Local Hero Local Hero
Reviews of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, A Prairie Home Companion and The Da Vinci Code.
Jun 1, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Reasonable Cause Reasonable Cause
Imagine cities you've Inhabited, streets Paved in lava stone. You never intended to pray In the temples, had Nothing to sell. Now imagine yourself Returning to those same cities. The river flows, the summit Emerges each morning from the haze. Hunt for people you knew, Knock on their doors. Ask yourself Where are the vases, animals Etched in gold? Where are the wines From distant places, Banquets ferreted From the bowels of the earth? While you were missing Other people wore Your garments, Slept in your bed. How frightening The man who said In his affliction Wood has hope. Cut down It will flourish. If the root grows old And the trunk withers In dust, at the scent of water It will germinate.
Jun 1, 2006 / Books & the Arts / James Longenbach
The Missionary Position The Missionary Position
Like radical Islamists and American interventionists, Ayaan Hirsi Ali's The Caged Virgin and Irshad Manji's The Trouble With Islam Today express great concern for Muslim women. But...
Jun 1, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Laila Lalami
Bush Is Asked Again If He Can Recall Any Mistakes Bush Is Asked Again If He Can Recall Any Mistakes
A contrite Commander in Chief will watch his words from here on.
Jun 1, 2006 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Cellmates’ Reunion Cellmates’ Reunion
Desperate for medical care, an ailing granny pies the President and finds a soft bed in a country club prison. It's enough to make you go out and commit a crime.
Jun 1, 2006 / Barbara Garson
Road to Perdition Road to Perdition
A nearly forgotten criminal conspiracy by GM, Firestone and Chevron shut down the nation's municipal railways, replacing them with gas-guzzling bus lines, paving the way for global...
May 31, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Morton Mintz
Ricky Williams Dreams of Canada Ricky Williams Dreams of Canada
Former Heisman trophy winner and ganja-smoking peacenik Ricky Williams is contemplating the sweet life in the Canadian Football League. Here's hoping he finds it.
May 26, 2006 / Feature / Dave Zirin
Sorel’s People Sorel’s People
In Literary Lives, caricaturist Edward Sorel tells all and then some about giants like Yeats, Proust, Hellman and Jung within the humble frame of a comic strip.
May 26, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Richard Lingeman
On John McCain’s Willingness to Speak at Jerry Falwell’s University On John McCain’s Willingness to Speak at Jerry Falwell’s University
What it takes to make him change his mind.
May 25, 2006 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Keeping It Real Keeping It Real
In Songs of Experience, Martin Jay examines modern debates over the relationship between theory and the lived world.
May 24, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Jackson Lears