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Idle Chatter Murakami's Supeflat art celebrates one-dimensionality. What else could come out of Japan after the War?
By Morgan Meis
Bookslut The brain did not evolve to develop a written language. But learning to read will not change you; it's what and how you read that will.
By Jessa Crispin
Pertinent & Impertinent It felt good to join an organic co-op. It felt even better to blast the AC after a day on the farm.
By Christina Le Beau
Life Science Meditators always thought happiness could be learned. Now scientists are agreeing.
By Jennifer Fisher Wilson
Tony's Secret Cabinet Caligula was bald, pale, and hairy. But at his orgies, he could have any woman he wanted.
By Tony Perrottet
Bookslut In blaming TV, booze, and pornography, books like the The Broken American Male miss the mark.
By Jessa Crispin
Idle Chatter Art as theater: With its colors, lights, and mirrors, Olafur Eliasson's art is all about the viewer.
By Morgan Meis
Emily's World In which our heroine is swept off her feet in a Portland bar. Sort of.
By Emily Maloney
Grand Tour I wanted to know what it was like to run an amusement park in Wildwood, New Jersey; all I got were some insurance brochures and a bank keychain.
By Jesse Smith
Something Personal I thought life as a private eye was fast cars and faster women. It's ended up being a lot of sob stories.
By Steve Wilson
By Steve Wilson
On Shopping How Brazilian waxes make our era less like the freewheeling '60s and more like the Victorian years.
By Paula Marantz Cohen
Emily's World In which our heroine masters the Japanese language. Sort of.
By Emily Maloney
Something Personal My father just closed the wood mill our family owned for 50 years, and here I had him assembling a particleboard bed from IKEA.
By Meg Favreau
Life Science My terrible memory makes me worry I have Alzheimer's. Luckily hints are emerging as to what exactly that means.
By Jennifer Fisher Wilson
Idle Chatter How the pope's visit to the States is a test of our resolve.
By Morgan Meis
Emily's World In which our heroine is turned away from a Japanese capsule hotel and finds alternative lodging. Sort of.
By Emily Maloney
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| RECENTLY IN THE SMART SET |
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Small Town Cinderella
At the tiny amusement park where I worked, my costume smelled, the pirate boat had an awful driver, and the teacup ride could've taken a kid's leg off. Story Land was no Disney World.
By Meg Favreau
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The Pacifism Quandary
True pacifists believe all violence is counterproductive. What to do, then, about World War II?
By Morgan Meis
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Gray Areas
Somalia had no government, and passport stamps didn't matter there. It was as if I was traveling in time to when borders were just suggestions.
By Graeme Wood
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At a Crossroads
I spent four years at Harvard. A year in Japan. And then two at my parents' house in Reading, Pennsylvania. An excerpt from a new illustrated book.
By Kate T. Williamson
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Great Expectations
People don't read anymore. Translation is expensive. The Internet! At the London Book Fair, the sky was most definitely falling.
By Jessa Crispin
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Haitian Dreams
I traveled to Haiti with the best of intentions. I found myself at a cock fight, a dodgy casino, and, for many hours, a bar that overlooked a trash-strewn beach.
By Jason Wilson
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Bottled Water World
I was a judge in an international water contest — tap waters, purified waters, spring waters, sparkling waters. It was almost enough to make one forget that an H2O crisis looms.
By Anne Janette Johnson
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Welcome to America...You're Under Arrest
As a Pakistani living in the U.S., I spent a night in jail over an unpaid speeding ticket. I was denied citizenship because of a DUI. And I was mistaken for the guy who beat me up.
By S. Abbas Raza
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At the Body, Mind and Spirit Expo
I heard pets speak from the grave, had a picture of my aura taken, and got sucked into a Scientology pitch. And that was just the first day.
By Emily Maloney
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Menckenmania
How do you celebrate a grouch like Mencken? Our correspondent went to Baltimore for his 127th birthday and found that it involves torture, opera, pit bulls, and cheese.
By Jesse Smith
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