have in common is that they are dead. We are the ones who are alive, we are the ones who must make the laws and constitution work, juggling many variables the founders could never have foreseen. They created an America in which black people were deemed to be property
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I’ve just turned sixty, and I’ve developed an unexpected sensitivity. I wish I could say that I am now able to detect cosmic messages in twigs fallen on the lawn. Wouldn’t that be fun? No, although somewhat mystifying, this is a sensitivity to certain phrases about age. When I say, “I’ve just turned sixty,” to
Getting booed by a class of thirteen-year-old girls only required four words from me: “I didn’t like Twilight.” The clamor subsided once I launched into some logical reasons behind the choice. Bella is a poor role model for young girls, too weak, cliché, and simple-minded to be inspiring or interesting. Likewise, the other characters’ motivations
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