Magnificent Octopus

"In June of this year patient experienced an attack of vertigo, nausea, and a feeling that she was going to pass out. A thorough medic...

You may well doubt words themselves, but there is often no mistaking the tone of voice in which they are uttered. I had occasion recently to...

Mad Men has returned, and it got literary again . While only one novel was clearly in view, and shown to be actively read — The 42nd Paral...

Written in 1963, The Group , by Mary McCarthy, follows the intertwined lives of a set of Vassar graduates, class of '33. I only became...

Another season of Mad Men has come and gone, and I thought it time to update the list of books (and poems, and other reading material) sight...

Season six of Mad Men opens with Don Draper reading Dante's Inferno (tr John Ciardi), on the beach. Midway in our life's travel, ...

"I came," she said, "hoping you could talk me out of a fantasy." "Cherish it!" cried Hilarius, fiercely. ...

There were phrases of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony that still made Coe cry. He always thought it had to do with the circumstances of the c...

Season 5 of Mad Men is off to a fine start. Episode 1 culminates in a surprise birthday party for Don. And it's a fabulous party: drinks...

I don't understand advertising. I don't understand how it works. How is it that it still works when I know what it's trying to...

It's taken a while, but finally I've watched all Mad Men episodes to date. From the start of the series, it's been impossible no...

Every day (well, most days), sometime between 11:45 and about 12:30 (although on at least two occasions as late as 1:20), there's a guy ...

Now I am quietly waiting for the catastrophe of my personality to seem beautiful again, and interesting, and modern. The country is gre...

I recently read The Bell Jar , by Sylvia Plath (originally published under a pseudonym), and I have to admit, I'm a bit mystified why so...