Archive
Like Fire
Damn school all to hell. Really. This month alone I missed the Pulitzers; Poem in Your Pocket Day, which loyal Like Fire readers (probably the only ones left) will know is a stone favorite of mine, and in fact all of Poetry Month; the opening of the DPLA—a uniquely contemporary combination of digitally, untetheredly global [...]
Read MoreWalking to the subway one recent morning, I saw a torn bit of plastic lying in the gutter: a common sign, found in any hardware store, made for routine use. This one had a jet-black background from which angry orange letters glared. It originally commanded “NO PARKING,” but all that remained (of insubstantial plastic) was [...]
Read MoreMourning the loss of Krystle, Lingzi, Martin, Sean ____________________ The week opened here with two bombs exploding and closed with the arduous pursuit of those responsible. The weight of our grief is incalculable. At the boundaries of life and death, and overwhelmed by brokenness, it is tempting to say that words fail. But that is [...]
Read More(1) Lawrence A. Zelenak, a professor of law at Duke University, is the author of Learning to Love Form 1040: Two Cheers for the Return-Based Mass Income Tax, in which he bravely describes the origins, history, and current complexity of the federal income tax. He also offers philosophical reasons and practical suggestions for changing the [...]
Read MoreDisembarking from a subway car one recent evening, I was engulfed by a chattering bunch of middle schoolers (all of eleven or twelve years old) returning from a soccer game. Bunched together, we climbed the steps to the station and I dutifully followed the pair of pink-socked legs that appeared at my eye level. How [...]
Read MoreArtist|Animal Steve Baker University of Minnesota Press, 2013 Whenever I would mention reading Steve Baker’s Artist|Animal, a series of interviews and essays about the use of animals in contemporary art, the response would be—almost to a person—“Oh, Damien Hirst.” Certainly that’s the first name that came to mind when I initially read the publisher’s blurb. [...]
Read MoreI’d been encouraged, during the past week or so, by seeing more and more crocus flowers during my trips through town. The brave green leaves have been up for almost two weeks now, but the petals are a lovely new addition to the landscape — purple, yellow, white. Daffodils, too, and jonquils — though I’ve [...]
Read MoreA dear friend’s perceptive kindness (“if you need some inspiration”) brought this poem to my virtual doorstep earlier in the week. Some days prior, a friend at work was eager to go for lunch to report his pride in a complicated project successfully completed. Some days after, a colleague asked for help in pulling together [...]
Read MoreAll We Know: Three Lives Lisa Cohen Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012 As the title would indicate, All We Know: Three Lives is a triple biography—dense and cerebral, often reading like a lot of topics in search of a Master’s thesis—which turns out, in fact, to be a good quality. Lisa Cohen has a wide-ranging [...]
Read MoreYesterday the New York Times reminded us: The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next week in a pair of cases challenging laws relating to same-sex marriage. On Tuesday, lawyers will argue a challenge to California’s gay marriage ban, Proposition 8, and the next day, the justices will hear a challenge to the federal law [...]
Read MoreMany of you are probably familiar with my complaint that Nothing Ever Happens In My Neighborhood. True, it’s one of the few remaining affordable places in New York where you’re only a few blocks from the subway; it’s safe, spacious, and relatively quiet; and you can get to most parts of Manhattan within an hour. [...]
Read MoreOne recent evening, late, I was quietly tired and on my way home from work. The subway car in which I was riding was about one-third full of equally quiet and tired passengers. We all, however, were unwillingly drawn into the cellphone call of an increasingly agitated woman in her late 20s. It was a [...]
Read MoreWas it just me, or was this year’s Story Prize event an even better show than usual? Which is not to say that it ever isn’t good—Larry Dark and his finalists never fail to be interesting and lively. And, as I’m fond of pointing out, there are only three of them, which means even the [...]
Read MoreAtmospheric Disturbances Rivka Galchen Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008 This first novel starts out irresistibly: Last December a woman entered my apartment who looked exactly like my wife. This woman casually closed the door behind her. In an oversized pale blue purse—Rema’s purse—she was carrying a russet puppy. I did not know the puppy. And [...]
Read MoreYou never see a discussion of online dictionaries without someone invoking the magical powers of browsing. It’s true, of course—who hasn’t discovered a really good word while looking for something else? You can’t argue with the expediency of the electronic search, but it does seem a shame to sacrifice that potential in the process. According [...]
Read MoreWhile completing a crossword puzzle recently, I came across the clue “Get Lost.” Scat, scram, scoot, skedaddle — all either too short or too long. The answer turned out to be two heartbreaking words: “GO HOME”. For a moment, though, didn’t you also conjure up sepia-toned images of Depression-era city kids skittering around on a [...]
Read MoreRiding a bus one evening last week, on my way to the grocery store, I couldn’t help but overhear two women talking. I’ve no idea whether they were earnestly measuring out the coming weeks of their spring semesters, appraising their future careers, or simply marking the remainder of the bus ride. “Don’t you have a [...]
Read MoreIf you must, you may call me a dog lover, but the truth is I haven’t partnered up with a pooch since my childhood sidekick Bessie, female runt of a German shepherd litter. (It’s said German shepherds were renamed Alsatians in the aftermath of Word War I to render them more politically palatable to the [...]
Read MoreReaders and fans of William Gaddis, a writer notoriously protective of his privacy during his lifetime, have been waiting years to read his correspondence. A number of pieces were collected in Conjunctions this past fall, and finally next month Dalkey Archive Press will publish The Letters of William Gaddis, edited by Steven Moore with an [...]
Read MoreThe week, my workweek, has been all about numbers. Though we usually perform a budget review one-half the way through our fiscal year, business has been, well, busy and we’ve only now just paused, about two-thirds of the way in. If you’ve taught a child to cross the street, you could do a budget review, [...]
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