Wilmington, Del., Nov. 30, 1860 The knock came after dark. Hastening to answer it, the old Quaker found a familiar figure in the doorway: a tiny, dark-skinned woman, barely five feet tall, with a kerchief wrapped around her head. Someone who didn’t know her might have taken her for an ordinary poor black woman begging [...]
Archive for December, 2010
Moses’ Last Exodus
Posted in History on December 11, 2010 | Comments Off
Cleopatra’s Guide to Good Governance
Posted in History on December 11, 2010 | Comments Off
LET’S say you can’t readily lay your hands on “Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun” or those of Winnie the Pooh. And let’s say the political mood around you is bleak; gridlock is the order of the day. Why not turn to a different management guru, a woman who left some 2,000-year-old teachable moments, each [...]
Dangerous Liaisons
Posted in Politics on December 11, 2010 | Comments Off
A BRITISH ambassador to Venice in the 17th century observed that “a diplomat is an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country.” But for centuries, diplomats did more than lie. They bribed, they stole, they intercepted dispatches. Perhaps this will come as some consolation to the many American diplomats whose faces have been [...]
Ten of the best Hamlets
Posted in Literature on December 10, 2010 | Comments Off
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding Tom arrives in London and goes with his witless companion Partridge to see Garrick play Hamlet. Partridge is unimpressed. “‘He the best player!’ cries Partridge, with a contemptuous sneer, ‘why, I could act as well as he myself. I am sure, if I had seen a ghost, I should have [...]
Ten of the best fishing trips
Posted in Literature on December 10, 2010 | Comments Off
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Crusoe learns fishing when he is living as a slave in Moorish captivity. His skills come in useful once he is shipwrecked. “I frequently caught fish enough, as much as I cared to eat; all which I dried in the sun, and ate them dry.” He also hooks a dolphin. [...]
A whole nother language
Posted in The Word, tagged December 5 2010 on December 10, 2010 | Comments Off
Embrace your inner American! Lauren Collins, the New Yorker writer who profiled Benjamin Creme in the Nov. 29 issue, described the London-based spiritual leader as — among other things — “ruddy-complected.” I’ve grown accustomed to seeing the occasional typo, as well as the occasional F-word, in the magazine, but complected — that was a bit [...]
Re-imagine
Posted in Arts and Entertainment on December 10, 2010 | Comments Off
John Lennon wasn’t the pacifist we’ve turned him into Of all the honorifics John Lennon amassed during his lifetime, he probably didn’t expect that he’d have a crater on the moon named after him. But last year, the International Lunar Geographic Society announced that a large depression in the moon’s landscape (almost four miles in [...]
Going round in circles
Posted in Physical sciences on December 10, 2010 | Comments Off
Cosmology In contradiction to most cosmologists’ opinions, two scientists have found evidence that the universe may have existed for ever WHAT happened before the beginning of time is—by definition, it might be thought—metaphysics. At least one physicist, though, thinks there is nothing meta about the question at all. Roger Penrose, of Oxford University, believes that [...]
‘Scratch Paper’ or ‘Scrap Paper’?
Posted in On Language, tagged December 5 2010 on December 10, 2010 | Comments Off
Andrew Marc Greene e-mails: “My son’s fourth-grade class was debating whether paper on which one scribbles offhand notes is scrap paper or scratch paper. Scrap paper describes where it comes from, and scratch paper defines what it’s used for. We were wondering if the phonetic similarity is just coincidence, or if one term was derived [...]
Obama and the Democratic Revolt
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on December 10, 2010 | Comments Off
The White House must convince Dems—50 in the House and about 15 in the Senate. For agreeing to a temporary extension of all the Bush tax cuts, President Obama is now facing a full-fledged revolt within his party. The responses from congressional Democrats have ranged from chilly to angry to threatening. One asked, “Could we [...]
Famine in Kansas
Posted in History on December 10, 2010 | Comments Off
Atchison, Kansas Territory, Dec. 9, 1860 Street in Atchison, Kansas. They converged from far and wide on the dusty border town: grim-faced men and women driving teams of staggering oxen; children whose bare and filthy feet were blistered by the hard-baked earth. Not long before, these same trails and same oxen had brought the settlers [...]
Hunkier than thou
Posted in Other on December 10, 2010 | Comments Off
Sexual selection Scientists are finally succeeding where so many men have failed: in understanding why women find some guys handsome and others hideous WHEN it comes to partners, men often find women’s taste fickle and unfathomable. But ladies may not be entirely to blame. A growing body of research suggests that their preference for certain [...]
From Audacity to Animosity
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on December 10, 2010 | Comments Off
No president has alienated his base the way Obama has. We have not in our lifetimes seen a president in this position. He spent his first year losing the center, which elected him, and his second losing his base, which is supposed to provide his troops. There isn’t much left to lose! Which may explain [...]
Throw the WikiBook at them
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on December 7, 2010 | Comments Off
It is understandable for the administration to underplay the significance of the WikiLeaks State Department cables. But while it is wise not to go into a public panic, it is delusional to think that this is merely embarrassing gossip and indiscretion. The leaks have done major damage. First, quite specific damage to our war-fighting capacity. [...]
The truth about suicide bombers
Posted in Other on December 7, 2010 | Comments Off
Are they religious fanatics? Deluded ideologues? New research suggests something more mundane: They just want to commit suicide. Qari Sami did something strange the day he killed himself. The university student from Kabul had long since grown a bushy, Taliban-style beard and favored the baggy tunics and trousers of the terrorists he idolized. He had [...]
