There’s nothing the English like better than a good murder mystery. We have produced the kings and queens of the genre from Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers to Ruth Rendell, P.D. James and Dick Francis. In fact, on Amazon there is a sub-category of British Detectives. We are also [...]
As someone who’s a little death-obsessed, I’ve spent a fair amount of time contemplating the mourning process. I’ve wondered about its origins: is it a natural reaction (as some suggest is the case with many species) or a social construct? I’ve also thought about whom it serves: should it be a private or [...]
This should be a good time. Hillary finally conceded and Our Guy could be seven months away from his inauguration.
And yet. And yet.
I am filled with an impending sense of dread and doom. Darth Vader music is playing in my head each time I think of what’s coming.
It’s not the idea of McCain taking office [...]
A.O. Scott wrote a great piece on the director Sydney Pollack who died last week, of cancer, at the age of 73. He noted how Pollack had been involved in a type of film known as “the A picture.”
“In both capacities he worked, comfortably and with conviction, within the parameters of the Hollywood ‘A [...]
Once when I was a teenager, I designed my own funeral. What might have been a medication red flag for some kids was only Saturday night with a new notebook for a saint-obsessed, Brian’s Song-Sunshine-Death Be Not Proud-movie-of-the-week-weepy addict, folk singing, beatnik wannabe. I listed the music first (very heavy on the Peter, Paul and [...]