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Noncanonical The Dutch get shafted in the stories we tell of the country's origins, so kudos to the New York State Museum.
By Morgan Meis
Something Personal My brother-in-law bought a liquor store because, you know, Jews have such a rich history of drinking. NOT!
By Paula Marantz Cohen
Bookslut Everybody trashes Elizabeth Gilbert. Me, I kind of like the idea of someone trying to figure out a way to be.
By Jessa Crispin
Idle Chatter It is hard to know oneself. Which is why Bronzino's ''Standing Nude'' is a lot more compelling than Leonardo's Vitruvian Man.
By Morgan Meis
Ask a Poet Can you help a baby mama? I need a name!
By Kristen Hoggatt
The Naturalist Natural history dioramas are compelling artifacts, if everyone could just stop stripping them of any complexity.
By Jesse Smith
Noncanonical You think the masters take exacting care with everything they make, and then you watch Orson Welles' The Stranger.
By Morgan Meis
Tony's Secret Cabinet We knew Napoleon was short in stature, but three minutes in the sack? Jeez!
By Tony Perrottet
Idle Chatter To say that we are all Haitians seems a bit trite. But let's not forgot how horribly wrong our own revolution could have gone.
By Morgan Meis
Ask a Poet I resolve to quit my job this year. I'm terrified to do it, and terrified I won't.
By Kristen Hoggatt
Tony's Secret Cabinet We all love thinking Hitler had just one testicle. Now I don't want to rain on your parade, but...
By Tony Perrottet
Noncanonical Wilson A. Bentley's photographs of snowflakes create a kind of yearbook for winter, the crystals alike and not.
By Morgan Meis
Foodstuffs ''I'm going to be so healthy in 2010 and start every day with a Nutri-Grain bar!'' Yeah, good luck with that.
By Meg Favreau
Something Personal Oh. Great. It's the Census. Time for the federal government to remind me I'm single and childless.
By Miriam N. Kotzin
On Shopping There is always a price to pay for new technology, but right now I'M JUST TOO EXCITED THAT MY KINDLE HOLDS 1,000 BOOKS!
By Paula Marantz Cohen
Bookslut 2009 was the year we realized money won't buy happiness. Will 2010 be the year we learn what can?
By Jessa Crispin
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| RECENTLY IN THE SMART SET |
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Card Snark
Misconstrued cards. Flowers that are just going to die. Oh boy, it's Valentine's again.
By Miriam N. Kotzin
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Paternal Instinct
My father and I had very different ideas about what I should do with my life. His vision, for example, did not include traveling to Sri Lanka or selling my eggs.
By Jennifer Meleana Hee
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Love Means Never Having to Say 404 Error
Yes, this robot will put out for you. But more important, it will put up with you, and how many humans will do that?
By Greg Beato
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The Foreign Service
Want to hear the nation's crickets all at once? Release Best European Fiction 2010 here.
By Jessa Crispin
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Eat Drink Actor Director
What did it take for food to become a big-screen star? Oh, just the death of linear storytelling. You can't have it all, I suppose.
By Paula Marantz Cohen
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Oh. Canada.
In the 1920s, my Jewish great-grandparents escaped to the harsh plains of Saskatchewan. Such was the 20th century — the last in which land offered hope for a new life.
By Stefany Anne Golberg
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There Is No Try
To a kid growing up in a broken family with no religious training, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and D&D provided an escape from the world. But it also guided me on how to live in it.
By Ethan Gilsdorf
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Seed Money
Every expo tries to see a story. But at the country's biggest indoor farm show, what you see is what you get.
By Jesse Smith
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The Last Inuit of Quebec
Did magic still exist? I traveled far north into Quebec to find out. Gangsta rap, whale hunts, and an old Belgian priest gave me a mixed answer.
By Justin Nobel
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From the Archives
Love today is candy and flowers. In the Enlightenment it was rams' testicles and Spanish fly.
By Tony Perrottet
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