Oreo Oreo
Miriam felt that a wolf spider was stalking our pet cricket, Oreo who lives in a small indented "crouching pit" next to the refrigerator So I followed the spider’s wanderings then put a glass jar atop slid a paper underneath & carried it out to the garden She pointed out that Oreo had halted its chirping while the wolf was on the floor then resumed when I carried it out: When the wolf peeks through the door-jamb no more baaing from the lamb
Jun 15, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Ed Sanders
The Canting Crew The Canting Crew
A new edition of The First English Dictionary of Slang is a saucy survey of the rogue jargon of the late seventeenth century.
Jun 14, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Ange Mlinko
Slide Show: A Gil Scott-Heron Retrospective Slide Show: A Gil Scott-Heron Retrospective
Gil Scott-Heron was a pioneering poet and musician. His unique musical fusion of jazz, blues, rap, funk, and soul was captivating and his radical political vision was transformativ…
Jun 9, 2011 / Books & the Arts / The Nation
Little Churches Everywhere: California’s Evangelical Conservatism Little Churches Everywhere: California’s Evangelical Conservatism
As contradictory as the gospel truths of California's digerati are the dogmas of West Coast evangelicalism, a melding of Jefferson and Jesus.
Jun 7, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Chris Lehmann
A Test of Loyalties: The Exiles of the American Revolution A Test of Loyalties: The Exiles of the American Revolution
Between a fifth and a third of the white population remained loyal to Britain in 1776. Why?
Jun 7, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Nicholas Guyatt
Whimbrel Whimbrel
Kin to the limpkin, she whimpers when primping, wears rimless eyeglasses for skimming her primer on swimming. She splashes through grasses amassing her ration of shrimp, and stands, a fat ampersand, on the sandpaper strand making eyes at a snipe, fanning the passions of the sandpiper nations.
Jun 7, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Sidney Wade
From Cairo to Córdoba: The Story of the Cairo Geniza From Cairo to Córdoba: The Story of the Cairo Geniza
Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole's Sacred Trash offers a precious meditation on how the discovery of hidden hoards of history can transform our worlds.
Jun 1, 2011 / Books & the Arts / David Nirenberg
An Unfinished Tradition: On Édouard Manet An Unfinished Tradition: On Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet has become a popular painter, yet he remains a difficult and unpredictable one.
Jun 1, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Dance with the Devil Dance with the Devil
Terrence Malick's Tree of Life; David Balding's One Lucky Elephant; Kristen Wiig's Bridesmaids; Todd Phillips's The Hangover Part II.
Jun 1, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Onderdunk Road Onderdunk Road
from the Iroquois Museum came the story of a sky woman who fell thru the clouds and was caught by geese who set her down on a turtle’s back. Thus, people came on Bear Road there were no bears on Schoolhouse Road only a swamp on the state highway freight trucks roared past us for half a mile and on Red Barn Road somebody had recently painted a barn red and there the mud-covered cows charged toward us and waited for a word at the hot-wired fence we told them we meant Helios no offense weeping willow trees were always close to houses while lichen-covered, crag-wrinkled trees had faces to be seen, recognized on them all these barns with roofs sagging like wet paper tear themselves down by decay unstitched nails pop from buckled walls under which the white ash and maple sprout when we came down from the hill where fog enshrouded us rushing water in culverts was loud but invisible
Jun 1, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Bouchard