(Feature Photo by Moritz Knöringer on Unsplash ) After the debacle of 2021, I’ve been awaiting the arrival of 2022 with high ambivalence. When I woke up this morning and remembered that today is the first day of 2022, the phrase guarded optimism immediately came to mind. So, in the spirit of guarded optimism, I […]
I had intended to have a much fuller report of my 2021 reading to post, but time has caught up with me. So here’s the short version. I read 41 books this year, with a total of 13,139 pages. Shortest book: The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (164 pages) Longest book: Second Generation by
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Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate this holiday. Here’s a related literary story: ‘Twas the night before Christmas’ helped make the modern Santa – and led to a literary whodunit
I’ve been unable to stop reading all the articles about Joan Didion that have appeared since the announcement of her death yesterday. As a nonfiction writer, I knew her through her perceptive nonfiction pieces. But these articles have made me realize that I need to read her fiction as well. Joan Didion, ‘Goodbye to All
Remembering Joan Didion Read More »
World AIDS Day occurs every year on December 1st. This year marks 40 years since the first reported cases of what later became known as AIDS were officially reported: “more than 36 million people, including 700,000 in the United States, . . . have died from AIDS-related illness globally since the start of the epidemic.”
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here in the United States. To those of you outside the U.S., I send warm wishes for health and happiness.
Happy Thanksgiving! Read More »
Related Post: What the Heck Is Going On? And just like that, the same way the glitch mysteriously appeared, it has mysteriously disappeared. Notes in the Margin uses the Astra theme, which is free, through WordPress, plus the Astra Pro plugin, a paid upgrade that offers lots of customization possibilities. Since I discovered the problem
Update Please read this follow-up post: We’re Back! I really don’t know. One day I had a beautiful website, and when I looked again a couple of days later, I found this: I’m using the Astra Pro theme on WordPress. The Astra support people are working with me to figure out what happened here, but
What the Heck Is Going On? Read More »
President Joe Biden has issued a proclamation naming November 2021 as National Native American Heritage Month, a time to “celebrate the countless contributions of Native peoples past and present, honor the influence they have had on the advancement of our Nation, and recommit ourselves to upholding trust and treaty responsibilities, strengthening tribal sovereignty, and advancing
President Biden Declares November National Native American Heritage Month | Currents Read More »
Why do we read scary books? “We’re a peculiar lot, when you think about it: we work so hard to make our world, our environment safer… and then we actively seek out things that will make us afraid. Horror movies, urban legends, ghost stories. We hunt down the darkness and we revel in it. Why?
