FRANK, THE GUTTER GUY Vermont got flooded Sunday through Monday and I had an airline ticket for Tuesday. My house was not threatened and the roads were passable to the airport, but my gutters were not functioning. I left behind two garbage pails to catch the water cascading from my roof and some cardboard leaders to guide the waterContinue reading “FRANK, THE GUTTER GUY”
U.S. ABORTION LAWS. What a mess. A righteous person would not subject anyone, including both the woman herself and her loved ones, to the suffering caused by these laws.
Review of A MATHEMATICIAN’S APOLOGY, by G. H. Hardy In assessing his worth, Hardy writes, “A man who sets out to justify his existence and his activities has to distinguish between two different questions. The first is whether the work…is worth doing; and the second is why he does it, whatever its value may be.”
Making Your Own Memorial Those of you who knew Terry Stoeckert—his students, colleagues, friends, family, residents of our apartment house, where he lived for 40 years, know we lost a good, very smart, generous, and loving man.
ARGENTINA: Security On this Christmas day, I’m glowing with newfound faith in the goodness of my fellow human beings, no matter where I roam.
REAL MEN’S RESPONSES: WHICH ONE WOULD YOU ANSWER Back when I was dating, more than ten years ago, I was about to give up the dating sites but wrote one last post before signing off. Here are some of the 65 responses I received. Which one(s) would you answer?* a) Would you be interested in talking to an honest man who is inContinue reading “REAL MEN’S RESPONSES: WHICH ONE WOULD YOU ANSWER”
CHRISTMASES PAST Christmas of 1965 was spent in Kfar Orah, Israel. It was an ordinary day, since everyone around me was Jewish. From the hill where I was staying, I could see Bethlehem. There was a star sitting directly above it, and I thought hmm, stars don’t move much in two thousand years; maybe that’s what theContinue reading “CHRISTMASES PAST”
BOOK REVIEW: The Idiot, by Elif Batuman This book can be read on many levels – for a linguist like me, its linguistic observations were a blast of fresh air, for a historian it is rich with commentary, and for a writer or avid reader, the allusions are legion, including the title, which pays homage to the eponymous novel by Dostoevsky. (MyContinue reading “BOOK REVIEW: The Idiot, by Elif Batuman”