What does the natural world care about elections and other human activities that feel so consequential to us? Two recent New Yorker articles about animals captivated me; they hit on similar themes that, each in their own way, remind us that we are not as special as we like to think. In “Pecking Order: Language … Continue reading The language of birds and comparative death studies
Watching the detectives
After we finished the sitcom “Kim’s Convenience,” my 12-yo and I started watching “Brooklyn 99,” which first aired in 2013. Looking for another show we could enjoy together, I suggested it not only because I remember hearing good reviews, but because I clicked on a clip of the show’s final episode that appeared in my … Continue reading Watching the detectives
Olympic tears
I didn’t get to watch as much of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games as I would have liked, but I watched more than I have in the past couple of decades. I don’t follow any particular sport regularly, but one of the things I love about the Olympics is that you get to watch … Continue reading Olympic tears
American city – notes from a road trip
Over the years, we’ve visited a handful of midwestern cities from our home outside of Chicago. This year, we had one week in between my younger kid’s two summer camps, so we decided to visit Minneapolis-Saint Paul. A six-hour drive mostly on I-90, it was far enough to feel like we were getting away and … Continue reading American city – notes from a road trip
Practical
I’m a very casual gardener, and when a pest eats a seedling I’d just planted or when the lettuce seeds I sowed never sprout because of heavy rains, I think, “thank the gods I don’t need to actually grow enough food to feed us.” My thoughts wander: what practical skills do I have that would … Continue reading Practical
Back on the water
In a long ago blog post, when I was teaching in New Jersey, I wrote about seeing an 8-person shell on the lake I drove past to get to campus on a March morning, an early sign of spring: It's an idyllic sight—the long, narrow shell with eight oars slicing the water in unison toward … Continue reading Back on the water
Paris is a Palimpsest
After we’d been dating for about a year, my boyfriend, a graduate student of comparative literature at a nearby university in southern California, got a fellowship to study in Paris for the year, and I received a dissertation fellowship from my English department, freeing me from teaching obligations. To save money, I returned home to … Continue reading Paris is a Palimpsest
Yes, chef – learning craft on “The Bear”
I, like many fans, really enjoyed season 2 of "The Bear," in which Carmy and his ragtag crew try to open an upscale restaurant in three months in the old Italian beef eatery Carmy inherited from his older brother Michael. I jokingly called this season “Bad News Bear” and “School of Bear,” where (as in … Continue reading Yes, chef – learning craft on “The Bear”
Zumba styles
After two weeks off for family travel, I returned to my usual Zumba class last weekend only to find a substitute teaching the class. I admit it threw me off a bit. In the five months or so that I’d been going to the weekly Zumba class, I’d only ever had one instructor. Now here … Continue reading Zumba styles
Road trips revisted: point/counterpoint
Soon, we’ll be taking a road trip to the Northeast with the kids to visit friends and family. This seemed a good time to reprise these two blog posts about road trips from July 2006, one from me and one from my spouse. Although we wrote these a couple years before we started our family … Continue reading Road trips revisted: point/counterpoint
Contrary Frog 